National Standards and Plain Language Reports

Nationwide there are very real concerns about National Standards.
The National Party campaigned on these and so when they came to power they claimed they had a responsibility to introduce the Standards, indeed they claimed they had a mandate to push through the introduction.

Schools were not consulted. The National Standards were presented to schools with the instructions that they were to be implemented.

Having been a school that went through a District Education Review we appreciated the importance of full consultation, of listening to all groups involved when introducing change. We understand the importance of giving people a voice in the change process so that they gain a sense of ownership and grow to support the changes introduced.

National Standards were introduced in a hurry and without the government taking heed of the above change process. Why then has the Minister been so surprised that many in the education sector have not supported her demands to implement the Standards? In fact the Minister who has told schools that they must consider the best evidence synthesis when change and improvement is considered by schools, totally ignored her own advice. The leading assessment researchers told the Minister that there was no evidence that the introduction of these National Standards would result in an improvement to the tail of underachievement. Indeed overseas experience highlighted the waste of money and the lack of success in countries overseas when similar initiatives had been introduced.

Still the Minister has pushed ahead, and accused teacher groups of opposing the Standards for all the wrong reasons. Principals want the very best for their students. They want their students to succeed. I do not know of any Principals who are not constantly seeking for their students and their schools to be the very best! It is hard to credit that the Minister has not been prepared to listen to the reasoned concerns of the NZ Principals Federation and the NZ Educational Institute. These people are the ones who work with the children of our nation every day. If these National Standards were guaranteed to lift student achievement Principals would be whole heartedly behind them. The Standards represent the hopes and aspirations of the government. They are certainly not realistic! Many students who have been achieving at the National average will now be reported as being below the National Standards. This will confuse students and their parents. Yes it is a great ideal to aim high and yes we all want students to do better BUT lets us be sensible and realistic! National Standards need to be achievable or they will have a negative effect as learners become disheartened and disillusioned.

The public have been sold the rhetoric that student achievement will be lifted to new heights by the introduction of the National Standards. And of course when time proves concerned educationalists right the government will then be able to blame schools for the failure!

At Bluestone we will implement the Standards as we are required by law to do BUT had we been consulted, had the standards been developed in liaison with the education sector, had the supporting documents been in place BEFORE we received the instruction to proceed with implementation, had ALL teachers received meaningful professional development provided by people who ACTUALLY understood and believed in the Standards, had funding been provided to support the introduction of the standards (not after the event), and if the tools to measure and monitor the Standards were properly aligned, had staff had the time to hold moderation discussions, then MAYBE just MAYBE there might have been some benefit.

I have no problem with high expectations and high standards but if you have worked with these National Standards you will understand that these standards are not the solution that is needed!

Opportunities Abound

Term 4 is well underway. During this term students will be provided with many opportunities and I can only hope that students will make the most of these.

Already we have had a kapahaka performance group at the Polytech. This group was supported by Room 19 presenting a haka. All of this was done to support Dan deHar as he welcomed a number of visitors from France to the Polytech. Our groups did us proud and it shows the value of time put in. It also reflected the wonderful value of having quality music specialists at Bluestone. Jannette Aldridge accompanied students and her enthusiasm and expertise has brought us so far.

Two of our bands (one also having some of our past students) performed at a local Battle of the Bands with one taking first place and being rewarded with $1000. What a terrific recognition of the students growth in skills and abilities. These groups have been nurtured and supported by our music staff. Daniel Edmonds has been in bands himself and his knowledge and experience have been well passed on. Jannette and Daniel have taken many hours outside of school time to ensure the success of our budding musicians. Several of our bands are now proficient enough to now organise and drive themselves. What a wonderful gift they have been given. How great it is to see the enthusiasm and dedication of these young people. With such drive and attitude they deserve to succeed.

Dale McKay, a music specialist at Bluestone has written and produced a song for Christchurch, following the horrors of the earthquake. Then accompanied by Dale, Daniel and Jannette, a group of our students sang the song and a CD was produced. This has been presented to Bob Parker the mayor of Christchurch. Bob was delighted and presented our school with a lovely book full of amazing photos of Christchurch. Dale sent copies of the CD to schools in the area affected by the earthquake and we have had an amazing response from these schools who have appreciated the originality of the idea and support. You can hear this CD on our website.

