Middle Syndicate

During 2022, the Middle Syndicate focused on embedding the elements of StAC-UP: Be Safe – inside, outside, and online; Be Ready – to learn in all situations; and Be Respectful – towards others and yourself.

Manaakitanga

Manaakitanga was a highly valued aspect of our team. We set the expectations for the development of this in our students from our Year 3 transition meetings during Term 4 and continued to strongly encourage, model and make this a nonnegotiable in our interactions, within our team and our wider school community. At the beginning of the year, we welcomed nineteen new students to our team. Due to COVID-19 we had restrictions during Term 1 and were only able to interact at each year level. This did impact our ability to develop our Years 4–6 team identity. Term 2 came with less restrictions in place and enabled us to come together for our weekly assemblies, fitness, kapa haka, Aotearoa studies interchange and singing, to work on developing a shared understanding of what Manaakitanga means for us.

StAC-UP

2022 has been the second year of StAC-UP. StAC-UP was explicitly taught each week and promoted, fostered, and facilitated daily in our classrooms and team. We used a range of resources for our lessons to meet the particularly needs of our students. Students were invested in the StAC-UP tokens they could earn for demonstrating StAC-UP in and out of the classroom. The token canisters were watched closely twice a term to see which house would win a casual wear day.

Teachers used Appraisal Connector to record and share their professional learning and appraisals throughout the year. Images, documents, and reflections were uploaded for Class Descriptions, self-appraisal, leadership appraisal, and student voice.

All Years 4–6 teachers used the Prime resource, Maths Buddy (online) and work books. Mathematics classes were ability grouped at each year level with Mathematics being taught every day. Groupings were fluid and reviewed regularly to ensure individual needs were attended to throughout the year. Shared assessment practices enabled teachers to communicate progress for all students for the purpose of parent interviews and reporting. Maths Buddy was used for diagnostic tests, weekly revision tasks, individualised lessons, and extension. This learning supported whole class and group lessons and paper-based tasks in work books.

Reading: Core 5 (Years 4–5) and Reading Plus (Year 6)

Integration of Core 5 (Years 4–5) and Reading Plus (Year 6) into the classroom reading programme contributed to excellent progress in vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension for Years 4–6 students. Integrating Core 5 and Reading Plus into our Reading lessons has supported student progress with students making up to 24 months progress. ‘Catching on to Comprehension’ textbooks were used in Years 4 and 6 classrooms. This resource provided a broad and varied range of text types to engage students, facilitate reading skills and strategies, and targeted comprehension at the each student’s level.

Year 4–6 teachers attended the mid-year Teacher Only Day professional learning with Liz Kane, with a focus on Structured Literacy. Professional learning opportunities will continue to be essential to develop expertise in the planning, teaching and assessment of this approach. Year 4 assessed and implemented a high-needs group spelling programme. Year 5 have used the elements of this in their spelling and reading lessons. The teachers are looking forward to continuing to build their knowledge in this area in 2023.

SSpA and Peters Spelling gave us valuable data and next steps at the beginning of this year. We introduced ‘The Code’ to further identify gaps in spelling at the end of Term 2. The inclusion of this resource will continue in 2023.

We were very fortunate to have a specialist teacher in Aotearoa Studies this year. She taught fortnightly lessons in every classroom. This was an opportunity to educate the students and upskill classroom teachers. Teachers were provided with ideas, PowerPoints and online tools to use in their daily classroom programmes. Years 4–6 Kapa Haka with Matua Steve every Wednesday afternoon was adapted to include Aotearoa Studies lessons. One Year 4, 5 and 6 class attended Kapa Haka each week, with the other three classes involved in lessons with a focus on Matariki, Maramataka and Myths and Legends. This was on a fortnightly rotation and has broadened student understanding of Kapa Haka, Te Reo and Aotearoa Studies in our team.

Matua Steve and Mary Leota expertly taught Kapa Haka. A performance group of seventy students attended Tūhono 2022 in the Christchurch Town Hall at the end of the year. It was a wonderful opportunity for our students to perform on stage and share their knowledge and skill with friends and family.

With the COVID-19 restriction there were no parents in our buildings for much of the year, Seesaw was an invaluable tool for communicating, sharing learning and showing what our classrooms looked like. The flexibility of using Seesaw to send messages, share photos and video, give feedback, assign lessons, and assess student work was well utilised during any home learning and will continue to enhance what is happening in our classrooms in future years.

Megan Feller Years 4–6 Team Leader