KOPUTAROA SCHOOL CHARTER

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2014 - 2016
Inspiring Minds on the Journey of Learning.
Whakak!ngia te hiahia kia rewa ai te waka
Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

OUR VISION Inspiring Minds on the Journey of Learning

Whakak!ngia te hiahia kia rewa ai te waka.

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OUR MISSION To develop a community of innovative learners within a supportive environment.

N! te manaaki, n! te tiaki ka ora ng! m"em"ea o te reanga whakatipu.

Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

OUR VALUES

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Values are deeply held beliefs are about what is important or desirable. They are expressed through the ways in which people think and act. New Zealand Curriculum, Pg 10 The following Values are what our Community considered important to provide the foundation for successful learning and develop positive relationships.

Empathy and Respect Aroha, Manaakitanga Ambition and Excellence H!hiri Innovation, Inquiry and Curiosity Auahatanga, Pakirehua,

Integrity Mana Diversity and Inclusion Whanaungatanga Ecological Sustainability T"hononga Taiao

Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

OUR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY

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Koputaroa School (est. 1891) is a beautiful school, located within a rural setting, approximately 7 km north of Levin (New Zealand) between SH 1 and SH 57. We are a full primary, decile 6 school with a roll that fluctuates between 160 180. Koputaroa is the name of the local settlement and in Maori it means Breast of the Albatross. This name refers to the heavy fog that fills the valley, and from the hill near the Marae, looks like the breast of an albatross. Koputaroa was originally called Kereru and the schools emblem is of a Kereru. Koputaroa once boasted a dairy, railway station, hall and dairy factory. Remaining now are the school, hall (now situated alongside the school) and double railway tracks Koputaroa is still frequently used as a bypass for the trains along this busy main trunk line. For a school of our size we enjoy a large and dedicated team of teachers and support staff who all contribute to the learning experiences of our children. Our staff are very committed to providing our children with the best possible learning experiences and children enjoy a collaborative, supportive, engaging and motivational learning environment. Children at our school enjoy a large field, playground, trampolines and a number of established trees that the children are allowed to climb. Two of our trees are protected and recorded in the Notable Trees Trust. At our school we place a huge emphasis on quality learning and teaching and firmly believe in the principles of formative practice children being actively involved in the learning and teaching process. Through our Conceptual Curriculum, HOT Learning model and the Principles of Future Focused teaching and learning, we strive to provide a rich and diverse curriculum, where our children can experience engagement and success in multiple areas. We enjoy an incredibly support community, where our parents and whanau are very involved with our childrens learning and their extra curricular activities. We have a number of parents/whanau who assist within our school, through reading, spelling, and gardening and a number of our parents who assist through coaching sports teams. Our parents/whanau have shared with us that there is a very strong Tuakana/Teina relationship within our school, where our children support and nurture each other across the ages and across the curriculum. We are all very proud to be a part of Koputaroa, where every day we Inspire Minds on the Journey of Learning.

Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

CONSULTATION OVERVIEW

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At our school we pride ourselves on our strong home/school partnership. We know, and research supports this, that childrens learning is enhanced and improved, when the partnership between home and school is supportive and positive. A childs learning is primarily important to three key stakeholders: the child, their whanau and the school. Alongside this, Self Review is critically important to identify what is working well and what can be improved. A key component of self review is engaging with the necessary people to provide a comprehensive picture of what is occurring and what can be improved. As such, we have engaged in two extensive consultation processes, to ensure our Charter is reflective of our Community, our Children and our School. During 2010, we embarked on a comprehensive process of Community Consultation to completely review and revise our Charter. Also, with a new Board, it was timely to review the Charter and to involve the Board first hand, with the development of a Charter. The Board wanted to ensure it engaged the wider community to ensure our charter was reflective of our community. Our process consisted of: Board Meeting to outline our process, Community Consultation Meeting to engage our Community, Online Survey to enable everyone to give feedback, Staff Meeting to engage the thinking of the staff, Whanau Hui to engage with our Maori Community and Classroom Chats to have the voice of our children. Through this process, the Board synthesise all the information to formulate a working draft. The draft was put back out for Community feedback, with the final Charter being adopted in February 2011. Throughout 2011 and 2012, ongoing review occurred to evaluate the development and outcomes of our Charter. Primarily, the review consisted of staff, children and board review. In September of 2012, an online survey was created to allow the community to provide feedback on the development of our Charter. At each point of time, aspects of the Charter have been celebrated, modified, adapted or amended to reflect ongoing changes and priorities, with the overall intent and vision remaining intact. With new Board elections in 2013, we sought to comprehensively engage the Community to review our current Charter, to identify what was working well and what could be modified and/or improved. Reviewing our Charter also recognised that there had been significant growth in our Curriculum, pedagogy of learning and teaching and where we saw the direction of our school. Our Charter Consultation process consisted of: Four Community Consultation Meetings (hosted on different days and at different times), Whanau Hui, Classroom Review/Feedback and Staff Involvement. With the recent review of our Charter, one of our goals was to also translate key messages and phrases into Te Reo, to recognise our bicultural heritage and further encourage the growth of Tikanga Maori throughout our school and community.

Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

MAORI ACHIEVEMENT STATEMENT

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At Koputaroa School we acknowledge New Zealands cultural diversity and in doing so acknowledge the unique position of M!ori as tangata whenua. Koputaroa School will provide opportunities that support its students in te reo and tikanga M!ori. (Education Standards Act 2001) At Koputaroa School we have high expectations for all our students in their educational progression and achievement. We will continue to ensure that M!ori can effectively achieve educational success as M!ori, students who are expected to succeed are more likely to succeed. Ka Hikitia Accelerating Success 2013-2017 requires the development of approaches to support all stakeholders to hold high expectations for all Maori students. Ka Hikitia, Pg 38. Achievement of Maori students is regularly reported to the Board and we will continue to have a relentless focus on raising Maori achievement. Feedback from our Whanau Hui in August 2013 shared that our school has embraced Tikanga and Te Reo and that it is ok to be Maori. Our whanau believed our school promoted the concept of Tuakana/Teina - where our older children support, guide and nurture our younger students and where our younger students respect and give mana to the older students. Recognising the importance and intent of Ka Hikitia, our whanau shared their sentiments about what Maori achieving educational success as Maori meant to them - its about that child achieving as that child. At Koputaroa School, we will continue implement and seek new ways to increase our knowledge, understanding and use of Te Reo and Tikanga Maori for our students, staff and community. We will endeavour: To provide opportunities for all students to respect and understand Te Reo and Tikanga Maori To continue to grow the use of, and correct pronunciation of Te Reo throughout our school. To further engage and involve our whanau through hui and community events To consult with whanau was part of our regular self review To continue to grow and celebrate our Kapa Haka group

Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

SPECIAL NEEDS/ABILITIES ACHIEVEMENT STATEMENT

At Koputaroa School we aim for ALL children to experience educational success and achievement irrespective of their ability. Every child has the right to learn and be part of a welcoming, nurturing and safe environment. At our school we foster and encourage collegial, supportive relationships between all stakeholders invested in childrens education to ensure the best possible learning experiences for them. Collaborative partnerships would include the child, the parents/caregivers, whanau, teachers and/or principal and agencies and services which support students with special educational needs (eg: RTLB, CYFS). Special Educational Needs/Abilities can be for those children who have difficulty accessing the curriculum at their chronological age/level or for those children whose skills and talents exceed the curriculum expectation associated with their age/level. Koputaroa School will maintain a Special Educational Needs Register (including those children with special abilities) to ensure that those children who require additional learning support and/or extension are recorded and having their needs met. Indicators: Gather, collate and review data, progress and achievement of students on the SEN Register. Use external agencies and expertise to provide additional support and/or funding to assist children. This may include (but is not limited to) CYFS, RTLB, RTLit, Speech Therapy, Public Health, The Correspondence School, Health Camp Use of Teacher Aides to support and facilitate support or extension programmes, either in class or withdrawal. Programmes may include: Jolly Phonics, Rainbow Reading, Maths support. Learning Support Teacher to work alongside those children requiring additional learning support, in particular, those groups of children identified through the annual School Targets. Provision of a Management Unit for SENCo to oversee the coordination of SEN responsibilities. Timely IEPs (when required) to provide planning and review of students learning. Working with parents/caregivers to support their children with their learning.

Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

CURRICULUM PEDAGOGY
At Koputaroa School we adhere to a Conceptual Curriculum, where student learning is enhanced and deepened through multiple/ differing contexts, which relate and connect to an overarching concept. This way, students gain a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the concept being learnt and unpacked. Our Conceptual Framework is based on the research of Mark Treadwells book The Conceptual Age and the Revolution School v2.0 (2008) and Graham Nuthalls work The Hidden Lives of Learners (2007). Both texts provide evidence and clearly share and state how best to maximise student learning. The aim of our Conceptual Curriculum is to provide greater depth and understanding to one key concept and a few rich questions, as opposed to skimming lightly over multiple learning areas. This is reinforced by Nuthall where he states, it is better to invest teaching time and resources in a smaller number of big questions or problems in depth, rather than covering every aspect of the curriculum at a surface level of understanding. This is also supported by Treadwell, where he indicates the notion that the development of curricula and concepts, particularly in Years 0-3 is to build oral, written and visual language development. There is little time at these areas of the school to realistically develop the numerous science, maths, technology and social science concepts, (this gives support to our Modules), Realistically we must scale our expectations in these areas to match the reality of the time educators and learners have available, rather than overload them at these year levels with too many concepts which end up being poorly taught and learned. Our Conceptual Curriculum is underpinned by our Higher Order Thinking (HOT) Learning model. HOT Learning is a dynamic approach to learning that involves exploring the world, asking questions, making discoveries and rigorously testing those discoveries in the search for new understanding. H.O.T Learning enables our students to ask and research; share and reflect in a cyclical manner - as we do in most everyday thinking and decision. Through our Conceptual Curriculum and HOT Learning model, we aim to have a curriculum that is, or focuses on these key tenets:
Challenging
Student Driven

Meaningful Questioning Problem Solving Creative

Critical Thinking Reflecting Collaborative Researching Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

Curiosity Authentic Personalised

AT KOPUTAROA SCHOOL WE STRIVE FOR ALL CHILDREN TO...

be confident, independent learners be self-motivated and self-managing be inquisitive, creative learners who take risks and can problem solve be effective communicators be resourceful respect themselves and others to drive their own learning, where they are able to make choices about their learning - Mau e whiri

Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014

STRATEGIC GOALS: 2014 - 2016

STRATEGIC GOALS GOAL 1: To focus on high quality learning and teaching through expanding opportunities.

GOAL 2: To continue developing environmentally sustainable practice.

GOAL 3: To sustain, grow, and further encourage whanau and community partnerships.

GOAL 4: To provide and maintain a stimulating environment that caters for the modern learner.

GOAL 5: To sustain regular self-review. GOAL 6: To support and embed the growth of Tikanga Maori.

Koputaroa School Charter - Draft 2014