Coming up this term is our Wearable Arts Awards. This showcases the amazing creativity that is nurtured at Bluestone. The quality of the garments and costumes equals those made by people many years their senior. Kate Vaughan Blackstock has driven the event and it is now an annual highlight for students and parents to look forward to.

There are many more musical and performance highlights to prepare for this term. I hope students and parents get in behind these opportunities and make the most of them. The rewrds are tremendous.

West School Reunion

In the holidays I had the real pleasure of being at the reunion of West School students who had left the school before 1946. Those in attendance ranged in age from 73 to 86. It was wonderful to listen to the stories of school the way it used to be. Many great tales were told. The thing that impressed me was how proud those in attendance remained of their school, and how positive they were about life. Young people today could learn a thing or two from them!

I was so impressed with the friendship of those present on the day and of the interest shown in what was happening at school today. I have promised that I will help to get the West School 100 year reunion organised. I can only hope that those who attend will be as passionate about their schooling and get together as this group were!

Mark Bang standing down as BOT Chairman

Mark Bang has announced that due to the realities of his current job he is standing down as Chairman of our Board of Trustees. Mark will remain a valued Board member.

We owe Mark so much!

He has been an inspirational and visionary leader and has lead Bluestone so well during its establishment.

Mark has encouraged us all to focus on our vision for our students. He has been a great listener, and been a very reflective thinker encouraging us to think before we act.

I have been very grateful for Mark's wisdom and support.

Mark has encouraged board members to grow professionally in their role. Thanks to this we have a highly competent board ready to lead Bluestone confidently and competently into the future.

I hope those of you involved in the life of Bluestone will take time to thank Mark for all that he has done in his role as Chairman of our Board over many years.

Art Exhibition at Bluestone

At our Art Exhibition we have had 18 exhibitors who are parents or who have close connections to our school. In addition we have had work on display that has been completed by our students.

The Exhibition has given students the opportunity to see artists in action and the questions asked have reflected their level of curiosity and interest.

It has been humbling to realise the depth of artistic talent that exists in our school community.

What an awesome and worthwhile event on our school calendar!

Helping and supporting children affected by the earthquakes

We have been thinking about what we can do for the children affected by the earthquakes in the Canterbury district.

We are exploring the possibility of running a camp in Timaru. There are members of Rotary and a good number of teachers who are keen to organise a camp with fun activities to give some of the children affected by the earthquakes a break from the realities they are facing. We will be looking to our community to rally around with ideas and support to make this idea a reality. We may be able to bring a bus load or two from areas like Kaiapoi.

We could look at providing some counselling sessions for those who want to talk and de stress.

I think our community will rally round and donate experiences and time and goods to make sure that the children we work with will have a great time with happy memories.

I have emailed local schools to see if they might consider sponsoring a child. Already several have replied to the affirmative which is great!

If anyone reading this blog can help or has some useful, creative ideas then please let me know

Events and visitors to Bluestone

The remainder of this term is shaping up to be very busy. Just look on our website calendar to see the range of activity.

The Minister of Education will tour our school on Tuesday 31 August. We look forward to showing her around and giving her the opportunity to see children in a range of exciting learning activities.

Danyon Loader our Olympic and Commonwealth Games medallist, who was born here in Timaru, will be visiting us on Friday 2 September. He will be promoting the exciting new Caroline Bay Aquatic Centre. We are having a mufti Day on Thursday 1 September so we can make a donation to the new Centre.

We are having visitors from Hartwell School in Melbourne who are keen to see the great things happening here at Bluestone. We look forward to sharing ideas about student learning.

Several staff and Board members are attending a seminar by Joseph Driessen a world authority on Boys Education. This will help us to reflect on what we are doing and on what we could do better.

Our Year 5-8 students are having a school Disco on Thursday 9 September from 6 - 8.30pm.

Our Year 3/4 students are visiting the Rocky Shore and doing a beach clean up on Tuesday 7 September.

Four of our staff are visiting several schools in the South Island over 4 days to look at how Interactive Whiteboards are being used to promote quality teaching and learning. As we have these boards in everyone of our classrooms we want to continually reflect on how we are using them and how we might use them even better.

On Wednesday 15 September TV6 will be at Bluestone to do some filming with Jim Mora. They are looking specifically at the Year 4 students who were presented with super new dictionaries by Rotary. They want to show how these have helped students in writing. Rotary has won a major regional award for their project.

A travelling show called Oceans Alive will be presenting 4 shows to our students on Tuesday 14 September. It is an important link to our studies on sustainability and links to our caring and respect for the environment.

