Kāhui Ako ki Orewa

1. 1. 1. Rōpū Pāngarau/ Maths: 2020 Focus

      2. Te Reo Me Tikanga Māori: Easy to use lessons

      3. Tuhituhi/ Writing: 2020 Focus

      4. Rōpū Taunaki Ako/ Learning Support: Helping Students be Calm

      5. Pānui ngaio/ Professional Reading & Viewing: Why consuming is necessary to create 

Kia Ora koutou. We hope you are enjoying the wonderful summer and are feeling relaxed, recharged and ready to start a new school year. We welcome and value your positive energy and dedication to excellence in education, and look forward to working with our Orewa Kāhui Ako teaching community.

1. Rōpū Pāngarau/ Maths

The maths group will have their work cut out for them this year as we juggle three focus areas:

• Keeping Maths at the forefront of discussions and empowering teachers with the most relevant strategies and resources
• The 2020 Digital Curriculum is upon us. We hope to have a greater understanding of the strengths and needs with regard to the digital curriculum across the community
• We made a tentative start with the Tuakana-Teina programme last year. Having spoken to the students and teachers involved, we feel there is a lot of potential for growth and learning in this model. So our third focus in this group will be to look at the individual needs of each kura, and how these needs could be met by a core group of students. The beauty of this type of programme is the reciprocal learning gained by both the tuakana and the teina.

More details to follow once we are in full swing.

2. Te Reo Me Tikanga Māori: Easy to use lessons

Ngā mihi o te tau hou! Happy new year!

This year some of our kura are trialing lesson plans created for teachers to be able to put up on a screen and teach. The lessons come with a detailed set of teacher notes to guide and removes barriers for those of us who are less confident in our te reo Māori.

For those of you who would like to jump in and try these lessons for yourself feel free to use the overview, lessons and lesson plans below. If you would like any support, please feel free to contact markralston@silverdaleprimaryschool.nz and we will endeavour to provide any support you may need.

Overview

Lesson example

Teacher notes example

Lessons include:

• A karakia
• A waiata/ song
• Recap of a past language structure or command
• A new language structure
• A kemu/ game

If this is successful, we are hoping to roll these lessons out across our Kāhui Ako to kura that are interested in coming on board.

3. Tuhituhi/ Writing

Our writing focus goals for 2020:

• Embedding a robust moderation programme
• Models of effective practice

In 2019 we established a termly moderation across our schools in writing. Week 8 (week 9 for Orewa College – term 1 only) of each term has been set for our moderation meetings. All teachers are invited to attend. Information about this term’s text type for moderation will be confirmed at this week’s leaders meeting. More information will be shared in next week’s newsletter. Our review of the Orewa L.P.F. matrix is nearly completed and a glossary of writing terms will be shared on its completion.

The writing focus group is also designing community wide graphic organisers/ anchor charts that will help students with their writing. We would welcome some teacher feedback on the headings and points included in our initial draft poster. Posters will be used from Year 1 -10. persuasive writing

We will be working with students to help in the design of writing symbols / logos for each heading. Please let Sandy Blackburn if you would like to take part in this with your students.

Writing ideas

STORYATHON is an exciting and free online event for Year 3 to Year 8 from Australia and New Zealand. Students are challenged to write a story that is EXACTLY 100 words. Microstories focus attention on important writing features such as:

• the impact of just one word
• great expression
• effective punctuation
• crafting opening and ending paragraphs
• the discipline of writing precisely

School Kit registration for 2020 is now available. Suitable for years 4-8, Get NZ Writing is back for 2020. 3000 classrooms will construct 96,000 unique pieces of writing that will then be swapped all across Aotearoa.

NZ Writing Conference July 23rd -24th 2020 Follow the link to the NZ Gazette for more information.

4. Rōpū Taunaki Ako/ Learning Support Group

Can you remember a time when you were anxious, scared, overwhelmed, over tired, or stressed out? I know we all can. For students at the start of a new school year, and possibly a whole new school environment, there are plenty of opportunities for calm to turn into a storm.

‘The Mommy View’ has some fantastic posters and printable mini books to help children to calm down in any situation. Some posters cost approximately $3 but they can be very relevant in a classroom situation. The students can construct the mini book and keep it in their pocket or pencil case.

8 Ways Kids Can Calm Down Anywhere PLUS a Printable Mini Book

There are many posters and tips available on the internet but having something close at hand and tangible can really help distressed students to focus and become calm.

How about getting the students to create their own mini poster for the classroom wall or create a card (baseball card size) and keep it in their pocket or pencil case. They can personalise it with ideas and strategies which work for them.

5. Pānui ngaio/ Professional Reading & Viewing

To keep up to date, follow us on our Kāhui Ako website: https://orewakahuiako.com/

Important dates