Johnsonville / May 2012
June 2012 | April 2012-
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Focused writing in Harakeke
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- In Harakeke the students have been writing about Matariki and the different legends used to explain the seven stars.
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Harakeke Happenings in Term 2
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- We have been a busy hub in Harakeke so far this term! We have been focusing on:*Art - completing portraits either in Picasso style or using foreshortening (optical illusion making some parts of our body look closer than others) *Performance - for our official school opening all students took part in at least one performance, with most students being involved in several, including street dance, guitar, tuned percussion, Chinese dance, World Cafe maths, library activities, singing and many more! We also performed a wide variety of items for our school concert after the official opening.*Creative electives - choosing from a range of activities such as creating dioramas and print making*Language learning: Te Reo Maori and Mandarin*Developing our understanding and performance of our powhiri ceremony *Maths and literacy learning*Music - tuned percussion, singing*Learning conferences: all students spent between 30-45 minutes with one of the Harakeke teachers talking through their three matrices (maths, reading, writing). This discussion then led to the creation of a personal learning treaty (PLT) for each student, including a series of goals chosen by the student, using their matrices to identify their next learning steps. Students then talked through the matrices and their PLT with their parent/s, and these documents have been shared with students and parents so that they can be continually viewed and updated. Now that our art unveiling and school opening ceremonies are behind us we can move into the more settled part of our term. The learning conferences and creation of PLTs have been extremely useful in helping to inform our planning for the rest of this term. Focus areas for Weeks 5-10:*Maths: Specific skills based work through workshops, Snappers and World Cafe Maths. For information on World Cafe Maths please see our Harakeke blog - scroll down a little way to find an explanation of it. Snapper maths involves short videos we are creating to explain specific skills. To view Snappers we have created thus far please see the ‘Snapper’ link at the top of our Harakeke blog. Our Snappers will not only be about maths skills, they will be created for all learning areas. We have just begun to create them, so there are only a few to begin with...watch this space! Maths will be personalised for all students with workshops, activities and snappers developed for groups of students needing specific instruction or skill development. We are currently spending time showing the students how to use their maths matrix and PLT to identify their next learning steps and then choose particular activities/websites/materials/textbooks to achieve their learning goal. Specific maths areas we will be focusing on: fractions, division and multiplication skills and strategies, problem posing and solving.Below is a collage of Snapper maths work: *Literacy: Matariki module - students are reading and analysing books and information about Matariki (Maori New Year). They share their learning in a variety of ways, including retelling the story orally and in written form. Students will then be researching a range of Maori legends explaining Matariki and presenting their learning in a variety of forms, culminating in a Harakeke video telling the story of Matariki, along with a range of legends. They will then be exploring and researching explanations of the Matariki stars from other countries and cultures. We are also developing our narrative writing skills, including giving and receiving feedback from peers. Students are practicing using their reading and writing matrices and their PLTs to ascertain the particular skills they need to focus on when reading and writing. Creative writing is also an ongoing task for all students. *Inquiry: Students are continuing with their inquiries from last term (such as creating lunch orders made for students by students, exploring 1-1 devices at school and ordering senior literacy resources). These inquiries will be completed by the end of Week 6, with proposals, where necessary, written and presented, and actions taken across the school. For Weeks 7-10 a variety of different inquiry work will then begin, including beginning a travel plan for the school (a group of students investigating how students travel to school, exploring how environmentally friendly our travel habits are to/from school and looking at any actions we can take to increase sustainable and environmentally friendly travel) and exploring our school and its features. Food tech: Amaria Picard will begin working with our school lunches inquiry group to start creating school lunches prepared and cooked by students one day a week. This module will include planning, costing, purchasing, storing and cooking the lunches. Amaria will work with this group for 5 weeks, and then she will start the same module with another group of students. All Yr 4-6 students will complete this food tech module with her by the end of the year. *Active learners: We will continue to focus on students becoming active, self-directed learners through developing their understanding and use of their matrices and PLTs to inform their learning choices. All students will be directed to continually access and use their matrices to ensure their focus is on their next learning steps in reading, writing and maths. Every Friday students spend an hour reflecting on their learning, reviewing their PLT goals and identifying what they have done to achieve their learning goals. They are also asked to inform teachers of the workshops, Snappers or 1-1 guidance they now need to achieve their learning goals.
- Accepted from Amesbury Drive School feed
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- matariki
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First win for Amesbury Ferns
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Congratulations to our Ferns Netball team which had its first win of the season this Saturday.
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Swimming
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Swimming lessons begin next term with Easy Swim, Tawa School Pool.
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Tawa, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
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Koru Hub Update
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- As we reflect on the first half of the term and our successful opening day we head into a settled and focused second half of the term.
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Junior Cross Country Event - 1st June
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- We have three schools that have accepted our invitation to race our juniors in a cross country event on 1 June 2012.
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Cross Country News
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Northern Zones Championships: A big congratulations to our seven year 4 - 6 students who competed at the Northern Zone Cross Country Championships last Thursday.