On Friday 17 and Sat 18 September we will have our school community Art and Craft Exhibition which will show children a range of arts and crafts that will interest them.

School photos will be taken on Monday 20 September.

There certainly is a lot happening at Bluestone for your child!

New school vision phrase

Instilling the desire to excel in a challenging ever changing world.

This sums up the intent of our school vision and strategic plan. The word instilling is deliberate as it implies that the values and efforts to excel are embedded and not just something that is aimed for at school alone. If values and attitudes and a desire to learn are to have real value then they need to be part of the students life and extend into all they do both at school and beyond for life.

Parents, students and staff have shaped Bluestone values, attitudes and intentions. It is clear from parents that they want students to excel and to aim high.

Our world is challenging and we want students to be excited and positive about challenges and about taking risks so that they might find solutions to the challenges and changes met in life. We accept that technology has made the world the children interact with global. Social networking sites can be wonderful ways of communicating with a global audience. messages can be spread very quickly. Our students need to appreciate the inherent dangers in such networking as well as the potential.

Our students live in exciting times with huge challenges and constant change. We (parents, teachers, school community, wider community) have a big responsibility to prepare and equip our students for their part. We must encourage great citizenship so that students offer back as well as expect to take and receive. So let's all get behind Bluestone School and give our students the best support and opportunities we can. Let's do our bit to give them the skills and attitudes and values that will help them to excel in a challenging and ever changing world!

Art Exhibition at Bluestone

On Friday 17 & Saturday 18 September we are going to have a special Art and Craft Exhibition at Bluestone School.

The point of this is for students to be able to view a range of arts and crafts up close.

A number of artists who are parents or who have close connections with the school will each set up a display in a section of our hall. The students will be able to go through and view the displays up close. Some artists will be working at their display so that the students can see what is involved. There will be a variety of things to see from painting to sculpting to carving to teddybear making to costuming to photography and much more!

Student art will also be on display as will some secondary senior students portfolios to show our students what they might wish to do at a later date.

If you know of someone in our school community with talents then please let me know or encourage them to get involved. I hope this will become an annual event.

On the Friday from 2.45 until 4pm and then on the Saturday from 10am until 3pm the hall will be open to students, parents, and to members of the public. There will be no charge to view. Some art work will be for sale. We hope for a good turn out to appreciate the wonderful talents that exist within our school community!

Behaviour Management

We have enjoyed two days of training as a whole staff with margaret Thorsborne. Margaret is a trainer from Australia who brings real knowledge and wisdom around the process of Restorative Practice. This means that we look at behaviour in a different way and we will revamp our behaviour management system. Rather than punishing bad behaviour we are looking at how we can repair the harm caused when relationships are affected when things go bad.

Punishment seldom works and tends to only have a short term benefit. We know this when the students who present with unacceptable behaviours are constant re offenders. Something has to change for these kids and so an approach which helps them understand the impact their actions have had on others appears to be the way forward. This is NOT a soft apporach with all feel good stuff! The approach gets to the emotional intelligences we all have and as a result has a more powerful and long term effect. Of course one approach doesn't fit all but in general we can approach behaviour problems in a more effective way and I am delighted that staff have accepted this and are willing to consider different approaches than we have relied upon ion the past.

Improving relationships so that there is two way respect, so that both sides feel listened to and so both accept some responsibility in finding a suitable and satisfactory solution is a positive step we are ready to make. It is great to have a staff open minded to change and prepared to give new approaches a go. Having had the knowledge and wisdom of Margaret has been wonderful as we needed to understand the WHY before we looked at the HOW.

We intend to have Circle time running in all rooms as part of a proactive approach. Circle time gives avenues for expressing feelings and frustrations and acknowledgements. We appreciate that we need to give children the language to express these things. Perhaps if many adults had had this opportunity we wouldn't have so many issues in society? Not that simple I know but we have to do things better than we have been doing them in the past!

If you want to know more about Restorative Practices, Circle time, behaviour management approaches, then email me or drop me a line. It is always good to discuss such topics as it develops all our thinking.

