Reflections before we welcome our first visitors to our ELS's

Over the next two days we will have twelve teachers from St Joseph's in Timaru visiting our Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS's). 

Our ELS's have been designed by the staff, with the students to proactively respond to our strategic goal "To engage every student in deep learning for success" (St Joseph's Oamaru Strategic Plan).

Determined not to let the fact that plans to modernise our traditional school building simply aren't an immediate reality for our Catholic diocese, we decided to be creative and innovative with our existing spaces. Inspired by a visit to Myross Bush School where Tim Lovelock and his team have enabled team teaching to happen in single cell classrooms, we have worked hard to redesign our school layout to match our modern pedagogical practices. As our ELS's evolve, feedback from our community after ten weeks is already showing that we are successfully bringing our strategic goal vibrantly alive in new and challenging ways.

We are definitely beginning to show that we are much more than simply a "school". We are beginning to reflect a "Learning Commons" (Price 2013). We see our school as part of its community that welcomes mentors, experts and families into its learning spaces; is radically transparent and freely shares its expertise with others and stimulates conversations about learning with the widest target audiences. Learning spaces welcome the disruption of visitors, because, as Stephen Harris (principal  Sydney Centre for Innovation in Learning SCIL) says, "the more students have to articulate their learning, the more they live it " (Price, 2013,p186).

"Modern learning environments (MLE's) can support teaching as inquiry better than single-cell classrooms. Working in an open, flexible learning environment where inquiries are shared, interventions devised collaboratively and reflections based on both self and peer observations, leads to a more robust, continuously improving community of practice " (Osborne, 2013).

Our ELS's are not MLE's but we believe that they offer similar benefits to MLE's. Our ELS's are continually evolving. Just as inquiries evolve, our whole learning commons is a living inquiry where students, staff and families are the researchers and developers continually reflecting on actions, resources and plans to bring learning alive for all participants.

We are looking forward to welcoming our visitors and sharing our ELS's as we extend our learning relationships beyond the boundaries of our school walls. 

Are you ready for the new school term ? 5 key reminders

I was fortunate to go to a stunning performance of Aladdin in the Ink Box at the Opera House last night. Congratulations to the whole cast of Aladdin especially our talented team from St Joseph's.

Last term we went OPEN with our teaching and learning at St Joseph's. Our Teaching and Learning Site went live and our ELS's (Engaging Learning Spaces) have continued to evolve. Our school wide goal is "To engage every student in deep learning for success". We do this in our Catholic faith-filled  environment as we "Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith". We focus on our school values, the 4 R's: Respect, Reverence, Resilience and good Relationships. This is what we keep coming back to as we continually create a learning culture with our students and families that reflects the needs of our community. 

Are you ready for the new term ? 5 key reminders:

1. Winter uniform - It's time to change into the winter uniform for Terms 2 and 3. As an outcome of our last survey, children from Year 1- 6 are no longer expected to wear ties. Our leaders in Year 7 & 8 will keep the ties to support their transition to high school. We have some winter shirts in our uniform shop. I will be at school for some time on Sunday 19th April. Text me 0272031516 if you need access to a shirt for Monday morning. Otherwise, the lovely Adele will open the shop on Monday morning 20th April. 

2. Teaching and Learning Site and a Parent Forum on Learning Conversations - This is a chance for you as parents to become involved in your children's learning. The old days of asking "What did you learn at school today ?" have been flipped. Your son or daughter might reply with " Haven't you checked our Teaching and Learning site ?" Our teaching and learning is totally transparent now. Take advantage of this and challenge your children to develop their learning further by having informed "learning" conversations with them. At the first parent forum this term I will share how to have a learning conversation based on the Teaching and Learning site. Join me from 8:30 - 9:00 in the community room this Friday 24th April. All parents welcome. 

3. Events this week Coaching Evening and Anzac Celebrations - There will be a special sports coaching evening this Tuesday 21st April from 6:30 -7:30 for all existing coaches and other parents who are interested in being future coaches. The idea is to set up a mentoring and support network to ensure that we have a consistent approach to coaching especially with our winter codes starting this week. 
There will be a sausage sizzle fundraiser for Vanuatu on Friday (notes will go home on Monday) as previously planned. We will wear our school uniform (no mufti day) to respectfully participate in a very special Anzac Service at 2:30pm on Friday. This will replace our normal assembly. Please join us.

4. Survey outcomes - Thanks to everyone who participated in our end of term student, staff and parent surveys. We have some valuable feedback about our Term 1 learning and change. I will share this in our newsblog on Thursday and will be contacting some of you who volunteered to share their thoughts in a video.

5. New staff and Visitors - This week, we warmly welcome Miss Gray into Junior Hub 1 and part timers Miss Taylor, Mrs Gower and Mrs McNally to support teaching and learning throughout our school. We also welcome a team of teachers from St Joseph's Timaru on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings to observe and learn about our ELS's.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow for the new term as we continue to "Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith" together.