Our Living and Learning Focus continues as
CARE ATAWHAI KUMANU
Our School Values are
Tina Justice, Pono Truth, Aroha Compassion, Manaakitanga Hospitality and Tapu Respect for the Environment
Lived out in our Motto
Courtesy Care Co-operation Courage
The Learning Model for our school is: “To Know To Do To Use”
Learning to Learn at St Joseph’s #L2L
Visit from 23 Principals from Catholic Schools in Australia and New Zealand
This group of Principals is attending the Trans-Tasman Principals’ Conference being held in Auckland this week. At the beginning of the week they have the opportunity to visit schools and learn from what is happening in other places.
Twelve of our Year 6 student volunteered to host them, introducing them to the way the teaching and learning happens in the Innovative Learning Environment here at St Joseph’s.
The visitors were “blown” away by the calm atmosphere in the learning spaces; the way all of the children were engaged in their learning and not distracted by visitors; the way all teachers were so focused on what was happening; the independence of the children from 5 – 11 years old; their ability to talk about their learning.
The decided there were at least 2 future prime Ministers in the hosting group!
Royal Family Hip Hop Dancers
This dance group performed skilfully and energetically for us as part of their fundraising to compete in the United States. They are NZ National Champions. Several of our students also displayed their dancing skills. Quitos was the winner amongst all of them!
Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century
Here is some additional information for all who are interested in the way education is developing and changing. I have again inserted some reading into our newsletter.
The extract below is taken from Core Education Thought Leadership
Ten Trend categories
STRUCTURAL
Networked Communities
“The rapid development and ubiquity of ICT are resetting the boundaries of educational possibilities. Yet, significant investments in digital resources have not revolutionised learning environments; to understand how they might requires attention to the nature of learning.”1 OECD/CERI
- Over the course of recent history we have seen many examples of collaboration and networking. It is a trend that has ebbed and flowed according to our perceived and real needs for connectedness, whether they be economic, socio-cultural, practical, and spiritual or a myriad of other drivers.
Now, with worldwide connectivity made effortless by technologies we are starting to see a breaking down of hierarchies. People now view knowledge as contestable and in many cases as privileging some, rather than all. Alongside this trend is the emergence of what Rayner (2006) refers to as “Wicked Problems”. These include a long list of well-known problems such as climate change, educational underperformance, persistent poverty and biodiversity loss that:
- can’t be addressed using simple problem solving
- can only be addressed with “clumsy” solutions by bringing together disparate perspectives on the problem in ways that all voices are heard and responded to (Rayner, 2006; Verweij et al, 2006 in Bolstad, 2011)
The 2013 OECD report on entrepreneurial ecosystems and growth oriented entrepreneurship makes the distinction between traditional policies with a focus on individuals and geographic clusters, and growth-orientated policies with a focus on networks of entrepreneurs and temporary clusters.
This represents a shift from hierarchies and distinct organisations towards networked components in an ecosystem who work together to solve our complex problems. It requires us to shift from working in organisations where people build knowledge and become more empowered in collaborative local groups, towards networked communities where the collaborative groups are looking to network beyond their local boundaries to include multiple perspectives in order to solve complex problems. These Networked Communities are sometimes described as emerging Horizontal Connections to allude to the fact that we are shifting away from hierarchical structures that can be rigid and that often don’t allow for genuine equitable cross-pollination of ideas and solution
Community focus
Early childhood centres and services, primary, intermediate and secondary schools are all aware of the vital importance of connecting parents, families and communities to their children’s learning. Negative schooling experiences of the parents may contribute to lack of engagement in face to face situations so other forms of communication must be explored.
How do we move parents from using traditional forms of engagement to embrace the effective use of digital technologies?
There are real and genuine opportunities for engagement by inviting parents to be a part of parallel learning journeys that not only support the learning of their children but enhance and foster a community understanding of intergenerational learning.
What we could also consider is shifting the focus from the engagement strategies that centres and schools are familiar with, to exploring and discovering what engagement looks like in our communities.
How do the parents, families and communities of our learners engage with each other in their respective learning contexts? In their homes? In their socialisation spaces? In their cultural contexts with each other?
We must be mindful that the communities themselves might hold possible ways of connecting effectively, and we can learn about these by observing how interactions play out in these communities. Converting these methods of interactions into two way interactions that can be used to enrich the learning contexts of our children. What we will be able to see here is an improvement in parents’ perceptions towards the ways 21st century learning not only affects their children, but their own learning as well, when they provide supportive and conducive home learning environments.
Goodbye and thank you to Mrs Kathryn France!
Our next New Entrant class will start on Tuesday 7 June, taught by Ms Diana Luxon, returning from Maternity Leave.
Mrs Carla Winfield will take over from Mrs France in Kea Team.
There will be no Whole School Morning Prayer on Tuesday 7 June. The latest New Entrants will be welcomed on the following Monday.
Ka kite ano! Have a wonderful Queen’s Birthday weekend! Remember the Beach Clean Up on Sunday!
Phil