Learning Updates

13 Maramamātahi - 13 November 2023

Toi Art

We are very proud of the efforts of our Year 8 Rangatahi - creating such beautiful artwork, on display in the senior block. Please take some time to visit. You can also view the art from Mersey Street!

Sensory Boards

Thank you for all of the donations towards our three new sensory boards. Two of our teachers, Béhbinn and Eilís designed and built three wonderful sensory boards, with our children in mind. They have been a hit, especially for the ākonga in Tangaroa. Thank you very much also to one of our dads, Howard Gardner, for installing supports for the boards so that they can be moved inside overnight to keep them safe.

Te Reo Māori for families - 2024

If you volunteer in our kura, you are welcome to enrol in Te Reo learning alongside our staff. Please email either Sarah sarah.fountain@sfds.school.nz or Mary-Angela principal@sfds.school.nz if you would like to take part next year.

29 Maramamātahi - 29 November 2023

What are your thoughts about the Health Curriculum?

The number of responses to our Health and Physical Education consultation servicey represents less than 25% of our school community so far. Specific comments made in the survey so far relate mainly to:

avoiding conversations gender beyond being male or female, avoiding the use of pronouns other than he and she, leaving parents to have conversations about sexuality
Body autonomy, consent
Talking about feelings
leaving teaching about physical changes to bodies until Year 7&8 only
Family health/Taha Whānau - including empathy and accountability in teaching, and leaving teaching about relationships to families, awareness that not all whanau relationships are good.
Mental Health/Taha hinengaro - children knowing they are loved by God and others, and the importance of communication with trusted adults
Where bullying comes from and what to do about it
100% support for Year 6 students taking part in a Noho Marae (overnight stay at a local marae), with some interest in extending the opportunity to older children in 2024 so that all have had this experience

The survey will only be open for the rest of this week, so that the results can be used to plan learning for 2024. Please make sure to have your voice heard. It is especially important that we have an accurate gauge of our community's wishes in relation to this important part of our curriculum.

22 Maramamātahi - 22 November 2023

Learning Through Play

Our learners are supported in their emotional, cognitive and physical environment in the context of learning through play. Our learning environments integrate the elements of a play-based pedagogy to encourage our learners to think outside the square, be creative, collaborate with others and develop positive attitudes to learning at school. Through our Learning Through Play programme in Year 0-3, we develop values and key competencies from the NZ Curriculum through play-based learning activities: curiosity and inquiry, innovation and thinking creatively, managing self, using language, relating to others and participating and contributing.

2024 Rich Curriculum Plan

The teachers are now beginning to plan our Rich Curriculum Plan for next year. All areas of learning may be integrated into authentic curriculum experiences at any time:

Core areas of Religious Education, Literacy, Numeracy, PE and Sport
With the following enriching the learning experiences:
- Technology - 'process outcomes' (computational thinking, design)
- Aotearoa NZ history
- Science - 'Living World' (living things and how they interact with each other and the environment)
- Drama and Visual Art
- Health - 'Sexuality Education' (reminder: Health and PE consultation )

15 Maramamātahi - 15 November 2023

SFDS Community Health Consultation

It is a Ministry of Education requirement that schools consult with their communities every two years on their Health programmes. Please complete the following survey to be part of informing decisions about our Health and Physical Education curriculum over the next 2 years. Thank you.

Survey: https://forms.gle/2BiAahfQS5cyR8888

This survey will be open until Wednesday 29 November, 2023.

Toi Māori - Traditional Māori Art

Each year our Year 8 students create a piece of artwork that is left with the school - to commemorate their time at out school, and thank our school community for guiding them through their first 8 years of schooling. When you walk around out kura you will see many previous artworks for past years, including sculptures, paintings, mosaics.

Thank you to Whaia Robin Taukamo, who has generously given her time to support our Year 8 Kaiako and Ākonga with their art over the recent weeks. Our Year 8 learners are working on their kowhaiwhai art installation. The Toi Māori is coming along beautifully, and the collaborative nature of the project has allowed the learners to support one another and work alongside each other. Tuakana-Teina...more able and confident rangatahi supporting less confident.

1 Maramamātahi - 1 November 2023

Introducing Hero Reporting

This reporting feature of Hero will be opened to you all on Monday 6 November. We have prepared updates for each child's learning in Reading, Writing, Maths, IEP goals, and other areas of the curriculum. Over time the content will grow to share 'real time' progress reports. You can scroll down this page for images. More information will be shared on Monday.

