3 winners for junior learners: Self - management goals, shorter sessions & visual prompts

Continually inquiring into our pedagogy and reflecting on best practice for engagement and learning success is something we are serious about at St Joseph's. As a passionate New Entrant teacher from my pre principal days, I had the pleasure of spending quality time in Jo O'Sullivan's class at the Paeroroa Campus of South Timaru School with our Junior Hub One teachers. Special thanks to Jo and her learners for welcoming us into her class.
Jo has been teaching the juniors for thirty-eight years. She has the energy of a beginning teacher with the skills and expertise of an expert practitioner. We want to ensure our juniors get off to the best ever start and Jo has a reputation for doing just that with her learners.
Here are the three winners that stood out and some further reflections from our visit.

Jo in action in front of the literacy wall

1. Learning and self - management goals.

The children have writing goals and self-management goals. They shared them with the class. The children were asked to read them in a big voice. Jo said, “Everyone needs to know what you are working on”.

They read them before they started work for the day and then before writing.

Some examples were:

I am learning to form my letters correctly...

I am learning to not hurt others, use a nice voice...

I am learning to give things a go...

I will listen to the teacher and look at her when she is talking...

Classroom management strategies? What does she find most effective ? Jo continually refers to the children managing themselves.”Manage your body, manage your book”. Jo never sits. Jo roams and checks and supports, she sits on the floor to work with the children, roams again and ensures everyone is on task.

Jo addressed a boy off task...“You have one chance or I will make the choice for you..” “When and then….” Jo gives them a choice, goes away and gives them time to make the right choice and then checks in again and gives praise. At another time Jo said, “I don’t mind if you work together as long as you work sensibly.” Jo uses a self-management mat. If someone is off task they work on the mat. 

We loved the Jump Jam video break and the yoga mindfulness stretches.

The learners read their goals before they start.

Pencil grip - Jo reinforces this. They all write with pens and the correct way to hold the pen is shared with parents at the 4 year old transition to school sessions.

Pre school visits - how are these organised ?

Friday afternoon transition sessions. Jo focuses on social skills - dependent on the needs of the children at the time. Below is the Y chart of skills they are working on with parents at present.

What phonics teaching methods does she use?

Kiwi Phonics by Heather Deighton-O’Flynn

Y chart of social skills to focus on.

2. Shorter learning sessions

Reading and Mathematics routine activities. What are her activities ? How often does she change them?
Half hour slots for everything, repeated throughout the day. Literacy and numeracy end up being done twice a day - shorter, succinct session with total engagement.

Jo finds the PM readers are better than Ready to Read for the foundation reading, vocabulary and punctuation skills.

Learners don't have individual browsing boxes. They have some books in their reading folders and have access to a few large shared browsing boxes. All learners are targeted and monitored, not only the below learners. Repetition of the basic skills, sounds, blends, high frequency words.

3.Visual prompts Jo uses many visual prompts to direct the children to what they need to do. There are numerous posters for : how to sit when listening on the floor, how to get on with their learning at the tables, healthy brain food in their lunch boxes...as well as the WITS way and their Class Treaty. The literacy wall has everything the learners need to support them to write independently. Everything displayed has a learning purpose. "We work hard to make it easy to learn" is the class motto.

WITS way display

Visual Class Treaty

School Entry Assessment. What does Jo use and when ? Jo assesses them as soon as they start. Very detailed student profiles are kept from enrolment. These compliment the pre school profiles.
What follow up learning do they do at home ?

Home reading - the learners have an enlarged and laminated essential word list and alphabet chart for sound practice with tracking graph on the back. Jo ticks these off and records progress.

I took three videos of Jo in action and will share these once we have approval.

After discussion and reflection, as a result of our visit, some of the ideas Junior Hub 1 will be incorporating into their hub are:

Giant literacy wall between the rooms, reorganisation of browsing boxes & trays, school entry assessment on arrival, tracking graphs, writing and self- management goals, half hour literacy and numeracy session (twice a day) fit well with out focus on engagement, shorter wait times on the mat (6-8 minutes max) and a new plan for Terrific Thursdays.

