|
1. LEARNING TO
LEARN
Kowhai is
committed to teaching children
how to learn. We
don’t
see children as empty buckets to be filled up with information.
We believe children need to learn how to build up their own
understandings. Our teachers are not transmitters of information, they
are co-constructors – like scaffolders who have to keep one step ahead
of the builders as they add the next storey to their understanding. Our
strong Inquiry Learning Model reflects this. It is about making sense of
facts, not just collecting them. Learning to learn is about being
equipped to face the future and shape it. Kowhai students are learning
to learn.
2. QUALITY
TEACHERS
The research is conclusive: Large scale surveys of studies into what
makes kids learn best, show that the teacher has the biggest impact.
The Kowhai team possess academic rigor and are highly trained in
current best teaching practices. They understand young adolescents and
love working with this age group. Their passion for middle years
schooling inspires and challenges our students. They know how to
identify and solve obstacles to children’s learning and how to
capitalise on children’s strengths and interests to urge them towards
excellence. They create caring and inclusive classes where students
learn safely and happily. They
know how to plan real life learning experiences that match the concepts
being learned. They are skilled at providing the feedback and
questioning that will lift students up to their next level of
achievement.
Quality teachers are not just good at their subjects, they are strong
role models, too – they are quality people.
3. ATTENTION
TO LITERACIES
Literacy is the
ability to speak, read and write effectively so you can make progress in
life and interact successfully with the world.
There are other literacies that 21st century citizens
need, as well.
Reading, writing and speaking are certainly at
the top of the literacy list and we have proven and consistent literacy
programmes in every class across the entire school.
Children arrive at Kowhai with varying abilities in reading and
writing and we expect to move all
of them to higher levels.
The second key literacy is
numeracy - understanding and communicating in the language of
number. Our staff have just
completed three years of intensive mathematics professional development
and are well-equipped to seamlessly move students on towards high
school.
Digital literacy –
information and communication skills/tools are a new ‘world’ of skills
and possibilities that our children must master so they can connect with
and navigate the ocean of ideas available via the internet.
Second language literacy
– learning others’ languages allows our children to understand other
cultures more fully and to move between them confidently. We have strong
professional leaders in each literacy.
We pay careful attention to literacies because we aim to produce
richly articulate young people.
4. FUN AND
CHALLENGE
These adolescent years are high energy!
Our children are getting used to being more independent and are
keen to try out new things.
Kowhai deliberately caters for this liveliness and inquisitiveness.
Each year there is a rich variety of co-curricular activities
available. Camps are an
excellent setting for children to safely explore life outside the nest.
There is a bi-annual class camp and specialist camps such as
sports camp and snow camp. On Adventure Days, students try out new
challenges such as mountain-biking and golf. This is the age for
attempting new sports and proving yourself in the ones at which you
already excel! Children can
learn a musical instrument, form a band or participate in other cultural
and performance groups. Fun and
challenge are vital ingredients to the middle school years at Kowhai.
5.
PERSONALISED LEARNING
Our school is
set up to identify and meet the needs of individual learners; to
personalize their education. At Kowhai, your child will have his/her own
teacher who gets to know him/her really well.
We believe that at this age children still need a good deal of
nurturing and understanding to get the best from their schooling.
A classroom teacher (rather than a subject-specialised teacher)
is able to help students to work through dilemmas, solve problems and
meet challenges by bringing together learning from a range of
disciplines. This is consistent with the intent of the new NZ
Curriculum. We get involved
with parents at the very start of the school year to learn from you
about your child and set some significant learning goals for each year.
Streaming occurs within the classroom to ensure that every
student is working at the appropriate level.
Students with special strengths or needs have supplementary
programmes to ensure that their learning is truly personalised and not
merely a generic ‘course’.
|
