Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The last week is always the longest!

Thank you for your attendance at the prizegiving – I don’t know how we can find a cooler time of the year to do this at.  It is great to have an evening where we can showcase our students’ huge range of talents and celebrate those students who have achieved to the highest level.

As always your comments and support both on the night and since are gratefully received and used to ensure we do things even better next time.

Our year 8 students have had quite a week too. Last Friday evening they had their leaving dinner and the efforts they went to, to look good and to arrive in style go further each year. They had a great night and one they will remember.

Then on Tuesday night they assembled on stage to be farewelled by the school and to be thanked for their contribution to North Street School. It is an emotional moment for them (and us) as their names are called and we know it signals the end of an era.  They are a great bunch of kids and will be missed. They are a real credit to our school and I wish to again thank them for their contribution over their time here.

Yesterday we were informed we have won the “School Pride Cup” presented by the Keep Feilding Beautiful Society.  This is due to our students being so involved in helping to keep Feilding looking beautiful, and this was the first time we have won this trophy since 1997. Thank you to those students who have been involved this year and Christine for the work she has done with her kids who are on the council.

Thank you for all of your support for what we do at North Street. We love working with you to see your children achieve their potential.

Look after yourselves during the break.  Good luck next year for those students moving on and for everybody else we will see you all on 31^st January to do it all over again.

Noho ora mai ra (look after yourselves)

Craig Sharp

This week our Year 8 students have their special evening. It is really important that we celebrate their contribution to our school and acknowledge their transition into secondary school as a milestone moment in their young lives. I am always amazed at the effort our students go to. Last year the quality and variety of cars that dropped our kids off had many of the dads waiting until the last child arrived, in case they missed something. Then again, given the amazing outfits our girls were wearing and the time they had taken getting ready, maybe the dads were just finding letting go a bit hard!  Our evening begins at 5.30pm and students are to be collected from the hall at 9.00pm.

Next Tuesday we will again acknowledge our graduates and all of our achievers across the school as we have our annual formal prize giving.  We will involve all of our students in this evening and encourage you to come and celebrate with us. While being recognised in front of your peers is special, it is having their families present, that is really meaningful to our students.

The official presentation kicks off at 6pm, however our school rock band “the Power of 13” will be playing in the hall from 5.30pm. The evening should finish at around 7.30pm.

I am currently going through every student’s achievement and mapping out how well our students have done against National Standards for our reporting to the Ministry of Education. These will be reported to you once completed and placed on our website. Our students have done really well and we should be proud of their progress and achievement. Thank you again for your continued support and encouragement.

Noho ora mai ra (look after yourselves)

Craig Sharp

We had our student led conferences this week and I was blown away by how they went. The ones midway through the year went quite well and we could see the potential, but these ones rocked! I know the teachers were less nervous heading into these conferences, having got our collective heads around what we were trying to achieve, and I think this allowed our students to relax more too.

To sit in on some of the conferences was an absolute pleasure and hearing our students, from years 1 to 8, articulate their learning and what their strengths and weaknesses were, and what their next steps were with such confidence and poise, vindicated us moving in this direction. 

It makes so much sense for the students to own their own learning.  It empowers them to be the difference in their own lives and allows them to take control of their future. I only wish we had done it sooner.

Thank you to all those parents and family members who came and supported our students. We know from research that the interest of a significant adult in their lives makes a huge difference to the learning potential of students. If you missed this opportunity and would like to catch up, please contact the classroom teacher to make a time.  For parents who don’t wish to take part, reports will be sent out as usual in the final week of term.

It all gets busy from here, whanau concerts, prizegiving, discos, right choice days, Christmas parades etc. Please check for notices  - there is so much on in the next two weeks it would be easy to miss something.

Movember is over! Summer is finally here and I think I hear distant sleigh bells!

Noho ora mai ra (look after yourselves)

Craig Sharp

It is really important that you attend these conferences. North Street School has started a number of
shifts in what we do to encourage students to develop as independent learners, understanding that
they can make a positive difference for their own future development.
The primary purpose of these student-led conferences is to enable students to become more
actively involved in reporting their progress as learners to their parents. They will take a leading role
during conference discussions, accepting accountability and responsibility for their progress, and
demonstrating a growing understanding of their development as independent learners.

Students will present evidence from their learning at the conference that will demonstrate the
progress they have made since the start of the school year and/or since the mid year conference.
This evidence should match and back up what it says in the end of year report.
As students become actively involved in student-led conferences they will develop a growing
understanding of how they can make a positive difference for their own future by accepting an
increasing degree of responsibility for their own learning needs. They will develop the skills to identify
their current strengths, to be able to reflect upon their learning outcomes, and to determine their own
future needs.

The end of year report will be discussed and given to parents at the conference. Our students will
already be aware of the report content having helped collect the evidence of their learning and
negotiated some of the report content with the teachers. This is very different to when we went to
school, but it needs to be. This is their learning journey and all the research points to greater gains
being made if they have more knowledge about and control of that journey.

If you haven’t yet made a time, please do. The students are excited about sharing their progress and
your enthusiasm and support for their achievement and progress makes an enormous difference.

An envelope will come home in the last week with stationery lists, class rooms and teachers for 2012.

We have put a short anti bullying video message from Bruno Mars on our website. Please encourage
your kids to view it.