Are you ready for the 2016 school year ? 5 key reminders

In 2014, we began to share our learning, news and events digitally. In 2015, we transformed our learning spaces (Engaging Learning Spaces ELS learn more here) to reflect our school wide goal: To engage every student in deep learning for success. We continued to share our learning via blogs and a dedicated Teaching and Learning Site.

Our popular weekly school newsblog has had over 45,000 views from learners, families and interested visitors across the world.

We also welcomed over one hundred visitors to our school in 2015. Principals and teachers from across the South Island described our students as "...engaged and connected learners who could speak confidently about their learning". You can learn more about 2015 and next steps for 2016 at this link.

We received a glowing Catholic review report. You can learn more at this link. We are committed to continuing to keep Christ at the heart of all we do at St Joseph's as we strive to honour the reason for the existence of our Catholic schools.

Here are 5 key reminders for the 2016 new school year:

1. School starts back on Monday 1st February. The uniform shop will be open on Wednesday 27th January and Friday 29th January from 9:15-12:30pm. It will also be open on Monday 1st February from 8:30-9:00. Thanks Adele for being available. 

2. Our 2016 stationery lists can be ordered online through Office Max or take the list to our local Paper Plus or Warehouse store and collect what you need. 

3. The Home & School with funding support from the board and the Otago Community Trust are generously upgrading the hall kitchen. There will be no school canteen in Term 1. Lunch options will be shared with you next week. Children will need to bring their own lunches during the first week of term.

4. On Thursday 4th February at 9:15am there will be a welcome back school mass followed by the presentation of badges to our Year 8 leaders in St Patrick's Basilica. All parents and friends are welcome to join us.

5. Our dedicated  'Teaching and Learning Site' will be updated and ready to go for 2016 before the new school year begins. You can check what's happening in the first week of the term by going to the section for your child's year group at 5pm on Sunday 31st January. Take some time to help prepare your child for school by discussing the learning together.

Thanks to our board who have funded the installation of three air conditioning units for the upstairs ELS. These will help to provide some much needed cool air for our Senior Hub 2 learners and staff.

At the request of the School Council, the board have also funded a new water fountain where drink bottles can be easily filled up. A new uniform shop is also under construction and we are waiting for the new basketball hoops to arrive.

Thanks to all of our staff including cleaners, caretakers and office staff who have spent time preparing our school to officially welcome you back on Monday.

Please contact us if you have any questions, worries or concerns by emailing office@stjoseph.school.nz or jjackson@stjoseph.school.nz or by ringing 03 4348856. Like us on our school Facebook page St Joseph's Oamaru or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also check up on any information on our newsblog or school website and download the PTC calendar app on your phone.

We look forward to welcoming you all back to St Joseph's for the 2016 school year as we continue to Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith.

reaCh into the future ; 8 positives and 5 developments

Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith

This is our vision statement developed as a result of community consultation just after I became principal in 2007. We are preparing to relaunch our vision as we reaCh into the future in readiness for 2016.

 

reaCh

At the start of our final school term for 2015, we recorded the key skills and attitudes our learners develop as they progress from Junior Hub 1 to the end of Senior Hub 2 (Year 1 to 8). Our collaborative teaching methods and the resources we use (including but not limited to digital ones) are the tools to support our learners to be the best versions of themselves by the time they transition to high school. 

Our Deputy Principal, Paul Cartlidge creatively collated these progressions onto a weebly site to help make them explicit and tangible. Our next step is to develop an informative brochure to visually share these skills and attitudes with our community.

Our Assistant Principal, Siobhan Burke reminded us about the brochure and be theme captured our attention at the Catholic Convention.

This got me thinking...

DRAFT ideas at this stage

Here are my active reflections around the potential of using the word reaCh.

