Principal's Pen, Term 4 2009

Greetings everyone,

This term has got off to a frantic start and as is always the case at this time of the year, will not slow down in a hurry.
Teachers are getting into report writing mode shortly which is always a time of reflection and celebration. The report format this year will be slightly different and you will clearly be able to see where your child(ren) sit(s) next to national expectations. You have probably heard a lot about the much maligned "National Standards" in the media. On the surface National Standards are great. I mean we all expect the best and Ashhurst School has had a proud history of reporting information of a high calibre to both the Board of Trustees and our parent body. The real concern for schools is not so much the information itself from these tests, but how it is interpreted by the media and the possible formulation of league tables. This is where schools are rated against each other according to test results. This may appear fine on the surface, but what it doesn't show is the "value added" from the teaching and learning programme. Some higher decile schools naturally have children who enter at Year one with already developed skills, while other school from lower socio-economic areas receive a large number of children at five years of age with a limited skill set.

In many cases these children make huge progress under excellent classroom programmes, but still perform at levels significantly below the higher decile school. In turn this school has a lower ranking and is interpreted as being inferior.
We have just received the documentation from the Ministry of Education regarding the National Standards. Looking at these the expectations are high which I think is a very good thing and over the next few weeks we will be looking at these in more detail as a staff. Reporting requirements for all schools from next year will include two written reports against the standards in writing, reading and mathematics.

You may have noticed this poster in our school this term. This is our "Powered to Learn" model which encompasses our school values as well as the nationally developed Key Competencies ( Relating to Others, Participating and Contributing, Managing Self, Thinking and Using and Using Language, Symbols and Text) . These competencies are what we want our children to get better at. Our challenge is to make sense of these; define what they actually look like , feel like etc. They don't just happen at school either and it would be great if, as a community, we can try and really "grow" our children in these areas. We have tried to break the competencies and values down to "child speak" in each class and make them explicit so that all our learning community will have a shared understanding of what they mean! They need to be constantly reinforced, taught and celebrated.

As a staff we are really excited about this learning model as it will give the school some real backbone as far as expectations and values go. It is also really clear regarding what we want the children to get better at. The fact these attributes are regularly reinforced in all aspects of school and hopefully home life too makes the message even more powerful.

Survey Follow-up from Term 3

Some popular suggestions were:

• Old bike sheds to be removed - this will happen before the end of this term.
• School uniform - we are exploring avenues for an optional uniform.
• Lower teacher-student ratio- the BoT already funds a portion of a teacher to keep all classes under 30 pupils.
• Levels of behaviour - While on the whole our children are very good, it is anticipated the new values system will enhance this even further. We have high expectations at Ashhurst School.
• More emphasis on Numeracy - with the later morning tea break (11.00am) there is an hour each for Numeracy and Literacy.
• Accessibility of teachers- teachers are always happy to set quality time aside to discuss your child's progress if required. Please see me if you have any difficulties.
• Football posts - new goals are in place for Soccer and Rugby and the fields are now marked.
• Broken flying fox - this is now fixed.
• Not enough computers - the BoT has spend a large amount of money on the purchase of 80 Apple computers and a new server.
• Brighten up corrugated iron fencing - this is being looked at for 2010.
• More sports - This half of the year the school has been involved in three sporting exchanges; these will be "regulars" on the calendar.

2010 - The Year Ahead...

Next year will see the following areas of focus:

• ICT - authentic use of computers in all classrooms.
• Literacy and Numeracy - continue to build on the work with the EHSAS cluster carried out over the past three years.
• Standards - focus on excellence in all areas.
• Further embed our "Powered to Learn" model across the school.
• Introduction of a fitness trail.
• Align our current reporting systems with the new National Standards.