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Attendance at school (part 2)
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Legal requirements: Did you know?Did you know that the Education Act 1989 says that all children enrolled at a school must attend school whenever that school is open?Did you know that the Board of Trustees is required to take all reasonable steps to ensure that students do attend school whenever it is open?Did you know that every parent of a child who is not at school without a good reason, commits an offence and can be convicted and fined?Did you know that just because parents have provided an explanation to the school for their child’s absence, that does not mean it is a justified absence? The principal is required to make decisions about whether an absence is really justified.What are good reasons for a student being absent?• Illness (a medical certificate should be provided if child is away longer than a week)• Bereavement• Medical appointments• Class tripsMany schools do not consider family trips or holidays or even overseas trips as good reasons for being absent from school. You should discuss such trips with the school principal prior to going. Attendance procedures next....
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Attendance at School (part 1)
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Seven reasons why “every day at school counts” for your childI recently received the attendance figures for students at Amesbury School.
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Wellington Police seek witnesses to Johnsonville crash at the weekend
- Wellington District Police
- Wellington Police are looking for witnesses to a crash in Johnsonville over the weekend. Constable...
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Board of Trustees Election Results
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Amesbury School Board of Trustees Election 14 May 2012Parent Representative Results Candidate Name Number of Votes John Bunting 24 Steve Dunbar 36 Roger Ellis 29 Kelly Harlen WITHDRAWN Melinda Jones 15 Simon Law 22 Nigel Schofield Matthews 17 Lorraine Walmsley 31 David Waters 39 I hereby declare the following duly elected; John Bunting Steve Dunbar Roger Ellis Lorraine Walmsley David Waters Staff Representative Result As there was only one candidate for the available position, I hereby declare Angela Johnston elected as the staff representative on the Amesbury School Board of Trustees Gail GreensladeReturning Officer
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Official School Opening
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- It's hard to believe that Amesbury School is now officially opened and we are hurtling towards having been in operation for half a year.
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Safety in the Drop-Off Zone
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- We are really fortunate at Amesbury School to have off street parking and a drop-off zone.
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Traditional vs Innovative Education- "a case of either/or or both/and"?
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- I recently attended a couple of conferences and for four days in a row listened to an array of amazing speakers.
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Items Needed
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- On Thursday 17th May we are running an electives day where students will work in mixed groups across the school and choose from a range of creative, crafty and thought provoking activities.
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Matangi: milestone or mistake?
- Wellington Scoop
- Another milestone was reached in Wellington’s electric transport history on 19 March when the venerable English Electric EMUs retired from their 74-year-old career shuttling commuters up and down the 10km Johnsonville Line.
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- local-history
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Community Notices - May 2012
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Dance Pointe Academy New Zealand is commencing Beginners Ballet in Churton Park at Amesbury School Hall, offering boys and girls of Churton Park the opportunity to participate in Beginners ballet lessons.
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Dominion Post Articles
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Just in case you missed them, check out these articles published in the Dominion Post on Tuesday about Amesbury School and our official opening.
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Minister of Eduction Tweets about Amesbury
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- A Tweet went out yesterday from the Minister of Education, Hon. Hekia Parata, after her visit to officially open the school. To those of you who aren't signed up for Twitter, it said:"At the official opening of Amesbury School in Churton Park this morning. Fabulous, fabulous school!"She attached two photos to the tweet:
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Cross Country Results
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- The day of our first cross country dawned and what a beautiful day! The sky was clear blue and though it was cold in the shade, it was lovely and warm in the sun.
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Dress Ups
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- If you have any children's dress ups or costumes that you don't need, we would love to take them off your hands and put them in our developmental area. Send any along to school to any koru hub teacher. Thanks!
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Understanding Autism
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Here is a great clip created by the BBC to help people understand more about what it means to be autistic. The more people understand about autism, the easier life will be for the many amazing autistic people in New Zealand and around the world.
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Harmony Matangi located
- Wellington District Police
- Johnsonville Police looking for 14 year old Harmony Matangi have located her safe and well....
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- matangi-trains
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Have you seen Harmony?
- Wellington District Police
- Johnsonville Police are looking for a 14 year old female who absconded from a family home in the...
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Fair Fares For Wellington
- Thorndon Residents Assocation
- Tony Randle, Chair, Johnsonville Progressive Association. No-one likes to raise public transport fares, especially when so many are reliant on this service. But these costs have increased so rail users can travel in new trains on upgraded track and use upgraded stations. The approach of the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) is to raise fares equally for both bus and rail users. It seems doubly unfair in raising fares on bus users who cannot benefit from the new trains when their own service will receive little service improvement. In effect, increased bus fares are being used to pay for increased rail costs.
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A staff meeting with Sir Richard and Lady Tania Taylor at Weta Workshop - nurturing "wonderment and delight" our educational imperative
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- I am continually blown away by the capacity of ordinary New Zealanders to do extraordinary things.
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Official School Opening, Thursday, 10 May, 2012
- Amesbury Drive School Blog
- Our official school opening is fast approaching.
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