Our vision to Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith can be captured in the single word reaCh.

respectfully engage & achieve with and through Christ
r represents our 4'R's - respect, reverence, resilience and good relationships
engage links to our school wide goal:To engage in deep learning for success
a is the way we aim to actively achieve in all that we do
Ch reminds us how we do everything, in, with and through Christ. Ch also reminds us of the church and the importance of being active in our Catholic faith.

Other variations could include:

What will this look like in 2016 ? I will look forward to sharing this with you when we develop it further with input from students, board, staff and whanau.

Positives from 2015 and next steps going forward for 2016
Across the school all of the children are benefitting from:
1. A dedicated class teacher who is a point of contact for children and parents. 
2. Having the expertise of a team of two to three teachers who plan, review and action the teaching and learning for all children across hubs.
3. A dedicated teaching and learning site updated weekly. Parents can keep up with their children's learning and initiate learning conversations at home.
4. Hub and class blogs, regularly updated with photos and snippets of information pertinent to each class or hub.
5. The senior hub learners work towards competent independence by the end of Year 8. Thirty-two days total during Year 7 and 8 are spent at St Kevin's high school for Tech classes. Our Year 8's feel throughly prepared for high school. 
6. Staff email class groups on a weekly basis. Communication is better than ever before with the newsblog the school website and our Facebook page updated regularly. 
7. Specialist teachers and teacher aides add depth of learning and provide further support and extension for our children.
8. Individual student blogs support engagement and achievement in the Senior Hub. Student blogs gives students a global audience, a purpose for writing beyond the eyes of the class teacher.

Further developments for 2016 include: 
1. Consolidation of independent learning strategies at the start of Senior Hub 2 (Yr 6) and at the end of Senior Hub 2 (Yr 8) as the learners transition into the hub and off to high school.
2. A review and focus on hub expectations across the school in relation to our school values - the 4R's.
3. The potential opportunity to use student blogs in Senior Hub 2 (Years 6 to 8) as formative assessment portfolios.
4. The use of Linewise in relation to digital devices and access to acceptable learning resources.

5.Further development of the reaChmodel and an informative brochure as explained above for parents and the community to be shared at the first Family Learning Hui.

In 2015 we actively created learning spaces for deeper engagement in learning. We developed our Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS's) based on our school wide goal: To engage in deep learning for success. We have the flexibility to utilise our spaces to best suit the needs of our learners across the school. We will continue to review and refine our ELS's based on feedback and continued active reflection as we enthusiastically move forward into 2016. 

Are you aspiring to be authentic teachers and leaders ?

Authenticity is something we should all be aspiring towards. It is summed up very well in this leadership definition from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authentic_leadership

How do we promote openness in our workplace and build honest relationships with everyone we are connected too ?
I was privileged to be able to present a seminar with Lorraine Francis Rees (Principal of St Joseph's, Pleasant Point) at the recent Catholic Convention in Wellington. Although the presentation is based around authentic Catholic leadership, much of the content is applicable to all teachers and leaders aspiring towards authenticity.
Lorraine and I planned the synopsis for the presentation in 2014 when Lorraine was Deputy Principal at our school in Oamaru. 

Lorraine started her her new principalship eight weeks ago. Yet we still managed to make time to meet and prepare our presentation. Special thanks to Anne Pratt, the principal of St Patrick's school, Waimate (half way between Oamaru and Pleasant Point) for letting us use her office for one of our planning sessions.
Initially sixty-five people had registered to attend our seminar. On the day, our venue filled to about one hundred attendees.
Here is the google presentation. Just click on the arrows and you should be able to view the slides. There are some You Tube videos embedded as well. 
This presentation encompasses as much as we could fit within our sixty minute timeframe. It is just a taster of what happens at St Joseph's in Oamaru. For those of you wanting more detail, I have shared my notes from a selection of the slides below.




