CLIFTON TERRACE MODEL SCHOOL

INFORMATION BOOKLET

MISSION: To inspire in each child a thirst for learning,

drawing on the rich opportunities available
to a small inner-city school.
Ki te whakatenanta I te tamaiti ki te whai wahi mai I te matauranga me nga
mea tino angitu I nga kura pakupaku o nga taone nui.

15 Clifton Terrace, Kelburn, Wellington, New Zealand

Telephone: (04) 472 7519 Fax: (04) 472 8204
Email: staff@ctms.school.nz
Website: www.ctms.school.nz
 CONTENTS

Page

Who We Are 3

Clifton Terrace Model School Profile

How We Operate 4

School Today and the Board of Trustees

Home Groups

What Guides Us 5

Charter
School agreement
Unique characteristics of CTMS

Teaching and Learning 7

The New Zealand Curriculum

Assessment
Homework

Communication 8

Communication Book
School Notices
Assembly
Newsletter
Notice Board
Concerns
Reporting to Parents

Practical Matters 9

Enrolling
Starting School Booklet
Ten ways you can help your child and the school

Other Aspects of the School 10

Parents, Caregivers and Teachers’ Association (PTA)

 WHO WE ARE

Clifton Terrace Model School Profile

Clifton Terrace Model School is a small inner-city full primary school and is
situated on Clifton Terrace, just west of the central Wellington business district.
It provides a unique opportunity for those living in the inner city to obtain a high
quality education in a small learning environment, capable of providing
personalised teaching programmes for its pupils. Our zone is in the lower
Kelburn area but many out of zone students come from the wider Wellington
area.

The school's ethnic and socio-economic characteristics reflect the high incidence
of professional people working and living close to the CBD. The school is
fortunate to have a high calibre of the skills and experience within the school
community necessary for its Board and a high proportion of families have both
parents in paid employment.

Like all New Zealand state primary schools, we follow the New Zealand
Curriculum. A special difference is added in the unique characteristics
maintained by the school charter. These include;
 To promote self-confidence and skill in self-expression through, and to
encourage appreciation of music, drama, dance, and the visual arts.
 To expand students’ formal educational experiences and progress through
the use of relevant resources, places and activities outside the school.
 To assist students to acquire safety and personal survival skills for city
living
 To learn about the Spanish language and the culture of Spanish-speaking
countries. This community initiative sits comfortably with the emphasis on
the value of learning about other cultures.

The proximity to the city allows us to respond to these goals and make use of
this valuable resource. This access to our wider community, being Wellington's
professional, government, academic, business and cultural institutions, also
gives the children the opportunity to respond to the quality experiences our
capital city has to offer. Likewise, we use the local parks to compensate for our
lack of playground space. Being small means our children are growing and
learning with a group of children from 5 to 12 years old in a family atmosphere,
where children of all ages work and play together.

Clifton Terrace Model School also aims to integrate short, medium and long term
practices that are holistically sustainable.

The school welcomes parents and caregivers to participate in the children's

programme within and outside the classroom. Our open door policy means that
they are many opportunities for the children to work with a variety of adults
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including teacher trainees. Our Model School status also allows staff regular
opportunities to support the professional learning community.

Home Groups
Kahikatea: Senior classroom upstairs
Kowhai: Middle classroom downstairs
Kauri: Junior classroom downstairs

The children and class levels in these spaces vary each year according to the
numbers in the school.

HOW WE OPERATE

School Today and the Board of Trustees

“Tomorrow’s Schools”, as the official education policy is called, evolved following

a Task Force report in 1988 which found that the administration of the New
Zealand school system needed to be decentralised. The result was to devolve
responsibility for schools from central government to the local community. In
1989 the Boards of Trustees (BOT) were elected, charters written and approved
and “a new era in education began - the self managing school”. Elections are
held in three year cycles.

