Week 10 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

Mid-Year Teacher Comments

We have structured our reporting differently this year. Learning Conversations, our face-to-face reporting, are being held in Terms 1 and 3...with a teacher comment being published via HERO in terms 2 and 4.

Today after school a comment for your child will be published in HERO. The comment will cover areas important to us, areas that you have indicated are important to hear...and areas that cover our ‘3 circles’ curriculum. These are the areas we know have the biggest impact on developing a great young human and a great young learner. A paper note came home this week with some information on signing into HERO if you haven’t done so yet. Teaching staff and the office are also able to help with this.

You will also be able to refer back to the Progress Dials and Graphs for Reading, Writing and Maths (no progress dials in Maths). Some excellent progress has been made across this term. It may or may not be evident in the ‘dot’ on the graph, but certainly in the progress dial since the Learning Conversation in Term 1. Timely to remind ourselves that learning does not follow a straight line. Acquiring new knowledge and skill takes time, but more importantly, it takes a setback, a failure to really fire up our brain muscle and solidify the learning. Progress is the aim...improvement over time. This image popped up in my Twitter feed this week, and it is a good reminder that our learners work hard each day, front up each day, make mistakes each day...and make great progress for themselves over time.

Inquiry Sharing

Some great sharing of Inquiry Learning over this week. Rimu had a parade of costumes created by the children, a display from Mrs Bridges’ class is in the foyer and Miss Eagle and her Eagle Explorers hosted a ‘premiere’ for their film about various animals. Check them out.

Neuroscience Lessons for us as Parents

I’ve come across a wonderful, wonderful resource that I’m going to share with you in the newsletter over the term. Nathan Makaere Wallis is a well known NZ neuroscience educator. He has partnered with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu to create a set of videos for parents, explaining the neuroscience of learning.

In this week's video Nathan speaks about Technology, and the drawbacks of overuse. Some key messages from Nathan:

Technology and Internet interaction shouldn’t be instead of face to face interaction.
Imagination is far more intricate and advanced than any piece of technology.
Using technology is not harmful, the issue comes from what they are “not” doing and learning while on technology, for example:

1) Not interacting with the world

2) Not experiencing the environment

3) Not learning about conflict resolution

For us at DPS this idea is embedded into our balanced approach to technology use. We know it is important, we know children need to develop skills...but we also value hands-on learning. We write in books, we scribble our ideas down, we draw or sketch our ideas, we storyboard our thoughts...as well as completing digital versions of these. We see technology as a tool to enhance our learning, to enhance our ideas...but not as a total replacement. Our play/maker environments are great examples of this...in the same space, inspired by the same prompt from a teacher, you are just as likely to see children coding in Scratch, or 3D designing in TinkerCad as you are seeing children using hot glue and cardboard to complete the same task.

Enjoy! And give me your feedback: principal@douglaspark.school.nz

Staff Only Day - Next Term, Friday 20th August

Advanced notice, we are having a staff only day Friday 20th August. This is at the end of Week 4 next term. We are looking at our assessment and reporting systems that day and doing some further work on our HERO platform.

The School Office and Second Hand Uniform Shop will be open in the holidays on Thursday 15 July from 9am - 2pm.

These lucky kids worked hard to show our PRIDE values this term and were chosen by their friends and teachers to join Mr Sinton at PRIDE Day Out. They watched Peter Rabbit 2 in town, ate popcorn and had the whole cinema to themselves! Ka mau te wehi, tamariki!

WRiting - Felix and camren

Thump! He slammed his enormous, grass-covered foot into the middle of the road, sending shockwaves of dust in all directions.

With a loud grunt, the troll wrenched the entire, fully tiled roof off a nearby holiday home, with the owners peering helplessly and frightened out of the downstairs windows. He didn’t mean any harm, but he just couldn’t help himself….

But before I tell you that story I need to tell you this story

When he was still a normal sized troll he was shot by a hunter in the shin. In pure agony he limped back to the murky swamp where his dim cave was located. After about 1 hour of lying in agony he finally got to sleep. It was a cold breeze that woke him up. Usually his cave Protects him but as he opened his eyes he realized that he had grown and the jagged rocks forming his cave had merged into his back. As he got up he winced at the pain in his shin. The veins around his shin were pulsing with a green glow. As this was happening his blood cells were contaminating with a deadly toxin known to make people insane and sure enough it happened. It had driven him insane. He looked for the gun that shot him in the first place. As he tore through the small country town he lifted up a roof and was peering down at a terrified couple. As they screamed the police must have called for backup because the S.W.A.T TEAM had shown up. Bullets were flying all around the air, one even accidentally hit a civilian. He could hear the bullets whizzing past one even grazed his thick nose. In rage he yelled and fled the small town with blood gushing out of where the bullet grazed his thick nose. As before the poison from the bullet made its way into his blood cells. While he was running his body weakened. He turned a corner a row of tanks were waiting for him. As he stopped a group of S.W.A.T TEAM trucks screeched to a halt but before he could lash out the poison took over his last blood cell and he died. THUMP! You can find his body at the Masterton museum.

By Felix and Camren

Sports

This folder has a list of netball and hockey teams. Draws will be shared through Hero each week.

Miniball

The $15 fee needs to be paid to the office by Friday 30th July. Please email Hayley Sinton if you have any questions.

hayleysinton@douglaspark.school.nz

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