Dear Parents, Caregivers and Children,

Welcome back to Term 4. It was wonderful to greet you all back here Monday morning either at the gate or at assembly. This term is very much going to be a sprint, with only 9 weeks to enjoy the many events and learning opportunities we will be presented with. One of these events being Ag Day on Tuesday. While this year there were no calves, we were still able to capture the essence of the day with our lambs and goats and I would like to congratulate all the children who committed their energy and time into raising their animals. They did a fantastic job and should be very proud!

Over the break we had some great Teacher Only Days, the essence of these days (as many of them are) was to reflect and check how we are tracking towards achieving our aspirations for our Tamariki. Are the actions we make having an impact? Are we connecting with our childrens' story and their whanau? While the answers to such questions are more qualitative than quantitative and are not simply yes / no responses, it ensures that at the forefront of all our decisions and actions are the children, their needs, their interests.

In addition 15 of us attended the Nathan Mikaere Wallis parent education evening on Thursday the 11th of Oct and we will also be attending the follow up evening on Wednesday November 21st. Nathan is a N.Z Neuroscience Educator & Director of X-Factor Education. It was an excellent evening for all of us. Nathan speaks candidly about brain development and makes direct links to the research around how the brain develops through the different stages of childhood. His first session was discussing the first few years of life (0-8) and his next session is focussed around the age bracket of 8-22. Much of our learning and educative approaches are based on Nathan's research. If you think you may be able to attend his next session, I encourage you to do so. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketek. 

Finally, on Monday mornings assembly I spoke to the children about learning (no surprises there). It was a simple reminder that it is ongoing and that when learning we sometimes feel great and at other times we feel frustrated, both are very normal. The important thing is to focus on the doing part. As it is when we do the learning, whatever that might look like, we make the connection to the why. That's what interests and excites us! As essentially, for many of us in life we learn as we go. 

Learning without doing

It’s certainly possible.

But it’s unlikely you could learn to ride a bike by watching a lot of videos about it.

Or teach a toddler to walk.

In fact, it’s unlikely that you could learn to sell, to design useful objects or to solve interesting problems either.

You can try to learn without doing.

But why?

Warm Regards,

Geoff