The BOT has the overall governance responsibility for the school, including
certain legal obligations covering responsibility for property, personnel, the
proper management of school finances, the charter undertaking and reporting to
the Ministry and school community. Every school’s charter and mission
statement reflect local needs and priorities. The BOT ensures effective delivery
of the curriculum, employs staff, establishes goals, and develops and reviews
policies, monitors performance, and employs and supports the principal(s).

Essentially, Boards of Trustees are responsible for ensuring their schools meet
the requirements of the National Education Guidelines.

NATIONAL EDUCATION
GUIDELINES
(“NEGs”)

NATIONAL NATIONAL NATIONAL

EDUCATION GOALS CURRICULUM ADMINISTRATION
STATEMENTS GUIDELINES
(“NAGs”)

The NEGs automatically, by law, form part of a school’s Charter. Every school
must have an approved written Charter of goals and objectives. The Charter,
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including the NEGs, is the undertaking between a school (acting through the
Board) and the Government.

Accordingly, the Board has a significant role to play in ensuring the Charter is
being carried out and adhered to. Under the Education Act 1989, Boards are
responsible to the Government for overseeing the management of their schools.
The NAGs provide direction to Boards in management/operational/governance
areas.

Board meetings are generally held once a month. These meetings are open to
the community to attend.

WHAT GUIDES US

The school charter is our guiding document for school organisation and learning
programmes.

Our charter directly considers the following facets of the school;

 We strive to be innovative, versatile and successful in all that we do, from
the warm, welcoming environment to the approaches of our teaching and
learning to our partnership with families in the CTMS community.

 As a model school we contribute to the training of student teachers, and

the school and community benefit from our ongoing commitment and
contribution to teacher training. Teachers are required to be excellent
teachers themselves and to keep up to date with current teaching tools
and techniques. This commitment also means that our students have the
opportunity to learn from a structured range of teachers within the
confines of a familiar environment. This latter benefit is consistent with
our feeling that learning is enhanced when everyone has the opportunity
to work with a variety of children and adults.

 Shared decision making and shared management are fundamental

philosophies of CTMS. In alignment with these philosophies is the school’s
co-principalship model, which we believe fosters an environment of
teamwork and cooperation. Our philosophy also extends to the pupils: our
effort demonstrates to pupils the benefits of a collaborative approach to
making decisions; in addition, the teachers and pupils collaboratively draft
an annual school agreement.

 We believe all CTMS pupils should be encouraged to realise their own

intellectual, social, physical and creative potential. To this end, we
encourage our pupils to take responsibility for their own behaviour and
learning, and we focus our learning and development opportunities to
teach self-confidence, leadership skills and group co-operation. The
success of our aims is evident as we travel out of CTMS to take advantage
of what city has to offer. When our pupils are out and about in Wellington,
they are recognised, and often receive compliments, for their pleasant and
caring, dispositions, self-management (i.e., good behaviour), curiosity,
and intelligence.
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Our Core Values
We love learning and discovery.

We respect relationships and cultures.

We hold in high regard self-confidence and leadership.

Our Vision
Our vision is to instill the core values in our pupils so that they:
Embrace learning and problem solving opportunities;
Interact well with a wide variety of people;
Feel good about themselves and lead by example.

There are a number of approaches through which we uphold our values and
achieve our mission and vision. The approaches listed below are of particular
importance to the school and school community. Some approaches, such as
teaching safety and finding one’s way in the city, utilising learning opportunities
in the city, drafting the annual school agreement, having a strong appreciation
for the arts, and teaching Spanish, make CTMS unique. The approaches appear
in categories based on the CTMS visions, though some approaches could easily
be placed in more than one category.

Vision: CTMS pupils embrace learning and problem solving opportunities.

