In the 5th week of each term the Kiwi teachers and Dean co-present an information evening. This is advertised on our Facebook page and in the local newspapers. Parents of children due to start in upcoming terms are welcome and even encouraged to attend.

The evening gives us a chance to meet the parents, inform them of how school will support their child, what they can do at home to prepare them for the transition and also a chance to for them to ask questions.    

PTC 1 - establish and maintain effective professional relationships focussed on the learning and well-being of all akonga.
PTC 2 - demonstrate commitment to the well-being of all akonga.

In the first term, I selected 4 students to be my target students. I chose students who were starting at level 0, pre-reading and who did not yet have any sight words or letter-sound knowledge. 

Initially, I collated the soft data on each student. This came from both the students and from their parents NE questionnaires and interview forms. As the term progressed. I recorded anecdotal notes (see below) specific to the reading achievement, there classroom behavior and any information  from home.  

At the end of term 1, I removed one student who was already tracking to achieve above national standard and I added two newer students. As they had come at a later stage, they posed different challenges in meeting their learning needs within the classroom programmes.  

I will keep reassessing the target students to ensure that the group represents the students with the most to gain by a targeted focus on their learning. This will often reflect my newer learners. In term two I had eight new students I my class, so  I need to see which of these would be best served joining my target group for Term 3, and who can be moved out.

Maatariki as a national celebration has developed while I was teaching overseas, so this is still a festival that I am catching up on. However, this year, I have really enjoyed exploring Maatariki with my class. 

I used an art idea from NZ Teachers (Primary) Facebook group. It was interesting how the 3 teachers in NE all used the same idea, and produced completely different artworks with their kids. I also read a post about the names and meanings of the 9 brightest starts in the constellation. So, I decided to combine the placing the of the stars on their art with a lesson on mindfulness. I gave each child 9 star stickers and we named them one at a time and learned what they represent. The children then thought in silence about that element. It took about 30 mins to meditatively work our way through all 9 stars, so I was impressed at the patience of these little ones. 

We then followed this up by writing a Matariki wish.  

None of us in our team are strong  in our Te Reo teaching. We also have a very high number of new immigrant children who are still struggling to acquire English language proficiency. However, these same children, first generation kiwis, need to make connections with the culture of their newly adopted land. We are making the most of songs to teach what we can. Here is a list of songs as we teach them. I will update this post as new songs are taught. 

This year, 2016, was the year of the monkey in the Chinese Zodiac. I have 2 ethnically Chinese children in the room. Both of then are first generation New Zealanders. We watched the story of  the Chinese Zodiac on youtube and then discussed which year we were born in, All the children in the class were Tigers having been born in late 2010 or early 2011 before CNY that year. We talked about what Chinese people believe about people born in the Year of the Tiger. Did they agree? Were they brave, daring or sensitive?

I am a rat, so I talked about my cleverness, charm,  imagination and honesty ;-) 

In Kiwi, where we teach out littlest learners experience has taught us to introduce students to emergency exit procedures on the first day and to review these every couple of week as new entrants start school. There is nothing so unsettling for a newbie than a full school fire drill, real or planned, happening on the first day, or in their first week. We talk about the fire alarm and we practise walking quickly and quietly out to the field to line up. We also practise calling the roll there. In a surprise lunchtime fire alarm in week 1 last year, all our little ones ran back to class. We now make sure students know to go straight to the field and to line up and wait for us there.

​PCT 2 - demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all akonga.

We are very blessed to have around 38% of our children from Indian homes in our area. This means that we are able to access cultural resources in local Indian food markets. A couple of times a year we love to have the mums (and grandmas!) come in and decorate the childrens' hands with henna tattoos. We usually coincide this with Diwali and/or the Holi festival, but if a school holiday is in the way we go ahead and have fun anyway. This year we even combined it with our school's Funky Feet day for Travelwise awareness. Some kids and one teacher (me) even decorated their feet. We also had our first dad volunteer this year. He was kept busy with spiderweb designs and batman logos on request. 

It is important to help the students develop a sense of school spirit as this foster their belonging and identity as a Willowbank Kid. George, our school mascot, is a great way to build shared identity early in their school life. 

This year as the children shared information about George, it became quickly obvious that some children were stuck on the idea of a literal giraffe, while others could easily understand that he only representative of a giraffe, but that he had a special role at Willowbank.  

I discussed the different types of ideas they were presenting with the class. To highlight these different responses we decided to use green for real giraffes and red for special to George. 

This year, 2016, I have only one child with Maori heritage in the class. It is always difficult to cover The Treaty of Waiting in a meaningful way with New Entrant children as it occurs immediately in their first week at school and there are so many things to introduce them too. I am not sure how much they are able to retain of the content about the Treaty. Instead I focus on how all our families come to New Zealand to make it our home where we can be safe and happy. This provides a natural segway into a discussion about our belonging in school ad how we can ensure that everyone has a safe and happy year in our class and on our playground.  

We made Waka and then talked about all the different ways that our families had arrived in New Zealand, but I kept bring the focus back to our shared desire to live safe and happy.