Toko School have been extremely lucky to have been awarded funding, from Curious Minds to purchase a distillery and the related science equipment.   Curious Minds, is part of Venture Taranaki and  seeks to encourage and enable better engagement with science and technology across all sectors of New Zealand –  to bring about a nation of Curious Minds, where science is inspiring, recognisable, highly valued and personally relevant to all New Zealanders.  

So Room 7 put together an application to purchase a still to make essential oils and hydrosols, and have been awarded $15000.00.    We aim to distill a variety of plants from our area and to find out their properties and what we can use the essential oil and hydrosols for.  We have been  guided by Jim Bennett (who distills a range of plant material) and Sue Rines who will assist us in our task.

We know that there are many harsh chemicals out there in the environment, and if we can make more natural products, using plant material around us, then it can only be beneficial to us all.  Our lavender bags have proved popular in the past, so we want to see what else we can make.

Above is Lockie and Maisie, presenting our application in front of a panel for Curious Minds.

 

Asian language Learning in Schools Programme (ALLiS)
This year our school is lucky enough to be working in a cluster for the above programme lead by Stratford St Mary’s. This involves assisting our school to set up an Asian language learning programme in our school, focussed at Year 7 & 8. Funding is provided to support teachers with professional development, collaboration amongst schools, and forming partnerships with external asian language and cultural organisations. The Ministry of Education is committed to increasing the number of students learning an asian language to support our growing trade and international relationships. We are excited about this new initiative as are the students in Room 3 and 4.

We have updated our school website with a new page called: Using Blogs at Toko School: https://www.toko.school.nz/links/e-learning/
This page will show you how to sign up to your child’s individual and class blog and tips for effective commenting. Please take the time to get involved with this. It is a great way to have access to up to date learning that is happening in, real time, in your child’s classroom.

We have updated our website – Learning Links – Mathematics with a new website for parents that you might be interested in:  Maths

If you use the activities with your children we would love your feedback about how you found the website.

This year our NITS (Ngaere, Inglewood, Toko and Stratford Schools) Cluster are really fortunate to be working with Heather Bell from Massey University .  Our cluster wide focus for all teachers across all four of our schools is:

“In 2016 we will be bringing classroom teachers from across our cluster schools together to work collaboratively on their Teaching as Inquiry each term. These collaborative workshops will enable deep reflection of teachers and further support them to develop their approaches to critical reflection in and on their practice, that leads to change in practice.”

 

So what does this mean and what is Teaching as Inquiry?

 

This means that our teachers are inquiring into their practice with a specific school wide focus and in 2015 and 2016 this is on Mathematics.

Our overarching question is:

How do we create a challenging curriculum in Mathematics?

With teachers focussing on:

How do I make tasks engaging and accessible to my students?

Teaching as Inquiry involves all our staff videoing themselves taking mathematics lessons, at least twice per term, sharing their videos with all the staff at staff meetings, and receiving feedback about their teaching practice.  From the feedback and collaborative discussions teachers then create their next steps and plan actions for their teaching.  All teachers keep a personal inquiry blog and their learning and reflections are recorded as an online reflective tool where they receive ongoing feedback from myself, Miss O’Brien, who is our Inquiry Leader and other staff members.  This Inquiry Blog forms a large part of each teachers appraisal cycle which also contributes to their teacher registration which has to be reviewed and renewed every three years with the New Zealand Education Council.

 

All schools in our NITS Cluster were really fortunate to be accepted into the Ministry of Education, Mathematics Professional Learning and Development Contract this year.  This means that all our staff are supported by a specialist Mathematics Facilitator, Raewyn Gainsford, to assist with answering our questions above.  To date Raewyn, who mentor’s Sue Fergus our Maths Leader, has observed and provided school wide feedback about the teaching and learning occurring in all our classrooms, has run Math’s workshops focussed on number sense, taught alongside teachers in their rooms and has provided one on one support to all our teachers.

 

Raewyn and Heather are challenging our teaching practices in Mathematics.  We are being supported to read and review the latest research focussed on teaching and learning, in mathematics in particular and to use this research to inform our teaching decisions.  This is challenging our staff so I can imagine that some of these practices may also challenge our parents in our community who have a particular view about how mathematics should be taught.  We are going to work really hard to keep you informed and up to date about what we are learning and how your children are being taught.

 

We will do this via our school newsletter and we intend to run some open afternoons where parents can come into all our classes and look at maths in action.  As always if you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to come in and see your child’s classroom teacher.

 

Teachers are using data to inquire into the effectiveness of their teaching. This process is supported with regular classroom observations and feedback. Teachers meet to critique their strategies and share good practice.

The well-developed culture of collegiality helps to extend their professional learning and that of students. 

Toko School ERO Report 2014

 

 

 

 

 

Teacher Only Day today with our NITS (Ngaere, Inglewood, Toko and Stratford Primary Schools) Cluster. Lots of collaborative learning across our schools led by Heather Bell, Massey University and Raewyn and Kylie, Maths Facilitators from Cognition.

 

 

On Tuesday 5 July at 7.00 we are having a catch up with our community.  The BOT,  Fundraising Committee and PTA will share their successes from the past year.

The BOT will also be consulting with the community about discussions we have been having with the Ministry of Education re: creating a Toko School Enrolment Zone.

Then some of our students will share with you the following:

What we have achieved as a school to become recognised as a Green Gold School.

How you can get more  involved with your children’s learning through providing feedback on class and  student blogs.

RSVP office@toko.school.nz

For catering numbers

At our final end of year assembly we farewelled all our Year 8 leavers and recognised those students who have contributed to the corporate life of our school.

A special congratulations to the following students:

Board of Trustees Award for Excellence:  Xavier Keegan & Julia Howatson

Cup for Oratory:  Rowan Slater

Cup for Sport: Rowan Slater

Rising Star Award:  Molly Lourie & Rowan Cole

 

Snippets from the Enviro Schools website:

 Taranaki Enviroschools Royal Visit November 2015

Enviroschools Taranaki was invited to take part in the recent Royal Visit to New Zealand, given how interested Prince Charles is in sustainability and empowering youth. A party of around 50 represented Enviroschools in the region near the Te Rewa Rewa bridge.

Katie Sinclair & Bailey Bright from Opunake High School spoke with His Royal Highness and explained what they do within their school and the community to support sustainability within their region. Simon Fuller, Opunake High School’s Principal, was on hand to discuss with the Prince how great Enviroschools is for students and the school in general. In particular, His Royal Highness was impressed with the students’ community work and their recent trip to Bali where they volunteered at schools either teaching English or helping build a classroom.

Kim Waite, Principal, Marie Stark, lead Enviroschools teacher, & Keith Mitchell, BOT Chair, all from Toko School, were able to demonstrate the benefits of having the full support of the staff and Board to create success in an Enviroschool. Toko School is a prime example of this with their recent Silver Enviroschool achievement. Around 35 Toko school students from the Envirogroup were on hand to explain to the Prince the results of their investigations into the differences between rural and coastal waterways and what was required to sustain each.

Lauree Tito, Regional Coordinator for Taranaki Enviroschools & Esther Kirk, Resource and PD Manager for Toimata Foundation, were able to further explain the benefits of the Enviroschools programme to His Royal Highness. Lauree and Esther presented him with a copy of the 2014 national Enviroschools census report.

Lauree is really proud to have been able to showcase the Enviroschools kaupapa and thanks the students & staff for the fabulous job they all did of representing their schools, their whānau, their community & the province. It was an honour to be part of the day.