Week 2 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

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

I attended an excellent webinar on Tuesday night with Professor Guy Claxton from the UK. Professor Claxton has done a lot of work in New Zealand, and his book ‘Building Learning Power’ would be familiar to many educators who trained/taught in the 2000’s. The webinar was on the ‘Science of Learning’...something that is referenced a lot at the moment as a justification to the changes affecting education. The webinar was a bit of a counter argument…arguing that there isn’t a ‘singular’ Science of learning, but rather there are many ‘Sciences’ (plural) of learning. Following a singular approach to teaching then (as proposed inside our system currently) won’t then meet the needs of all students. Professor Claxton argues for an ‘And/And’ approach…looking at multiple ways to teach, inside multiple different subjects. He argues you can teach ‘knowledge’ alongside/within rich creative environments, and that it doesn’t have to be a choice between these. While I might just be hearing what I want to hear…I like this message, and it aligns with what we do here at DPS. Just yesterday a group of Kahikatea girls burst into the office keen to show me the iMovie they had made on the iPad. They had a clear message, clear script, had used music to enhance their message, subtitles and had edited their clips to make sure they were being brief and direct. The literacy learning was clear to see…but the creative product they made was equally awesome. And/and learning in action.

Reminder: No School Friday or Monday

Just a reminder…we have a Teacher Only Day on Friday, and on Monday there is no school due to Labour Day. Thanks for your support.

The Teacher Only Day is part of the new curriculum development that all schools are working through. There are big changes coming…and coming quickly! We are expected to have the new English and Mathematics curriculum underway for the start of next year, alongside other changes to reporting to parents, and assessing learning progress. While I do feel fairly confident that the school is already a long way down that path, we will still need to make adjustments. Our teacher only day work is essentially building our own knowledge of what those two new curriculum areas look like, and doing some comparing to what we already have in place.

Thank You Masterton Trust Lands Trust!

The Masterton Trust Lands Trust are awesome supporters of local education, and currently they are supporting schools with Literacy with a grant programme aimed at lifting the towns reading/writing outcomes for our youngest school children.

DPS applied to the Trust for some further decodable reading resources, and also for an innovative project we are going to trial. The Trust and School have partnered to create ‘Literacy Packs’ for new to school students. These packs contain resources, games, colouring books, scissors, pens, beads, laces…and even a Nursery Rhyme collection. All of these things are aimed at developing early language skills. This pack isn’t about turning parents into teachers—it’s about making literacy a natural, enjoyable part of everyday life.

We are excited to start building these packs across the term, and beginning our trial. So…a massive thank you to the Trust for supporting this innovative bit of mahi. Cheers!

Well Done Elise!

Elise is an ex-DPS Kid now attending Solway College. While at DPS she developed into a very competent writer, known for her creative pieces of work. I still have in my office a small book Elise and another student Holly wrote called ‘The Foal’s Journey’. This love for literacy has carried on, and I was stoked to see that Elise has won the Creative Writing Cup around at Solway. Well done Elise, keep up the awesome mahi.

Hockey Wairarapa needs your help!

Hockey Wairarapa are raising funds to help with the cost of the new turf. It is a great initiative to support if you can and will help make sure hockey stays strong in the Wairarapa!

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