Risk Taking and Mistake making

Do we need to take risks (or as a member of our discussion group this morning said "Have a go") to learn?

We debated this point this morning. It was an interesting discussion. We did agree that we needed to talk to our children about the learning process and aspects of their learning that involved taking a risk- in fact discuss what "taking a risk" means. We reflected on the NZ Curriculum and the key competencies of participating and contributing and of managing self. Both involve taking risks (with the chance of making mistakes) to learn and grow. Certainly once children leave the compulsory schooling years they will be in an ongoing range of situations where they have the choice of taking a risk (having a go) with the possibility of making mistakes and the consequences of this or of staying in their comfort zone.

If they do not learn to take risks and make mistakes in the safety of the schooling environment when will they? Will they venture an opinion in a group discussion with the risk that their opinion could be perceived as wrong (Participating and Contributing) if they are scared of the consequences. How do they learn to manage self if they are not put in the situation where they can "have a go"?

Will their experiences through school encourage or discourage them from taking a risk?

Do our classrooms and schools have a culture of encouraging risk taking and accepting "making mistakes" as a critical part of the learning process?

Time to observe, talk to our children and our staff and find out!

Welcome back!

Kia ora and welcome to our new families and our returning families in 2011!

We have had a wonderful start to 2011. The teachers had an inspiring day with International consultant and writer Tony Ryan. Tony is renown for developing the "Thinkers Keys" in the 1980's and was an early advocate of explicitly teaching the skills of thinking to children. Tony inspired the staff with his practical teaching strategies, he challenged us all with his questions about why we teach and the important role that we have in the life of a child and he gave us plenty of great strategies about how to manage the challenging role of teaching 20-30 children for 6-7 hours a day, planning, assessing, building relationships with the child, their family, contributing to the greater life of the school, meeting Government expectations, meeting community expectations and still having a balanced life.

This day was followed by a fantastic morning where over 50 staff and BOT members spent time getting to know each other, re acquainting ourselves with our Vision, values and beliefs and clarifying our goals for 2011.

We have an amazing year planned! The learning opportunities for the children at Windsor are too many to mention here but with our Key Competency focus of Managing Self and our PRIDE Value focus of Excellence we expect to see some fantastic results.

Our PRIDE Challenges will be up and running shortly but have a look at the link to see some of the inspiring children from 2010. Such is the interest in the PRIDE Challenges nationally that they have become part of the NZ Curriculum Online series.

Our Theme of "Making it!" in 2011 we see the children immersed in Science and Technology for the year. We are going to have a lot of fun learning about ways of "Making it"

Huge changes have been going on over the holidays, new courts, painting, re fit of older building and the creation of breakout learning areas called CHILL Studios (CHILL- Children who Independently Lead their Learning). The projects are ongoing- as you can see by the digger above!

I look forward to seeing our families at the Meet the Teacher Picnic next Tuesday!

Regards

Neill

Kids Congress 2010

I had the pleasure of spending two days with 300 stunning children and 30 dedicated teachers at Kids Congress 2010.

Kids Congress is a conference for kids by kids! That's right kids organise the conference. They

• Market the conference
• Find and book the venue
• Build the website
• Organise catering
• Mange the $30 000 budget down to the last cent
• Organise bookings
• Manage the media
• Liaise with schools, presenters, management, fellow students

They were an amazing success. See their report and read for yourself.

What I have no doubt about is that this event (The brain child of Mike Anderson and Faye LeCren) does so much to develop the key competencies of our children. It is the reason for reading, writing and maths.

Know this - a narrow focus on National Standards will not enhance the outcomes for our children.

Amazing authentic learning opportunities like Kids Congress will. They need reasons to write (letters, invites, websites, invoices) do maths (managing a $30 000 budget) and read (for meaning for clarification and for sorting, organising and placing students in their breakouts) rather than tests and standards!

Go Kids Congress- thanks Kids, thanks presenters and thanks Mike and Faye!

Key Competencies

So what is the difference between the old and new curriculum?

The new curriculum acknowledges that the "3 r's" are not enough to prepare our children for the future let alone sustain them in an every changing world.

The learning areas or mathematics, literacy, the arts, Health and PE, science, technology, social sciences are still essential- the key point of difference is that they assist in the development of the key competencies- Thinking, Relating to others, Using language symbols and texts, Managing Self, Participating and contributing.

Notice Using language symbols and texts (the 3 r's), is one of the competencies, it is not the end in itself.

So what?

So our education system has a mandate to move beyond numeracy and literacy and to create community based curriculum's that develop the key competencies- exciting times!

Our (Windsor) curriculum is a response to this innovative change.

I hope to have it online for you soon.

Neill