Professional Development - SENCO workshop

Wednesday 9 May attended a meeting for all SENCOs in the area.
A new website for SENCOs was presented to us.



The learning support network https://www.thelearningsupportnetwork.org/

This network has free access to hub one which provides a forum to discuss practices and share resources as well as providing information about upcoming events and courses.
Then SENCOs from several schools shared their special needs registers with us. This was very helpful and provided an insight into practices at other schools.
Improvements I can make to my SENCO Practise
From this I can see I need to develop a more basic special needs register with less info in it.
Also to develop a long term tracking spread sheet.

Apprasial 2017

EOTC - Science Community Planting -Growing Term 2

Following on From Term 1

When we looked closely at sa variety of seeds and discovered flowers make seeds. we als planted ornamental cabbages in the garden for a winter display and looked at parts of the plant, leaves, roots e.t.c.
All children selected their own bulb to look at closely and sketch. The labeled the parts they thought they may know and formulated questions to investigate using I notice..I think...I wonder..
It was revealing how many children were not able to transfer the knowledge about parts of a plant to this seemingly foreign object a bulb. Some called the roots hair and one thought the roots were a birds nest and a bird would come and nest in it. This was a good initial assessment activity to tune myself in and identify where to take the learning next. It also highlighted the importance of providing the children with multiple experiences of the same concepts in difference contexts to strengthen their ability to transfer and apply their prior learning.  We then planted the bulbs we cut into sections as the children wondered if they might grow.
We used the expertise of Mrs Rolls to demonstrate how to plant a bulb.
We also planted a large pot with bulbs to beautify our environment for everyone to enjoy. the pot

Cross sections to motivate children to look closely, I notice, I think, I wonder....
Children generated questions to investigate and were surprised to discover bulbs are sticky and wet on the inside and dry and dead looking on the outside

Planting a bulb to observe growth


Watering the bulbs

Standards Research 2018

Our code ur standards clarification

https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/appraisal - Good information here. Need to investigate the quality practices template further and also unpick the standards and identify relevant and purposeful information to collect for each standard.


1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• . Understand and recognise the unique status of tanguta whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand

What quality practices do you use in your setting that connect with this standard?

Keep in mind the complexities of being from another culture and trying to maintain a critique of my actions, responses, both conscious and unconscious refer to Readings 

What evidence do you use that demonstrates these quality practices?

This is an area to be developed, need to gain more student and whanau voice and feedback.

• . Understand and acknowledge the histories, heritages, languages and cultures of partners of Te tiriti o Waitangi

What quality practices do you use in your setting that connect with this standard?
What evidence do you use that demonstrates these quality practices?

• Practice and develop the use of Te reo and tikanga Maori

What quality practices do you use in your setting that connect with this standard?

Integrate Te Reo into everyday contexts, aiming for purposeful use of Te Reo by the tamariki with increasing independence 

What evidence do you use that demonstrates these quality practices?

Recordings made by children to share with the whanau on the see saw app.
13 May 
I got bogged down with trying to develop ideas and did not feel that what I was putting into my blogg was of the required standard. have now viewed other staff members bloggs and can see that it is ordinary everyday teaching examples! Have also asked and I now know our Job description says what this will look like and so I put in e.g.s of what the standard looks like at our school. from exploring the our code our standards web site I have also discovered we need to include 
Need to include appraisal feedback and our inquries
https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Putting%20Together%20An%20Evidence%20Folder.pdf

Link to readings to further support understanding of each standard
https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Standard%20Supporting%20Documents.pdf

P D with Sharon Fabish

Te Reo Professional Development


Term 1 Week 4
Meet with Sharon Famish to discuss where we are at with Te reo as a syndicate and set individual goals. Looked at resources to support us. Worked together as a team to make a shared bank of resources. Set goals for the implementation of Te Reo into our class programme.
Link to resources we collected
My goal To develop a set of challenges the children can engage in independently to practice and reinforce what we are learning in class. To use Te Reo more often for daily instructions. e.g. Haere atu ki te ika anhianhi. Also to explore whakatauki to develop the childrens understanding of what these are. Use the context they are wise words. link this to our reading of fables, Children to find the special message or the wise words within the story.
To use more Waiata in the mornings to teach Maori an to integrate where ever possiable

Evaluation of Term One: 13 may 2018
Waiata Tohora nui, One day a Taniwha, Ma is white have been taught and the children are able to sing these. These waiata have been included in the childrens poem books and are able to be selected by the class during our morning warm up when we recite a poem or sing a waiata. Using instructions is going well
Where to next 
Now the children understand what Whakatauki are introduce and use a new one every 3 weeks and explor the meaning of it with the class.
Learn how to say "who will lead a song or poem?" in Te Reo
Get the challenges set up - These have taken time to develop and make the resources. I have not yet got them implemented in to independent learning time.Challenges developed

Sharing learning on seesaw with parents. Integrating are vocab and waiata working well .
Next steps; Greater focus on the speaking of phrases and sharing on seesaw to encourage parents to engage in this too.

Independent Reading & Student Agency

Photos/Video 11 May 2018

During independent reading time students have agency over who they choose to read with and what they choose to read. Some of them chose to engage in reciting the Eskdale School Pepeha and another group worked together to read a poem and develop actions. The children working together are all at different instructional reading levels and they supported and encouraged each other by reading a line again and by developing actions to support others in their group to remember the lines of text or tricky words within the text.  All children were engaged during this time working on reading.

Where to next;
Capitalise on this by discussing with them how they feel during this time and what they like / don't like about buddy reading time. Make explicit all the wonderful skills they are using when they are working together

Working together to recite a poem and inventing actions to match the words. 

Te Reo PD and Integration into Class programme

Term 2  Te Reo PD every Tuesday

Te Triti o Waitangi

Professional Learning

Professional Relationships

As a staff we are participating in P.D. Run by Tineke and Holly to support us with implementing
Te Reo me nga tikanga Maori into our class. We practise speaking Te -Reo with a buddy
and in a small groups. All staff support each other and have fun. Tineke and Holly model
correct pronunciation and  how we can use tikanga in a meaningful and appropriate way within
our class environment. E.g Kariaka and Pepeha. We also learn waiata a ringa.

Week 1

Greetings and feelings

Resource pack supplied

In class I am using Te Reo greetings each morning and have made a "challenge" to add to
independent reading activities for the children to practice . Using the song "Tena Koe" and
during community time on Friday.4th may Tui & Kea classes worked together to make finger
puppets to practise greetings. I started reciting one line of the Eskdale Pepeha in week 8 of Term 1.
This is going really week and I have been surprised at how well the class remembered this after
the holidays
Further actions - This is going well but I need to continue to model, reinforce and encourage
the children to practise this for them to become confident and for the Reo to be used in an everyday
way. Keep working on the Pepeha one adding one new line a week. The children are enjoying this

Week 2

Learning and using numbers and counting within our class. I am now more conscious about finding
more opportunities to integrate counting. I using tekau flashing stars as an alternative to a
pakipaki nui. From this session I have integrated Te Reo counting into our P.E. Activity. The children are counting up to tekau as they throw and catch the ball.

Further action_ Once the children are confident with counting to tekau in Te Reo we will extend this up to twenty. Many of the children are currently working on counting to twenty in English. Develop some independent counting activities for the children to use during independent learning time

Week 3