Upcoming Events
Term 2, Week 10: Starting Monday 15 June 2020
Term 2, Week 11: Starting Monday 22 June 2020
Term 2, Week 12: Starting Monday 29 June 2020
- Friday 3 July: IEMs
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS: Saturday 4 July 2020 – Sunday 19 July
Term 3, Week 1: Starting Monday 20 July
- Y7-13 timetable returns to pre-lockdown version
- Monday 20 July: IEMs
Messages
Message from Steven
Level 1 – Returning to Normal
It’s been interesting to watch how quickly we’ve returned to “normal”. It’s almost as though lockdown never happened. It’s important however to remember that there are still implications on schools at Level 1. We’re continuing to ask that you stay home if you are sick and that you follow good hygiene practices.
Families are now able to enter the building without signing in but we would encourage you to continue to use a digital diary to track your own movements each day.
Website
You’ll notice that the website has a slightly different feel. We’ve made a couple of changes to help the site better meet the needs of both those who are looking to join Ao Tawhiti as well as those who are already at Ao Tawhiti. We’ll gradually make the links under the “Learn” header better fit with the needs of our existing families and students. The “Discover” tab is more for families looking for general info.
IEMs
IEMs are almost upon us.
It’s important to make sure that you firstly book your IEM for either the last day of this term or the first day of term 3. Ian has provided info below.
It’s also important to remember that IEMs are the meeting that makes learning happen for our students. Regardless of year level these meetings provide an opportunity to reflect on the learning that has taken place and to plan for what learning will happen next.
The more engaged and prepared you are for these meetings, the more valuable the meeting will be for all.
2021 Enrolments
We will be starting our 2021 enrolment processes next month.
It is important for existing families who are interested in 2021 new enrolments (including new entrants) that you read the information on our website, https://aotawhiti.school.nz/join/ and complete step 2 of the process by registering your interest. The cut off dates to do this are on the website.
Every year we need to ballot and once the ballot is pulled and waiting lists are generated, we have to follow these so please register your interest now.
Messages from Senior Leaders
Support Staff Week
Last week was officially Support Staff Week across New Zealand schools. Here at Ao Tawhiti we are so grateful for our wonderful team of support staff and teacher aides and the amazing mahi they do. They consistently go the extra mile for our ākonga, and make our LAs’ lives so much easier. Thank you all so much! Paula coordinated our appreciation efforts this week, organising coffee shouts and morning teas for the team.
Megan
Cafe
Great news coffee lovers! As of Monday 15 June, the level 4 cafe will be open again. Go and support the students with their business, have a coffee and a chat with someone you haven’t met before and then stick around and get involved with what is going on in school.
Niki
Parent skills
Speaking of getting involved… you all know we are a school that could not do what we say we do without you wonderful parents. We recognise that with the disruption of the past few months this has not been on top of everyone’s list; however, as important stakeholders in Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery I am keen to gather some voice about your involvement, and to begin to organise a database of skills that students could tap into. Please complete this brief form with your thoughts on being involved in Ao Tawhiti so we can expand the cool opportunities we offer for our ākonga.
Niki
Bellyful
Bellyful is an organisation that provides meals for families with newborn babies/ struggling with illness. On Saturday they came to school to use our kitchen for one of their cookathons. It was wonderful to see the kitchen on level 4 full of people chatting, cooking and doing something good. Check out Bellyful’s website for further info on this awesome organisation. A massive shout out to Liam and Clint for coming to the rescue when I realised I had no clue how the gas in the kitchen worked! Liam gave awesome support over the phone and Clint (my hero!) came to school on Saturday morning to help us out.
Niki
Trainee Teachers
We currently have 7 trainee teachers in our school! 1 in the year 1-6 part of the school and 6 with the year 7-13’s. It’s a tough process learning to be a teacher and those doing their training this year have some very unique challenges to navigate. As a result of the Covid-19 situation they will have a reduced number of weeks of total teaching practice. That means the pressure is on them to maximise the classroom time they do have in order to be as well prepared as they can possibly be to begin teaching next year.
We believe, as a school, in the value of contributing to the wider education sector and the development of education in general. Supporting trainee teachers is one of the ways we make this contribution. If you see any new faces in our school working with our tamariki it’s probably one of our trainees. Please make them feel welcome and let them see what an amazing community we are.
