Ngake and Whataitai

Retelling stories is always interesting. We have noticed that every time the story is retold it changes! The story is embellished, parts are exaggerated and maybe other parts have been left out. The same is true of the much loved myth concerning our local Taniwha, Ngake and Whataitai. Everytime we encounter the story it has developed and become more interesting. It is an extremely dynamic story and it explains some of the local geographical features of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. It is also a tale of friendship, challenge, and grief. We will be continuing to work with our local stories as we go toward term 3's Arts Celebration. We want to unpack them, understand them and tell them again in our own words. Here are some of the story mountains which students have begun developing to capture the main events and the dynamic shape of this story.

Positive Education in action!

Strong relationships amongst peers play a crucial role in the wellbeing and resilience of children and adolescents, whereas poor mental health outcomes are associated with unstable school environments and peer relationships.

The influence of relationships on health is diverse, as they promote self-care, endorse healthy habits like balanced nutrition and physical health, and nurture positive emotions that support overall bodily functions.

We all possess an intrinsic biological and psychological inclination for social connections and a sense of belonging and have a fundamental need for secure interpersonal connections and to perceive ourselves as worthy of care, empathy, love, and respect.

In the Māhutonga Matariki classroom spaces, we're diving deep into the importance of Teamwork, and what it entails in relation to positive peer relationships. You may have heard your child talk about 'Survivor'. This is a framework used to teach the explicit skills of developing Healthy Relationships, Teamwork, active and constructive communication, creative and flexible thinking.

Here's how it works: each term, students from each base group are organised into groups (using a random mixer so it's truely random). Each group comes up with a team name (my personal favourite so far is 'Lord of the Parakeets'!) Every Tuesday, we teach a Positive Education lesson which is focused around a different Learner Attribute/s and the Positive Education focus (this is currently 'Positive Relationships'). The learning from this lesson is taken into the Reward Challenge where students have to work in their teams to complete the task.

An example of this is the Week 2 challenge: 'Marble Roll'. 

During the challenge, groups were asked:
- How can each member of the group contribute? 
- How does our group make decisions together? 
- What does healthy communication look and sound like?

Points are added to the leaderboard and contribute to an overall score for term-long programme. On Wednesday's, we do a 'Tribal Council' where each group must unanimously vote for one other team to have a deduction of 50 points. Teams must practise their active communication skills to reach an agreement together. Every Friday, the groups take part in a 'Kahoot' which includes questions from each Learning Area and serves as a 'round-up' of the week's learning. The winning team receive immunity for the next Tribal Council.

Using a framework like 'Survivor' to teach skills related to Healthy Relationships, Teamwork, active and constructive communication, creative and flexible thinking is beneficial for all students. It has been rewarding to see students connect with each other and it is a fantastic vehicle to nurture Leadership skills as well.

Watch this space for updates!

Winning teams from the Week 2 'Marble Roll' Reward Challenge.

Cross Country

We have been training for our school Cross Country event, trying to raise our speed and levels of fitness in preparation for the big event. We have set personal goals, emphasising the aim of pushing and extending ourselves over competition with others. We are already seeing some great results with increased levels of fitness across the board and some really enthusiastic runners. We will be at Worser Bay Beach at about 9:30 on Wednesday the 15th. The event usually involves a quick dash up and down the beach, through the dunes, across the grass and back to the start/finish. Please come to support our amazing runners if you are able to. Those who are particularly keen may qualify for the Eastern Zone Event to be held at Scots College on the 22nd of May. More information about this event will follow when we know who is in our Cross Country team.

Memoir Writing:

We have kicked off Term 2 getting straight into some new writing. Memoirs are an interesting genre, usually the preserve of the elderly, reflecting on a complete life but we aren't waiting for our eighties. We have begun our memoir collection writing about our old soft toys. They hold a lot of power, good memories and comfort. Identifying the features of a memoir was our first step. These include:

Then we had a go at writing a piece all together about John's sad old stuffed (in every way) elephant Alpo.

Over the course of the year students will add to their collections of personal stories and reflections, retelling important moments of their lives to date and musing about the thoughts and wonderings which occur to them. Maybe this process will help make sense of events for them. Watch this space for examples of kid's writing.