27 September 2024

Looking through the Blogs, I can see the curriculum on full display in all its multicolour texture and vibrancy - underpinned by solid Literacy and Mathematics teaching and learning. Each term has its priorities and the more summative type of whole school evaluation is the big deal in Term 4. (As well as sunhats, being a summer term!)

Teachers will be writing individual student reports over the holidays and making judgments based on the recently gathered standardised assessment data and more informal ongoing data as to progress made since Term 1. We like to wrap this process up at the end of Term 3 to allow time to pull things together and set larger targets and prioritise thoughtfully, developing plans and organising the staffing troops ready to go in late January! Yes, so they can go off and read a book under a tree!

There are also a whole lot of other fun things that need to happen in Term 4. The School Fair is gearing up to be a treat with SO many of our community involved. Plus, The Fair team is doing a fabulous job - calm and steady! Plenty of end of year activities, the Year 6 Dinner and Parent drinks, the Poroaki - the whole school Wrap. I will be teaching 'Year 6 University' again this year, with some specific Positive Psychology classes being scheduled. I found this really beneficial last year and was a nice way for me to spend some time with just the Year 6s as a group before they head off on their new adventures.

You can anticipate your final Parent/Teacher meeting (without children) to happen over Weeks 7 and 8 (26 November to 4 December). There is quite a bit of peer reviewing and checking assessments across the school for moderation purposes that needs to happen once the draft report is completed. 

As usual, we value the child's voice in these written reports, so I'm hopeful you don't just get to hear from them about their progress on the monkey bars - I know that's important....... but! It actually is always interesting though as little ones will often respond with responses they imagine teachers would like to hear around sitting up, putting hands up, listening to instructions....... whereas it is feedback about the texture and vibrancy we would hope to surface somehow. This year they may just nail it! 

Big thanks to all of the parents - including a good number of alumni parents and teenagers (I like the term Illuminati!). Carl was superb as Quiz Master, thanks Jess and Suz for the dedication to scoring. Plenty of heads and tails fun to be had. The great news is we made $2178 and a fabulous way to celebrate us.

We have had a terrific term, the seasoning has been just right and look forward to more great learning opportunities together in the final term of 2024. Until then, have a great couple of weeks without a 'late pass' in sight!