Week 5 NEWSLETTER

Modern life is busy, it is tricky and there is a lot of pressure to improve things. In education we feel that pressure…particularly in an election year when politicians use education as an issue to garner some votes! The pressure at the moment is around the ‘falling standards’ of education, and whether schools should cut all the extras and just focus on ‘the basics’.  

In his book, Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul, Dr. Stuart Brown tells the story about how the Jet Propulsion Laboratory realised that, although it was hiring the best and brightest university graduates, they were the wrong kind of people. Something had changed in the kind of people who came to work at JPL. 

The JPL managers went back to look at their own retiring engineers and … found that in their youth, their older, problem-solving employees had taken apart clocks to see how they worked, or made soapbox derby racers, or built hi-fi stereos, or fixed appliances. The young engineering school graduates who had also done these things, who had played with their hands, were adept at the kinds of problem solving that management sought. Those who hadn’t, generally were not. From that point on, JPL made questions about applicants' youthful projects and play a standard part of job interviews. Through research the JPL managers discovered that there is a kind of magic in play. 

We must try to keep the youthful magic of play in schools, and not allow a return to the national standards era (2010-2017). It is actually that era of children…when schools were forced into focusing a lot more on the basics, and cutting the parts of learning that enrich children (drama, the arts, music, play)...that era of children are the ones that are now ‘failing’ (they aren’t actually failing…our achievement rates have largely remained consistent for the last 20 years). So…that focus on the basics has led to the current education crisis…and a return to more of that, sadly, isn’t going to be the answer we need. 

Being ‘playful’ is actually an important trait to foster in our children…something that this school works hard to do. Our learning, our environments and our staff aim to keep ‘playful thinking’ alive across your child’s time with us. Being playful isn’t trivial…As we grow into our adult lives we learn to fit into structures which dampens our playful curiosity. This greatly limits our thought process in thinking out-of-the box and doing things differently. Children are naturally playful and creative, as their boundaries are not yet fully formed. These characteristics can be reinforced if we grant them the space to explore, discover, experiment, express, and ask questions freely, in their own way.

One thing we can’t forget…kids deserve their chance to have a childhood, and to be kids

COVID Restrictions End…and a Thank You

You'll have seen that the government has lifted the last of the COVID restrictions, including the 7 day isolation period. You can read more here.

While this may be welcome news...overall our schools message before and during the pandemic has been...if your child is unwell, they should not attend school. This message is unchanged now. While you no longer have to isolate for 7 days, we still ask for you to be sensible in considering when your child should come back to school. 

I'd like to extend a massive thanks to the community for your support over the last 3.5 years, and a bigger thanks to the staff for being so amazing. Even at its peak, we managed to minimise the impacts of COVID on learning...never once shutting the school, or splitting classes due to a lack of staff. While COVID did hit the school, our case numbers were low...and all of our safety efforts made a big difference. 

This week we have been learning to include compound sentences in our writing so that it sounds more interesting, and gives our readers more information. Compound sentences are when we join 2 sentences together using the special “joining words” - “and,” “but,” “so,” “or,” “because.” Our challenge this week was to use the joining words “but” and “because.”

I love Cheetahs because they are fast, but I hate Cauliflower because it is plain and it has no flavour.

By Marlia Whipp

Today I’m going to tell you what I like and don’t like. I like my best friend Adelyn because she is a sweet girl and she is nice. But I don’t like vegetables because they make me throw up and they are slimy.

By Nicole Masong

I built a car because my old one was broken. It was a cool car because it was faster than a robot!

By Jesse Hughes

Today I am going to the park with my roller skates because it is my birthday. I am going on the extreme ramp! WHEEEEEEEE! CRASH! I think I broke a bone!

By Milla Martynova

I love soccer but I hate broccoli! I love soccer because there’s a lot of people. I train for soccer by doing ball skills and it’s fun! Broccoli is disgusting because it's mushy, green and gross!

By Cairo Whaanga

I love broccoli but I don’t like pumpkin! I love broccoli because it's delicious, green and it’s juicy. I hate pumpkins because they are orange and they are yuck! They have a green stem and they are mushy!

By Maisy Bolt

I love my mum but I don’t like mud! My mum is fun to play with, but mud is not! My mum is kind and careful because she helps me when I fall over. Mud is sticky  and gooey because of the rain. It is disgusting!

By Fletcher Towgood

I love lambs but I do not like writing. I love my lambs because I like feeding them and cuddling them. I do not like writing because it's dumb, it takes me a long time and it's a little bit tricky!

By Alex McNaughton

MASTERTON INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL 2024 ENROLMENTS OPEN

PLEASE ENROL NOW

Please enrol online using the below link

bit.ly/3DrAvkq

We are encouraging online enrolments!