Visit to Waimirai School

Today we visited Waimire School.    This was very different from what we are doing in outr hub as they are a lot further along the collaborative journey.

Questions to ponder while at visit and post discussion.

1.What are good practices/systems that you saw on your visit?

I liked the play based learning and the relaxed atmosphere in the classroom. I was impressed that they were so in touch with Te Whariki and they were very mindful of where the children had come from. They appear to have a very good transition to school programme with a good system of parent communication.

2. What are strategies that were being used to promote the children’s self management?

At the beginning of the academic year, the children go on a trip to Willowbank to observe the behaviour of birds including Kiwi, Keas etc. They use the behaviours of the birds to name the learning spaces in the environment eg the Kiwi is a quiet bird who tends to have head down and bum up so this is what is expected of the children working in the kiwi space- quiet work etc. I thought this was great idea and it keeps it real for the children.

3. What types of activities were the students completing?

Some children in the junior hub were playing chess, building with blocks, looking at science- types of wood and magnifying glasses etc. Some children were doing an art activity adn others were doing construction with a parent helper. In the Kiwi" space a teacher was running a guided reading session. PE was also happening and it appeared that senior students were running the sessions.

4. Where there any resources that you thought that would be useful in your team?

Their teaching space was very purposeful and, it seems, ever changing to suit the learning needs of the students.

5. How did the teachers manage transitions?

I am not sure as we didn't get to see this in action.

6. How did their timetables operate?

The timetable appeared to be very fluid and I didn't see any timetables at all on the wall or on display at all. There appeared to be a very relaxed attitude towards planning and time etc.

7. What are some questions you have in regards to what you saw? Ideas that challenged your thinking?

I was surprised to hear that the children in the NE do not necessarily begin their school days with instructional reading. They might not be seen to be ready so this could mean that children could be at school for a few weeks before beginning the process of learning to read. ( Learning to read through the forma teaching I am used to anyway.)

8. What role did the teachers play during the lesson? (e.g. Workshops/Coach)

I believe there appeared to be a mixture of roles eg teaching workshops (instructional reading) and facilitating.

9. What did their planning systems look like? E.g Do they use some kind of tracking sheet/system to monitor where children are?

I was interested to note that there did not appear to have a big focus on planning on paper. I am sure they did plan but it seemed like it was very fluid and oral based. it is possible I have misunderstood this!

10. What could we implement in our own team?I really liked the bird names being used to name the learning spaces in the environment and I liked that the NE teachers had each spent some time relieving in various preschools to gain a better understanding of the brain development of 5 year olds.  I was also impressed with the fact that they run parent information sessions on a regular basis to keep parents up to speed with the transition to school process.  It should also be noted that they are a much larger school than ours with a roll of about 520 I think.