Supporting Olivia

Sometimes events just make you think about the really important things in life.....

Last week a lovely girl at Stanley Avenue School was diagnosed with leukaemia. Instead of joining the school a the end of year celebration at the Te Rapa Pools and being given her end of year report, she was being treated at Starship Hospital in Auckland....

Over the last few days I have been amazed by the people of Te Aroha.  The local college Year 10's donating $150, the students of Stanley Ave raising $300 with a mufti day and a family forgoing Christmas presents to make an amazing donation.

This Sunday we are holding a disco at Stanley Avenue School to raise more $$$ More details to follow!  See you there! There is even a rumour that the male staff of Stanley Ave will wax there legs (for a price...)

Awards assembly

Today we celebrated an awesome year at Stanley Ave and acknowledged the amazing Year Eights of 2014.  Mr Byers and I highlighted the cultural, sporting, academic and service achievements throughout the year and classroom teachers handed out special achievement and Stanley Avenue Learner awards.  We also handed out the schools chess and tennis trophies, as well as acknowledging the Waikato Full Primary athletics team that won the top school trophy at the recent meet.  

We were treated to great performances by the kapa haka group, kids for kids choir, junior school and guitar group.  

An amazing year of learning and fun.  

Thames Valley Athletics Meet

Today Stanley Avenue School and the Te Aroha Athletics Club hosted the Thames Valley Athletics Day.  With students from eight clusters it was an action- packed day.  It has amazing to see the level of commitment and talent displayed by the athletes.  Well Done! 

Alphabet Aerobics

At last weeks assembly room three shared their Alphabet aerobics, inspired by a performance by Daniel Radcliffe.  An awesome array of alphabet acting!!!

Coding with kids!

Since being inspired by the engagement of Mr Spicers Lego Mindstorm robotics group I have been wondering what a comprehensive coding programme would look like across the school.  A recent article in stuff also provided a challenge for schools.

http://i.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/63118089/Why-NZ-kids-should-learn-to-code

A number of our students are increasingly  turning to more creative ways of demonstrating their learning.  The use of Scratch, Minecraft and Tinkercad is now part of our classroom programme.  

I have been experimenting with an app suggested by Te Aroha College teacher Troy Smith called LightBot.  It has been amazing seeing a group of year three students quickly come to grips with complex ideas.  

I would love to hear from schools that are experimenting with coding with their learners!  

School Athletics

The weather behaved itself and we were treated to an awesome day to enjoy our senior athletics sports.  Many students got into the spirit of the event dressing in house colours and supporting their peers.  We were treated to some awesome performances and effort with the house relays finishing off a successful event.  Thank you to the Te Aroha Athletics club and our parents that made the day a success!

20 Years at Stanley Avenue!!

This morning we acknowledged two very special staff members at Stanley Ave.  Nova Spencer and Christine Finucane have now been at Stanley Ave for twenty years!

We organised a surprise breakfast, inviting family members, ex staff and current staff.  We are so lucky to have two committed, hard working, talented ladies that know Stanley Ave so well.

Well Done and Thanks!!

Connected!

http://i.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/10662319/Students-now-well-connected

The Waikato Times coverage of Associate Minister of Education Nikki Kaye and Network for Learning CEO John Hanna's visit to Stanley Avenue.

Network for Learning Visit!

Earlier this week we received the exciting news that the school was being visited by the Associate Minister of Education Nikki Kaye and the CEO of Network for Learning John Hanna.  We loved showing them around the school and showcasing the learning opportunities we provide at Stanley Avenue.  They visited a couple of classes and our MakerSpace where they saw our robotics programme, 3D Printer and were interviewed by our SAS TV team.

The visit was to celebrate Stanley Avenue School being the 1000th school connected to the Network for Learning-  a free, secure ultra-fast internet connection that will help us provide a future focused learning environment for our students.

Nikki Kaye

Had a superb visit to Stanley Ave school. A great principal, teachers and students. They are progressive and leading in learning with new technologies.

Robotics, radio, broadcasting, 3D printers all being used. Their connection to the managed network will help them do more in the future.

Livestock Day

Last week we hosted the Combined Schools Livestock Day.  Over sixty animals (calves, lambs and a goat!) visited Stanley Avenue.  Judges put the owners and animals through some rigorous examination.  It was fantastic to be able to see the hard work that our students had put in, getting to know their animals and in preparing them for the day.  Congratulations to all that took part and a huge thanks to the organisers and judges!  Final results will be posted shortly!