Some important things to note:

The Hero reporting platform is new for all of the teachers, and it will take us time to grow our expertise. This means there are likely to be occasional errors in data and information. Please be patient with this new learning.
A reminder that Hero real-time reporting replaces the old fashioned printed half-yearly reports. The teachers have been working on the Hero learning content throughout the last 3 terms. Therefor some posts, photos, etc were posted a few months ago. From now on, the posts will be in 'real time'.
Goals in Reading, Writing and Maths have already been shared with you. Scroll down to the SFdS News on 18 Oketopa 2023 to view the goals. We have created the goals, based on Te Mataiaho ~ NZ Curriculum, to keep you better informed about your child's progress.
Some children have their own specific targeted goals to support their individual needs. This includes children on IEPs (Individual Education Plans) - and those who have specific learning needs that their learning plan is focussed on.
Progress against the curriculum is not just a test. Teachers note evidence throughout the day that children have met the goals at each phase. They then decide which goals each child needs to work on. Teachers also test the children and carry out 1:1 assessments regularly to back up the goal-setting.
Progression over time is automatically generated by Hero - according to the number of goals reached at each phase of learning.
Goals will be updated on the go, as learning happens. Brief comments about learning will be posted to each page at least once a term.
The progress graphs will only be open in July and December each year. However this year - they will be open from November 6 until the end of December. You will not be able to see them all year round. This allows us to check the accuracy of the data.
If you would like to share access to your child's reports, and school updates with whānau - grandparents, etc - you need to let the office know that they have your permission. We also need send in their email to the office- and they will need to set up their own password.
You can respond to your child's learning progress with emojis and comments to arffirm them in their learning if you wish.
If you choose to set up notifications on your Hero app - you will be notified when a new learning or news post has been uploaded.

Our next steps in Hero:

We have many future plans for making the best use of Hero real time reporting, including:

Goals for Religious Education
Goals for other learning areas - like Science, Health & PE, etc. These will be developed once the NZ curriculum has been refreshed in these learning areas
A page for recording each child's mihi, pepeha, whakapapa and significant personal milestones
A page for parents/caregivers for two-way communicate directly with the teacher
Student access to setting and reviewing their own goals

18 Oketopa 2023

Introducing our new Reading, Writing and Maths goals from Year 1-8!

We have created specific SFDS ‘goals’ for reading, writing and maths - to enable tracking each child's progression through the curriculum - from very basic to much more complex skills, across three phases (typically up to Year 3, up to Year 6, up to Year 8). The goals are aligned to assessment tools, priorities at SFDS, and best practice in teaching. The goals do not represent everything that happens in learning, but they do represent some key learning progressions that typically and ideally take place at each level.

These goals are designed to keep you - whānau - informed along the way (2022 reporting review - parent feedback). Below is a PDF copy of each of the goal sets we have developed - so that you can gain a sense of what we will be reporting to you soon. Please take some time to become familiar with the goals if you want to be informed. Children on IEPs (Individualised Education Programmes) may have different goals in some areas - depending on what is a priority for their individual progress. More goals will come in Religious Education, Te Reo Māori and other areas of the curriculum.

The development of these goals represents many hours of research, professional learning, moderation, community consultation, assessment, comparison with other schools, and external consultation over the past 12 months. I am grateful to the teachers for their support in finalising the wording, testing the levels and putting them into practice in recent months. The goals are still flexible - they can be adjusted if needed over time, should education priorities change with the new government, or should we want reprioritise as a community.

With Hero we will be able to give you regular learning updateson your child's progress through these goals. This reporting feature of Hero will be opened to you all on 6 November. We also invite you to a special launch event for HERO on the afternoon/evening of 6 November.

Hero Goals - Reading.pdf

Reading Goals

Hero Goals - Writing.pdf

Writing Goals

Hero Goals - Maths.pdf

Maths Goals

11 Oketopa 2023

Hero - 'Real Time Reporting' - it's nearly time to launch!!

We are now in the final stages of having Hero to be our main platform for reporting on your child's progress, goals, achievements - and to celebrate them and their learning. The teachers are now finalising writing goals and how your child is tracking against the curriculum.

Please refer to our Hero timeline on this page. We will invite you to a special launch event on the afternoon/evening of 6 November soon. Please save the date!

Pasifika and Māori Homework Centre Update

Kia orana, Talofa lava, Taloha ni, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Namaste, Ni sa bula, Mālō e lelei and warm Pacific greetings. Nga mihi, faafetai lava and malo aupito Haley Hakaraia, James Beach and Emmajane Mesui. These amazing individuals already have full time jobs (except for Emmajane - homeschooled) and yet they turn up with a great big smile, and willingness to help your tamaiki with their homework and learning.

Another big shout out to Kaibosh who occasionally provide the free snacks after school. We have not had any complaints so far, so the snacks must be meitaki ma‘ata.