Duncan
NCEA
As a result of Covid 19 there has been concern raised about the potential for it to impact on a students ability to attain NCEA qualifications. To help address this and support students, the following changes are being made to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) requirements for this year, 2020.
Students working towards an NCEA can gain additional credits, based on the number of credits they achieve during the 2020 school year. These additional credits will be known as Learning Recognition credits. For every 5 credits a student achieves towards their NCEA either through internal or external assessment, they are entitled to an additional 1 credit. Students at NCEA Level 1 are eligible for up to a maximum of 10 additional credits while those at Levels 2 and 3 are eligible for up to a maximum of 8 additional credits.
Students will be awarded a certificate endorsement if they achieve 46 credits at Merit or Excellence level, rather than the usual 50. Students achieving 12 credits at Merit or Excellence level in a course – rather than 14 – will be awarded a course endorsement.
Current UE requirements have been reduced from 14 to 12 credits in three UE-approved subjects. Students still need to attain NCEA Level 3 and meet literacy and numeracy requirements to be awarded University Entrance.
External NCEA examinations and NZ Scholarship examinations will now take place from 16 November 2020 to 9 December 2020. This will provide extra time for teaching, learning and assessment in Term 4.
The submission date for subjects which require students to submit a portfolio (for example, Design and Visual Communications) has been extended to 12 November 2020, to give students more time to complete their portfolios.
These changes have been designed to encourage students to continue working towards their NCEA and to ensure that NCEA this school year is just as valid as those earned in previous years.
Duncan
Harmful digital communication
Over the last few years we have been noticing an increased number of Behaviour/Social incidents here at school that include a Digital/Online aspect.
As a school we think it is extremely important that we send a reminder to whanau to be vigilant with the access that students have to online devices….where and when this access happens, with whom they are interacting with online and what they are using to access the internet.
Recently we have seen incidents amplify extremely quickly and to a serious level. We believe it’s vital that you are aware of what’s happening online for your child.
Netsafe has a useful page on their website as a starting point for families to consider…. the link below will take you to their basic information for parents…there is other information available across the site that could be useful for families too.
Over the last few years we have been noticing an increased number of Behaviour/Social incidents here at school that include a Digital/Online aspect.
As a school we think it is extremely important that we send a reminder to whanau to be vigilant with the access that students have to online devices….where and when this access happens, with whom they are interacting with online and what they are using to access the internet.
Recently we have seen incidents amplify extremely quickly and to a serious level. We believe it’s vital that you are aware of what’s happening online for your child.
Netsafe has a useful page on their website as a starting point for families to consider…. the link below will take you to their basic information for parents…there is other information available across the site that could be useful for families too.
https://www.netsafe.org.nz/online-safety-for-parents/
IEMs
Term 3 IEMs (Individual Education Meetings) are scheduled for Friday 3.7 & Monday 20.7. The IEM is the most important element of a student’s Learning Journey and it is vital that you book one.
For our IEM booking process we are using the “School Interviews” system.
To use this system use the following link to find the booking website… this link should take you straight to the booking page.
https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/code?code=nunym
The link above gets you directly into the booking page, however the code for this round of IEMS is
nunym
The whole process is pretty user friendly but I have created a guide to support your use of the process should you need some support.
Use the following link to access the guide.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sNqSrYGhavgzDd4TnI6rfk1ZZiNkbCtT/view?usp=sharing
Ian
3.1 & 3.2 Descriptors
3.1 & 3.2 Descriptors will be available this coming Friday (19th June). Please have a browse through and make decisions about what classes you want to be in. These will be asked for during 1:1s the following week.Most classes are already available to view, however these are not confirmed until the 19th.
Ian
SLOs
SLO feedback for 1.1, 1.2 & 2.1 classes is now available in your student’s LMS account. Please login and have a look. If you need any questions answered feel free to either contact your student’s HBLA or the class LA.
Ian
News / Notices
After School Care
We are currently doing some research into what kind of demand there is for an after school care program. This is not a guarantee of a program opening, but if you would be interested in enrolling your child or would find a program helpful, please fill out this quick survey.
Courtney
Fundraising
$132-00 was raised and sent to Orana Wildlife Park by some Year 10 students over the lockdown.
Jill
Ao Tawhiti visual artists exhibition
I thought we had another couple of weeks but on checking our calendar we realised we have an exhibition at the central Christchurch City Council Chambers foyer (Worcester street) next week for two weeks!!!
