Matau School

The Sand Mountain
Yesterday we played in the sand mountains. We made roads and put cars on the roads. People were making houses. Alex made an airstrip.
By Cameron

Making a Road on the Sand
Yesterday at the car park we made a track on the gravel pile. We drove cars along it.
By Alan

BOT MEETING: October 2004
PRINCIPALS REPORT

Roll 9

Staffing - Unchanged. Pool persons position?

Professional Development.
During the holidays I attended the NavconY2k4 conference in Christchurch as a member of the ICT cluster. The purpose was to look at the latest trends in software, hardware, and teaching. I had three personal goals for this conference as I strongly believe that it’s easy to be blinded by all the flash gear and that you end up with nothing practical for the school.

Goal One. What’s the current overall trend?
School networks and administration software were the standouts. Its clear that the ministry wants high speed internet access hooked up to a standardised school network and running a ministry approved software package. This is being introduced by the Ministry and I think we will be basically told what to do.

Goal Two. How can we properly integrate ICT and maximise it’s use in the classroom?
This involved two breakout sessions and one keynote speaker and is the most important as far as our school is concerned. ICT is not something that can be added on to the programme and is not an end in itself. Rather it allows schools to approach education in a different way and provide the opportunity for children to become self centred learners rather than receivers of knowledge.
I looked at the Hitahitahi school model and the work being done at Yaldhurst Model school in Christchurch and this term intend to experiment with the basic Hitahitahi model. I have attached a copy of this.
I also researched web logs and their ability to give the children a wider audience. As a result all the senior children have web logs linked to the school homepage. This will allow the children to publish to the world, or to a selected audience, and for the audience to comment or share with each child. This is very new and experimental in primary schools but I can see huge advantages for our children in this.

Goal Three. What will we replace the I-Mac with?
Well another Mac obviously. I attended the Apple trade stand and took part in two training sessions with them. The main thing to remember is where we are going not where we are now. Based on this I think either an e-Mac or G5 Power Mac and to keep the old I-mac for the juniors. We can then flick one of the older PC computers.
So in all a very effective conference and one that will influence education in our school rather strongly over the next two years.

Administration.
Last term I did an observation visit with Dave at Kaimata School. One of the areas that Dave asked me about was our system of school review and he made the comment that we are dithering about. On reflection I would have to agree with him. He suggested that we use his method and it appears to be very effective. Last year we did a complete review of everything for our new smart charter and in theory everything should now be in place. What we should now be doing is simply picking up each NAG folder and working through the policies and procedures. If they don’t work, we need to fix it , if they do then move on to the next one. By moving through each NAG we are in effect reviewing the whole school. The simplest to start with would be either NAG 5 Health and Safety or NAG 4 Financial and Property Management. Finish with NAG 2 as this deals with documentation and school review and should confirm what we have just been through.

UPCOMING EVENTS
October
Today District Health Nurse. 13th Rachel Jeffares ICT training. 19th Cybersafe Video Conference, 25th Labour Day, 26th Pets Day, 27th House windows, Observation with Dave, 28th Principals Meeting in Stratford,
November
4th Soccer Tournament in Stratford, 5th Guy Fawkes, 9th Maths course, 10th Cluster meeting at Wanga Pub. 18th Mike Whiteman visits, 26th Network meeting Stanley,
December
7th Fitzroy Beach Safety Day, 13th Concert 14th End of school year.

Well another term begins. I spent the last week of the holidays attending the Navcon2 conference in Christchurch. I was very sceptical about giving up holidays for work but in the end it was very successful and useful. With IT I am aiming to move on from being a well equipped dithering school to a school with IT integrated into the learning environment. Not as hard as it sounds as we were well on our way already. I have set up another blog to record this at
Our opening integrated units are the "Road to Matau" which involves the seniors making an intractive CD with stories collected from our community about how people went to school and a special trip to town in the good old days.
The middle kids are making an advertising poster to attract tourists to Matau. They are currently interviewing people and researching other examples.
The juniors are producing a book about our new road and how it was built. Complete with pictures.

In the holidays we had a water bomb fight. Then we had to clean out the pond.
By Cameron

In the holidays we had a watewrbomb fight. It was fun and then we threw people in the pond.
By Alan.