PKA celebrated 2 Pacific language weeks last term, the Cook Islands and Tonga. We were pleasantly suprised that our guest speaker for Tongan language week was non other than Miss Universe Miss New Zealand 2019 Diamond Langi. Diamond, who happens to be Lee Santos's sister and Eleni Santos's aunt, has a background in modelling, acting, singing and Miss New Zealand! Some of the students had shared that they were keen to get into acting and singing, so to have Diamond attend Tongan language week at PKA was a real treat. It was very encouraging for our Pasifika kids to meet someone who is Pasifika and have an international platform, yet be very humble and absolutely lovely. Diamond explained the Tongan cultural dress that her niece Eleni wore and the significance of the materials used. Diamond also encouraged our PKA kids to be proud of their Pacific heritage, dream big and that nothing is impossible. We say ofa lahi atu and malo aupito Diamond for making the tirp down from Auckland to attend our Tongan language week at SFDS.

Haley Hakaria was very kind to speak at PKA for Maori language week and share about the importance of te reo and the stories of old which are still very relevant today, highlighting the significance of the earth, moon and the sun. Nga mihi Haley for your great wealth of knowledge and story telling which had all the kids mesmerised. The kids especially loved the song and doing pukanas for the photo.

Yes, PKA is back this term - but it will be a short term, starting on Monday the 16th October and ending on the 11th December. We are wanting the 11th to be a shared kai with all Pacific families and hopefully some Pacific intros, testimonies and performances by the kids.

(from the team at Pasifika Kids Advancing)

Garden to table

Garden to Table seedling sale 2.pdf

20 Hepetema 2023

The 'Anger Iceberg' (The Gottman Institute) is a particularly relevant graphic for us, as adults to reflect on. I am sure you can imagine that when 215 children from different backgrounds and who have had different experiences in their childhood are brought together in one school, we will see 215 different responses to feelings under the surface.

As a staff, we all work incredibly hard to help all children to learn how to manage their feelings - we do not expect that they will always be successful, but we will never give up on supporting each child. As a catholic special character this is particularly important to us as we nurture each child as unique and loved as they are.

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week

We want to learn more te reo every week, so we have some visual snippets of learning from around the classes to share with you about our Te Reo journey.

Te Reo Māori - Your feedback needed

While we are in Mahuru Māori, it is a good time to talk about our Te Reo Māori curriculum. While Te Reo Māori is taught across the school, it is time for us to demonstrate an increased commitment to this learning. Our staff have also engaged in learning over the past two years.

In consultation with a number of people in our community, we have been drafting a set of progressions to bring Te Reo Māori to life in our kura. Following is that draft, which sets out a brosd overview. It would be very helpful to receive your feedback about these progressions. Feel free to comment on the document, or email principal@sfds.school.nz to give your feedback. Thank you

Te Ao Māori Progressions Framework: Te Kura Hato Werahiko te Hera

13 Hepetema 2023

ORANGE DAY PARADE

All of our wonderful road patrollers are heading off to the Orange Day Parade this Friday. They will be parading between Civic Square and Parliament during the morning so if you are in town look out for them and give them a wave.

6 Hepetema 2023

RANGINUI FRACTURED FAIRYTALE WRITING COMPETITION:

Our year 7/8 students wrote engaging and innovative pieces of writing last term. Congratulations to the following students who wrote the top 12 pieces of writing:

Olivia K, Audrey W, Isla H, Blues M, Louis C, Connor SS, Charlie K, Mahlee HB, Mabel C, Isla K, Cielo Q and Isabelle M.

Special congratulations to our top three:

1st - Mabel C

2nd - Louis C

3rd - Audrey W

30 August 2023

Congratulations Denise and Kāunga class! You have been chosen as one of the joint winners in the junior category for the Caritas SINGout4JUSTICE 2023 music competition. They have become the youngest winners ever in the history of the competition. The judges loved your entry and had lots of praise for what you submitted.

16 August 2023

EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom)

We are currently reviewing our EOTC processes and procedures - to make sure we make the most of the opportunities in our community. We would love to hear from you about opportunities we could take advantage of across Wellington, under the following themes. Sometimes it is hard for schools to visit sites, so if you have contacts that would be really helpful:

Technology - such as workplaces where innovation is happening, creating and testing designs that address community needs and solve problems for people in our community, allowing children to see technology in action.
The Arts - such as workplaces where local creatives would welcome visits from children - drama, visual arts and design, music, dance, so that children can feel inspired.
Science - such as workplaces where theories are being developed and tested, and where groups of children could be inspired by science - and see science in action.

