This document provides information for parents about Awapuni School. It includes: - Details about the school's syndicate structure and teachers. - An overview of the school's approach to teaching key subjects like literacy, numeracy, and technology. - Descriptions of school programs and activities like camping, swimming, and bringing your own digital device to support learning. - Guidelines around student behavior and home learning expectations. - Information about assessing student progress and parent-teacher communication. The school aims to create a learning environment where children love to learn and learn to love. It emphasizes partnership with parents and teaching 21st century skills.

1. Awapuni School – where children love to learn and learn to love
Te Kura o Awapuni - Te waahi whai matauranga, me te aroha

2. •Welcome & introductions
•Please sign guest book
•Syndicate information
•BYOD pilot
•Visit your child’s classroom and talk informally to
their teacher

3. Cheryl Torrie
Syndicate Leader
Kellie Mackey
Room 1
Anna Wallis
Room 2
Gaelyn Mann
Room 3
Anna Beattie
Room 4

4. Our partnership with you
Awapuni School views our partnership as a
three-way triangle
Open communication is vital
communicate by email…see your child’s teacher

5. We are SENIORS
Sensible
Enthusiastic
Never give up
Independent
Organised
Role models
Successful

6. New Zealand
Curriculum
English
Maths
Science
Key
Competencies
Essential
Learning
Areas
Technology
Health
& PE
Social
Sciences
The
Arts

7. •building a learning environment in our classrooms that
fosters emotional safety
•Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L)
•Cooperative learning & small group skills
•Student independence and self-control
•Students responsibility for their own learning
•Thinking about thinking
•Everyone is a learner - students and teachers

8. School Rules
Social skill
teaching
Labeling and
acknowledging
pro-social
behaviour

9. When faced with inappropriate behaviour the
students are taught the strategy of using their
WITS….
The emphasis in this strategy is to say an “I”
statement first and assert that they do not like the
behaviour being presented to them.
W = walk away
I = ignore it
T = tell someone
S = say an “I” statement.

10. 4 classes each with Year 4, 5 or 6 students,
Syndicate combines for many activities...
Singing and assembly once a week with each class
hosting and taking a leading role
Daily exercise 5 days a week + Games on Thursdays
Kapa Haka – searching for new tutor/s

11. Your children will have the following in their
programme…
 daily lessons in numeracy and literacy
 access to digital technologies with their own email
address
 Integrated curriculum that is rich and connects to
the real world with an inquiry base where appropriate
 library access at school once a week for targeted
teaching of information/library skills
 regular visits to the HB Williams Memorial Library
 involvement in community activities wherever possible

12. •We teach Mathematics & Statistics
•Problem solving is a big component
•Mental strategies are developed
•Maths is timetabled every day
•Students at this level need to know their basic facts
•Teachers involved in professional learning

13. •We teach reading strategies that aim at developing
reading comprehension into the high levels of inference
•Many of our Senior Syndicate students are readers and
are now reading to learn
•We have a small number of students that will need support
as they are still learning to read
•No matter what their reading level, students need to be
reading texts of their own choice every night to become
lifelong readers who use texts for leisure and pleasure and
to gain information

14. •Awapuni School has identified many factors in writing that
need emphasising from annual whole school reviews of
writing
•Writing is timetabled daily.
•Spelling is an important part of writing
•students are in a formal spelling programme
•Spelling is targeted in homelearning

15. •21st Century Learning
•Learn/create/share/assess cycle
•Creation of digital objects using Web 2.0 tools
•Sharing via social media – blogs
•Connecting learning to family/whanau as it happens
•Digital literacy is a foundation skill
•Cyber safety
•Integration of reading and writing

16. *Integration of reading and writing
•Google Apps for Education
•Collaboration
•Feedback and feedforward
•Personalising learning
•Distributed practise enabled
•Mathletics, Studyladder,
Spelling City

17. It’s not
about
the tools…
it’s about
the skills

18. Assessment is aimed at improving learning and teaching…
•criteria based assessments
•assessments are mostly recorded in student’s Portfolio
For Assessment as teacher/self/peer assessments
•PFA will come home at the end of Term 1
•assessments aligned with the National Standards.
•PFA are used to drive Student-Led Conferences (SLC)
in Term 4
•SLC should inform you of progress and achievements
over the year
•Meetings are held for whole school closer to SLC to
give the whole picture

19. Lets not have a battleground!
 Homelearning has three sections
Reading
Spelling
Maths
The best thing you can
spend on your children is
TIME!
 Most of this homelearning can be done independently.
You just need to check that it has been completed, sign
to say so, test spelling words each night
or join in to make games out of the spelling and maths
grid.

20. 24 – 28 February
Sleepover one night in the Hall
Aimed to build cohesion in class, forge relationships,
build resilience through challenge
Teachers and students gel as a unit
Olympic Pools for deep water challenge (swim & survive)
Kayaking in Olympic Pools
Snorkeling at Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve
Cooperative activities

21. •Parent help
•Head lice
•Newsletters & email
•Swimming
•Social media, blogs, websites, Facebook

22. Everything we do is aimed at raising student achievement and making
Awapuni School a place where children love to learn and learn to love

23. •Bring your own device
•Personal devices move between home and school –
anytime, anywhere learning
•Equity – the biggest issue in education
•Start with Y6 classes then expand
•BYOB – bring your own browser
•Robust, learning device needed that is internet capable
and can support the learn/create/share/assess cycle

24. •Policy to be developed by BoT
•Agreements need to be developed
•Issues, including equity need to be addressed
•Advice on purchases to be sought
•Expression of interest for the pilot then select on
participants. Criteria will be on numbers, type of device

25. Please ask any questions you have of us…
Your child’s teacher will
now be in their
classroom – please visit
them now and say hello!