Welcome to Toroa

Welcome to Toroa
2017

Teachers:   Ali Duncan and Jo Postles

Dear Families,

Hello and welcome to Toroa for 2017! 

We hope you have all had an enjoyable break.  We are really excited about the coming year and we look forward to working with the awesome children in Toroa. This page is to inform you about the class routines, our beliefs about teaching and learning and some of the methods and strategies we will use to help us succeed and grow as learners.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or questions. Our contact details are…

School:     329 6885      

ali.duncan@ladbrooks.school.nz

Jo.postles@ladbrooks.school.nz

GENERAL INFORMATION

Our goal is for your child to enjoy school, be enthusiastic about their learning and to develop an independent spirit. Happy children learn and we strive to make the TLC a fun place to be. 

In terms of independence - it starts from day one.  All children in the TLC are expected to take responsibility for their learning and equipment.  This means carrying their school bag, putting their own notices away and being responsible for any morning jobs. You may be tempted to do some things for your child, but please - allow your child to complete the tasks themselves.  Even if your child is late, it is still important they do their jobs themselves, as it is part of being READY in Toroa.  

Please bring…

Every day:		Each Week:
·         Diary ·         Hat (Terms 1,4) ·         Water bottle ·         Togs & Towel      (summer only) .    Some children will use a reading folder as well		·      3 pieces of              fruit

Times – School starts at 8.55am and finishes at 3pm.

Please ensure your child arrives at school for sign-in by 8.45am.

Morning interval is from 10.40am until 11.00am
Lunch is between 12.00pm and 12.40pm children who are independent and responsible eaters with wrapper free lunch boxes eat outside (if they want)  
Afternoon interval is from 1:40pm until 2pm

Wrapper Free - We are endeavouring to become completely wrapper free and teach the children the benefits to our society if we reduce rubbish.  This is not compulsory but we would encourage you to assist us.  Wrapper free means no plastic, paper or clingfilm.  They can have reusable containers.  

Environmental Education -We are a silver accredited Enviroschool, which we are very proud of.  This means that we weave environmental education throughout the curriculum.  At times, your child might be feeding and maintaining the worm farm, planting or maintaining garden beds, learning about the creatures that live in and around our community and learning outside. 

Diaries – Your child will bring this home each afternoon.  You are able to use the diary for messages to school.  Your child’s personal spelling list will be written in their diary each week.  Children may write their spelling words in their diary each day to practise. Please record in the diary the book that is read each evening.

Library Day –You will notice that our library is housed in Dotterel.  We are currently updating our library system and the children will soon be able to withdraw books.
The Selwyn District Council Mobile Library Bus will visit each fortnight. It comes on Thursdays.  If your child is not yet a member, you can join up if you wish. See one of us for a form.

Sickness – If your child is ill, please phone the school to let us know that they will be away.  Remember, do please keep them off school if they are ill as sick children do not learn well and their bugs spread like wildfire in a classroom. Thank you.

Parent helping – We enjoy the support of parent helpers. It’s not tricky to help – just easy and fun games to play with individuals or small groups of children.  Some routines such as cutting up fruit or before school spelling or maths revision is a great way to support the learning of our children in the TLC.  At times, trips require certain ratios of adults to children to ensure safety.  

Should you be interested in any of these options on a regular or occasional basis, we can have a quick chat about what would be required so you can join us! Please let us know if you are interested. Parent assistance is always greatly appreciated and valued.

Fun in the Sun – Please ensure your child has sunblock on before school. Extra sunblock for re-application is provided at school during breaks. Children are required to wear hats whenever they are outside at school during Terms 1 and 4.

Lost Property – We are endeavoring not to have a lost property box this year.  Instead we need all children to be responsible for their belongings and we would love you to help them by encouraging responsibility.

LITERACY

Reading 

We focus on three areas of reading in Toroa – reading to, reading with and reading by children.  We read to the children everyday, the children read with us everyday and the children will read to someone in some form everyday.

Once children have figured out the key to decoding text, they quickly become confident and capable readers.  To support this, regular consistent reading at home for a sustained period of time is essential for good reading development. 15-20 minutes of sustained reading is recommended.  It's important to make reading a routine and just something that your family does.

Make a time each day to sit and listen to your child read.    Useful prompts are:
* What word would make sense?
* What sound can you see at the start?
* Go back and try that again
Note: It's always ok to tell the child the word if they don't know.