Slide 1: Aspiring towards authentic Catholic leadership. This presentation brings together our understandings based on our practice and studies as leaders in our Catholic system focussed on Christ centred growth. Our studies have made us reflect deeply on our authenticity as leaders in Catholic schools. Pope Francis says,“I am a living mission”, so are we. We are Jesus’ hands, mouths and feet in our Catholic schools. We must WALK the TALK and bring the scripture to life through our everyday actions and relationships.Good leaders helps build vibrant faith communities that help build the Kingdom of God by using Jesus as the ultimate model of leadership.

Slide 2:

It's our responsibility to keep Christ at the centre, we need to hold on to the Holy Spirit that is within our hearts. As Catholic leaders we work within the framework of :
Bible - Message from Vatican synod 2008…Bring the joy of the gospel into the lives of families.….so that parents and children read it, pray with it….listen with love and faith.
Handbook for Catholic Integrated Schools - our legal requirements and integration agreements.
Catholic Review Indicators - “...that the Catholic character is protected and promoted” - continual self-review (eg. refers to restorative practices for behavioural management ).
The Catholic Education of School Age Children - The introduction from the bishops “indispensable reference point… highlights challenges for all of us...".
No-one else in our schools will be checking these documents - it is our responsibility as leaders to bring them to life and work within their framework, keeping Christ at the centre.

Slide 3:

We must also have a 'growth mindset' towards our Catholicity and develop our theological knowledge and spiritual leadership skills
We have high expectations of success for our learners, we must be role models and set the same high standards for ourselves as part of our commitment as educators in Catholic schools.
This requires strong Catholic leadership and is especially challenging when New Zealand is one of the most secular countries in the world. A vital part of a Catholic principal’s ministry is to ensure that there are potentially qualified future Catholic leaders nurtured in an environment that truly reflects the church’s mission (Swanson, 2012).

 Slide 4 - 8 Images of Jesus the perfect role model for aspiring leaders.

Slide 9:

Active evangelisation is the essence of what we are called to do, as an “out-reaching church”. It is a sacred responsibility explicit in the purpose of our Catholic Schools. It is a task that is both richly rewarding and demanding. It is about “planting seeds”, recognising opportunities, nurturing possibilities, transforming lives, rekindling fervour and the privilege of “walking with” as we each journey in our human quest for wholeness.
In the day to day today busyness and business, we must come back to our Christ-centred framework. We must continually push ourselves out of our comfort zones within our faith.
Make a sacred space, create the silence to let go and let God in.

Slide 10:

We need to “connect to the minds, hearts and souls (spirits) of others” (Duignan, 2008).
Walking into school in week eleven of a term after a ten week sabbatical, I connected with the end of term tiredness, stress and busyness. It was time to calm the seas. I gave staff a sabbatical space from all meetings in Term 2, 2014. I wanted staff to feel the passion, enthusiasm, engagement and creativity that I discovered during my sabbatical. I wanted to expose the gifts and talents of students, staff and whanau. Allowing space and time for these to flourish, lead to innovation.
Lorraine wrote in an article we published in the Aoraki magazine, “From what has happened on our sabbatical so far, the religious sense of creating a holy space for renewal is now so much stronger. Not only have we rested but it feels like we have re-connected with our source – God, the Holy Spirit, inspiring us”.

Slide 11:

Our charter curriculum goal developed from every child in 2011 to encompass every learner (staff and parents) in 2012 and included engagement in DEEP learning (2014) as well as a reminder to embrace our Catholic Faith (2015). We need to live our vision. How do we bring deep engagement in learning alive through Religious Education (RE) and our Catholic
faith ?

Slides 12-14: Student driven open-ended curriculum, effective pedagogy and SOLO taxonomy used in RE.

Slide 15:

Going OPEN - We are open to sharing with other schools. This is a way for outreach. I learnt about going open during my sabbatical through reading "Open, how we will work, live and learn in the future" by David Price. I have written several reviews of chapters from this book on my blog. We are OPEN. There is total transparency with no hidden agendas. This enables us to reach out and connect with the school and wider community. We model transparency through our own actions as leaders with our own blogs, videos and prezis. If we expect our students to engage in these modes of learning then we must be prepared to do the same. We connect with our community in ways that reflect our goal to engage in deep learning for success.