Please get in touch if you have connections to workplaces, etc. that would allow groups of children to visit occasionally, and we will add these connections to our list. principal@sfds.school.nz

09 August 2023

Waharoa - Creatives in Schools Application

Our seniors have been helping to prepare an application to the Ministry of Education to support a Waharoa creation project for our school. If our application is successful, we will be working with Ariki Brightwell for this project next year, who will work with our tamariki and the whole community.

Enjoy their great 'pitch' (target audience: The Ministry of Education) by our seniors to be included in the project: https://youtu.be/v7svDH_T1h0

Cook Island Language Week

To kick off Cook Island Language last week, we had the honour of Maddox and Layla-Rose’s great great grandmother joining us at Pasifika Kids Advancing (PKA) after school. Nana came in and taught us a Cook Island song and dance which as you can see from the photos, the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Nana talked to us about the Cook Islands and was surprised to learn that a large number of the PKA students had already travelled there. We learnt that Nana is an amazing women who has done a lot of great things in her life here is Aotearoa as well as in the Cook Islands. Nana was a teacher who taught for many years throughout Aotearoa, was part of the Maori movement in the early days and was responsible for setting up the first ever Cook Island childcare in Aotearoa too. On top of all of that, Nana is 89 years old!!! and is still teaching the next generation songs and dance. Yet, it didn’t stop there! On Monday PKA was gratefully surprised when Mary Jane Seiuli (Maddox's mum (Nana's great granddaughter) brought in truckloads of Rarotongan donuts. Wow, that was a treat, we are still enjoying.

Our next Pasifika Talks is after school on Monday 21st August. All parents, family welcome.

02 August 2023

Ranginui Fractured Fairytales

Last term our Ranginui students wrote narrative pieces of writing. They chose a fairytale to 'fracture' and wrote a new version. We were really impressed with their writing. 12 pieces of writing have been chosen to be read by Dave Armstrong who will judge the writing and find first, second, third. Congratulations to these students:

Isabelle M, Mahlee HB, Charlie K, Louis C, Connor SS, Blues M, Olivia K, Audrey W, Mabel C, Isla H, Isla K and Cielo Q.

Mid year data report

The linked mid year data report is to give you an update on our progress against our school wide targets, and progress across the curriculum.

Concerns about wellbeing

It is concerning to chat with children who tell us about playing online games at home that are extremely violent and depict incidents that people would be arrested for should they be happening in real life. These games are becoming more and more realistic, and we are concerned about their impact on children who are far too young to be playing them. Please check in with your child's online activity. Please limit their exposure to this type of activity.

Garden to table

Annette has hurt her back and would love someone to help with Garden to Table ! Next Monday 9.15 am to 11 am, some gardening, some cooking.
Please contact co-volunteer amber.parrystrong@gmail.com

26 July 2023

Refreshed Curriculum

Did you know that our NZ Curriculum is changing? The current version of the NZC was introduced in draft to schools around NZ in 2006, and implemented from 2007. Te Mataiaho, the refreshed curriculum, has been developed over the last two years in collaboration with the education sector, ākonga and whānau, communities, and a wide range of interested organisations and communities. Here at SFDS we are actively beginning to implement the refreshed curriculum in these ways:

Professional learning for teachers (working with other schools in our Kāhui Ako during teacher only days), and professional conversations within team meetings.
Increasing our own confidence in teacher Te Reo me ona tikanga Māori
Exploring ways we can adapt our planning and reporting processes to reflect changes in focus in the refreshed curriculum, and our own goals as a school. We are doing this through learning goals on Hero, that we will share with you all later in the year.

Below are some examples of reading goals derived from Te Mataiaho, from the 'English learning area'. There is a variety of goals, from 'how to read', phonological awareness, reading for meaning, using reading to help others, and deeper thinking about reading - becoming increasingly difficult depending on the learning level. As part of the learning, teachers will set these goals to start with - and report on when they have evidence that each goal is reached. Here is a small snippet of the goals:

- - "match graphemes to phonemes for m, d, c, t,..."
  - "chunk and blend sounds to work out new and complex words identifying patterns of letters (e.g. sh, ai, ate, igh)"
  - "talk to and listen to other tamariki - saying why they think someone wrote the text"
  - "listen to people’s stories and points of view, people doing things in different ways, understanding things differently (e.g. within the context of stories from iwi, hapū)"
  - "engage with texts that are relevant to who they are and their whakapapa (e.g. texts that celebrate day to day life from the cultures represented at SFDS)"
  - "draw, communicate conclusions or generalisations about authors' intentions. Form own opinions about underlying messages, themes or points of view in the text."
  - "be 'the teacher' within a reading-based tuakana-teina relationship: helping a reader (e.g. supporting buddy reading with a younger reader)."

