Our Vision: Together we Nurture, Explore and Create for a Better Future

Last week I shared the question…what would you miss about Douglas Park School if we closed…a provocation to get us thinking about what we value about our awesome school. I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts, thank you for that!

Like all New Zealand schools we are grappling with the new curriculum that came into effect at the end of last year. The current version is the third different version we have had inside the last 3 years, and it has been a bit of a whirlwind. James Riley ran a professional learning session for some school leaders this week…and part of that has highlighted just how challenging the new curriculum is. Learning in the past that would have been fine for Year 7/8 children, is now what is expected at Year 5 or 6. Learning that would have been fine for Year 4, is now what we expect of our Year 2 students. That night after the session, a short clip of Richie McCaw came through my social media feed…a clip from his speech at his hall of fame induction earlier this year…and these two things, his speech and the new hard curriculum, go quite well together. To sum up his speech…things aren’t always going to be easy, and we need to be resilient to work through our challenges. 

Essentially…we are all going to be deep in The Learning Pit this year, facing learning that is much more challenging than it was in the past. How we face that challenge…that will go a long way to determining how we progress through it. Richie says a couple of great things:

• In modern life we try to find the easy way, we want someone to give it to us: This isn’t what good learners do in the Learning Pit. We know it is a struggle, we know we will make mistakes, and we know that we have to try in order to make some gains. It is on us (the learner) to put in the mahi.

• We have to be comfortable finding the discomfort…that's when you grow the most, when you learn the most: This describes trying new things…giving it a go, accepting it might be hard, but knowing that the hard work pays off with progress. Lots of this new learning will be hard…but, we need to tackle it.

All of our students are faced with these changes this year…learning that was once seen as way too hard, they are now having to tackle. The way through this? Embracing the Learning Pit, and working at it. 

I haven’t been there for a long time, but years ago on the Mākoura College gym wall was this saying…Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard…very true in the context of sport, but equally true as we tackle the new hard learning in the updated curriculum.

You can watch the clip here…super short, less than 2 mins…worth a watch!

Devices, Roblox and being safe

I had a phone call earlier in the week from a concerned parent…asking about access to Roblox (the gaming platform) at school, and if it is used. He had been listening to a podcast about the site…and the awful things that children can access through it. Radio New Zealand shared this article a couple of weeks back, that also highlights the dangers. I was able to reassure him that kids don’t have access at school…but it has prompted me to share a bit in the newsletter today.

Reading that RNZ article is worthwhile if your child has Roblox access at home…whānau need to be aware that on the surface it seems like ‘just another game’, but without parental controls/supervision children can access some truly horrifying things, and be exposed to some not very nice people. Even the use of the chat feature opens children up to big issues, or to ‘simple’ things like cyber-bullying. 

We don’t (touch wood) really have cyber issues at DPS…occasionally things will happen out of school inside social media/messaging applications that spills back into school, but these are super infrequent. But…we aren’t naive, and know from conversations with students that a large number of them do have access to social media, to messaging apps and to gaming platforms (like Roblox). 

At DPS our devices are mainly used for creative tasks…making stuff. Animations, music, movies, 3D design, posters, publishing mahi…tasks that often start with a blank ‘page’, and the children have to create what they are after. There are a handful of learning apps we use…like Maths Buddy and Reading Eggs, but time on these is fairly minimal. We don’t have 1:1 devices here, and we don’t allow unrestricted access. We also have strong web filtering at the school…gaining access to inappropriate websites can’t happen. 

Roblox is blocked at school…so the children can’t access it at all. And while this keeps us safe here…it might be worth checking into device use at home, and seeing what is being accessed. 

Out of Zone Enrolments

The process for Out of Zone enrolments for Term 3 and 4 this year has started. In the last week of term applications will close…the last day to get them in is Thursday April 2nd. If you live out of zone, and have a child starting later this year…are we aware? The application process is very easy, but if we do not know about your 4 year old…they may miss out on a place. Flick an email to office@douglaspark.school.nz