Senior syndicate news July 2020
By Beth Downie | Posted: Wednesday July 1, 2020
It has been so fantastic to engage with our parent community this week through parent interviews - some interviews even taking place virtually - now that is a first! We really appreciated the almost 100% turn out of our whānau and your willingness to engage in learning conversations about your children. We all know when the pathway is open between home and school, there is greater success for our learners. Goals have been set and will be worked on throughout Term 3 and will be reflected on through SeeSaw.
Project-Based Learning (PBL) has been the focus of all our classes over the last 7 weeks. I'm sure you have heard all about it at home! Not only have the children been learning about the designing process and design thinking, but they have also been refining their cooperating and collaborating skills and recognising the challenges of group work. The driving question of 'How can we, as designers, bring awareness to an environmental issue through creating an accessory to promote our cause' has been a challenge as they have had to keep sustainability at the forefront of their mind whilst creating an accessory that promotes an environmental cause! You will see from the photos that there have been some awesome accessories designed!
We really enjoyed the 4 sessions we had with Maria and Harold in the Life Education Bus over the last few weeks. The focus being Leadership and working well in a group - perfect timing with our PBL focus.
Classes have been learning about Matariki. Matariki signals the Māori New Year. It is a time of renewal and celebration in New Zealand that begins with the rising of the Matariki star cluster. Matariki is a star cluster that appears in the night sky during mid-winter. According to the Maramataka (the Māori lunar calendar), the reappearance of Matariki brings the old lunar year to a close and marks the beginning of the new year. Hence, Matariki is associated with the Māori New Year. Songs have been sung, artwork created and some kites have been made to celebrate and enhance our learning about Matariki.
I hope you all have a fantastic break over the next two weeks and your children feel rested, refreshed and raring to go after their break.
As always, thank you for your support of our learning programmes.
Ngā mihi maioha
Beth Downie and the Senior Syndicate.
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