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The last few weeks I have spent time visiting each of our classes, taking time to learn all the new children’s names and getting to hear how things are going for them. I will finish my visits by the end of next week. It has been a wonderful experience and I can truly appreciate how hard the teachers are working to cater to all the children, reinforcing how to work together in a classroom environment, get children to focus, follow instructions and understand routines. If you are wanting to help generate some discussion at home, here are a few things to think about:
- Can my child follow instructions and how many at each time?
- Are they able to sustain a quiet activity for a period of time? How long?
- If they encountered a problem at school – what would they do to help solve it?
- Do they know why they come to school?
- Does my child give up when things get tricky or do they persevere?
- What positive experiences are they having at school? Can they talk about these?
SCHOOL PICNIC TOMORROW (see poster below)
Once again our SCG (School Community Group) are busy organising our beginning of the year School Picnic. There will be a few food items for sale, we encourage you to bring along a picnic blanket and you’re welcome to bring your own food. It is a wonderful opportunity for families to meet each other, our teachers will also be around to get to know you better.
Ministry of Education updates:
1 hour per day mandate
What does this change mean for my child?
Many schools already spend an hour a day on reading, writing and maths, so this will not be a big change. This is the case for Takapuna Primary School. The new ‘one hour a day’ requirement has been designed to be practical and flexible. Schools will still be able to hold events like athletics days and school camps since the requirement is for an average amount of time each week. One hour average per day applies to school hours only.
What will the lessons look like?
The National Curriculum outlines what your child should be able to understand, know and do as they progress through their school years. Teachers will continue to use the curriculum and teach in ways that best suit the learning. This includes using things like active learning opportunities, group work, investigations, practice and consolidation activities. The ‘one hour a day’ requirement can be broken up into small blocks throughout the day. Your child’s teacher will manage these to fit the needs of your child.
To support the learning at school, you can help your child develop reading, writing and maths skills by:
- having your child read to you
- reading to your child and talking about books and stories
- encouraging your child to share what they think about a book (or video game, podcast, or movie), and being positive about the material they are reading, listening or watching
- letting your child see you enjoy books, audiobooks, podcasts, games, movies, or videos in your first language
- encouraging your child to write and talking with your child about what they are writing
- showing your child that you write for lots of reasons too, such as replying to an email, filling out a form, or writing an invitation or letter
- involving your child in activities where you use maths (for example playing games with cards or dice, grocery shopping, cooking and DIY activities)
- encouraging your child to share how they solve mathematics problems (they may use different mental or written strategies to the ones you were taught)
- being positive about your child’s reading, writing and maths experiences and praising their efforts.
Attendance and Lateness:
As part of the Ministry of Education Attendance and Engagement Strategy, schools are required to communicate to families: Schools must highlight the responsibility of parents, caregivers and whānau to support ākonga to attend school and increase ākonga motivation to attend school.
Taking children on holidays during term time does affect their learning. Attendance is unjustified and reported as such.
Staffing news:
Vanessa, our amazing music teacher, has decided to pursue new opportunities within the education sector. Vanessa has been part of the TPS whānau for 5 years and while we are very sad to see her go – we know she’ll take away fantastic memories of her time here. The children and staff will farewell Vanessa during the final weeks of this term. We are looking to find a new teacher but we ask for your patience as this doesn’t always happen quickly.
Digital Safety Parent evening:
This was held on Monday 19th February at 6:30pm digitally. We had approximately 22 parents join us, we have around 381 learners at TPS at this time. There was very valuable information shared with parents on how to keep your children safe online and tools that parents can use to help their children navigate an online world. This will be one of the greatest challenges for families who are raising children in 2024! An interesting discussion was around the banning of devices and how Netsafe suggests that parents do not ban their child’s device if children are not using them appropriately.
Many families have asked ‘how can I help my children at home?’ I can’t help but think that attending sessions like these are exactly how you help your children at home. My challenge to families is to keep thinking about what learning at home looks like for you and your children.
If you missed out and want to know more, please visit the netsafe website – Parents tab
Team Newsletters:
The whānau team newsletters will be coming out very soon, this will have more information pertaining to your child’s year group. These will be shared via Hero.
Please ask:
We are very committed to having transparent conversations about school life, if there is anything you’re unsure about – I encourage you to get in touch with me. Talking to each other is a great start, but this may not always give you the answers to your questions and can sometimes feel unproductive. A reminder my email is devikat@tps.school.nz if you have anything that you need clarification, please let me know.
Feedback from a former parent of TPS:
“Hi Devika, I have just been to an NCEA Excellence awards ceremony at Takapuna Grammar School, I recognised at least six Year 12 and 1 Year 13 student, who are former TPS students. I think this is pretty cool, given how many students from TPS go across to different schools”
Regards, Devika and the TPS team.
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