Kia ora whānau, welcome to the end of week 9 - only one week to go till the end of the term and the year! It is coming around very quickly! As usual, we have so many activities to fit in, so please check the dates below for each syndicate.
What a busy week we have just had - we all need to the weekend to recover! We have had Junior dance, Seniors 'Caine's arcade', Whanau tabloids, Paetoki team to Highlands to watch the orchestra, IROCK evening and a massive assembly today!
Next Monday the 'summative reports' come home for each of our learners. These reports are the summation of the year - they will look very similar to the progress reports we have updated all year. On each foundational skill area there will be a summation, there is a summation for each learner against our IROCK values and a final summation 'back page' around the other curriculum areas. Please have a read of these reports. They give a fantastic overview of your child(ren)'s academic achievements for the year. On the report will also be your child(ren)s class for 2024 - a lot of time and effort goes in to getting the class lists right.
So…. how do we work out classes? You will appreciate that it is a complex process to ensure that we stay within our staffing budgets (set by the Ministry of Education), yet also have the ability to cope with growth at all year levels.
We continue to be really pleased with how we have managed this, with all classes having teacher:student ratios well below the norm. We had to move some learners from Rm 6 and 7 at the end of Term 2 to help with ratio in the new entrant hub.
As with every year, there is a lot to factor in. Firstly we have to look at how many students per year level from a logistical perspective.
E.g. if there are 70 Year 5/6 students, that is too many for 2 teachers but not enough for 3 (at Years 5/6, we are provided one teacher per 29 students from the Ministry of Education)
The school wide overview is initially created with teacher team sizes and year level overviews (of how many students per year level are where)
Then on an individual student level, our teachers will draft classes factoring in many of the factors below:
Social maturity
Physical maturity
Academic ability
Age and number of years at school
Peer groups and friends
Strengths and interests of teaching staff
Balance of children in classes - special needs, behaviour
Other common questions:
- Do we stream classes based on ability? No, our classes are not streamed based on ability. The programme is determined by the needs, interests and abilities of the students in the class. There are no separate programmes for each year level in the school - we use curriculum levels, based on individual student ability. Teachers run a wide range of groups based on abilities.
- Why does the school have some composite (i.e. Year 2 & 3) rooms? This allows the school to manage class sizes accordingly. Simply because of the varying numbers of students per year level, the composite nature of our teams will change from year to year.
- My child is a Year 4 in a Year 3/4 class, does that mean they are being “held back" and should I be worried? No, the level of learning is based on the curriculum levels and not the year level. We don’t stream the classes. Individual achievement/assessment info is crucial for each of our students and this is used to help determine individual, group and school programmes. Teachers use this information to help our students with their learning. A Year 4 student in a Year 3/4 class will complete the same level of work as a Year 4 would in a Year 4/5 class, assuming their individual abilities are similar.
How does the school support the students with the transition?
As Vogeltown is one of just 4 schools in New Zealand that are 'split sites', we have to do things a little different. For the last 5 weeks, all our Yr 2 classes have been coming to the senior school each lunchtime - this helps to alleviate some of the angst and anxiety of moving to the 'big school'.
We will also do new class visits - next Wednesday 13th of December we will be having our learners meet their new teacher for 2024 in their new classroom. We will also be offering 'Mahitahi meetings' to start off 2024 - on Monday 29th January. These meetings are a chance to meet the teacher, discuss learning goals for Term 1 and catch up before the term starts on the 30th. This will be held at school and our teachers will be on site to enable you and your child to call in and say "Kia ora". We will have this set up like we do for learning conferences - with the link and code sent to all whanau after Xmas.
When school resumes on Tuesday 30th January, our team places a huge focus on developing relationships at the start of the year.
What do I do if my child is upset about next year? Hopefully this will not be the case but during our lives we all have times of change and what is valuable is the ability to adapt and move forward. Changes in friendship/social groups are an expected and essential part of developing as a child.
Classes are completed for 2024. A big thanks to all our Kaiako for their help with these.
UPCOMING NEXT WEEK:
- Monday - Summative reports home
- Monday - Wheelie day for Taranaki and Huatoki teams
- Tuesday - Water day for all syndicates (water guns, togs, towels)
- Tuesday - Teddy bears morning, Taranaki syndicate
- Wednesday - All learners will meet their new teacher for 2024
- Wednesday - Year 6 leavers assembly 5.30pm in school hall
- Friday - Last day of Term 4 and 2023. 3.00pm finish.
Have a great weekend whānau!
Mr O and the VS Team
Ka rawe to these awesome learners who achieved a Principal award for the last time of 2023:
Congratulations to these awesome tamariki:
Harriet Baird, Scarlett Beamsley, Mikaela Herbert, Zachary Wright, Rhonda Gecse, Harry Hunt, Edie Selby-Dunford, Chael Smith, Caitlyn Solomons, Giana Naicker, Victoria Crawford-Potroz, Jameson Gallie, Arvayah Te Wake, TJ Van Den Berg, William Wright, Reggie Rei, Georgia Evans, Paddy Yukich, Kaea Neho, Tessa O'Donovan, Amore Kuun, Elias Ramos, Sofiyyah Shah, Ella Uncles, Ted Cozens, Tatum Francis, Lily Graham, Eldon Price, Olivia Palliser, Felicity Donovan, Amelia Crawford-Potroz, Emma Rawhiti
Ka mau te wehi whānau!
Hari Huritau, to these awesome Vogeltowners this week:
FABISH Zayne
BUMBESEVIC Maverick
HALL Dylan
YUKICH Claudia
UNCLES Ruby
BONZON Anouk
And to these learners over the December:
NEWLAND Harper GATENBY Isabella COZENS Mack PALLISER Will WEBLING Jack GRAHAM Lily BINTI SHARAFUDDIN SHAH Sumayyah HEDLEY Archie BAIRD Harriet JONES Nyah ZIMMERMANN Arnie DUNN Austin DONEY Noah MORRISON Charlie TE WAKE Arvayah BRIEN-STOKELL Brody
VOGELTOWN SCHOOL CONTACTS
Email: office@vogeltown.school.nz
Website: www.vogeltown.school.nz
Location: Vogeltown School Huatoki Street, Vogeltown, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Phone: (06) 753 6843
