Newsletter
Week 8 NEWSLETTER
from the principal
Our Vision: Together we Nurture, Explore and Create for a Better Future
Monday saw the swearing in of a new government, and yesterday the first changes were announced. While I’m completely baffled/shocked by some of the announcements (repealing the smokefree legislation, and the removal/attack on Te Reo in particular…but I won’t get into that!) the announcement yesterday contained two education parts:
Banning cellphones in schools
Mandating an hour a day of reading, writing and maths.
Schools have always had the power to have policies around cell phones, including banning them from classrooms if they wish. So this announcement is a bit of a non-event. At DPS our policy is that children who bring a cellphone to school hand them in to the office before school, and collect them after school. This works well for us…and just a couple of children do this.
The announcement of an hour a day of reading, writing and maths is of more interest to me…but as yet the government has released no detail around what this looks like (which isn’t very helpful as we plan for 2024).
Douglas Park School is a place where we hold academic outcomes highly, and our children do very well (last year 82%+ of the school were working at expected levels in reading, writing and maths…and for those DPS Kids who start with us as 5 year olds this increases to be 90%+)...but we also hold highly the idea that children should be well rounded…be creative, be able to think critically, be confident in their culture, be confident in the outdoors, and be good citizens/people.
Our timetables would show an hour a day of Reading, Writing and Maths Monday to Thursday (not Fridays). But inside those timetables…the reality is that children are not sitting for an hour with a teacher. They may be seen by a teacher, they may have some followup work, some practice…but once done they rejoin the play/maker learning. Sometimes the teaching of those core areas is inside a project. Cairo and Angus just won a national competition…their minecraft project contained just as much IT learning, as it did reading, writing, oral language, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity…and the end outcome (video below) is a stunning example of how powerful learning can be when the ideas mentioned above are combined into a piece of work.
Fridays at DPS (like many schools) look different…we have our Celebration Time, children go to the library, we have kapahaka, classes have golden time. Some reading, writing or maths will happen…but nowhere near an hour of each.
Cramming more reading, writing and maths into the day…into 5 days a week…perhaps outcomes will get marginally better (they didn’t under national standards when we tried this though)...but it will come at the expense of the richness of school. The play, the making, the EOTC, the creativity, the cultural learning, the sports/PE, the IT projects…and those are all the things that make this place great.
It will be interesting to see the details when they are finally released, but I’m committed to this school preparing our children for their future, not for our past. Our Vision for learning is strong, our Core Beliefs of Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Learner Agency and Creativity are strong, our PRIDE values are strong…our kids do well academically, and leave us equipped and empowered to deal with their future…doing more reading, writing and maths isn’t going to achieve anything remotely near as powerful as what we have, what we are striving for.
Pack the Bus!
Massive thanks to our community for your generosity! Our Pack the Bus collection has been a huge success…biggest collection yet the organisers reckon! Even to get a photo we had to split our collection into two parts as you’ll see below.
Thanks again for your kindness…one of our big beliefs here is around ‘service’, and doing good things for others…and what a great example of that.
Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC)
All of the major EOTC events of the year are now done…this week the last of the Year 5 & 6 students headed out to Beachy’s place for a day of outdoor skills, and Tuesday our Year 2 students headed out to Hidden Lakes. Unfortunately we had to make the decision to cancel our trip down to Wings over Wairarapa. We held off right until the end hoping for a change in the weather…which didn’t come! Big thanks to all the staff for all the planning that goes into these trips, and to our wonderful parent helpers for making them possible. Our DPS Kids are getting some very rich and rewarding experiences because of you.
Writing - MIchelle's homeclass
WhAt's happening at dps
Sports
Click on these links to see the hockey draw for the term!
Please note the DPS Kakariki V Kikorangi will be played on Tuesday lunchtime.
Masterton Intermediate - 2024 enrolments open now
MASTERTON INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL 2024 ENROLMENTS OPEN
PLEASE ENROL NOW
Please enrol online using the below link
We are encouraging online enrolments!
Order Subway online or at the office for delivery to school friday
Every Friday we have Subway lunches delivered to school. If you would like to order your child a subway lunch, the easiest way is to order online. Please make sure you put your child's class (teachers name) on the order as it makes it much easier to sort our end. Subway can also be ordered by filling out a form at the school office before school on a Friday. Please note that these must be ordered by early morning on the Friday to ensure your child's order goes through for that day.
Please note that the app you are looking for is Subway Express - School Lunch programme.
Community notices
