Week 5 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

Our Vision: Together we Nurture, Explore and Create for a Better Future

We had a staff professional learning session after school on Monday, and we started by celebrating the amazing progress our staff have made. It has been a little over 6 months since we became an Apple Distinguished School, one of just a handful in NZ…and even in that time things have taken a great leap forward. Since then we have done a bunch of staff development (in their own time as well as at school) focusing on increasing our own capability. We identified earlier in the year that the stuff the kids were good at, is the stuff teachers are comfortable with. As our capability has developed, so has the kids skillset on the iPads.

A great example of this skillset happened in our house this week. It is our son Henry’s birthday soon, and as we discussed what we might do for his birthday he decided to create his own party invitation. In a pretty short time he had made an invitation in KeyNote, and created a small animation in it! We then shared this digitally to the friends he wanted to invite…a great way of taking a skill from school, and applying it in a real context.

We are also lucky to have Mark Herring, one of Apple’s leading lights in New Zealand, coming to work with us next week. He is in to work with our Core Belief team, an opportunity for us to ‘dream big’ about what next for our DPS Kids. Mark is super passionate about the iPad as a creative tool, and I’m excited to see the ideas he will bring next week!

Our Core Beliefs

At DPS we have four Core Beliefs, four learning dispositions that we think are super important…four beliefs that we actively teach our children. These are Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Learner Agency and Creativity. Our teaching spaces are designed to encourage these, and our learning programs are full of opportunities for the children to learn and enact them.

Each fortnight we celebrate one child from each teaching team who has been demonstrating our Core Beliefs by giving them the DPS Kid Shield. A brief video is put together to celebrate their mahi…and watching the video is easily one of my highlights each fortnight. Seeing these four beliefs in action…seeing the potential our staff are unlocking in the children…it is awesome to see.

The four beliefs align to the ‘Key Competencies’ in the current New Zealand Curriculum, and are designed to future proof our children. We want our children to leave us with a solid academic base and with these skills…being literate and numerate is important..but being able to think critically, work with others, be independent/show initiative and to have that ‘number 8 wire’ mentality is equally important.

Relievers + Nice Feedback

As I wrote about last week, we’ve had a few relievers in recently with staff away unwell. While this could be a challenging situation, I’ve been stoked with the feedback I’ve been getting. Our students have been polite and kind, making sure our relievers feel welcome. One reliever hasn’t been at our school very often, and commented on our learning, and our learning environments being so great. Awesome to hear our DPS Kids being so respectful, and alongside that the nice feedback about our place.

Long Weekend + Teacher Only Day

Last reminder…this weekend is King’s Birthday, so Monday is a public holiday with no schools open. On Tuesday all of the Masterton schools (primary and secondary) are having a combined teacher only day, so again…no school on Tuesday. I’m one of the organisers of the teacher only day…and it is a full day of amazing learning, we’ve managed to nab some excellent facilitators (NZ leaders in their fields). Many thanks for your support for Tuesday, and I hope you enjoy a great long weekend.

A Message from our Dental Mobile Team

Our last day at DPS is Friday 14th June. Thank you to everyone who have returned their dental forms. There are still quite a few Dental Consent forms that have not been returned. If your child has a form to return, please do so ASAP.

Any incomplete treatment will have to be treated at our Community Dental Clinic at MIS.

A huge thank you to the DPS staff for all your assistance.