Take Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

             What a fantastic journey we are all on ... It has been a fast and furious 11 weeks.

Wednesday 13 April

A visitor to our school yesterday gave me cause to stop and reflect about just how far we have come in such a short time and I am very grateful because in the throws of the normal school day this is something I forget to do sometimes!

A tour of the school - visiting all the learning spaces during our numeracy time slot was enlightening. Our visitor reported that there was a hum about the place, a high level of engagement in all the learning areas. As teachers - this is exactly what we want to hear. This is what we strive for.

"Engaged students are more attentive, excited, involved, and eager to participate. From the perspective of the teacher, there is a strong positive correlation between student engagement and student achievement." (Hoff, 2013)

In eleven short weeks the teachers have developed programmes of work, established positive learning environments, built connections with the students in their learning hubs, built connections with their team members and begun to build some strong connections in the community. 

It is definitely time to stop and smell the roses before marching forward into Term 2! 

Jo Earl

Holy Week - Breaking Open the Gospel

For the four days this week we have gathered as a school to retell the story of Easter. Holy Week is one of the most important weeks in the Catholic Liturgical year and began last weekend on Palm Sunday. 

We have used a resource called the Resurrection Eggs to help break open the Gospel readings for the children. Each day we have opened three eggs to find out the symbols inside - these symbols help us retell the story.

Thanks so much to our DRS Suzanne Newton and our Year 8 Special Character Leaders for organising these very special mornings for us.



MONDAY
Egg #1: Donkey Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem. In times of peace, a king would ride a donkey. We celebrate this on Palm Sunday. 

Egg #2: Coins 
Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 silver coins. The Jewish leaders did not believe Jesus. They wanted him to die. 

Egg #3: Cup 
Jesus and his followers drank from a cup. They were together for the Passover meal. This was the last meal before Jesus died. It is called the Last Supper.                                                    

TUESDAY
Egg #4: Praying hands 
Jesus went to a garden to pray. The garden was called the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was sad. But He knew that He must die.

Egg #5: Leather strap 
Jesus was whipped. They used leather straps to hit Jesus. 

Egg #6: Crown of thorns  
The soldiers placed a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head. 

WEDNESDAY
Egg #7: Nails 
We do wrong things. We do not obey God. God is perfect. Jesus never did anything wrong. But, Jesus was nailed to a cross. Three nails were driven into Jesus’ hands and feet. Jesus died for us. He died instead of us. Now we can come to God – because of Jesus.

Egg #8: Die (Dice) 
Jesus was on the cross dying. The soldiers played a game using dice. They wanted Jesus’ clothes.

Egg #9: Spear 
Jesus was on the cross. Soldiers put a spear into his side. Jesus was dead. 

HOLY THURSDAY
Egg #10: Linen
They took Jesus from the cross. Joseph was a follower of Jesus. He wrapped Jesus’ body in a linen cloth. Joseph put Jesus’ body in a tomb. 

Egg #11: Stone 
A very large stone was placed in front of the tomb. The stone protected the tomb. No one could get in or out. Some women came to the tomb early on Sunday morning. The stone had been moved!

Egg #12: Empty 
The women looked in the tomb. Jesus was not there! An angel appeared. He said, “Jesus is not here. He has risen.” He is still alive today. 

Holy Week at St Francis of Assisi School

Next week is Holy Week. 

Click here for The Story of Holy Week

Holy Week is the week before Easter commemorating events in the last days of Jesus' life on Earth. It begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Monday.

Each day of Holy Week we will gather together as a whole school at the beginning of the day to break open the Gospel, share the Holy Week story with the children and pray.

Please join us daily at 9.05am next week - we would love to share this special time with you.

Jo Earl and Suzanne Newton

Innovation in the Classroom

One of the big changes for me moving from my last school to St Francis of Assisi has been the amount of time I spend in my car travelling to and from work.

I have found a way to spend the time - listening to podcasts!

I came across this podcast - an interview with Dr Tony Wagner and as I listened to it I couldn't help thinking that this would be great for our community to listen to as we start to think about the vision we will have for our school and our students.

Dr. Wagner tells how teachers must change the way they view education in order to help students ready themselves for the careers of tomorrow.

You can listen to the whole podcast here.

