Principal News

By Simon Clarke | Posted: Monday February 11, 2019

Looking back, moving forward.

This is the perfect theme for the schools 150th with a lot of the work that the students will be doing this year focused around that theme. If you or you know someone who attended Kaikorai Primary School please direct them to 150th Reunion page. https://sites.google.com/kaikorai.school.nz/kaikorai150th/home?authuser=0

But it is also a time to look forward and the announcement from the Ministry of Education that they have agreed to our building plans is indeed good news.

The masterplan is to build 12 new classes, a new hall and multi-use space while transforming the current junior block into an admin building consisting of offices, library, staffroom and resource rooms. Thank you to the architect-Maguire and Harford, The Board of Trustees and the Ministry of Education for coming up with an excellent plan for the school. We believe that these plans will achieve the following outcomes.

One School - This has been a significant theme for the school for many years now and having all of the classes under one roof will go a long way to achieve this goal.

Flexibility of space - A "Learning Street" will be built along the front of the classes which all children will have access to. This will become an essential collaboration area for teaching and student-led inquiry including:

Kaikville
Fair
School Movies/Production
Syndicate meetings
Syndicate singing
Demo Lessons and guest speakers
Regular teaching spaces

Classrooms - We believe that having teachers know their students and students knowing their teachers is fundamental to student success. The new build will have elements of a traditional class. These may be smaller to what we currently have but will be offset by the learning street.

Maori Perspectives - Tikanga - The Kaikorai Way – An expectation of how things should be done

Turangawaewae – A place where one has the right to stand.

Whanaungatanga – A sense of family connection. A relationship through shared experiences and working together with a sense of belonging.

Equity - All teachers can be expected to teach in the same/similar ways as they all have the same environment including the same expectations for professional development and pedagogical teaching style. All children will be in the new buildings.

Student Behaviour - All children in one block will make playground duty more effective.

Visibility throughout the whole teaching block during teaching time and allows all teachers to monitor behaviour at all times.

Access - Single story makes moving people and resources easier, no noise from upstairs.

Playground - The additional hard space and enlarging the backfield means the overall useful area for play is roughly the same. We can start on a new playground by the Tyne St entrance as son as funding is raised.

The overall project will need to be staged in four parts.

Firstly the construction of 7 classrooms on the hard courts.

Secondly, moving the current junior classes, the three senior classes into these new classes and then turning the junior block into the new admin area.

Thirdly, the demolition of the current offices, library and senior classes and replacing it with the five new classes, multiuse space and hall.

Finally, the hall and Room 11 will be demolished and new hard court and landscaping completed.

The rebuild is scheduled to start in December of this year and construction to take 12-18 months.

The next stage is to get preliminary drawings completed which will provide a better idea of how the building will look and function. We look forward to presenting these in a few months.

Have you ever wondered what VR, coding or robotics really is? Our students are also looking to the future and are keen to share their learning with you. Each class is working on becoming an expert in one of these areas and will be inviting you in to teach you as part of our new kids' conference towards the end of the term.

Unfortunately for us, our Deputy Principal, Mr Robin Hartley has decided to move forward and take his family back to the UK for an extended break. Although only here a short time he has had a significant impact on the school and will be sadly missed. We have advertised for a new Deputy Principal, and I hope to make an announcement by the end of the term.

But I want to finish with how I started this months newsletter by looking back — the importance of talking to your child. There have been many research projects on this topic from speaking in "Parentese"  to the "30,000 words project", but the one thing that all of these have in common is not so much how you talk to your child but more importantly the amount you talk to your child.

Are you finding your child withdrawing more into their bedroom as they grow older to watch Youtube clips or play Fortnight (They shouldn't be as the age restriction is 13)?  This may make your household easier for you when getting tea ready or you just need a break but is this the best parenting for your child? 

The importance of talking to your child should never be underestimated and one of the best ways to do this, is the bedtime story.  These stories often have bigger themes that may start another conversation or they can simply be a great way for children to de-stress.  The great Mr Reid reminded me recently of what great parents do when he told me that he read bedtime books to his boys well into their high school days.  It's never too early to start nor is it ever to late to finish reading to your kids.

Kind regards

Simon Clarke