Slide 16:

The teaching and learning site is our one stop public teaching and learning site. Everyone has access to everything connected to learning at St Joseph's. We are truly open. Teachers have their weekly planning on the site by 5pm on a Sunday ready for the new week. Families can access weekly goals and prepare for the week.

Slide 21:

We are also OPEN to our own personal faith development. We created a sacred space for personal and spiritual growth and development. In Term 2, 2015 in response to staff study needs we postponed staff meetings. We gave staff time to work on their RE study papers as well as gave them RE Study Time (REST). They have one day release per paper to enable quality time towards completing their assessment and to recognise their existing workload. We must continually push ourselves out of our comfort zones within our own faith development. "Good leadership develops and transforms those who are being led " (Swanson 2012).

Slide 22: Images of inclusivity. Slide 23: Parish Involvement

Slide 24: Learner agency - students and staff designed engaging learning spaces. Family Learning huis - families are immersed in an informal, social environment to engage with modern learning practices.

Slide 25: Images of an authentic leader in action today - Pope Francis. Acknowledgement goes to Christopher M. Branson, Professor of Educational Leadership Faculty of Education University of Waikato Hamilton New Zealand for use of these images from EDLE 641 Values and Leadership.

Slide 26: Final slide was a reflection - John 15:12-17 Love one another as I love you.
Extra slides-
Slides 27-31: Links to SOLO, e-learning, inquiry links modern pedagogy and RE
Slide 32:

A video that explains how the students have agency and collaborate. This was part of a presentation by the Year 8 students to St Kevin's College high school staff.






Slide 33: Links to parent education and agency examples. A video sharing engagement in deep learning as students share their learning with the community.

Authentic leaders create transparent, trusting environments where everyone is supported to share their gifts and talents and shine.

 
In our Catholic schools, this happens within the sacred space of an agentic, inclusive and collaborative culture with Christ at the centre of all that we do.

Student agency; small steps, giant leaps

We are now half way through our second term of ELS's ( engaging learning spaces - our very own MLE's modern learning environments) and we need to remind ourselves of our purpose. We aim to "Engage every student in deep learning for success" within our special character Catholic school.

Yesterday I joined our Senior Hub 2 (Year 6, 7 and 8) team meeting. It was encouraging to hear the team ask the same question to each other at different times during the meeting: How is this activity providing student agency? The meeting began with staff sharing ways that they had adapted their own practices to allow student agency.

A quick reminder on what student agency means as sited in the elearning infusion blog by Nick Rate :

• Teachers use planned pedagogical approaches that engage students and enable them to take charge of their learning leading to high achievement (Mark Osborne).
• Students are empowered through curriculum approaches that; engage them, are respectful of and seek their opinions, give them opportunities to feel connected to school life, promote positive and caring relationships between all members of the school community, promote wellbeing and focus on the whole student, relate to real-life experiences, are safe and supportive

These were some of the ways that our senior team have adapted their teaching practices taken from Senior Hub 2 minutes (thanks Becci, Morgan and Thomas).

Actually involving the learners in decisions and structured choices can be challenging. It means that teachers have to move out of their 'being in control' comfort zone. It starts with small steps. Here is an example. Last term the learning hubs introduced Learner Licences. This was an idea adapted from our visit to Myross Bush School. Our staff created their own rubric linked to the key competencies.
Key competencies are an integral part of the NZ Curriculum and TKI online describes them in this way: Key competencies are the capabilities people have, and need to develop, to live and learn today and in the future.

St Joseph's SH 2 Learner License rubric

At the start of the year, the teachers directed the students to the appropriate level of the learner's licence. One of the questions that our recent visitors asked was: "Do the children or the teachers move names on the learner license board ?" Now that the year is well underway and the teachers have built quality relationships with the learners, they arranged a whole hub meeting yesterday.The students were able to express how they were feeling in relation to the learner license levels. They looked at the rubric in their learner groups and discussed the indicators and where they felt that they saw themselves. They were then given the opportunity to move their names to where they believed they should be. They shared evidence for their decisions. Further teacher support and next steps were suggested for those students who felt that they were still at the learner level and wanted to move to the restricted level.
Student agency began with little steps. However, giant leaps were made during the course of this meeting with learners in response to student voice.