28 June 2023

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING YEAR 7 AND 8 STUDENTS WHO RECEIVED AN AWARD FOR THEIR BADGES:

Badges.pdf

21 June 2023

A Pledge

At our Matariki celebration next Thursday morning (our last day of the term), we will ask all of you to make a pledge for something that your whānau / family will do over the next 12 months to give back to, or protect, our environment. Please give some thought to this as a family in the meantime.

Animations

As part of their inquiry into Computational Thinking and Digital Outcomes this term, the ākonga in the Papatūānuku syndicate have worked hard to create animations, using their new found skills, artistic flare, while collaborating with other children. Attached to this news are some photo sneak-peaks. Whānau are invited to view the animations tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to share the animations with you all next week. Kia ora rawa atu, e hoa mā!

14 June 2023

Maramataka - the Māori lunar calendar

Māori were already following a complex measurement of time with a lunar calendar well before Europeans arrived in Aotearoa. This calendar is called Maramataka.

As we approach Matariki we are all learning aspects of the celebrations for the beginning of a Māori new year in this calendar. This new year celebration is a time for pledging or making a commitment for the following year. Unlike the new year we are more familiar with on 1 january, this pledge is about what you can do to give back in some way - maybe committing to a regular beach clean with your whānau, or cutting down on the amount of rubbish that ends up in landfill from your household.

I found the following activity poster for Matariki online - and thought I would share it with you for your whānau. Here is another link to learning about Maramataka.

7 June 2023

Animated movies

This term the ākonga in our Papatūānuku rōpū / team are making short animated movies. They told me today that they are learning about algorithms, and about taking lots of photos with short movements by objects to make a movie. They are creating sets and props and characters for their movies.

Kei te Pehea Koe? How are you?

At SFDS, we support the children's hauora / wellbeing. We know that children cannot learn if their hauora isn't cared for. Te Whare Tapa Whā is a wellbeing model that was developed in Aotearoa by leading Māori health advocate Sir Mason Durie in 1984. The model describes health and wellbeing as a wharenui/meeting house with four walls.

These walls represent taha wairua/spiritual wellbeing, taha hinengaro/mental and emotional wellbeing, taha tinana/physical wellbeing and taha whānau/family and social wellbeing. Our connection with the whenua/land forms the foundation.

One way we support mental and emotional wellbeing (part of Te Whare Tapa Wha) at school is to learn about recognising emotions through Zones of Regulation. The children learn to recognise which 'zone' they are in. If they are in the blue, yellow or red zones, they build skills to help themselves move back into the green zone. If you want to learn more about the zones, check out this video.

31 May 2023

Structured Literacy

There has been a bit in the media lately about the place of 'structured literacy' in New Zealand Schools. In this approach, ākonga/learners build phonological awareness by being taught the sounds that letters and combinations of letters make, and how to break down chunks of sounds in words that they are learning.

We teach phonological awareness as a key part of our literacy strategy across SFDS, through:

BSLA (Better Start Literacy Approach) in Year 1 and 2 - due to be extended into Year 3 once the Ministry of Education extends the resourcing for this programme. See below for detail.
The Code, which starts after BSLA. This programme is designed as an intervention for tamariki with dyslexia, but it helps all ākonga. The tamariki move through various levels of the programme.
Other resources are used that also strengthen phonological awareness, word attack skills and comprehension when the ākonga are ready for this. We are currently extending our library of reading resources to include more 'decodable texts'.

Reporting through Hero

We are working really hard to get the reporting functions of Hero. In the meantime, there have been significant changes to the NZ Curriculum also.

While we had hoped to introduce our families to this function by July - it is looking unlikely that we will be able to do this. We want to make sure the information that you receive about your child's progress through the curriculum is accurate and helpful.

In the meantime, we are looking forward to discussing your child's progress at the upcoming learning conferences on 26/27 June.

Papatūānuku Learning News!

On Thursday June 22 Papatūānuku students' parents are invited to come in to see the inquiry projects in all Middle Syndicate classes. This will run from 2.15 until 2.45pm.

24 May 2023

Talent Quest

Today tamariki from all three of our syndicates - Tangaroa, Papatūānuku and Ranginui, performed for an audience of many children and whānau at the final of the school talent quest. Thank you to all of those ākonga / learners who participated in the heats - and those who reached this final. We were fortunate to have Jake Cenac as our guest judge. Jake is involved in the film industry so has a great eye for talent and hard work.

Tino pai rawa atu tamariki mā!