For more experienced readers, continue to read with your child. Help them select books that will assist them in developing a love of reading. It's really important that you relate what you are reading or what they are reading to the real world. Help them make connections. Seek advice from libraries and bookshops about awesome texts for your child.  You can also check out the label on the blog, great reads.

Please remember to record the text title in the diary each day/week when your child reads and feel free to comment, too.  This will show your child that you value their learning. 

Writing

As with reading, children are all at different stages and they will develop at different rates.  Children will the the opportunity to write in their books or using Google Docs.  We will give you access to their digital work in a few weeks.

Writing will occur through most subjects and take many forms.  Whilst we don't focus on genre, through the year, the children will learn to write using various fiction and non-fiction structures which may include poetry, persuasion, recount, reports, describe, narrative, instructions and reviews.

There will be a focus on deeper features, like word choice, descriptive features (simile, metaphor) and sentence structure.  Surface features like spelling, grammar, spelling and punctuation are also important.
 

At home, you can help your child by providing opportunities and encouragement.  Diary or list writing are great ones and can be fun.

Spelling

Spelling words are written in the diary on a Friday and will be tested the following Friday.  The words come from the NZCER lists, once completed, the children will select words from The You Can Spell programme, their own writing, topic words or an advanced speller list.  It is widely recognised that often children learn the words and can easily pass a weekly test but cannot retain them into long term memory and transfer into their work.  Therefore they will numerous exposures to words.  Please don't panic if your child comes home with words they have had before or appear "easy".  This might mean that they couldn't write them under pressure.

Please help set up a routine of daily learning of spelling.  The most effective method seems to be to write them out every day in the diary.

Handwriting

It is important that children establish good handwriting habits early on. The purpose is to ensure that children’s writing can be read easily by themselves and by others, so it must be neat, legible and fluent. Once children are consistent with letter formation, size and spacing, they move onto focus on slope, adding ligatures and linking their letters.

Oral Language

Talking is at the foundation of all we do in our literacy programmes in Toroa and it is ‘learner talk’ rather than ‘teacher talk’ which is the most powerful.  We encourage the children to verbalise their experiences, ideas and wonderings with their peers and with us. 

The children learn to carefully listen to those of others and comment on what they hear.  They learn to ask quality questions.  All of these things help develop confidence and move their learning forward as the children become capable speakers and listeners. During the year, the children will be grouped in different ways for a variety of purposes.

We spend time thinking about, formulating ideas and discussing concepts relating to our current unit of work.  We learn about quality thinking tools, examine different parts of speech in depth and share a poem each week.  
At times during the year, you child will be asked to conduct a specific oral language task.  It might be bringing "new", bringing a tool to describe, reciting a poem, practicing a speech or a news article.

MATHEMATICS

The children will be grouped in various ways that will change constantly throughout the year.  They may be in mixed groups, ability groups, whole class, buddies or working by themselves.  They could be working with Ali or Jo during maths time.  We will work through various strands including statistics, numeracy, geometry, measurement and algebra.  They might use all of these strands in one problem.

THINKING

We use a variety of tools to explore different aspects of thinking. Children are encouraged to examine the way they think. One new aspect we are exploring with the children is the SOLO taxonomy. Here's a bit about it:

SOLO Taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) provides a simple, reliable and robust model for three levels of understanding – surface, deep and conceptual.

At the prestructural level of understanding (Whakarangaranga), the student needs help to start. 

The next two levels, unistructural and multistructural are associated with bringing in information (surface understanding). 

At the unistructural level (Rangaranga Takitahi), one aspect of the task is picked up, and student understanding is disconnected and limited.   

At the multistuctural level (Rangaranga Maha), several aspects of the task are known but their relationships to each other and the whole are not yet evident. 

At the relational level (Whanaungatanga), the aspects are linked and integrated, and contribute to a deeper and more coherent understanding of the whole. 

At the extended abstract level (Waitara Whanui), the new understanding at the relational level is re-thought at another conceptual level, looked at in a new way, and used as the basis for prediction, generalisation, reflection, or creation of new understanding.

As a school, we are learning about how this tool can extend children's thinking. 

Should you have any questions about anything you have read, just ask. As a team, we believe that the key to a successful partnership is building effective relationships and communication with our community. Please do approach us with any questions, suggestions or any other matter. We are here to help.

Ali and Jo    :)