NZ European

The aim of education should be to teach us how to think, rather than what to think. To improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, rather than to load the memory with thoughts of other men. Bill Beatti

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler

It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning. Claude Bernard

You can teach children a lesson for a day; but if you can teach them to learn by creating curiosity, they will continue the learning process as long as they live. Clay P. Bedford

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Confucius

All learning has an emotional base. Plato

Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best. Bob Talbert

Upon the subject of education ... I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in. Abraham Lincoln

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein

Play is the highest form of research. Albert Einstein

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. Aristotle

Achievement Data 2016:

Initial Big Picture Points to Note:

We are a top performing/achieving school in our Community of Learning Cluster.

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - Well Below and Below:

in Reading, Writing and Maths, we have a lower than usual percentage of children at Well Below - less than half the average for Auckland and for New Zealand.
in Reading we have 3% more children in the Below column - that is the 3% that are not in the Well Below column
in Writing as well as having 4% less in Well Below, we have 6.5% less in Below
in Mathematics as well as having 4% less in Well Below, we have 12% less in Below

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - At and Above:

in Reading we have 12% less at At, but that 12% is sitting in Above - where we are 12% above the Above
in Writing we have 4% more in the At column, and 12% more in Above
in Maths we have 4% less in At, but 20% more in Above

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - Collectively Reading:

we have the same total percentage of children Well Below or Below
we therefore have the same total percentage At and Above standard - but with more weighting at Above (12%)

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - Collectively Writing:

we have 11% less children at Well Below or Below
we have 12% more children at At and Above

Compared with the rest of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole - Collectively Maths:

we have 16% less children at Well Below or Below
we have 17% more children at At and Above

Year One Data Analysis - after 40 Weeks At School:

This is the area of greatest concern, and has the greatest impact on our school-wide data.

This negative data is most notable in Reading in particular, where we have 47% of our year one children at Well Below or Below.

If we removed Year One data -

One year out of six years should generate 16.5% of the data
Year One Reading generates 42% of the Well Below data
Year One Reading generates 43% of the Below data
Year One Writing generates 30% of the Well Below data
Year One Writing generates 24% of the Below data
Year One Maths has a positive impact on Well Below data
Year One Maths has a neutral impact on Below data

New Zealand European Student Achievement Summary

Year One Impact - 12 levels in their first 12 months is unrealistic in Reading
Language Readiness for 5 year olds an issue - cf Scandinavia
Reduction in Well Below and Below over time is most noticeable

Building Teacher-Learner Relationships - from each child's perspective

1. Greet me personally each day

Wish me good morning, and send me off with a “see you tomorrow.”

2. Smile

When you look at me, let me see happiness in your eyes.

3. Give me your attention

Sit and talk with me privately; even if only for a little while.

4. Imagine with me

Help me dream of things I might be able to do; not just the things I need to do now.

5. Give me challenging content and assignments

Show me how to handle it. Teach me what to do.

6. Ask about me

Inquire about my weekend, the game I played, the places I go. It shows you care about my life.

7. Let me have time

Time to let things sink in. Time to think. Time to reflect, process, and play.

8. Expect a lot of of me

Hold me accountable to high standards. Don’t let me get away with less if you know I am capable of doing better.

9. Notice Me

A comment to me, on my work or on my Seesaw post. Just a quick note that says you notice something special about me or my efforts.

10. Let me ask the questions

Even if my questions are off topic, let me ask them. It will show that I am thinking about new perspectives, curious, and willing to learn more. Let me have the chance to show what I am wondering about, not just what I know.

11. Engage me

I came to you in love with learning. Keep me excited, keep me wanting more.

12. Trust me

Believe that I can do it. Allow me the chance. I promise to show you I can.

What Works For All Students -

For our students to experience success, schools need to ensure that they have a quality, responsive environment including:

Highly effective consistent teaching across the school, with strong teacher as inquiry systems that enable teachers to reflect on student achievement, their own teaching and strategies that will improve achievement.
Teachers use strong formative assessment strategies and give specific effective feedback.
Teachers use strong classroom management techniques.
Teachers get to know their students as people and learners and that they gain a greater understanding of their individual identities, values, cultures and languages.
Teachers take the time to find out about the families of their students.
Create a positive and supportive school wide environment that has strong consistent behavioural expectations that are non-confrontational and use restorative practices.

Teacher student relationships are positive and that there is a culture of care.
Teachers are happy and friendly in interactions with all students.
Use differentiated learning within classes and across the school.
Make connections for all students across the curriculum.
Utilise correct pronunciation of student names.
Forge positive and effective relationships with parents
Ensure that student achievement targets are a priority and that progress is reviewed and monitored regularly over time.
Engage with all students and parents to ensure that their voice is heard at all levels of school organisation.
All students need to see that their teacher cares for them, understands them, their identity, language and culture.

How Innovative Learning Environments Support Student Learning:

ILEs are not simply about giving learners choices; they aim to give learners agency. Agency involves choice, but also the power to act on choices, and accept the responsibility that comes with exercising that choice.

A key idea behind ILEs is that learning is more personalised and student-led. This means that designing learning activities for a range of students is absolutely integral to the concept of ILEs.

Innovative Learning Environments offer students and teachers flexibility, openness and access to resources.

Design takes into account areas for group teaching, peer to peer learning, clusters, individual work, connection to other people and provide a sense of belonging.
Spaces in ILEs provide opportunity for group learning, direct instruction, guided teaching and individual inquiry and learning.
ILEs support teacher collaboration and strengths based teaching.
Students need to develop student agency, have the power or capacity to act and make choices.