Check out some of the photos on this page. In time we will also be able to publish videos of the performances, which are currently being edited by Ivy, the resident Papatūānuku syndicate videographer.

Reminder: Learning Conferences

It is important that you and your child attend their learning conference in the last week of term. You have been sent a booking link through Hero to book in a time to meet with your child's teacher. Please bring your child along to this meeting. Instructions are shared on our School Notices & Events page.

Midwinter Hui for Staff: 30 June

On the last day of this term, our kaimahi / staff are attending a Mid-Winter Hui with other staff from from our Kāhui Ako (the 13 catholic primary and secondary kura / schools across Wellington). Some of our teachers are presenting at this Hui - including sharing what we know about the benefits of 'Learning Through Play'. The staff will also be able to choose various workshops to attend as we come together with the 250 kaimahi from across Pōneke.

Te Reo Māori

As you know, many of our staff and Board members are currently learning te Reo Māori. Each teacher set a goal today to practice this week - so you will hopefully see a lot more Te Reo being used around the school! We have started a website to hold all of our learnings. If you would like to contribute to this resource - or let us know of an error somewhere, please email principal@sfds.school.nz

Here is our Te Reo website - so that you can learn alongside us.

17 May 2023

Learning Conferences

We are approaching another opportunity for us to discuss your child's progress against their goals in learning. Learning Conferences will take place for most classes on Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th of June. We are making use of Hero's new capability to make bookings for this event (instead of the previous system), so we are giving you plenty of advanced notice about this.

You will be sent a booking link through Hero to book in a time to meet with your child's teacher. Please bring your child along to this meeting.

*NB Please note - Given that two of our teachers (Julia and Jemma) are each away for one term this year, we have had to change the times of their learning conferences.

Jemma has already sent out the Hero link for her class' bookings - and families have started booking in. If your child is in Jemma's class, please get in quick to secure the time that works for your family.
Julia will meet with her class mid-way through Term 3, once she is back from overseas. Therefore if your child is in Julia's class, you will be able to book in next term.

10 May 2023

Supporting children's social and emotional learning

Primary school is a place where children face many challenges in relation to friendships, routines, self-confidence, and challenges in learning. At SFDS we have a number of children that have particular difficulty going through their daily lives. We seek to provide a 'wrap-around' for a number of our tamariki. A small number of our children need a lot of extra help with this. In specific classes, we have been providing a lot of extra support to help specific students to self-manage their emotions and behaviour, being aware of triggers that can make them feel upset or angry. We also have additional education support services helping us with this - like the Ministry of Education and the RTLB service. This support includes:

ideas to the teachers and leaders to change environments to make them responsive to the needs in the class
additional support funding so that a teacher aide can be present for some of the day
communication with families
working within the class on social and emotional learning - using the Zones of Regulation programme
referrals to specialist agencies - like Te Whare Marie

We are starting to see some successes, but we continue to be challenged by contexts that we need to manage across the school. Schools around New Zealand are coping with particularly challenging dynamics and situations with children who have suffered trauma.

Restraint Policy

Recently the legislation relating to the times when staff members in schools are allowed to restrain children. Our focus is on minimising physical restraint. Teachers and authorised staff members may only use physical restraint if all three of these conditions are met, and only as a last resort,

If physical restraint is necessary to prevent imminent harm, including significant emotional distress to a student or another person.
If the teacher or authorised staff member reasonably believes there is no other option available in the circumstances for preventing harm.
If the physical restraint is reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances. This means only applying as much force as is necessary, and for the minimum amount of time necessary.

SFDS staff take proactive steps to ensure student safety. This may include using physical restraint to prevent harm, for example to stop a student from running onto a road, or coming into contact with a hazardous item.

On Monday evening, the Board of Trustees adopted a Minimising Physical Restraint Policy. You can visit this policy, along with all of our other policies through https://sfds.schooldocs.co.nz. Once in the site you will need to do the following to find an SFDS policy:

Search our school name: St Francis de Sales School
Log in with the username: sfds and password: sfds
Use the search function, using a keyword (e.g. 'restraint')

Currently, all staff are completing training in relation to minimising physical restraint. All teacher aides have completed the online module that is required. Teachers are still making their way through this. Currently, the following teachers are currently authorised to use physical restraint if necessary: Mary-Angela Tombs, Sarah Fountain, Ronan Kelly, Bev Dean, Chris Wratt, Bébhinn Keating, Lauren King, Denise Phillips. Other teachers are still making their way through the training, which is required by January 2024. Teacher Aides will be authorised soon also.

Garden to table

This week we made some delightful Turkish Zucchini fritters! Below is the recipe for those wanting to recreate this snack at home!

