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Western Heights School
Our Vision We are … Caring, Creative, Confident, Cognisant, Connecting, Contributing, Collaborative. Our Mission Our children love to learn to lead as they dream, grow, shine and reflect. Love - ourselves - others - our world Learn about - ourselves - others - our world Lead - ourselves - others - in our world |
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Calendar of Events
Whanau Time is every second Friday in our hall, starting at 9:45 am sharp. Everyone is warmly welcomed to join us for these special WHS family occasions. Next Whanau Time - Friday 12 August. Rooms 16 and 21 hosting.
WHS Calendar
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Friday 12/8
Whanau Time - 9:45am. Rooms 16 and 21 hosting.
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Monday 15/8
Visit to Arataki Visitors’ Centre for rooms 11 and 12
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Tuesday 16/8
Gym Trip for rooms 1, 6, 9 and 10. |
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Wednesday 17/8
Visit to Arataki Visitors’ Centre for rooms 15 and 16.Gym trips for 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20 and 28.
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Our Vision for Reporting Student Learning Progress
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I will soon send out a full explanation of where we are going with our Reporting to Parents. In summary, though, I requote the information on the front of the mid-year report that says, "Our Digital Learning Journal Seesaw is our primary tool for sharing ongoing learning and achievement and our mid-year report complements that.” If you found this mid-year report a little challenging to follow, you are not alone. We will have a simplified version out for the end-of-year report. That report will have comments from the teacher and your child as a summary of the information shared through Seesaw throughout the year. I understand some parents were disappointed the reports were very sparse, not addressing the uniqueness of each child as an individual, and not addressing Key Competencies such as participating and contributing, higher order thinking, relating to others and so on. These reports are presented at a summative snapshot of how well your child is on track to meet the expected National Standards for Reading, Writing and Maths by the end of the year, or by the end of their first, second or third year at school. It is a Ministry requirement for us to share that information. The important, nitty gritty of learning - what they are learning in all subjects, where they are going next with their learning, and all the key competencies - comes through in their regular Seesaw posts. Most children would have about a post a week. This is an awesome way to involve you in the reality of their learning. It’s the opposite of few sentences trying to sum up six months of learning and achievement for each subject in a written report. Seesaw is awesome, but it is also a lot of work for teachers. It is unrealistic to continue with the old report that was a great deal of work and which Seesaw does so much better. I have to look after staff and help them to work smarter. I have to ensure they have energy and joy so they can be inspiring teachers, so the written reports are simplified to cover only what the Ministry requires. Seesaw brings you into your child’s classroom and their learning world. It is only going to get better, and the way we use it is only going to get better. Most of our staff have only had six months to learn Seesaw, but they are adapting and growing with its implementation all the time. We will ensure it is used less for notices, and once notices have been posted and received, we will delete them from your child's 'stream' to ensure it is less cluttered.
We are phasing in another new initiative, a Learning Management-Student Management system called Linc-Ed. The founders of this company appeared on the news last week, they have been recognised for their innovation and expertise. Linc-Ed is another paradigm shift for our school. It has a Parent Portal that will allow you to track learning progress via a graph system similar to the ones used in Plunket Books. It is exciting and it's coming soon. A sample below of what reading progress will look like as an example of what you will receive as of next year.
Our bottom line is our passion for working with you, keeping you informed, and supporting you to be able to support your child's learning so that your child makes the best possible progress in every aspect of learning and life. |
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Book Fair Results - Great News to Share
One of the best gifts we can give our children is a love of reading. Thank you to those parents who were able to purchase a book or books from our Book Fair. We accrued just under $2,000 worth of free books for our library thanks to you all. The winners for the book fair have been chosen. Each of these children chose a free book as their prize. Jasmine Room 3 Michelle Room 5 Sophie Room 9 Connor Room 9 Mina Room 18 Han Room 19 Eesha Room 23 Declyn Room 25 Thanks teachers Julie and Jessie, and Librarian Irene, for your hard work making this event a success for our school and children. |
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Olympic Games Opening Ceremony at WHS
Pictured At Right: Room 16's version of a Chinese Dragon for our Olympic opening ceremony on Wednesday. Thank you to all the parents and extended family who were able to join us. We had to move inside due to weather challenges - it was Christchurch cold! Every class got majorly behind their country and the proof was in the fabulous costumes, flags and cultural items. Our senior children did a wonderful job organising it all - from delivering the Creed, the Athletes’ Oath. Our young ‘maidens’ carried in the Olympic Flag, and the Torch bearers played their part well and managed to light the olympic Flame (in the doorway to avoid triggering smoke alarms, and despite the wicked wind). Special thanks to Mrs Lupe-Houben and Mr Taura for their awesome organisation and to all our staff and children for their enthusiasm and flexibility.
PS: My apologies for not publicising this event better prior to the event. My misunderstanding. |
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WHS Programmers Preparing For A 21st Century Future
We have two very enthusiastic teachers in our senior school who take a lunch time technology club. They have a group of equally enthusiastic students who are learning programming with “Scratch” and 3D design with “Tinkercad”. The children showed me some of the 3D name tags they had designed and then fabricated in our 3D printer, and they are really cool.
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Senior School Science Road Show Visit
Last week our senior school visited Bruce McLaren Intermediate to view and explore the Science Road Show.
