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PRINCIPALS’ REPORT TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
24 September 2014
NAG 1: CLASSROOM AND SCHOOL CURRICULUM REPORT
Spelling Competition: The results of the NSW University Testing Centre’s competition have been received. Of the 27 Year 4-6 students who sat the exam, 12 students gained top 25% Credit certificates and Year 4 students Andrew Cotter and Hannah Davis achieved Distinction awards for being in the top 10% of the thousands of entrants across Australasia. We celebrated these results at school assembly and in a Family Newsletter.
Pasifika Group Performs: The Pasifika group was an initiative begun last year and has been supported really well again in 2014 by students from Wesley College as tutors, including their Head Girl Le’ota Inoke and the Wesley Chaplain as the group met each week. I have written a letter of thanks to the Wesley Principal including a koha and students also presented Warehouse vouchers to the 4 Wesley students.
At a recent assembly, the children performed taufaka’niua and tau’longa that they had learned.
What was also impressive was the support we received from parents – some who came along to practice time and assisted, and at the performance itself when over 40 family members came to dress and prepare the children in their ngatu and tupenu and obviously enjoyed their performance.

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Technology Challenge: Each term we have a whole school technology challenge, typically linked to the term’s learning inquiry concept. Children either work in small groups at their Year levels with different challenges or in whanau groups with the same challenge. Josh McDonald is our enthusiastic and well organised Technology leader.
Cross Country: We had a successfully run school event which led to a 32 strong team qualifying for Group Day, and 9 senior students gained top 10 places in their age group races, and qualified for the Franklin Championships. Competing in age group races in fields of 50 – 60 runners, 4 students, Bradley Morrison(2) Georgia Carter (3) Tory Jones-Bruce (5) and Bella Earl (8) were top 10 placegetters, with our runners also being part of the Central Group team that won 3 of the 4 age group sections and came 2nd in the fourth! Results were celebrated in recent newsletters. One of our most successful years!
Mini Wheels: Miniwheels is a popular lunchtime event organised by Mrs Smart and her TravelWise student team, and has links to promotions by Auckland Council and Counties

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Manukau sport. One of the aims of TravelWise is to promote students being active including coming to school by foot, scooter or bike. At Hill, any student can come by scooter if parents think they can do so safely and children who are 9 years or older can cycle on their own after a parent signs a permission slip available from the office.
Middle School Production: Terrific Tales: The Middle syndicate have been preparing for their production of “Terrific Tales” in the last week of term with a show for the rest of school, a matinee and evening performance for families. An excellent opportunity for our Year 3-4 students to experience the arts in action.
Book Week: We have enjoyed a Book Week theme from 15-19 September, with lots of reading in classes, staff reading at lunchtimes in the library, a visit by NZ Post winner writer/illustrator Vasanti Unka – an ex Hill student - a Book Fair organised by Malcolm Laurence, and a celebration book character dress up day at the end of the week.
Overnight Stay and Hangi: As part of their Culture concept inquiry, our Enrichment class had an overnight stay at school and prepared a hangi lunch for the next day. Excellent support for the children from parents and whanau, and leadership from Mrs Chamberlain support staff member Sylvia Patu and kapa haka tutor Hutana Maxwell. I can also attest that the hangi was superb! The enrichment class also put on a performance of waiata and haka for whanau on Open Evening.
Lunch with the Principal: The Lunch with the Principal celebration was held for a student from each class on Friday 19 September. The work of Mrs Smart and her HPS student chefs is most appreciated.
Opportunities for Leadership by Students: Students show leadership in many ways both informally with their peers and more formally in groups and activities.
These include our:
Ambassadors
Student ICT and AV team
Environment for Sustainability group (EFS)
Health Promoting team (HPS)
Library student team
Travelwise group
Kapa haka leaders
House leaders in sports
PALS students
Students running events such as talent contests, being on a roster to support students with special needs at lunchtimes, and over 100 students who show leadership as monitors in such areas as road patrol, lunches and wet day supervision in classes, office reception, and sports shed.
It is also important to note that many of these leadership opportunities are available to students because of the commitment of staff throughout the school.
Fundraising and Project Support by Students: Several fundraisers have been held or are in progress with students and staff. Our traditional Daffodil Day appeal,

