The Big Build Up

The School is awash with end of year-itis - staff and students all busy getting work completed, final assessments being undertaken and the weather beckoning us outdoors.

The year 7/ 8s camped on Rabbit Island last week - this is the 7th night away for them this year and they are becoming adept at managing themselves in the outdoors. They were blessed with beautiful weather, making this local wilderness even more magical. Warrington School is fortunate to have the freedom to walk to a camp, cook beach gathered seafood over a fire, swim in sun warmed pools and watch a distant sea-lion waddle onto the sand. The students also give back to the island by removing rubbish and weeds.

This week I got to share Warrington School's perspective on national standards with teachers from schools in the North Island. Our stance is that by using the standards we were able to prove that our curriculum and learning approaches are working for our students. It was interesting having feedback with one teacher telling about a new student who at the start of the year was so out of control the teacher feared that this student would seriously harm others. Now at the end of the year that same student is settled and happy. Another teacher shared how her Pacifica students were mastering English, at the same time retaining the language of their parents. Concerns were raised that the assessment tasks used for gathering national standard data are written by people with no understanding of our culturally diverse nation. A narrow focus on English and maths means students achieving highly in other curriculum areas are seen as failures. The Ministry, it seems, is not interested in second language acquisition nor the social development of students. Made me think!

Beach Education on Monday 6th December children will learn about staying safe on the beach and in the sea. Remember togs, towel, sunhat, lunch, drink and wetsuit if available. We need plenty of adult helpers.

End of year assembly at 1.30pm on Wednesday 15th December celebrating this terms work and farewelling our senior pupils and Trish.

Road race will be the Tuesday 14th of December at 9.15 – postponement day if wet will be the following day.

Blueskin Bay Playcentre talent show next Saturday will hopefully see some Warrington students sharing their performance skills.

For next years events please check the school calendar on the front of our Wiki

We have been fortunate to have large field of applicants for the middle school position and have appointed Keighley Donaldson. She is presently working at Macraes Moonlight School.

Rapare 18 Wharinga-a-rangi

Kia ora koutou,
Our ERO team have been and gone, an interesting but sound process. Hopefully they are now writing their report with visions of highly engaged Warrington students. We had a sense of working with rather than against. In the one and half days they were in the school the team were introduced to the Warrington Well-being Way of Open Education three years of curriculum design and planning, all wiki based and demonstrating a new approach to education in NZ.

A big thank you to Blueskin Bay Library car, for providing a wonderful service to Warrington School's students and teachers. Fortnightly visits with hand picked books and once a month book club for sharing our latest literature adventures.
My only complaint is walking around and having to encourage students to stop reading and go out and play - sad but true! 

The Juniors enjoyed a nice sunny day at their Athletics in Palmerston last week.  Everyone had a lot of fun and it's great to see how well our children did competing in all the events.  Well done to Elsa and Lola who represented the school at the Otago Athletic Championships. Its has also been great seeing so many students involved in summer sports - Rippa Rugby, T-ball, Soccer and Surf Group.

Saturday 70s and 80s Social at the hall - say no more - just dig out that garish fashion accessory and come and strut your stuff - 7.30 - till late. Gold coin koha and a plate of supper..

Blogs are abounding - there has been some incredible learning this last week with senior pupils uploading videos and pictures that they can share with family and friends. The digital learning handbrake is being slowly removed.

Sun hats - yes some days we need one! Please make sure your child has one available at school - thanks.

The Produce Shield challenge will again be potato growing - if you need seed potatoes please let the school know.

Warrington Blog

This is the start of the Warrington School blogging journey....

There has been an outbreak of Steam Punk fever around the school this week with the senior students arriving back from camp with this highly contagious disease caught in Oamaru. The symptoms are an interest in Victoriana Punk apparel with the addition of sci-fi styled weaponry. There has also been a mutation of the fever with the addition of wacky wheeled vehicles whizzing around the school – thanks to thoughtful adults who have kindly donated pushchairs, motor mowers and tools. We are working closely with Ministry officials to contain this outbreak as there is a worry that our ERO visitors next week may come into contact with the contagious pathogens and pass it onto other schools.   

Otago to Otara collaboration has begun. Room 1 are blogging about their recent activities after being encouraged by students from Bairds Mainfreight Primary School in Otara who have heard about what we are doing. The BMPS students created a video on how to blog and posted it on their class blog for us. The BMPS class aim to use the skills of room 1 students to install an Ubuntu computer in their classroom early in 2011. In the meantime the BMPS students are assisting our school with learning how to blog, distance is proving no barrier to collaborative learning in this digital age. Room 1 pupils are also now teaching the staff how to blog and with the creation of the Warrington School blog site....