To build their ability to support student agency teachers must

Set high expectations and give every learner confidence they can succeed.
Establish what learners already know and build on it.
Structure and pace the learning experience to make it challenging and enjoyable.
Inspire learning through a passion for the subject
Make individual learners active partners in their learning (support students to set goals, display goals, monitor the progress they are making, review and set more goals)
Visually present the success criteria for learning to help students talk about what they are learning and how to achieve the learning
Develop learning skills in the learner
Help students identify where they have been successful in their learning and identify areas they find challenging and need support

Students will improve most if they understand the aim of their learning, where they are in relation to this aim and how they can achieve the aim (or close the gap in their knowledge)

Personalising learning means students

Understand how they learn
Own and drive their learning
Are co-designers of the curriculum and their learning environment.

Empowering students to become more self-directed learners and helping teachers and parents further develop these skills in their children can significantly increase students’ motivation and achievement in school. (Cleary and Zimmerman 2004)

Another key to ensuring that any learning environment works for everyone is to know your learners. Relationships are critical because having an in-depth understanding of the learner’s needs allows us to further refine the learning environment to cater for those needs.

The best way to understand a student’s learning needs is to ask them (Causton-Theoharis, 2009).

UDL (Universal Design for Learning) is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. The UDL framework is based on neuroscience and learning sciences, and gives practical ideas and guidance about the things to think about when designing for everyone.

UDL identifies three key principles based on learning science:

Engagement: creating engaging environments and sustaining motivation
Representation: supporting independent access to learning materials
Expression: providing multiple ways to create, learn and demonstrate understanding.

Five considerations to ensure ILE learning success:

Be clear on your underlying philosophy of learning
Create a safe environment by redefining mistakes and failure
Teach students to take ownership
Ensure students know the learning process
Celebrate the learning – not the end result

What We Are Doing - Big Picture:

Language Readiness for 5 year olds an issue - cf Scandinavia - so we are employing the Walker Learning Approach to provide language rich experiences and material for imagination, inquiry and play. Walker Learning Approach is a mix and balance of explicit teaching of literacy and numeracy drawing upon children's own interests and lives to make literacy and numeracy meaningful and relevant to the child and their culture.

This approach provides authentic personalised learning that is effective across all cultural, economical, geographical, religious and social spectrums. It aims to bring deeper levels of engagement to children in meaningful and relevant strategies that enhance academic skills alongside the development of skills for life particularly in areas of social and emotional development, resilience, self esteem and independence.

The Walker Learning Approach specifically involves

Dramatic Play - Sensory Stimulation - Literacy - Numeracy - Science - Reading Corner - Construction - Tinkering - Developing Fine Motor Skills

Seesaw Electronic Learning Journals

Sharing
Celebrating
Reflecting
Extending
Growth Mindset approach

Establishing our Cornerstones

Whanaungatanga -

The culture of familiness - being a family.
Caring, sharing, having empathy, contributing - these are shown in
Being a Bucket-Filler
Pay It Forward

Turangawaewae

The place where we feel at home, where you feel you belong, where you feel special, loved, valued, respected.
Our standing place or your stand-tall place.
Our home number two.

Matauranga

Learning is Life. Another word for it is Ako.
We talk about the learning pit - where we are faced with a learning challenge and where we use our skills, tools, attitudes and dispositions to come out of the pit with new knowledge and new strengths.

Manaakitanga

It’s the sharing part of Caring and Sharing.
It is all those things we do to put our Love into action.
It’s being a blessing to others - it’s Pay It Forward.
And this will Lead into our Theme for this year - Being a ZeroHero and Paying It Forward for our Planet.

and Our Pou

Aroha - Love
Ako - Learn
Arataki - Lead

What You Can Do

Attendance - Lateness and Regular Absence data correlates to Well Below and Below data - so making every effort to have children here and on time helps

Reading -

encouraging
modelling
supporting (alternate pages etc), talking about their story
Pause, Prompt, Praise model

Maths - Writing - Reading

National Standards Parent Guides have lots of suggestions

Preparing All Children for 21st Century Success:

Our approach is to focus on some core values - Love to Learn to Lead; The Seven Cs - Caring, Curious, Creative, Critical, Confident, Connecting, Contributing; Pay It Forward.
These core values help us achieve our broader New Zealand Curriculum goal of ..."young people who will be confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners."
We are progressing children from day one to become increasingly confident, competent and independent. We talk about "self managing, self motivating, self moderating, leaders of our own learning."
Our learning environments move towards an increasing focus on SOLE - Self Organising Learning Environments. In these environments children work in flexible, fluid groups. They discuss, debate, research and reflect in order to solve increasingly complex problems via the Cycle of Inquiry. This happens with contexts that are relevant to our children's lives, prior learning, needs, interests. We endeavour to build opportunities for cultural connections within our inquiries.
Knowledge is no longer the desired end product. It is a means to understanding, and as such, it must be verified, validated and referenced.
The teaching of discernment via the skills and practices of questioning and Higher Order Thinking tools is a vital component of learning.
Our research indicates that discreet knowledge is of increasingly limited value.
Students' ability to think critically has always been a key concern of business organisations and the general public. When asked which skills new college graduates needed to improve most, more than half of the respondents to the question on The Wall Street Journal's survey of 479 college recruiters named some combination of

Susan Traiman, the Roundtable's director of public policy, states that the skills companies felt were most lacking are

work ethic
communication skills
analytic skills (Taylor, Marisa, Nov. 2, 2013).

A National Survey of Business and Nonprofit Leaders indicated that more than 75 percent of those surveyed say they want more emphasis on five key areas including:

critical thinking
complex problem solving
written and oral communication
applied knowledge in real-world settings.
The survey further indicated that employers are more interested in critical thinking and problem solving than the college major (aacu.org, 2013, accessed on Nov.12, 2013).

Community Goals and Aspirations:

Questions - Ideas - Suggestions:

NZ Euro Student Achieve 2016.pdf

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