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with each class having a poster to fix their gold coin trail donations raised over $600, we have recently received a Certificate for our World Vision support, and as part of a mufti “This is who I am” day linked to our Culture concept, students raised over $600 for the Pukekohe St John new station project.
These activities often have good links to both learning, inquiry, and the “making a difference” part of our Vision Statement.
Hill Satellite Unit: The arrangement of having a special needs ( Room 5) Satellite class on site is a positive one. We own the building, but staff and students belong to Parkside School. There is some integration of Room 5 students in our classes and some “reverse integration” where some of our students work with and support some of the 8-12 Room 5 children, or take part in their programmes.
This month there are 2 teachers who are providing reports: Julie Brook will take us to her classroom and a written report from Junior Syndicate leader Lorraine Watson is below.
Classroom Highlights from Room 10
Room 10 is a Year 1 class of wonderful 5 and 6 year olds. All of the children are enthusiastic learners who work hard to achieve their learning goals. They have settled into the routines of school and all that goes with it, and have made considerable progress in all areas of the class programme.
Like every class in the school, our classroom is a Learning Zone. Room 10’s learning zone is based on the theme of a rocket ship going on a learning journey. The children are the “astronauts” who are on a journey into the unknown to learn new things. They have to be very careful not to get hit by “asteroids” along the way - these can be distractions or making bad choices which will stop them from learning. Each morning the children are reminded to sit in their rocket ship and blast off into learning in the unknown. The latest thing that the class have developed together is a motto for our classroom. It is based on the acronym – “SKATUR”.
Learners must….
Stay focussed.
Know their learning goal.
Ask for help if they need it.
Take risks.
Use success criteria.
Reflect.
The year has been very busy so far. At the beginning of the year the children could only write very short stories in Written Language. The children write almost every day and are now able to write longer stories. They
CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS

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can write recounts about something that has happened, and write descriptions. As well as learning to write stories of a certain structure, each of the children have individual learning goals like including full stops and capital letters in their writing; making spelling attempts by recording the sounds they can hear; including more detail in their stories; and using adjectives in their stories.
This term the children have been learning about the concept of Culture. We have joined in with Room 13 and 27 to learn about different aspects of Maori, Indian and Kiwiana culture. Some of the things they have been doing is art from these cultures, learning traditional songs and their actions, learning traditional dances, eating cultural food and listening to traditional stories from these cultures. Within our classroom the children have also been sharing things from their own cultures. It has been great to see the children show their pride in, and their own knowledge of their cultures. We have been working on Questioning to get more information. The children’s questioning skills have improved. It was really interesting listening to the questions the children asked about the different cultures, and the answers that some of the children gave when they were taking about their own culture.
This term’s virtue of Tolerance has fitted in well with the concept of Culture. The children now know that even though we all live in New Zealand, we are not all the same and that we need to be tolerant and show respect to all cultures, and the traditions and beliefs that go with them.
PMP finished for most of our class at the end of Term 2. The children are now participating in a PE programme that is based on the Fundamental Skills of Physical Education. The children enthusiastically participate in the activities of hopping, balancing, skipping, jumping, throwing, running, and galloping. The children especially enjoy the games which they play in their PE time.
At present we are learning songs for our end of year production which is based on songs from New Zealand. The Junior school will present the show towards the end of the year. Each class will be performing an item on the stage in this show.

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In Art the children are learning to do Printmaking this term. They have designed their own prints of owls using Styrofoam, made fork print flower pictures, made koru shape borders using foam shapes, made kiwi picture prints and elephant print pictures. They have learnt that you have to hold your paper or print shape very still or it doesn’t make a clear print.
When the children look back at their work from the beginning of the year, and compare it to what they can do now, they get quite excited. In each of the subjects all of the children have made considerable progress. I am very proud of each and every child in Room 10.
Lorraine Watson
Community Partnership
Labour Weekend Reunion:Planning is proceeding for the reunion at Labour Weekend of students and staff who were part of the Native/Maori school established on our school site in May 1952. The reunion is based at Nga Hau e Wha marae.
Our role will include welcoming those attending onto the school on Saturday 26 October and will involve our kapa haka tamariki. There will likely be a planting of a tree and the gifting of a plaque commemorating the Maori School
Open Evening: An Open Evening was held on 18 September aimed to allow parents and caregivers to visit classes and for children to talk with their families about the learning that is happening in classrooms. An excellent opportunity also for staff to engage with our community through the kanohi ki te kanohi approach advocated through Te Huarahi.