Noho ora mai ra (look after yourselves)
Craig Sharp

Confirmed term dates for 2012

It is the time of the year for reporting and celebrating and I think over the next few weeks when we begin to share students’ progress and achievement over the past year, you will be impressed by the gains most students have made.

We are currently planning class lists and teacher classes for 2012.  This is a long and fairly complicated process and is made more difficult by the many unknown factors. If you know you’re not going to be at North Street next year, or you have other family members that will be at North Street, please let us know as it makes the whole process so much easier.

We are impressed with the results we got back from trialling some ICT tools to aide in mathematics teaching this year and will look to use these over the entire school in 2012. We have negotiated some really good deals and will pass these on when we have all the details.

Thanks for your continued support – this really is a fantastic community to be involved with.

Noho ora mai ra (look after yourselves)
Craig Sharp

The results of the Community Survey have been graphed and are very positive, supporting the direction the school is currently taking. A copy of the summary is on our website and a hard copy can be picked up from the office if you are interested.

While we are always pleased to see students excited to learn, some children are getting to school too early in the morning for us to be able to supervise them and guarantee their safety. We really shouldn’t be seeing students at school before 8.15am.

We have had a great response to the offer of an enrichment bilingual Maori class.  We will definitely have two classes in 2012, with the possibility of a third class if there are a few more interested students. If this option does appeal please let us know in the next week as we are currently finalising staff placements and class lists for 2012.

There are a lot of activities on at this time of year with students engaged in learning outside the classroom and trips to reward positive behaviour. Please look out for notices coming home as students need to return their parental permission slips in order to take part in these outside school activities.

Noho ora mai ra (look after yourselves)
Craig Sharp

Dear Parents & Caregivers

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Tena koutou katoa (Greetings everybody)

This week has highlighted the talent and diversity that underlies what North Street School is all about.
On Monday night the Manawatu Digi Awards had their inaugural event at the Regent Theatre in Palmerston North. I was proud to be there and see the students and their families celebrate, but I was also proud of our staff who have learnt so much, so willingly, on our ICT journey and are beginning to see results for their efforts. Now that we know the standard I predict we will make an even bigger impact next year.

Read the article about NSS students’ success in the MDAs in the Feilding Herald online here.

Also reaping the benefit of all their hard work, our kapa haka group performed at Pae Tamariki on Wednesday. They have worked hard all year but have put in a huge extra effort over weekends and after school to perfect choreography and harmony these last few weeks. Man did it show! I am so pleased for the parents/grandparents who made the effort to be there and see their children perform. They absolutely owned the stage and blew the audience away. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this effort especially Doug and Leanne Wallace. I cannot think of a better advert for our school. It really is time we took that group to Nationals!

I sent a letter home this week asking for interest in our enrichment bilingual Maori classes for 2012. These classes are an extension option. While there will always be Maori students who have a good grasp of te reo Maori and want to learn in a Maori context in these rooms, it is more than that. This year we had a number of non-Maori students who needed the challenge of learning in another language to really extend them and allow them to get the most out of their education. We are determined that learning in this environment advantages our students and sets them up well for life beyond school.

Information will come home soon about an inquiry themed class, also designed to extend and broaden our students’ education.

Reports are currently being written and it is exciting to see the progress our students have made. They are beginning to gather evidence for their Student led conference in week 6 and are eager to share their successes with you.

It has been a week of celebrating success but that’s what school should be. Setting our students up to be successful and then celebrating that with them.

Noho ora mai ra (look after yourselves)
Craig Sharp

On Tuesday night we held a well attended open evening for year 6 parents. This was to let them know some of the changes we have made and are continuing to make in our year 7 and 8 area (poutama).
People enjoyed listening to our rock band and seeing the displays including our radio station, robotics, camp 2012 and extension opportunities. We have made a considered decision to push 21st Century technology as we develop our poutama technology programme.
We made mistakes this year as we tried things for the first time and our plan for 2012 is considerably different, however, our year 8 students who have experienced both the previous model and our in school technology this year, much preferred this years model and their feedback and critique has helped with shaping how we continue to move forward.

We have been asked about a digital class. This doesn’t sit well with us in terms of equity. If digital technology is so good for our students and makes such a difference – and the educational jury is still out on this point – why would we only allow some students this advantage? Instead we have a digital strategy we are developing that will make devices available to all of our students and allow students to bring their own technology to assist their learning.

The same thinking has stopped us from pursuing an “extension class”. The philosophy of declaring one class privileged in terms of resourcing them with best students, teachers and equipment, says something to the students (and teachers) who are not in that class that we, as a school, are not prepared to say. All of our students deserve to have a well planned and exciting programme that meets their needs and interests.
We will have extension groups available throughout the year to any student who shows promise in a variety of subjects and disciplines, from mathematics to visual art – with experts, to ensure all of our students can reach their unique potential.

Our community survey has been collated (although I would still like to receive any that are still out there – I read them all!) and the results were very positive. It is very pleasing to know that you feel we are serving your children well.
There are areas the survey highlighted that we will look at more closely before the end of the year. Uniforms is one such area. We will put a proposal together and get your feedback as we have had some support for this direction. In the mean time we may need to tighten up our appearance policy as some of the clothing is becoming a little inappropriate for school.
Another area was classes focused on inquiry learning, we will look at how we can trial this in some classes next year and also whether we grow our bilingual class options.

Congratulations to Jo Christensen who won our $100 warehouse draw for survey returns. Thank you again for your input and feedback the collated results will be made available shortly.

Na ora ra,

Craig