Junior News

By Felicia Ward | Posted: Friday August 7, 2020

As always the Junior team have had a busy start to the term. Classrooms are buzzing with the excitement and rich learning that is taking place through PBL - Project Based Learning.

I’m sure words such as driving question, entry event, prototype and problem solving have been spoken about at home.

As always the Junior team have had a busy start to the term. Classrooms are buzzing with the excitement and rich learning that is taking place through PBL - Project Based Learning. I’m sure words such as driving question, entry event, prototype and problem solving have been spoken about at home.

The things our children love the most about PBL are that they feel like they are really making a difference and that they have a ‘real job’ to do. In the Juniors we have a range of specialities with the Room 7 and 10 ‘artists’ looking for a way to enhance wellbeing through art, Room 8 ‘health experts’ identifying ways to promote healthy lifestyles, Room 9 ‘logistical engineers’ helping supplies travel efficiently to different places and the Room 12 ‘wayfinding experts’ coming up with easy ways for people to find where they are going.

While our overall focus this term is the hospital rebuild our projects have begun more locally within our own school. So far this term children have completed their entry event (an engaging experience that introduces the problem), come up with a range of questions and wonderings. They are now delving deeper to find out more about their problem as they begin to think about possible solutions. As well as learning rich content knowledge the students are also learning important life skills such as creative thinking and collaboration. We are all looking forward to continuing our PBL journey in the coming weeks as we begin to shift our thinking to how we can help with the new Dunedin Hospital.

Alongside and integrated throughout our usual routines some other focuses across this term will include instructional writing, geometry and small ball skills.

A warm welcome back to our third year College of Education students, Miss Brearne Dowling (Room 10) and Miss Kelsey Jones (Room 9. Brearne and Kelsey are currently in the middle of their two weeks of teaching control. They will join us again in a few weeks for another 3 week block.

As always if you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.

Many thanks

The Junior Team

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