50th Jubilee Celebrations

What an amazing Friday and Saturday! Our open classes allowed many present and past staff and students to see the current learning environments in action followed by a range of performances from our kapa haka, choir, school band, gymnastics and junior school!  Friday concluded with a fun evening in the Rec Centre.  Saturday’s formal celebration saw official speeches from Jan Barnes, old boy Trevor Garrett and a special presentation from Rotary all tied together with MC’s Waveney Parker and Denise Plummer (ex staff members).  Saturday evening’s dinner and dance was kept lively with a non- stop performance from the band ‘Toe Jam’.  It was wonderful to speak to ex students and staff and listen to some interesting stories of their insights of life at Stanley Avenue.  I would like to thank the Jubilee Committee for making this event a real success. 

 

Modern learning environments

Today we received some amazing furniture from Furnware.  Our mission at Stanley Avenue School is creating lifelong learners who exhibit vital dispositions and values in a range of situations-  who know what to do when they are stuck!  We believe that the range of furniture solutions from Furnware will help in the development of our Stanley Avenue Learner, and we are completing a case study to research this very fact.  Stay tuned to find out our results!!

Jubilee Book

Over the past few months our School Leaders, guided by our caretaker Mr Hale (who is also an author and teacher) have created a book to celebrate 50 years of learning and fun at Stanley Avenue School.

This is not a traditional jubilee book...... It has recollections from a range of present and past staff and students and is a mixture of interesting facts and photos.

The book sums up the school-wide theme taking place this year (Take the best of the past as you move forward).  Well Done to all involved!

Waikato Full Primary Cross Country

Today Stanley Avenue School hosted over 400 runners in organising the Waikato Full Primary Cross Country Event. It was awesome to see students from 53 schools competing on the challenging Boyd Park and Wetland course.  A special congratulations to Brooke who finished second in the Year Eight Girls!

Maker Space starts to take shape!

Last week Mr Spicer, Mrs Hayes and I took a group of students to Diamond Age in Auckland to build a 3D printer for the school.  Visiting a truly innovative New Zealand business was an awesome experience and the students enjoyed learning about the ideas behind the construction.  With only fine tuning required to complete the printer we then took off to visit Taupaki School where their Maker Space had been operating for some time.  We were able to speak to the students, teachers and even see a robotics session in action.

At Stanley Avenue our Maker Space is now ready for action.  The 3D printer will join our radio and TV stations with our robotics programme and really give students a chance to create and innovate!

HP Rural Challenge

Earlier this term our school leaders entered a couple of videos into the HP Rural Schools Competition. Today, whilst not winning one of the top five prizes, we were excited to receive a HP action camcorder.  This technology is definitely going to be utilised!!  Thanks HP, and well done team!!

Winter Olympics

Last night I was fortunate to be able to drive over  to Totara Springs in Matamata and watch our Winter Olympics Team.  This week is a culmination of practice over many weeks, with students learning new sports ranging from chess to rugby. It was amazing to visit and see such a supported and respective group of students giving every event their best.  Well done!!!

Jump Jam Action

During last term Miss Oud and Miss Masters have been working with a group of keen 'Jump Jammers'. The goal was to enter a video to the Jump Jam competition with an aim of being selected for the national finals.  Check out the fantastic video which showcases their talent, enthusiasm and hard work!
 

School Band

It was awesome to see the school band perform at Gateway last Friday.  For many of the band, this was the first time they had performed in front of anyone other than classmates.  It is wonderful to see the hard work they have put into practicing both individually and as a group.  Well Done Team!  Also a special thanks has to go to Mr Spicer who works so hard preparing these groups year after year!!

Photography Club

Last term Mrs Horan ran a photography club as part of her lunchtime duties.  This fun activity attracted a large amount of budding photographers from Stanley Avenue School.  Late in the term the Piako Post advertised a competition challenging photographers to capture scenes from the Wetlands.  Today we have been given the wonderful news that Toni Keenan won the junior landscape competition and Amber Wotherspoon won the junior wildlife section.  Well done ladies!!

What a wonderful example of our learners having opportunities to discover their talents, passions and interests!  Ambers photo is directly below, with Toni's underneath.

The Joy of the Struggle

I really appreciate this clip which investigates the power of feedback.  This was shared at a presentation by Guy Claxton who encouraged participants to consider the power of teacher feedback.  As he said "If you want it, coach it!"

Technology Challenge

This week four of our school leaders chose to enter HP's rural school challenge to win some technology for our school.  Each pair only had a very short time to consider an idea and run with it.  On Friday I was amazed to see the creativity and quality of each entry!

I then started to reflect on what technology coupled with excellent teaching has created at Stanley Avenue School.  The ability to search for information and use apps for creating content using Chrome books and Ipads has opened so many doors for our learners.

This week we are having Ultrafast Broadband installed and we are expecting to have a network upgrade on our switches, cabling and wireless points in the near future.  I can't wait to see the impact of these initiatives on our learning environment!

