Week 9 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

Nathan Wallis - Worth a listen

The latest article of Simon Bridges’ podcast ‘Generally Famous’ came out this week, with Nathan Wallis as his guest. I had a parent share this with me saying that ‘this why I love Douglas Park’ and thought it would be great to share. Nathan is many things, but primarily a neuro-science educator and has done a lot of work in both teacher education and parent education. Several years ago as a staff we had a teacher only day with Nathan, and a lot of his thoughts have permeated what we do here at Douglas Park, particularly around our open spaces, multiple adults working with children and the idea of building resilience. The podcast has some real gems in there that again align with what we do:

The idea of free play being what a developing mind needs in the early years of schooling
The idea of the power oral language (shared reading, phonics work, student discussions etc)
That creativity is at the root of problem solving. We want to develop problem solving children, so we need to let them learn in creative environments
That creativity leads to developing resilience and perseverance. Children form powerful learning dispositions through persevering through failure (eg. taking 12 attempts to build a tower out of blocks, taking multiple times to code a robot correctly, the hot glue not holding your cardboard creation together as intended). Failures can be seen as the stepping stones to success.
That free play leads to children learning identity, and getting the opportunity to experience a variety of learning settings (being a ‘little scientist’ he calls it)
He also calls for device time to be monitored, saying that during a learning day the children need a block of 2 hours away from screens. He acknowledges the power of technology, and the role it has to play in learning…but in moderation. We have lots of devices at this school, and do use them powerfully for learning…but, we also do far more with our hands in an ‘old school’ analogue way. Draft writing in books, reading from books, creating with cardboard, getting out for PE etc etc

This article came out longside the podcast, and it captures his key messages in a quick read. The podcast itself is a great listen, but challenging at times. He does discuss his troubled childhood, mental health, the impact of trauma on development and a bit of profanity is dropped at times…but I’d encourage you to chuck it on for a listen.

Learning Conversations

Thanks very much once again for your support of our Learning Conversations! The whānau attendance is always super high, and it is a real pleasure seeing the PRIDE the kids have in sharing their learning with you. We have been doing variations of learning conversations since 2006, and our initial reasoning still holds up today…children should, and need, to be a part of the assessment and reporting process. If they don’t know what they have learnt, how they are going, and what they need to work on next…what is the point of reporting? Nerdy fact…the Latin root word for assessment is assidere which means to ‘sit beside’. This implies that assessment and reporting should be done with the child, not a separate process with the child left out of the loop. Being in the process gives them ownership of their actions and learning. This means owning all their choices that have impacted their learning…for good or for bad. Fronting up to acknowledge that their behaviour has gotten in the way of the learning, as well as acknowledging where hard work has led to primo results. None of that is judgement…just acknowledgement of fact, and always looking to the future…what are the things I need to do to improve myself (as a learner and as a person).

Some great student work!

This was shared with me yesterday and it is a great example of the power of creativity, combined with both technology and ‘old school’ analogue work. These students have compared and contrasted some historical buildings (a Māori Pa and a Castle) inside Minecraft. They’ve had to build each of these structures inside the game…but to do this they’ve had to do the reading mahi to research about these structures first. Once they’d done this learning, they prototyped their designs with LEGO. After this they hopped into a shared minecraft world and built the two different structures. Then, once they finished their build they’ve written themselves a script for the voiceover, and then have had to ‘perform’ each section by moving around the minecraft world, and narrating what they had learnt.

Public Holiday

Just a reminder, no school on Monday next week. Public holiday in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth. We will see you all on Tuesday 27th September.

WRITING - Michelle's homeclass

What's happening at DPS?

We had an awesome non-uniform and wacky hair day on Friday!

We raised a large amount of money for Leukemia and Blood Cancer NZ... a generous parent donated $100 to this excellent cause!! Thanks so much for your support.

ORDER SUBWAY FOR DELIVERY TO SCHOOL EVERY FRIDAY - ONLINE OR AT THE OFFICE

SPORT

Winter Hockey break up

What: End of season winter hockey break up.

Parents vs Children game and shared afternoon tea

Who: All winter hockey teams.

Where: Douglas Park School Turf and Kōwhai (Room 14)

Why: To celebrate a successful winter hockey season.

When: Tuesday 27th September 2022

Time: 3.00-4.00pm

Required: Hockey gear and a small plate of food to share please.

Many thanks to you all for getting your child to Clareville for their games. It has been a great season. We have seen huge developments in the players as the season has progressed. We look forward to summer hockey next term (watch out for information on Hero soon) and the next winter season!

A huge thank you to all our coaches who have volunteered their time and helped our tamariki develop into confident hockey players.

Ngā mihi nui

Red Star Cricket Junior Registrations

The registrations for junior cricket at Red Star Cricket club are now open for the coming cricket season. Please use the link below to register

https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/register/c207f8

If you need any further information please contact Mark Elliott on 027 7890707

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