Questioning

During the year we are working with students to improve the sorts of questions asked. Questions can help us to gain new understanding. Some questions are better than others depending on what we want to find out. Closed questions have a shorter answer, are factual, are specific and do not allow for opinion. Closed questions are good to ask when we quickly want a factual answer. Closed questions often begin with Who or When or Where. Open questions have many answers, can be an informed opinion and may lead to further questions. Open questions often begin with Why or How or What If. At Bluestone we encourage open questions so that students unlock ideas and seek alternative solutions and opinions to develop their thinking. With so much information now available on the web students need to ask questions and use thinking that challenges if the information available is reliable. We encourage you to think about the types of questions you use with your children. Do you encourage children to investigate, explain and summarise? These are skills that need practise and more beyond remembering to understanding.

New mosaics at Bluestone

We have some fabulous new mosaic boards at Bluestone School. Penni Naylor has created wonderful creative creatures to brighten up a fence in the junior area of our school. They are well worth a visit to view.

New values boards at Bluestone

We have added new values boards at Bluestone. Honesty, Excellence, Aroha, Respect, Tolerance. They are colourful and look great. Values are not just words but rather they are actions and interactions that anyone should see when they visit Bluestone.

Trip to Melbourne

Over the past weekend I visited Marysville a school 95 minutes out of Melbourne which was destroyed by the bushfires. The school has been rebuilt and fundraising from our district helped to purchase new maths resources. I have to really admire the principal of this school. She was so positive and cared so much for her students and for the district. The new school is certainly one to be proud of. A lot of the building designs reflect our thinking at Bluestone. It was great to see pre school and school and health care all on the same site - how sensible!

Term Two

A week has gone by in term 2.

Lots has happened already. A new sculpture, new murals, new ceramic tiles has made for great additions in the grounds. New class topics looking at human rights in education tie in nicely to ANZAC Day. The stories that come from this study are powerful for the children to relate to. Staff professional development is encouraging teachers to look at how questioning can bring the best thinking out of students. Asking the right sort of questions encourages students to think deeply, to think outside the square, to query their own thinking and the thinking of others. In written language staff are spending time discussing what children should be achieving at each curriculum level so that we are consistent in what we mark and analyse. This is particularly relevant as we work more with the National Standards and look at effective reporting to parents.

We are to have a Board of Trustees elections which reflects the good support that parents are giving our school. It is wonderful that parents recognise the importance of having strong governance. We appreciate the interest shown.

This term will see lots of new learning and exciting activities. Keep reading the class postings to see what each class is up to. Watch this space!

Term 2

Term 1 has finished. The term saw a number of events involving students, parents and staff. The breakfast BBQs for students and their Dads or Grandads were great successes. The fish and chip tea gave students a great chance to introduce their parents to their teacher and to show off their classrooms. Three Way conferences provided an opportunity for students, parents and teachers to set learning goals and to review progress made thus far. Year 8s enjoyed a great camp in Hanmer, and all students had the opportunity to improve their swimming skills and confidence.

New murals and a new statue were unveiled, giving a great school environment.

Term 2 will be equally busy with the opportunity for students to learn lots of new things and to experience additional activities. Winter sport teams will be underway and students involved in music will perform in variety music shows. In our first week back Dan deHar's statue will be blessed and unveiled with our kapahaka group performing for the occasion. The Board of Trustee elections will give all parents the opportunity to put their name forward to contribute to the governing of our great school. A new Mountainbike club will encourage students and parents to get active and share some common challenges and fun. Year 5-8 students will have their cross country runs. There is always lots to do and with the right encouragement and support all students can enjoy new challenges and new learning.

Safety on the roads around Bluestone

Mrs Hocking has been working with students to increase their awareness of the dangers on our roads.

We have asked for flashing lights to be installed on Otipua Road to slow the traffic down.

It is so important that parents encourage students to use the crossings and to look both ways for danger before crossing our roads.

We would love some parent volunteers to offer to oversee the Otipua Road crossing before school

Great start to 2010

What a great start to 2010. 35 enrolments on day 1. More teachers employed so that class numbers are dropped substantially. Only 24 students in Y7/8 classes means the rooms have space to move, teachers can get around students easily. The tone in rooms has been wonderful in week 1. Three new staff have shown great enthusiasm and passion. The grounds are looking great thanks to a fantastic property manager. The new mural is coming along. new equipment has been introduced for play and lunch times. The new fitness circuit is coming together and has already been well used.

Next week the Peer Mediators and Playground Activity Leaders (PALs) will be in action.

The Human Rights in Education (HRiE) lens will be applied to our school this year. Students will develop an understanding of human rights, the rights of children and of course the responsibilities that go with all of these! Rights and responsibilities will be reflected in class contracts and treaties.

We have an exciting year ahead!