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

Getting close to that time of the term when our Learning Conversations will take place, Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th April. These parent-teacher-student hui are an important part of our school DNA, and have been in place for nearly 20 years. They are a key way in which the ‘Together We’ part of the school vision happens…Together we will celebrate the cool learning your child has done, show what class learning looks like, together we will talk about how the learning is going, where to next and together we will celebrate your child as a developing young human. Your child is the key part of this process, they are a part of the conversation because…they are the ones who need to know most in terms of how they are going, and where to next. The word ‘assess’ comes from the Latin word assidere which means to ‘sit beside’. In an educational context, the process of observing learning; describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and interpreting information about a student's learning. Assessing a child should be about figuring out where they are, and mapping a plan forward for where to next. And…they should know, and be a part of the conversation. 

As I have mentioned a few times now…normally we would report academic data to you as well (the HERO graphs and dials), but we still have no information from the Ministry about how we are meant to assess/report the new curriculum…so this part of the Learning Conversation will be different. But our aim remains the same…learning will be shared, celebrated and you’ll get a sense of ‘how is my child going’ in their current learning (just not in relation to the new curriculum). 

In Week 11 when you ‘sit beside’ your child in the Learning Conversation, when they share their writing with you, when you celebrate their maths skills, when they share the maker/play learning that they are proud of, and when you speak with the teacher (and your child) about how the learning is going, and where to next…that is the real assessment story. Sitting beside, Together We.

Road Patrol and Service

The idea of ‘service’ is another key part of what makes DPS a special place. We aim to teach citizenship skills, and encourage children to get involved in school life to ‘give back’. One of the most visible acts of service (that also happens the most) is Road Patrol. These Year 6 children give up their own time before and after school, no matter the weather, to ensure our whānau can get to and from school safely. It is a big deal, and they take it very responsibly. I was reminded of the service side this week as Willow, Lily and I did Road Patrol in the rain…thanks team!