Minutes from the SH 2 meeting in response to student voice leading to student agency

Learner License display in SH 2

As staff take small steps towards increasing student agency, students begin to make giant leaps in their learning.

Authentic transforming learning relationships between adults and children blossom during Family Learning Hui Number 7

After twelve weeks of learning in newly redesigned Engaging Learning Spaces, our students have confidently been able to step up and support families to extend their thinking skills. During Family Learning Hui Number 7, our students became the teachers, as they guided families through the different levels of the SOLO thinking taxonomy with the goal to move from relational to extended abstract thinking. Families had to demonstrate how they could transfer their learning to new situations and apply it to different contexts.

Image Produced by Pam Hook (@arti_choke) http://pamhook.com/ 

Our Family Learning Hui's (FLH's) evolved as part of a commitment to support families to actively participate in deep learning experiences with their children. Being part of a Learning and Change Network (see this video link to learn more) motivated us to review our existing partnership with parents. Last year, we began to focus firmly on learning relationships. We held four FLH's and numerous parent workshops and forums. You can go to this link to learn more about our Family Learning Huis. Our huis enable families to be immersed into informal, social, collaborative and engaging learning environments that mirror our school wide teaching and learning practices.

Image from www.slideshare.net

Our goal as educators has been to move from the 'sage on the stage' to the 'guide on the side' in classrooms and when running events. We have had to pull back from a natural tendency to stand at the front and speak to our family audience during our FLH's. These FLH's replace our traditional staff meetings and so all teachers and some support staff attend. They sit with families to participate and learn along side them.

FLH Number 7 was a chance for some of our senior students (Yr 6,7,8) to share their project based learning experiences, followed by group work around the SOLO taxonomy ultimate level of extended abstract thinking. One of our Year 8's shared his project and applies extended abstract thinking. Families participate in an icebreaker activity to determine areas of importance in learning for them and their families.

Students work with families to apply their project learning into new contexts and help parents to understand higher order thinking.

There was a definite transition from teacher led to student led direction during this event. It happened naturally in this informal learning environment where trust, support and integrity allowed space for authentic transforming relationships between adults and children to blossom (Burford,2005).
This has provided the guiding light for future FLH's. Teachers will be able to take a back seat while students take the lead. We are already planning our next FLH with our students.

Our students have their say about our ELS's. Read their responses to the question: What has gone well for you with your learning in Term 1?

Here is the raw student data from the online survey that our students (Yr 5-8) completed independently at the end of nine weeks of learning in our Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS's). These are their responses to the first question on the survey. They were asked to respond as succinctly as possibly using bullet points to the following question:

What has gone well for you with your learning in term 1?

·        Projects

·        independent learning time

·        working together

·        self managing to have more responsibility

·        the hub time has helped by mixing with other people

·        I think that the inquiry was a good look at learning to experience the real thing

·        I feel that I am learning a lot of new skills for maths and I have also so enjoyed our inquiry outing (Steampunk)

·        I have improved in my reading and writing which I am very happy with

·        getting my full license so that i can work in the hall way or anywhere i want that will fit in with my learning

·        These are some positive aspects of this new learning environment:
- It enables us to work with different age groups
- It helps us understand how different people think
- introduces us into class room changes
- and many other great opportunities.

·        I have really enjoyed being part of the school council.

·        i have enjoyed being able to go to the gym and start to construct a project out of the experience.

·        I learned a lot about the structure in writing and about how to create similes, metaphors and personification into a piece of writing.

·        Using devices for learning.

·        Having independent learning time.

·        Having the choice of being in any room (quiet room or discussion room)

·        I like having hubs and working in different classrooms for different subjects.

