Week 7 NEWSLETTER

From the Principal

The children were proud to share their learning, to share you as a person with their friends and teachers and we all loved hearing your stories...of your past, what schooling was like from past students of Douglas Park (nice to see you again Louise!) and of course Cornwall Street and West Schools. We had 4 generations from one family onsite and another family had 3 generations who had attended West, then DPS onsite with a 4th generation attending previously!. Just such a powerful day, we look forward to building on this next year.

Learning Conversations

The removal of the National Standards this year has set us on a journey looking at what and how we report to our parent community. We have consulted, surveyed and listened to your thoughts earlier in the year and made our first set of changes in Term 2. Next week will see you taking part in the next step, the Learning Conversation with your child/ren. Two of the biggest bits of feedback we received was that parents loved the children being in charge of the reporting, but that having them read word for word from a script wasn’t authentic (and a bit tedious!).

The Conversation next week is just that...a chance for your child to chat with you about how they are as a Learner at school, how they show our Core Beliefs, to share work and learning that they are proud of and for you to have your say through some questions/prompts we will have for you (such as I think you did a great job because … & What are the steps you went through to complete this…).

Two other pieces of feedback were that you wanted the teacher to have more of a voice, and that you still wanted to know how your child was doing academically...but you wanted to celebrate their progress also. To meet this we have taken that ‘academic reporting’ out of what the children will share, and teachers have this as a separate piece of paper. Teachers will come into the conversation and engage both you and your child in a discussion about the progress and achievement made. The thermometers are gone, replaced by a different visual image based on the New Zealand Curriculum. Teachers will take you through an explanation as part of the Conversation.

Look forward to seeing our awesome children lead their Learning Conversation with you next week and to get some feedback from you about the changes we have made.

Speaking of awesome people...

We had the annual Helpers morning tea this week. Our chance to celebrate and say thanks to all the important adults who have helped or given to the school this year. It is only through the contributions of you all that DPS can be the special place that it is. People coming in weekly to give extra reading opportunities to children, daily to parent help in classes, giving up a couple nights sleep to be at Camp, taking days off work to volunteer on trips...all things that make for a better learning experience for our learners, helping create better DPS Kids. Thank you to you all and cheers to Meryl for sorting the celebration.

Leaving us? Know people wanting to come?

Just as we enter the final planning stages for 2019 (teachers, class lists etc) just seeking any information that we might not know about. If your child won’t be with us next year, or if you have 4 year olds about to start...or friends/cousins who are going to start with us...having that information would be much appreciated. Means we can plan classes with more certainty, and make sure we are equipped in the best possible way for the first day of the new year (which, incidentally, is Tuesday 29th January).

Kids korero

what's happening at DPS?

2nd hand Uniform Shop @ DPS:

We have good stock of polar fleeces at the moment. Other items are available in various sizes. Shop is open on Wednesdays 8 - 9 am and 2.15 - 3 pm

Community Events