03 May 2023

Te Ahu o te reo Māori

During the weekend, many of our staff joined two of our Board members and hundreds of other people involved in education from around Wellington at our first workshop of Te Ahu o te reo Māori. Special thanks to Megan and Dee for joining us in this learning journey.

Jemma - off to Camp America for 10 weeks!

One of our teachers, Jemma Brown has been accepted into Camp America. She is taking part in an amazing opportunity to work in the United States running a musical theatre program for 10 weeks from the end of this term. We are very excited for Jemma! During her time away, the children in her class will be joining the other two Year 7&8 classes. This is a smooth transition, as these children work together frequently at the moment anyway. The numbers in each class will also not be excessive.

26 April 2023

Goals for Reading

We have now refined and developed specific goals for reading to report on through Hero. These goals have been developed to reflect our structured literacy practices, and to be in line with changes to the NZ Curriculum. The teachers are now considering which of the goals have already been completed by learners, and which goals will be 'current'. This will help the teachers to plan the learning, and will also allow them to report to you all once the online reporting aspects to Hero are launched in the middle of the year.

Te Mataiaho

Our teachers met with teachers from St Anne's School and St Bernard's School on Monday, when the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum, Te Mataiaho was introduced to the teachers. Here is a draft version of Te Mataiaho for your interest. Key principles to the refreshed curriculum are:

Give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi: This is a shift from acknowledgment to authentic understanding and valuing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its principles.
Hold a broad view of ākonga success: Te Mātaiaho places greater emphasis on both wellbeing (cultural, physical, emotional, social, and psychological) and excellence as connected and important outcomes of schooling.
Hold high expectations for all ākonga: Greater emphasis on progressions in learning that meet the needs of the learners and the aspirations of their community (as opposed to the limiting to 'Achievement Objectives')

A sample of our reading goals above - at a junior level.

Above - click for a Short video about - Te Mātaiaho

5 April 2023

YEAR 7/8 CAMP

Everyone had so much fun last week at Camp Kaitoke. The staff were impressed with the way the kids went out of their comfort zone to complete the activities - kayaking, high ropes, flying fox through the canopy, a giant swing, archery and much more. They were also highly entertained in the evenings, especially while watching the skits (role plays) the kids made up about camp.

Ranginui want to express their immense gratitude to the six parents who came along with them: Kyle S, Frana P, Andy D, Nathan S, Fiona K and Rhys P. We are appreciative of their time, effort and care shown towards our students. Check out some of the camp photos following this post.

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Impacts of Childhood Trauma

We have a number of children at our school who have had traumatic experiences in their young lives - either as preschoolers or while they are at our school. Trauma has a significant impact on children's behaviour. Throughout the school days, there are several 'triggers' that can make these children extremely anxious. When in an anxious state, children are not always able make reasoned decisions.

Recently I attended a presentation to Wellington Principals about the impacts of childhood trauma. The guest speaker, Dr Chris Bowden, who is a Lecturer at Victoria University, and a Suicide Bereavement Researcher. Chris explained the various types of trauma children often suffer from, including ACEs (Adverse Childhood Events):

Emotional, physical and sexual abuse
Emotional and physical neglect and maltreatment
Household dysfunction (e.g. witnessing domestic violence)
Household substance abuse, mental illness
Parental separation or divorce
Incarcerated household member

Chris shared an alarming New Zealand statistic that by 4.5 years of age, 52.9% of children had experienced at least one ACE and 2.6% had experienced 4 or more (Walsh et al., 2019). This is a huge concern for New Zealand schools at present, and is an indication to us that it is very likely that about half of the children we enrol at SFDS could also have experienced one or more of these traumas before starting school. There are other traumas that also impact very young children, when they have experienced particular events, violence, war, poverty, and natural disasters.

Given that the study mentioned above was carried out before Covid joined us, it is likely that more of our tamariki have suffered trauma - along with their families. We need to look out for each other.

SFDS staff work as a team to provide a caring community that is patient, kind and loving towards our tamariki - giving them a safety net where we will not judge them for behaviours that result from trauma. We are also always looking for ways to improve our practice. Presently, I am investigating what it means to be a 'trauma-informed school' . We are reviewing our behaviour practices to ensure that we meet current best-practice.

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Te Reo Me Ōna Tikanga Māori

This year we are working to improve the way that we teach te reo Māori, and we are trying to strengthen our tikanga Māori practices also. To do this, we are focussing on:

Giving agency and authority to whānau of ākonga Māori for Te Reo me ona tikanga and supporting kaimahi/workers to learn from Tangata Whenua. I have met with many of our whānau of ākonga Māori, and will be working with our whānau, making sure that we are learners as a staff - learning from our whānau about what is important to you.
Arranging professional development opportunities for all kaimahi. As in 2022, all staff have been offered the opportunity to learn Te reo Māori at their own level. All teachers, some of our support staff, and some of our Board members are taking part in Te Reo lessons, which start this month. The teachers will meet weekly to support one another to integrate what we are learning into the classroom teaching.