How exciting… So if you or someone you know who is connected to Ao Tawhiti School community has some 2D art work they would like to display with the visual art students please feel free to join in.
We will hang the work next week on Monday 15 June in the afternoon.Drop it into the 2.1 art room with your name and phone number on the back by 10am Monday 15 June. The exhibition comes down on the 29 June 2020 so you can collect it from 2.1 the next day.Sorry for the late notice
Holly Ramsay
Gina’s HB – Trip to Ferrymead Heritage Park
On Tuesday we went to Ferrymead Heritage Park to extend our learning about the olden days. We spent the day pretending that we had gone back in time to 1905.
We went to school and learned how children had to behave at old fashioned schools, we were not allowed to talk to the teacher or each other, we had to sit up straight at desks and write with pencils, ink or on slates. We did some maths with pennies and the teacher had a cane! He was very strict, at the end of the class he hit the table with the cane and we all got a fright. It was interesting learning about how different schools were 100 years ago.
We got to learn about the housework that people had to do. We dusted with feather dusters, made the bed, washed the washing in tubs and put it through a ringer, brought wood inside, did dishes and ironed things with irons heated on the fire.
Later in the day we played some old fashioned picnic games like the egg and spoon race and sack races.
We did some shopping at the grocery shop and learned about how groceries used to be stored and packaged. We helped to tidy up the shop afterwards.
It was an amazing day out, we had a lot of fun and Cindy and Robert were great actors and did an awesome job showing us how life was 100 or so years ago in Christchurch
Gina
Playing for Change – Thursday Cathedral Square @ lunchtime
Playing for Change class has started busking at Cathedral Square. They aim to be there every fine Thursday between now and term’s end – 12pm-12:45pm.
Please come along, support the students, and the businesses that have provided this opportunity. Just a note, that in term 4 it is likely to turn into ‘Every Fine Friday”.
Braden
Astronomy club 2020?
We have a big telescope. There is a high balcony… Who would like to start an astronomy club? Probably once a fortnight (picking the clearest night of the week) after school 6-9pm. Jupiter, Saturn and a couple of comets are possible sightings before the end of term. Anyone interested, please contact matt.parkes@aotawhiti.school.nz
Matt
Laura’s Community News
The Four Week project
The Four week project has been a collective effort between four communities to reinvigorate Fridays.
Following some inspiring professional development, the first and second floor communities have been inspired to work with our students to reinspire their engagement in project and problem based learning.
Each day begins with a block focusing on a 21st century skill and is followed by problems based learning led by LAs. Our hope is that students are able to take these skills and develop it into their own projects in Term 3. The learning done on Fridays speaks to our special character, our belief that our learners can lead their own learning and that learning is fun.
The Wayfinding project
This project is part of the Friday programme. After identifying that it can be hard for visitors and new students to find their way around our building, some of our students are working with Laura to design and prototype wayfinding signs for the school. We’ve been researching how other businesses and buildings do this, ideating how ours could look and building prototypes. Hopefully you will see some of our signs around the school soon!
Speaking 4 the Planet
Congratulations to Myro McKee, a year 11 student from Laura’s community, who won first place in the Speaking 4 the Planet competition for this year. You can see her awesome speech about biodiversity here:
Laura
How The Human Body Works
Libby
Level One & Two Community update
FRIDAYS – A DAY OF POTENTIAL!!!
It is great to see students engaging in cool stuff on a Friday. This week we started with a focus on creativity and problem solving. In the morning session, we introduced some visual creativity and design strategies. This included the shape game where one person draws and shape and then another student turns it into something else. For example, a potato becomes a turtle on a beach, a tea cup becomes a monster or a banana becomes a boat. We then used the “draw toast” activity to explore systems thinking and how you might plan out your own self directed learning or project.
Then in the middle and afternoon blocks, by combining the first and second floor communities, we were able to offer a raft of rich learning experiences including:
- 3D Printing,
- a cafe project,
- hard materials projects,
- stencil art,
- our collaborative art project (nearing completion),
- the Vege Pod,
- exploring strengths,
- Maori art,
- geocaching,
- making signs and a 3D model of the school.
As well giving students the freedom to explore their own passions.
Craig, Sarah H, Laura, Steve