Approaches toward achieving this vision include:
 Providing a safe, trusting environment conducive to teaching and learning
 Sharing our community-wide excitement for learning
 Encouraging pupils to express their curiosity
 Celebrating individual academic success
 Recognising the arts as important to the development of the creative spirit
 Drafting the school agreement with the pupils (see copy on the website)
 Utilising arts and educational opportunities in the city
 Offering opportunities for pupils to be innovative (and to take some risk)
 Placing an emphasis on constructive feedback
 Supporting student-led activities (such as artistic performances)

Vision: CTMS pupils interact well with a wide variety of people.

Approaches toward achieving this vision include:
 Promoting respect for others
 Guiding pupil’s understanding of appropriate behaviour for different
contexts
 Ensuring that pupils interact with all of the (full-time) teachers of the
school
 Offering opportunities for pupils to learn from individuals outside of the
school
 Creating situations where children work together, including across age
groups
 Promoting inclusiveness
 Appreciating cultural differences within the school
 Teaching Te Reo Maori and Spanish
 Fostering conflict resolution abilities
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  Working together with families as partners

Vision: CTMS pupils feel good about themselves and lead by example.
Approaches toward achieving this vision include:
 Valuing pupils for who they are
 Showing an appreciation for good conduct (e.g., self-management,
honesty, teaching safety and navigation in Wellington)
 Having pupils make presentations (within the school)
 Encouraging physical well-being through fitness and sport
 Giving pupils responsibilities within the school
 Providing opportunities for pupils to lead and to support others

School Agreement paste here

Add Letter

TEACHING AND LEARNING

The New Zealand Curriculum

The New Zealand Curriculum is a statement of official policy relating to teaching
and learning in English-medium New Zealand schools. Its principal function is to
set the direction for student learning and to provide guidance for schools as they
design and review their curriculum.

The New Zealand Curriculum applies to all English-medium state schools

(including integrated schools) and to all students in those schools, irrespective of
their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, belief, ability or disability, social or cultural
background, or geographical location.

Curriculum is designed and interpreted in a three-stage process: as the national

curriculum, the school curriculum, and the classroom curriculum. The national
curriculum provides the framework and common direction for schools. It gives
schools the scope, flexibility, and authority they need to design and shape their
curriculum so that teaching and learning is meaningful and beneficial to their
particular communities of students.

The New Zealand Curriculum describes the elements that are fundamental to
teaching and learning in New Zealand schools. It states the principles, values
and key competencies that give direction to all teaching and learning. It
specifies eight learning areas. The learning associated with each area is part of
a broad, general education and lays the foundation for later specialisation.

Assessment
All teachers plan programmes with objectives and monitor learning, so that
ongoing programmes are relevant to learner needs. If you would like more
information on any of these areas, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Evidence of learner progress can be seen in a variety of ways. Some of these

are;
 Individual assessment profiles

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 These contain a variety of assessments carried out throughout the year, for
example running records, standardized achievement tests and writing
assessments
 reports and parent/teacher interviews
 teacher planning/evaluation
 exercise/work books
 record of learning books
These contain self-evaluation work, personal goals and samples of work
 physical environment - outside and inside the classroom
 weekly Children’s Assembly
 parent/community feedback
 staff member’s feedback
 feedback from Wellington College of Education trainees and

Home Learning
The following are general guidelines for homework:
 homework will be relevant to the individual child’s need
 children will know what is required and should, by Year 3, be able to convey
to an adult at home what is to be done
 parents are encouraged to acknowledge their child’s efforts and communicate
their observations to the teacher
 teachers will inform parents of homework requirements via the
communication book
 regular practice activities include reading, spelling and basic mathematics
facts. Approximate daily time for this would be:
- Yrs 0-3 10-15 minutes
- Yrs 3-6 15-20 minutes
- Yrs 7-8 minimum 30 minutes
 other work related to current topics will be included as homework and this
will vary in quantity
 parents/caregivers may also wish to follow up some school-based work with
their children
 for older students, unfinished school work is often taken home for
completion

COMMUNICATION

Communication Book
To encourage regular communication between home and school the students
have a communication book. This contains a weekly class newsletter detailing
the week’s programme, homework and whole school activities. The books are
checked daily and parent notes and written communications are acknowledged
and replied to as necessary. Parents/caregivers are also asked to check and
initial this book daily.

