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!