Matau School

Principals Report
BOT Meeting August 30th 2005

Roll 8

Staffing Unchanged

Curriculum
We have certainly set up a full calendar this term. The ED schools production is progressing reasonably well and we now have only two practices left. We decided to make this morew low key this year and it seems to be working. The McCleod Shield teams have been in action every Wednesday with mixed results for the rugby and excellent results for netball. Our school speech day was completed with Alice winning first prize. We then had speeches and cross country at Makahu. Non of our three won places but the Mansell children all won their age groups for cross country. I was very pleased with the depth we achieved with speeches this year. Eden Chapman at Makahu came up with a new speech programme and we were able to focus more across the whole school and not just the seniors. It was also good to see he had modified the race distances to a more sensible level. I think it’s the first changes we have seen to Makahu’s sports day in the last ten years. The other significant event was the last of the MenB jabs completed at Toko school.

Administration
I have been working on tidying up the EOTC and Principal appraisal policies as a result of our ERO report. The EOTC policy was submitted to them at the end of week three.
I have also started using a new way to record planning and evaluation. Each unit will be recorded in the following manner and then placed in the take home books with appropriate work samples. It shows the achievement objectives, the levels, specific objectives and the outcomes.

English Objectives and Evaluation
Term Three 2005
Victoria
[Language & Languages: English; Written Language - Writing; Level 3; Year 5]
Transactional Writing
Students should:

• write instructions, explanations, and
factual accounts, and express personal
veiwpoints, in a range of authentic
contexts, sequencing ideas logically Genre
INSTRUCTIONS
Write sets of instructions that demonstrate:
Sequence ideas logically and clearly.
Use sentence structure that is appropriate to the genre.
Use a range of punctuation correctly.

[Language & Languages: English; Written Language - Writing; Level 3; Year 5]

All Writing
Students should:

• write on a variety of topics, shaping,
editing, and reworking texts in a range of
genres, and using vocabulary and
conventions, such as spelling and
sentence structure, appropriate to the
genre SPELLING
Make close spelling attempts of unknown words
Use a more expansive vocabulary to improve meaning including synonyms ,antonyms, adjectives, adverbs
Use the following punctuation accurately: fullstops, commas, question marks, exclamation marks, apostrophes (for contractions)
Independently reread to self correct high
frequency words (such as those from Spell-Write Essential Lists 1 - 6)




I am using a similar method for all the units taught.

I attended the Roadsense Workshop and presented the childrens video. I’m impressed with the way the programme can be fitted into other curriculum areas.
I attended the NUMPHA workshop in Inglewood. I find I am still working directly from the handbook but it is getting easier.
Holly, Cecelia and I attended the I-School courses in NP. These were amazing and we have already started using the information gained in the classroom. Holly with networking the Macs, Cecelia with Garageband and I’m introducing Webpage design and Kidpix Three.
I’m rather disappointed to report that Holly resigned from her position as Digiops computer Technician. She is still continuing on her own but she will need to undertake training for the more advanced work that is coming up in the future.

Review of Art Resources – at the moment we replace art gear on an as needed basis. I cant see any reason to change this and the school still has stocks of some art gear that arrived in the school before I did.

Upcoming Events
September 5th Netsafe Training Day in Stratford. 8th IT group meeting in Eltham. 14th Rachel IT coordinator to visit , Jaqui Walker Roadsense coordinator to visit. 21st Dress Rehearsal and The Big Production, Kings Theatre, Stratford.

Speech Day
On Monday we had speeches at school. My speech was about sharks. My speech was last. Alex did his speech about possums. There was food at the end.
By Alan

Weekend
Yesterday I went to the swamp paddock and I practised on the DS 80 on the hills. I went to the school and played then I went home.
By Alan.