·        I like working with different students and teachers because it helps a little with my confidence and I find that I work well with different students.

·        Week goals, PC work, maths, reading, writing, hub time, Leadership groups, ECB's (Early Childhood Buddies) and different teachers.

·        new learning with device

·        new learning in a new environment

·        different learning from different teachers

·        new way to learn

·        able to manage your own time table

·        more choice in choosing where you sit

·        teaching us to use responsible choices and learning in the right atmosphere

·        You know what you have to strive for

·        get to know other people from different years

·        Having three teachers

·        I enjoy the new environment

·        Having three teachers

·        Devices

·        Hubs

·        licences

·        Standers (leaners )

·        Outings for inquiry

·        I have liked our week goals and our hub time.

·        having more help with everything because we basically have 3 teachers.

·        having the licenses to know where are in our learning and its a goal to get to a higher licence and we get rewarded.

·        its great having technology because we learn new skills.

·         Working by myself without any distractions

·        Open doors

·        Outings

·         Researching

·        Maths

·        Workshops

·        Working with different people

·        Planning

·        workshop and the working space

·         you have weekly goals do within a week.

·        you get to use technology to use to type up your work that is much faster than writing in a book.

·        Silent places to learn

·        Ability to do stuff at home

·        For me Hub time has helped not only me with my learning but others too because I get to interact with the younger ones and to support them when they need it.

·        Going out for games has helped me with my learning so that I will have some energy and that when I come back from the game I will be refreshed and ready to learn and to not get derailed.

·        Looking at the timetable in the morning after prayers has helped me with my learning because it helps me know where and what time I have to go for different workshops and also shows the teacher I manage my learning

·        New environment is more like high-school

·        Having three teachers

·        Higher standards/expectations

·        Trips for inquiry time

·         Our workshops in every subject have been fun especially maths has been much different and i like that. Also i like using mathletics i know we had it last year but we didn't use it as often. 

·         I am more confident on my place value and my equal addition

·        I have learnt how to do personification in my writing so its more detailed.

·        I have learnt that i should be exercise for 60 minutes everyday.

·        working on the devices

·        helping others in maths

·        moving up to high levels in reading

·        listening to who is talking like a teacher and a friend

·        working together as a class

·        supporting others

·        working on the leaners

·        being happy at writing and reading

·        learning hubs

·        device time

·        freedom

·        more challenges

·        I have made new friends at this new school. I like the blog and technology stuff because I haven’t used technology for learning before. Everything is different such as new devices, new school and new country. What I like about this school is that we don't have a specific spot to sit, I like to sit in the corridor.

·        I have loved doing our inquiry and our research.

·        I have loved working with the bigger kids because we have been given bigger tasks so we can stretch our abilities.

·        I also have loved having the Learner licenses because it's something that you have to work at.

·        Workshops and learning from the older kids and having week goals.

·        The workshops and working upstairs. Mr McEvoy's group.

·        A new teacher, my reading, having workshops and homeroom time. Working with other classes.

·        Being able to work in different places

·        I enjoyed working with the year 8's and year 7's

·        the hub system

·        having more than 1 teacher

·        new friends

·        be able to work in different places

·        getting to work with the year 7&8

·        working with yr. 7&8

·        love how we can have work shops

·        stepping up in our roles

·        having a goal to get to the top of the license

·        using computers for work

·         learning more about Jesus and St Dominic

·        workshops (working on things I have to know)

·        using blogs

·         moving to this school

·         making new friends

·        Having the choice of working in different rooms not just one.

·        Having different teachers- you learn more, not just from one teacher.

·        having learner licenses because it helps me to work towards something

·         I like to work with different teachers

·         work shops

·        working with year 7s and 8

·        learning about St Dominic and Jesus and filming my all about me

·        math workshops

·        meeting new people

·        That we can work with the year 7s and 8s. Being on the school council and full license.

·        The workshops and having three teachers.

What conclusions can we make from these responses ? Please share your thoughts and comments.