ANZAC assembly

Yesterday I was particularly proud of our school leaders who organised and ran an excellent assembly about ANZAC.  Each leader completed some research about an aspect of ANZAC, from the significance of ANZAC biscuits, to reflecting on the sacrifice our soldiers made.  This was followed by some amazing poems from the students of room 9.  I look forward to seeing a large Stanley Avenue group at the memorial service in the holidays.  

SAS News 2014 Term 1 Week 9

2014 Gala

Stanley Avenue's gala went ahead on Wednesday after the mere fact of a cyclone postponed the event last Friday!  What an amazing evening it was!  Wonderful food, entertainment and competitions for the whole community to enjoy.  We are so lucky to have such a committed PTA who put in such a huge effort for this event to occur!  Check out our latest SAS TV episode to se the gala form the teachers and students perspective!

21st Learning Environments for our Learners

Stanley Avenue is on the cusp of entering into a new five year property agreement with the Ministry of Education.  Fortunately the school is in excellent condition and every dollar is going to be able to be spent on enhancing the school's learning environment.  So what can we do?  Recent research by Le Corbusier and in particular Thornburg look at creating flexible spaces for personalised learning spaces.  I love the descriptions of these flexible places on Core Educations web-site:

-The Camp Fire where students can share stories, exchange thoughts and build on each others ideas.

-The Mountain Top where you can share your learning with pride!

-The Sand Pit where you can play, innovate, experiment and learn from your mistakes.

-The Cave where there is opportunity to reflect and make connections in a quiet, personal space.  

These are some of the considerations we are taking in organising our classroom refurbishments for the future!

First SAS News for 2014

Future Tech

This week Mr Spicer started taking an extension activity with some lucky Year Six students.  This six week course is going to investigate coding, robotics and began with taking part a computer!  I can't wait to see the learning and fun that eventuates!!

Camp Epworth

What a picturesque day to visit our senior campers in action.  It was awesome to see and hear our students supporting one another in challenging situations.

Mike Scaddan Magic

What an amazing day of fun and learning!  Mike took us on a journey from putting ourselves into the shoes of our students through to considering what latest brain research means for us as teachers.  We were given so many ideas to help make learning 'stick'.

An amazing final session saw mike and the team form some ideas of merging our work on the Stanley Avenue Learner with students maturation/social needs and a learning to learn curriculum.  

Mikes assistance sees us moving ever closer to a truly student centred school.

What is an mle?

With the refurbishment of rooms seven and eight complete it is a good time to reflect whether any of our learning on MLEs has been worthwhile!

One of the major foci for the refurbishment was to 'break down the walls' between the rooms both for practical senses (shared toilets!) and learning.  I think the build has been a tremendous success.  A huge fox us over the last few years has been giving opportunities for our students to practice the skills required to be an effective team player.  Now there is a 'hub' are where group activities can take place, with (and without) direct teacher supervision.  This provides amazing opportunities for collaboration for teachers and students.  

It has been very interesting to see the large covered deck area being so popular during class time and during breaks.  Teachers have commented on how great it is to have an area where students can take themselves to complete a task independently.  This is reinforced by our teacher only day with Mike Scaddan.  

It's about learning (and technology)

It was really interesting watching my eldest daughter this week teaching herself how to complete a forward flip on the tramp.  First she talked about how she would love to do it.  This crystallised the goal on her head and helped her make an internal commitment to it.  After realising that her parents were of no particular use to her she sought out the powers of YouTube watching others and even seeking out instruction.  Next came the hard work where the rubber met the road....  Repetition and perseverance with some feedback on her performance from observers and video recordings.  Also a little enthusiasm and praise didn't hurt!  Then the satisfaction of completing her goal.  Next step the back flip!!!  Now the challenge..... Do we provide this framework in the classroom?  Do we provide technology for relevant , meaningful purpose?  Apps like ubersense allow students to view their performance alongside professionals.  Imagine how this could be utilised in the class.

Research- putting my money where my mouth is

This year I have decided to complete my Masters of Educational Leadership by undertaking a dissertation. I have decided to do this for two reasons.... One I am in control of what I research, which means that I will be able to apply what I learn to my school context. Secondly I am going to be researching a topic I am very passionate about. The topic I have formed is investigating school leaders perceptions toward digital technologies and hen looking at how this is being implemented in their schools. I have elected to investigate new schools (2-6 years) I. The hope that this will mean I can concentrate on beliefs, values, principles and practices rather than outlining the pitfalls and barriers. Ironically early in my study I am finding digital technologies to be invaluable. Already I have utilised two apps on my iPad mini- pocket and scratch works. Pocket is an amazing tool that allows you to cache websites or articles to view and read offline in your own time, whilst scratch works allows you to take notes whilst viewing a webpage. I hope to keep a record of my progress and reflections here- any comments or assistance will be gratefully received!