Firstly they saw a show explaining the different properties of materials. They then had plenty of time to explore, discover and uncover numerous scientific investigations. The event finished with another show explaining all about sound.
The Science Road Show provides interactive learning experiences in science, as well as technology. The exhibits are all hands-on, with children having to read the instructions, discuss possible outcomes with others and then prove their ideas, by conducting the experiments.
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What Is The Purpose of School - Further Thoughts Part 2
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Continuing article by Rowan Taigle, who is a facilitator for the Learning with Digital Technologies project.
We need schools because it is in these places that young people come together to challenge and grow
each others’ minds, as well as their own. By testing out new knowledge, and practising and honing new
skills, the other learning coaches (students and teachers alike) will provoke them to critically evaluate the
knowledge sources they are accessing, as well as their own opinions of them.
It is one thing to know; it is another to be known.
Young people still need to come to school because it is a place where they and their whānau can be known
by others, and grow to know themselves and their own abilities and potential. Harvesting knowledge alone,
whether from books or multiple sources on the Internet, is all well and good, but, I feel, that it is in the act of
sharing knowledge with others in meaningful contexts, building upon their ideas, challenging each other,
and pushing at the boundaries of our own comfort zones where the most powerful learning happens.
This is why we still need schools.
All over New Zealand, schools are reimagining and redesigning their approach to learning experiences.
Along with this, it is vital that the measures of success are also redesigned to align with these. This will
generally involve re-examining the purpose for the learning, to ensure not only achievement outcomes are
designed for, but also engagement and wellbeing. These days, kids don’t just come to school to take the
test, they come to make it, or even break it! I know that when I’m in my old age, in a rest home, or back packing around exotic locations (it’s important to be optimistic), I want to have confidence in the young people I worked with in schools who will by now be leaders, movers and shakers, in our country and the world. I will want to be confident that, when faced with a challenge, they have the grit and resilience to push on and through it, have the creativity and ingenuity to seek solutions in unexpected places, and effectively work with people outside their fields of expertise in order to reach the most robust and creative solution possible to the problems that may face us. No pressure! School is a place where we meet to grow. We’ve moved beyond a time and educational system founded in orderliness, obedience, and compliance. We know we’re going to need innovators, creators, critical thinkers, team players. Life doesn’t fall neatly into discrete subject areas. Many secondary schools are responding to this by consciously breaking down the walls, or ‘silos’, between their subject areas, and are modelling the collaborative practice that we know is going to be so vital to the success of our current learners. Partnerships between subjects are resulting in high levels of originality, innovation, creativity as well as problem solving, skill transference, and deeper subject knowledge due to being able to work in more authentic contexts on ‘real-life learning’ rather than in contrived test situations. Undertaking inquiry (both individual and collaborative) with a firm focus on the future for learners, as an ongoing means of building evaluative capability and adaptive expertise, is where it’s at. There are educators out there right now who are ensuring school is still a very worthwhile, important, and exciting place to be! I believe we will always need schools because we will always need superheroes. We are only going to have more wicked problems to solve in the future. Where else will kids be able to nurture, grow, take risks, and test their superpowers before the world calls on them? This is why I believe in school. What about you?
More to follow next week. |
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Let’s Encourage Our Children to be Creative: Many assume that creativity is an inborn talent that their kids either do or do not have… they assume that just as all children are not equally intelligent, all children are not equally creative. But actually, creativity is more skill than inborn talent, and it is a skill parents can help kids to develop. Creativity is a key to success in nearly everything we do - therefore it is a key component of health and happiness and a core skill to practice with kids. Creativity is not limited to artistic and musical expression - it is also essential for science, math, and even social and emotional intelligence. Creative people are more flexible and better problem solvers, which makes them more able to adapt to technological advances and deal with change - as well as take advantage of new opportunities. How You Can Help: Give children the opportunity to express "divergent thought." Let them disagree with you. Encourage them to find more than one route to a solution, and more than one solution to a problem. When they successfully solve a problem, ask them to solve it again but to find a new way to do it (same solution, different route). Then ask them to come up with more solutions to the same problem. Don't reward children for exhibiting creativity - incentives interfere with the creative process, reducing the quality of their responses and the flexibility of their thought. Allow children to develop mastery of creative activities that they are intrinsically motivated to do, rather than trying to motivate them with rewards and incentives. Emphasise process rather than product. One way you can do this is by asking questions about the process – Did you have fun? Are you finished? What did you like about that activity? |
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Scholastic Book Club Orders
Scholastic order forms went home on Wednesday. Orders close Friday 19 August. Please make cheques payable to Western Heights School. Thanks. |
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A Weekly Series on Ways to Boost Brain Power
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WHS Quiz Night |
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Waitakere College Art Expo
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Billet Families Urgently Needed |
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Welcome to our Western Heights Whanau
The warmest of warm Western Heights welcome to... Shineveer Singh, Cassidy Reeve, Vanesa Vasekova, Ayla Jones, Rishik Khatri, and Zakk McEwen. We are delighted to have you join our Western Heights whanau and hope and trust you all feel right at home here, are happy, and Loving, Learning and Leading.
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Western Heights School126 Sturges Road Henderson Auckland 0612 P - 09 8361213 M - 021 779 009
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