Dr Chris Bowden

Children who have experienced trauma are frequently on edge - and are triggered by a range of different experiences. We often see this with a number of our children at SFDS...

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Giving Mana to

Te Tiriti o Waitangi...

Janelle Riki-Waaka shares how focusing on what it means to be a school unique to Aotearoa New Zealand and reflecting our bicultural heritage gives mana to Tiriti o Waitangi.

29 March 2023

Assessment and reporting

The teaching staff has been working very hard to prepare Hero so that it is ready to give you regular reports on your child(ren)'s progress against the curriculum. To date, we have reviewed and almost finished updating all of the Reading goals on Hero to meet our expectations, new developments in teaching reading, and to make them workable for the teachers and ākonga (learners). We have also made a good start on the Maths goals, and Te Reo me ōna tikanga goals, and the Aotearoa NZ History. Our plan is to allow you access to your child(ren)'s online reporting by July this year.

Professional Learning about Autism

Two staff members, Denise and Tamanda, recently participated in professional learning focussed on supporting tamariki who have autism. Both Denise and Tamanda returned to school very positive about the course. They will share their learning with other staff members as part of our Staff Only Day at the beginning of Term 2.

Better Start Literacy (BSLA)

All of our Tangaroa team teachers are participating in professional learning related to Literacy, and especially phonological awareness. They have all been assessing each of the children in Year 1&2 ākonga (learners) on a 1:1 basis to establish their capabilities and skills. Madeline has already started implementing the BSLA programme, as she completed the training in 2022. Chris, Denise and Bébhinn will implement the programme from the beginning of next year, now that they have completed the training. Tamanda and Annette are also completing the BSLA Teacher Aide training, so that they can support the junior programme.

Check out the Reading progressions we have set up on Hero. They are on display in the office foyer for your interest.

These progressions are adapted from the New Zealand Curriculum, including the aspects of the curriculum that have been refreshed.

Still to come... Writing, Maths, Religious Education and te Reo me ōna tikanga Māori progressions.

From the middle of 2023, we will report to you on each child's progress through the curriculum progressions via Hero

22 March 2023

Understanding how maths is taught - is this really a new idea, or a return to how our grandparents learned?

Recently a couple of parents expressed a desire to know more about what the children learn to solve maths problems.

You might find that the strategies children learn now seem very different to when you were at school. Often it was the good ol’ ‘working form’ that was taught for solving almost all maths problems when I went to school. Every maths problem - no matter how simple, was written to solve from top to bottom. This method uses place value - which is only one way to solve a problem.

My elderly father, who was a wonderful mathematician (1918-2013), used to tell us at home that ‘working form’ was a ‘modern’, and very inefficient method of solving simple maths problems. He would teach us to solve it in our head. He taught us to round numbers and compensate across the equation in our head to work out the problem.

In about 2002, a return to teaching more mental-math began. Children once again began learning a variety of mental strategies - so that eventually they can choose the most efficient method, depending on the problem. We now teach that an algorithm, like ‘working form’ should be kept for more complex problems.

If you would like to walk the learning journey with your child, there are a variety of supports for parents on the NZ maths website.

CONGRATULATIONS..

...to the following students who received a certificate at our school hui on Friday for showing the value of kindness:

Milsha J, Johan J, Jack C, Taya B, Fia D, Valentina DG, Paris C, Stefan S, Charlotte BC and James D.

CONGRATULATIONS also to Aubert house for winning the house cup for the most values cards earnt, and to Maddox S who won The Empire movie voucher in the values card draw.

15 March 2023

HERO

Currently the teachers and school leaders are working through the curriculum reporting sections in our new school management system, Hero. We hope we can begin reporting to families using Hero from July. We have been reviewing curriculum goals, helping the children to set their own goals, and learning how the Hero programme can help teachers to communicate, plan the learning and evaluate the learning.

ASSESSMENT

School leaders have also been reviewing the assessment processes at SFDS. We are refining our

assessment expectations, and planning more effective ways to evaluate learning. This is still a work in progress, but I thought I would share where we are up to so far: https://sites.google.com/sfds.school.nz/sfdsassessment/home. Some of the content is a direct transfer to a new format - but some of the

assessment practices are new, or still under development. As always, please feel free to offer suggestions or ask questions.

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