Here are some of the ideas...

Dr Wagner talks about schools that are involved in a deeper learning initiative. We no longer live in a knowledge economy - we live in the innovation era and what does this mean for our students today?

There is no longer a competitive advantage to knowing more than the person next to you.

The world doesn't care about what you know - but cares about what you can do with what you know.

Those who are most likely to succeed are not those good at school and managed to get diplomas or degrees - the future will demand a very different set of skills and dispositions.

Children are going to need to: (this list is not exhaustive)

- learn through trial and error
- learn to take risks
- create
- communicate
- collaborate
- think critically

"It's an entirely different set of habits and dispositions. It's not skills instead of knowledge - Knowledge matters - academic content matters. That's the easy part. Skills matter more than academic content." 

And intrinsic motivation matters most - if you are intrinsically motivated you will continuously acquire new skills and the content knowledge you will need to succeed.


There is a challenge here to get people to understand our changing world, to have a different vision, we are living in the midst of the change and therefore it is hard sometimes for people to see past what they know. 

How do we shift that culture of "it worked for me and it should work for them?"

Dr Tony Wagner was involved in the creation of the film "Most Likely to Succeed."  one of the purposes of this movie was to create discussion around this topic - How the world has changed and what should be the education priorities around this change?

We need to be innovative, but innovative with good research behind us. We need to encourage our teaching staff to do the research and trial different innovative ideas.

Support this innovation with a budget. Work together to create these new practices. Encourage our staff to work collaboratively - isolation is the enemy of innovation. We need to encourage teams of teachers to work together to and take risks.

What does this mean for us at St Francis of Assisi Catholic School?

- We are challenged to share information about our changing world with our parent community
- We are challenged to have a good evidence based rationale for what we are doing 
- We are challenged to share research and evidence with our parent community
- We need to visit other schools that are on the same path as we are and unpack what they are doing that takes learning deeper
- We are challenged to evaluate our programmes in order to ensure that we are taking learning deeper.


Jo Earl

What is the PTA?

What is a PTA?

Last night we had an PTA information meeting. This is a copy of the slideshow with the information that was presented.

At the end of the meeting there was a really positive feeling towards setting up the Foundation PTA for St Francis of Assisi School and to this end we resolved to meet at 7pm next Tuesday night.

On Tuesday night we will be electing the officers and beginning to share ideas that can go towards the wish list.

Thanks so much to those who were able to come last night - those of you that were unable to come and would still like to join the PTA - you will be so welcome!

Looking forward to working with you all.

Jo Earl



                     

The Official Opening

Today (12th February) St Francis of Assisi Catholic School was officially opened by Fr John Adams who was standing in for our Bishop, Bishop Barry Jones, who is very unwell at present.

It was an exciting day for us. We had a wonderful opening ceremony. 

One of the highlights was the sharing of the Papal Blessing that we received (held here by Father Simon). 

Another highlight was the release of the doves to signify St Francis' love of animals.

Order of Ceremony

Greeting by Deputy Principals: Maire Bowler and Sarah Burrowes.  

Opening Prayer: Fr. Simon Eccleton

Korero:  Matua Maaka Tau

Song: He Honore

Welcome by Deputy Principals

Candle Ceremony: Team Leaders and Principal

Speakers:

• Mr. Mike Nolan (Catholic Education Office)
• Mrs. Alison Wilkie (Chairperson of Establishment Board of St Francis of Assisi School)
• Mrs. Jo Earl (Principal)

Song: Ka Waiata

Bishop Designate: Fr. John Adams (Vicar of Education)

All invited to move outside.

Official Ribbon Cutting: Fr. John Adams.

Release of Doves (St Francis of Assisi is the Patron Saint of animals and birds.)

Release of balloons.

Song: St. Francis School Song

Here is the text of my speech - shared here for those who were unable to make it.

I also, extend a very warm welcome to everyone here. Thank you for taking the time to share in this special occasion with us.

I consider it a privilege to have been welcomed into this parish community as principal designate last year.

