Final Community Evening of 2012 - what happened?

The final community evening of 2012 was a great success. Thanks to all who came last Thursday evening and contributed to a very successful night.

Rhythm Interactive was a great hit with children and parents as they used mime to get families playing a range of rhythms on the 200 drums they distributed throughout the hall.

The children then enjoyed a programme put on by Kelly Sport while the parents did a round robin of short sessions with parents, teachers and BOT to assist the ongoing development of the school. I personally really enjoyed catching up with parents and hearing their perspectives about their hopes and dreams for their children's primary education.

I know there were some parents who would have loved to attend the evening but were unable to do so for a variety of reasons. The following are summaries of the discussions that took place:

1. Year 7/8 consultation with Steve and David

The presenters David Waters (Chairman of the Board of Trustees) and Steve Dunbar (Deputy Chairman) introduced themselves to the groups.

An overview of the board members (including Angela and Lesley) and the portfolios each board member works within, was explained. 

The way in which the board meets monthly and focuses on the governance related matters was also discussed.

One topic currently being considered by the board is the possible  recapitation of the school which if successful, would enable students the option to continue at Amesbury School for years 7 and 8 also.

A formal feedback process to get a view from the wider school community will follow.

If there is community support for such change, the school's desire for change needs to be lodged with the Ministry of Education early April 2013 and if successful, the change would commence term 1 of 2014.

Rather than introducing additional classrooms to cater for some of the demands of a year 7/8 programme, community resources will be approached to assist with the delivery of some aspects of the children's learning.

For clarity at this early stage, it is envisaged that only children from within the Amesbury School zone would be considered for years 7 and 8 and a lot of thought and discussion will be needed to consider all other detail associated with such a decision.

There was considerable support for such a change at the parents' night (held 1 November) and the board and principal will follow up shortly to get official feedback from the Amesbury School community.

Please note, we do not want to set any false expectations around this currently and will assess our next steps once feedback has been received.

2. PPT with Debbie, Jo, Rebecca and Lorraine

The PPT explained what its role as a group is - that it aims to facilitate projects around the school and community but needed people to put their names forward so the group would know who to contact about upcoming projects. The group invited parents to help with fundraising suggestions, and some great ideas were received.

The PPT also talked about the Christmas fundraising that will be coming up, and the February gala that they're planning to have.

The PPT mentioned the Facebook page that Rebecca’s working on to communicate with anyone interested in what’s happening, and there seemed to be a positive response to this.

Below is a list of ideas that was generated from the session, some great suggestions and great to see so many people putting the names on the list.

Quiz Night

Art Auction (artist donations and Churton Park business’s to donate)

Wearable arts/concert (this could be for the whole community)

Raffles

Sports Night (kids vs. parents)

Stadium Security

Entertainment Book

Car Boot sale

Real estate Agent $

Organised Hike

Ladies Night – swap clothes and other items

Duathlon for kids

Some fantastic ideas raised so the PPT would look at organising an event ASAP to get momentum going! 

3. Assessment, achievement and other matters with Urs and Angela

Achievement and the Amesbury Standards

National Standards are a bench mark of where the Ministry of Education have identified children should reach in each year of their schooling in order to obtain NCEA level 2.  But what does each standard mean, what needs to be achieved at each level and how do you go about achieving them?

Amesbury School has looked at each benchmark and written indicators of achievement at each level, ie what you need to achieve to reach the standard.  

Previously schools have often reported on the addition/subtraction stage in maths (for example) rather than multiplication/division, fractions and all the other strands.  Reporting has also been focused on the ability to read at a particular level, rather than being able to read, respond to and think critically about text at a particular level.  For instance after one year at school, the standard is to be reading at Level 12-14.  However, this is only one indicator out of 16 required to reach the national standard.  

At Amesbury we focus on a much broader set of indicators in order to reach the standard as outlined from the Ministry of Education. Children must be able to not only read text, but understand it and think critically about it consistently and across curriculum areas.  This is practised and clearly observable in the learning that takes place in our inquiries and other authentic contexts.  We use more than just a test to judge achievement of an indicator. Observation, video evidence, self assessment, photos and interviews are all used to triangulate data and show that an indicator has been achieved consistently and not just in one test snapshot. 

As schools interpret national standards in their own way because as yet there is no moderation between schools, it is counter productive to compare data between schools.  It is also ineffective to compare individual data of children within a school in the first 3 years.  This is because the standard is not based at the end of Year One but after one year at school, which occurs at different times for all children.  

As indicators in the matrices are highlighted teachers and children can see strengths and also gaps that need to be filled.  The gaps are where the teaching and learning takes place and where the next steps for children are identified.  These indicators are written into the children's personal learning contracts as goals, and this is the basis of how our learning programmes work and the activities that go on the children's individual timetables.  The focus of learning conversations with teachers come from these goals. 

The matrices and personal learning treaties are updated at least once a term in both hubs.  Often they are updated on a rotation basis with maths one week, writing the next and reading after that.  Harakeke hub have all their matrices and PLTs shared via google docs.  Koru hub have been emailing them out each term - with the aim of getting them shared through google docs shortly.  This allows parents and children to have ongoing access and up-to-date data at their finger tips.

The best way we can help our children is to know what they can do, what they need to be able to do and to identify an appropriate learning pathway.  Our matrices do that!

4. Vision and Values with Lesley

In her session, Lesley asked the question, "Ideally, what would Amesbury students "look like" when they leave school at the end of year 6?"

Every session ran out of time, yet there was so much agreement within and between groups that it seems as though the length of each session was sufficient to get a clear picture of what is important to Amesbury parents. The following is a summary of the discussions:

Most agreed to disposition – Confidence/self confidence

Creativity and inquiry

·         Learning to learn – developing tools to learn effectively and to be self-motivated to learn, equipped to learn

·         Inquiring

·         Discovering

·         Knowing basics of reading, writing and maths. Achieving academically

·         Asking a question rather than speak out a prejudice

·         Critical thinkers

·         Curious observers

Connected and including

·         Putting other before self

·         Interacting well

·         Knowing what the world is like for other people – understanding that people experience the world differently – empathetic

·         Accepting of others

·         Listener

·         Appreciative of diversity

·         Engaging with adults and peers

·         Well-equipped socially

Sustainability

·         Resilient

Authentic

Learning to be the best me - Genuine, trustworthy, moral obligations, true to one’s personality and character in spite of external pressure, having self knowledge

Being unique not elitist

·         Having confidence to stand upright (in face of peer pressure)

·         Strong self-worth

·         Strength of character, strong

·         Autonomous

·         Self-empowered

·         Being a strong citizen

·         Knowing what is right and wrong and choosing right

·         Having good values such as respect

·         Social conscience

·         Independent

·         Self aware

       Making the world a better place for self and others

·          

Excellence:

Surpassing ordinary standards, diligence, habit of continuously reaching your potential, practice, makes perfect, not an act but a habit

·         Determined – never giving up

·         Not afraid of failure

·         Confidence to take on anything

·         Not afraid to LIVE

·         Push boundaries

·         Innovative

·         Taking risks

·          

A possible overarching statements

Equipped and confident to make a better place

Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any further questions or anything is unclear.