He Pānui - Wiki Toru, Whānga Tuarua
Gladstone School Newsletter - Week 3, Term 2: 21st May 2021
Te Karere a te Tumuaki - Principal's Message
Tēnā koutou i tēnei ahiahi (good afternoon/evening).
Well done to everyone who supported 'Pink Shirt Day' today. This was the culmination of a week's focus on anti-bullying. We advocate for bully free school environments and are continuing to work with our tamariki on these concepts. If your child is struggling with issues of this nature at school, please reach out to us so that we can intervene and sort things out.
Staff are working hard to write reports and enter formal assessment data. These reports will be sent home on the Wednesday of the last week of term. We hope you will read them over the school holidays and then book in for 3-way conferences being held in Week 2 of Term 3. A 3-way conference is where students, parents and teachers meet together to celebrate progress and discuss any concerns.
At Gladstone School we take a proactive approach to reporting to parents on progress and achievement. This means that if teachers are concerned about a lack of progress or have concerns to highlight, they will contact you to discuss these issues. If your children are making expected progress and are doing well at school, teachers will be tracking this and will update you on this progress mid and end of year (as per ministry requirements). There should be no surprises when you receive your child's report.
Now that we have streamlined our assessment procedures, the graphs attached to student reports will provide you with a big-picture overview of progress over 10 school years (Year 1 - 10). The short-term progress will be discussed at interviews and is tracked on our school wide tracking sheet. The tools teachers use to track progress in class are - small group observations; 1:1 reading tests; the learning progression frameworks for maths and literacy; spelling tests; and our Kāhui Ako writing matrices. Much of these terms and tests are 'teacher speak' but we just want to assure you that there are a number of assessment tools being used as part of the daily teaching programme to guide planning for student learning.
We have received a number of pieces of positive feedback this week - thanks to those of you who have emailed, popped in and shared how pleased you are with the programmes that are in place and how happy your children are in their learning. Let's keep building on this. We do acknowledge that for a few of you, this may not be the case and we encourage you to keep working with us to reach a point where we are a nurturing; empowering; inclusive place for all. Thanks also to those who have shared ideas for improvement.
Kia pai tō mutunga wiki,
(Have a great weekend)
Belinda Bunny
Te Huruhi School - Waiheke Island
Kia ora Belinda, Micaela and Jaime
We really appreciate the valuable time you put aside to share your journey with us. We gained some valuable insight into both the learning maps and leading change.
We love the way you have been focusing on reflections and the way the tamariki are starting to build onto their maps. It was wonderful to hear how the maps have given your students the voice to help inform their learning and to take ownership of this. We loved the innovative way you have made the Charles Fadel framework child friendly. You have given us many things to reflect upon.
We wish you all the best with your future innovations for supporting your tamariki. Your community are lucky to have such dedicated teachers supporting their tamariki.
Nga mihi
Adam and Caroline Cels
Assembly
Chess Tournament - Wairarapa College
Well done and thank you to the students who participated in the chess tournament which was held on Thursday. Our 2 primary teams came 1st and 2nd. Huge thanks to Mrs Church for organising the teams and to Tanya Klue for supervising all day. As we head into winter we are encouraging student to keep up the chess playing - it's a great activity for the mind. Check our more photos on our school facebook page.
Sports
Thanks to our assembly team for interviewing sports players today. We love hearing all about student winter sport and encourage whānau to send in pics of our kids in action. Here is a photo of the senior netballers down at the Colombo Road courts.
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FoGS Monday Lunch Procedure
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FoGS Monday School Lunch Roster
Thanks to everyone who is able to help out with our Monday school lunches. Please see this terms roster on the left. FoGS is a lovely bunch of dedicated parents who are looking for new recruits to help organise events throughout the year. Please feel welcome and encouraged to come along to our next meeting and get involved.
Upcoming Events
- CCC Cross Country: Tuesday 1st June @ Gladstone School.
- Queen's Birthday Weekend: Monday 7th June (school closed).
- Year 7&8 Design Tech: Thursday 10th June.
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Contact Us
Email: office@gladstone1.school.nz
Website: http://www.gladstone1.school.nz
Location: 1471 Te Whiti Road, Gladstone, New Zealand
Phone: +64 6 372 7601