We are privileged within this Parish to have such a wonderful learning environment that enables us to be a progressive learning community. While we all know that it is not just about the buildings, we are very grateful to have these flexible learning spaces. I want to thank the huge team involved in creating this learning environment - from the planning stage right through to ensuring we were ready to open on February the 4th. This has been a huge project and it has been carried out by a variety of organisations and executed with passion and skill, I know how mammoth this job was, and we at St. Francis of Assisi appreciate your work.

I am really excited about the way forward for this school.  We have been particular about staffing the school with  enthusiastic, skilled, passionate and hardworking educators and I am really proud of the team that we have created, and the work that they have already undertaken to ensure St Francis of Assisi Catholic school was ready to open.

If we are doing our job of being a truly Catholic school, then the philosophy behind the school, the ethos we should have, the way we do things - should be distinctly Catholic. We aim to be a progressive Catholic School and to be the school of choice for Catholics in the St Francis of Assisi Parish area.

I want to thank Mike Nolan, Cushla O’Connor, Father Simon and Father Matthew for their support in helping us do our job of being a truly Catholic School.

I have been very fortunate to have worked with a supportive establishment board who have always had the best interests of the St. Francis of Assisi community at heart. They too have worked hard behind the scenes to establish St Francis of Assisi School. Thanks to Alison Wilkie and her team Matt Tippen, Tom Music,  Liz Gardiner and Bill Morgan and thanks to Terri Johnstone for her support and wisdom along the way.

There have been many people who have contributed to the successful establishment of our school including from the Ministry of Education, Jill Forgie, Murray Aiken and Coralanne Child, I appreciate your availability for all of my endless questions!

I would especially like to acknowledge Peter Callanan,  Chris Callaghan and Tom Scollard for their support of me as I transitioned to my new role. I have appreciated the valuable advice I have received.  

And now - the children - Ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa - the children - the heart of the matter.

We are determined to take this opportunity to build a Catholic school that educates the whole person God created: academic, physical, spiritual, emotional, moral and creative. We will find ways to develop leadership, confidence, and community spirit. We will do this through our work in the classroom, the relationships students develop with their teachers, the relationships we build with our parent community and parish – and also through sport, cultural activities, Christian action, leadership, camps, prayer, and liturgy.

We are all in good heart and excited about the future, We are all here today for the children. Thank you everyone involved, for making our children your priority.

Teacher Only Days - Lead up to Day One.

Welcome to the school blog where you can read about our journey as we enter into this exciting time. 

Over the last couple of weeks the teachers and support staff have been working really hard to set up programmes that will challenge and excite our students.

This week we had three Teacher Only Days working collaboratively, learning together. 

On Day one we spent time looking at how we work in the workplace, at the makeup of our teaching teams, the similarities and differences between us and how we will work together to most effectively raise the achievement of the students we are working with. Lois Christmas, an education consultant facilitated this excellent session.

We had our first session on Growth mindset. We worked together to gain a good understanding of Growth mindset and to begin to develop a shared language that will promote Growth mindset in our students. We intend to share this information on Growth mindset with you soon on the website and in a parent information session later in the year. in the meantime here is short video to watch if you are interest in hearing more and a link to a short article.

Carol Dweck - The Power of Yet

On Day two our Director of Religious Studies (DRS) Suzanne Newton facilitated an excellent session that had us looking at our Charism (The charism refers to the distinct spirit that animates our community and gives it a particular character). We also discussed what best practice looks like in the delivery of RE. Teams spent time together planning the first RE integrated unit. Cushla O'connor (Primary RE Advisor) joined us for the morning also which was much appreciated.


Our afternoon was spent looking at Teaching as Inquiry and revisiting the Spirals of inquiry - talking about delving into our practice and really drilling down to find out what the data we collect is telling us about teaching and learning - and how we can improve student outcomes using this process.


We finished the day with some art workshops...check out this pic of our wonderful art!!

Day three started with the whole teaching and support staff team attending Mass together at 9.15am. This was a wonderful way to start the day and we were welcomed fully by Father Simon and Father Mathew at this Mass. They along with Kirsten from the parish office joined us for morning tea - which they provided! We know we are going to work so well together to ensure the spiritual guidance of your children is well covered!


After morning tea we had a session on blogging - Team blogs were set up and this is going to be one of the main ways each team will communicate with you this year. More information and links to follow - Watch this space.


What a wonderful three days... all we need now is some students!!!! Bring on Day One!