Week 5 NEWSLETTER

I love his message of failure, of how things don’t just magically happen for people…even famous megastars like Ed Sheeran. When asked what made the difference for him, how did he get so good…his instant answer was ‘by failing over and over again’. Moments later he says that you learn nothing from success, but that failure is the greatest teacher. I think the rise of social media over the last 20 years has created a false image of ‘perfection’, that things are always good and that things are ‘easy’. People don’t post about their failures (the meal that was a trainwreck, the sports training that didn’t go well, the instrument they are struggling to learn), people share the results (the glamorous meal shot, the video of them kicking the perfect goal, them nailing a song on the guitar). To relate this back to Ed…we would learn more from sharing failures and learning from them.

For us at school this means we have a responsibility to make a learning environment when failure is encouraged, and praised. This sounds like the opposite of what school should be…but we want our learning (be it writing or play or maker) to be challenging, to allow children the space to fail and to learn from these mistakes. This is why we have play and making, why we value student centred learning, and why we love our Core Beliefs of Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Learner Agency. These are the things that both bring failure, and equip us to learn from these failures. 

It is important to remember…things aren’t always easy, you never master anything on the first attempt, and there is always more learning and progress in front of you. Celebrate the failures, celebrate the progress, have the belief that it will get better…and enjoy the success when it comes (but celebrate the process that got you there!)

Teacher Strike

Just to provide a bit of clarity…teachers have voted to go on strike again, but have also re-entered negotiations with the Ministry so current industrial actions are on pause this week. What all this means is that Wednesday 31st May has been ousted as a strike day, but this will not be confirmed until this Sunday (after the week of negotiations with the Ministry). So at the moment…heads up that Wednesday 31st the school may be closed due to the strike action…but we will confirm this as soon as we can. 

A brief reminder why this is happening…the teacher collective agreement expired in June last year, and negotiations have been ongoing since then. The heart of the matter is that no one wants to become a teacher anymore, the profession is finding it hard to keep teachers in the job (one third drop out after less than 5 years) and the profession is ageing, with an average age of a teacher being 56+. All this points to a crisis unfolding in front of us…and part of the solution will be the Ministry creating better pay and conditions to attract the best people in the job, and keep them in the job.

Ukulele group

We are wanting to offer our senior students the opportunity to learn and participate in a musical group by starting a ukulele group on Monday lunchtimes.  We would like to make this group open to any student who would like to participate whether they have an instrument or not.  So we were wondering if anyone in our community have any spare, unused ukuleles gathering dust at home that they might like to donate to our group.

If you can help with this please bring any instruments in to the office.  Anything you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you 

A reminder that our DPS Cross Country is happening tomorrow.

Students can wear the PE uniform or a top in their House colour (Rutherford - Red, Sheppard - Blue, Batten - Black, Hillary - Green). 

Year 6s are allowed to dress up. 

All students who participate earn points for their house group. Who will take it out this year - Rutherford, Batten, Sheppard or Hillary??

Order of races: (Starting at 11.10am)

• Year 3 boys and girls

• Year 2 boys and girls

• Rimu boys and girls

• Year 4 boys and girls

• Year 5 boys and girls

• Year 6 boys and girls

Lucky Book Club Orders…here is some information so you can plan out your orders over the year.  When each edition arrives - students are offered the magazine but taking one home is not compulsory! We encourage parents to enstall the LOOP app on their devices to make ordering easy.  Please have your orders submitted by the closing date to avoid postage costs to yourselves.  

Any problems please contact Gemma McPhail at gemmamcphail@douglaspark.school.nz or you can find me in room Kōwhai.  Or you can talk to Meryl in the office and she may be able to help you. 

Scholastic Website for all of your Q&A