„Events‟ -School Notices

If there are notices, these are distributed on Mondays and Fridays. We suggest
that on these days you check with your child to see if they have anything. If
there are siblings attending the school, the youngest is given the notice.

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If your child lives in two locations and you would like two sets of notices, or
would like one set posted, please let us know.

Assembly
These take place every second Thursday morning between 9:00 - 9:30am.
Assembly provides an opportunity for children to practise performance skills and
to show what they have learnt at school or at home. An adult audience is
welcomed and appreciated.

Notice Board
There is a notice board in the foyer. Current community notices may be placed
on this board. The Minutes from the Board meeting and any PTA notices are
posted here, together with the school’s Policies and Procedures Manual.

Concerns
If you have any concerns, in the first instance talk to a teacher. The school has a
complaints policy for dealing with grievances for serious issues. A copy of the
policy is available in the Policies and Procedures manual in the foyer, from the
office, any board member, or your child’s teacher.

Reporting to Parents
The monitoring of your child’s progress is an on-going activity that is part of the
teacher’s role in the classroom. CTMS has a structured programme to update
you with this progress as follows:

March/April: Parent/Teacher interview to discuss performance and set learning

goals.
August: Written report.
August: Parent/Teacher interview following written report.
December: Final written report.

Interviews can, however, take place at other times as well. All you need to do is
talk to the home group teacher and make a suitable time.

Staff are available to after 3:00 pm. If you would like to talk without
interruptions, please arrange a suitable time with the teacher.

PRACTICAL MATTERS

Enrolling
Clifton Terrace Model School is guided by an enrolment policy. The policy sets
out the boundaries for a distinct catchment zone and details priorities for
enrolment from both within the zone, and outside the zone if there are
vacancies. There are circumstances which may allow enrolment for families
outside the catchment zone. For details please contact the office.

Starting School
Refer to the Starting School Booklet.

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Attendance
Please note that children are legally required to attend school everyday during
term time. Any absence must be reported to the school office by phone call
before 8:55am on the day of absence or in writing the day prior to the absence.
Children are not to be dropped off at school before 8:30am. Children are to have
left the school grounds by 3:15pm or be supervised by an adult in the
playground after this time. (Please refer to the Attendance Policy/guidelines).

Peanuts
CTMS is a peanut free school. (Refer to peanut notification letter)

Ways You Can Help Your Child and the School

1. Make sure that children have adequate and healthy lunches. We do our best
to ensure that the children eat enough at lunchtime.

2. Monitor your child’s television viewing and get them to bed at a reasonable
hour.

3. Look after the reading books that are sent home. Please return them daily.

4. When sending money to school, please put it in an envelope with the child’s
name on it, the amount and its purpose. Please post it in the box located
outside of the office.

5. Keep children who are sick at home. This limits the spread of infection and is
best for the child’s recovery.

6. Please let us know as soon as possible if you have a change of address, or if

a contact number has changed.

7. Name children’s clothing and check for anything that is mislaid. The Lost
Property box outside the cloak bay can be accessed at all times. Ensure that
your child has clothing and footwear that will be appropriate for learning
activities, including physical education.

8. Talk to your child’s teacher if you have concerns.

9. Please ensure your child brings their library bag on library visit day (which
normally fall on alternate Mondays) and that books are regularly returned.

10.Ensure you read Events and prepare your child for all EOTC events.

OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL

PTA

The Clifton Terrace Parents Caregivers and Teachers’ Association, or “PTA” is a

non-profit body made up of parents, caregivers and teachers. The PTA is self
funded.
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The PTA’s main goals are:

 to encourage all parents and caregivers to play an active role at the school
 to ensure that all parents and caregivers are welcomed and included as part
of the school community

The PTA is very active and welcomes any new ideas and families.

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