7 August 2025

Kia ora koutou

This is a shorter week due to our Maths Curriculum Day where we will be joining with a number of other schools in the Eastern Suburbs to get our heads that bit further around the new Maths Curriculum. This is the second of the 2 days the Ministry of Education has provided schools with to focus on Maths this year. I'll share more about Maths in a few weeks.

Wanting to fill the primary years with a rich platter to graze on, as well as the 15 hours a week of Reading, Writing and Maths as essential ingredients, we need to get creative and find ways to keep all of the balls juggling.

Whilst there may be some terms in the year where the Arts doesn't get much of a light shone on it we endeavour to highlight this learning a bit more in Term 3 of every year. One year has more of a performance aspect and the next more of a visual celebration.

So although this year (odd years!) there is more of a visual arts focus we are trying to include other aspects of the Arts as well, especially Music. Music has such strong ties to our Positive Education Programme. Wellbeing Science will tell us that:

Pathway                                     Mechanism                                              Impact
Emotional regulation                Mood induction, catharsis                        Increased happiness, reduced stress
Flow & engagement                  Absorption, challenge-skill balance         Deep enjoyment, intrinsic motivation
Social bonding                         Synchrony, shared experiences              Belonging, empathy
Meaning & identity                     Lyrics, narrative, memory                         Purpose, coherence
Achievement                              Learning, mastery                                    Confidence, growth

With our 'Learn it, Live it, Teach it and Embed it' philosophy teachers are finding that they are being taken out of their comfort zones at times, finding themselves in the learning pit and being asked to locate their own growth mindset! Yes we need to practice what we preach! 

You will find more music happening in many different ways, you may have spotted a keyboard in Tautoru lately and let's just say the staff spending an after school session trying out a bit of I suppose we could call it karaoke with percussion to accompany, really did tick many of those Wellbeing boxes above. We left for the weekend that bit lighter - (maybe harmonious isn't the word to use!)

We have been fortunate to have the expertise of Fiona, one of our school parents, who is supporting teachers to grow their experimentation muscles in Visual Art. Bob Kerr, illustrator extraordinaire, visited us on Monday and the children and staff got so much from his skill and wisdom. In this education game we find ourselves in the learning seats - very often. It's necessary.

After all, these are the formative years, the window, when children need to be provided with the full array of options. Who knows where our children will go and maybe it could've been a spark that was ignited here... because their teachers had love of learning as a character strength!

Ngā mihi nui