Week 12 - Term 2 - 2020

Ma whero ma pango ka oti ai te mahi

With red and black the work will be complete

This refers to co-operation where if everyone does their part, the work will be complete. 

The colours refer to to the traditional kowhaiwhai patterns on the inside of the meeting houses.

Week 12 29 Pipiri - 3 Hōngongoi Parent Teacher interviews - Tues 30 and all Day - Fri 3 LEFs due this week End of Term 2!	School Holidays 4 Hōngongoi - 19 Hōngongoi  Have a great break! School resumes - Mon 20
Assembly/Ako Year 10 Assembly - PAC Year 9 Assembly - Gym	Assembly/Ako
Meeting  Nil - Due to parent teacher interviews	Meeting

Information for Staff

1. Thank you for all of the great discussions that have been had this week regarding possible future directions. I will be putting together a summary of common themes from across the groups and will share this with staff.

2. ULearn 2020: On 7-8 October ULearn will be live and with on demand options through an exciting, contemporary virtual platform. 

• They invite you to explore two themes over two days with four keynotes who will inspire and disrupt your thinking. 
• Customise your learning with six activators, six breakouts and an extensive range of workshops.

Find out more by visiting their Website - ULearn 2020

Week 11 - Term 2 - 2020

Pai tū

Pai hinga

Nāwai rā

Ka oti

Good to stand

Good to fall

Continue on and eventually the work is completed

Week 10 22 Pipiri - 26 Pipiri Late Start - Fri 26	Week 12 29 Pipiri - 3 Hōngongoi Parent Teacher interviews - Tues 30 and all Day - Fri 3 LEFs due this week End of Term 2!
Assembly/Ako Year 12 Assembly - PAC Year 11 Assembly - Gym Full School Assembly will resume on Friday 26	Assembly/Ako Year 10 Assembly - PAC Year 9 Assembly - Gym
Meeting  Staff Meeting	Meeting  Nil - due to parent/teacher interviews

Information for Staff

1. Late Start information: Next Friday 26, our late start PLG groups will finally meet for the year.

A few staff have got back to me regarding changes due to a change in focus.

Rooms are:

Cross Curricular and Authentic Curriculum - 217
Innovation and Leadership - A202
Māori Succeeding as Māori - TRP
Pasific Learners - 104
Wellbeing - S2
All groups will be carrying out the same activity, but with a different focus depending on the group
they are in.

2.Learn programming with the department of Fun stuff at UC - 3 day course for anyone who may be interested. See HERE for details.

3. On Wednesday, the year 13's were also asked the same questions regarding what they thought the best thing about attending CGHS as well as what they through was important for learning in the future. The responses were quite similar to the year 9's. These are great discussion points moving forward and will be helpful when we start looking at the development of our graduate profiles.

4. And something that came from Julia FDJ ..... perhaps how some of us may be feeling at the moment - thank you Julia - it made me smile!

Week 10 - Term 2 - 2020

He aha te mea nui o tēnei ao

Maku e ki atu

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata

What is the greatest thing of this world?

And I will reply

It is people, it is people, it is people

Week 10 15 Pipiri - 19 Pipiri Fire Evacuation - Mon 15 p4 Jane Austin Essay Competition - Thurs 18	Week 11 22 Pipiri - 26 Pipiri Late Start - Fri 26
Assembly/Ako Year 13 Assembly - PAC	Assembly/Ako Year 12 Assembly - PAC Year 11 Assembly - Gym Full School Assembly will resume on Friday 26
Meeting  Department Meeting	Meeting  Staff Meeting

Information for staff

1. You will see that there is a late start scheduled for 26 June - way back in Term 1 there was a sign up sent out for staff for groups.  There were a couple of staff who had not signed up, so I have added you to a group. If you go HERE you can see what you might have chosen. If you would now like to change, can you please let me know.

2. You may be interested to read an email from one of our Year 13 students re assessment at CGHS and something to reflect on.....

"If there is one thing that I have taken away from the reduction of credits available to us in response to the lockdown, it is that CGHS students are over-assessed. I question why many students will finish for example NCEA level 2 with almost 120 credits, when the requirement is only 80. With many classes dropping papers in response to the lockdown, the school workload is far more manageable. We feel that we are able to learn for the sake of learning, not just for assessment. Having so many assessments to complete in a year has made secondary school feel like an enormous (not to mention, incredibly stressful) race, rather than a "learning journey." We understand that it gives more opportunity to achieve endorsements and such things, but I feel that this is a small benefit exchanged for a too-large cost. This seems especially true in an age which is more concerned than ever about student wellbeing.

Personally, I would hope that this uncertain time has provided an opportunity to see that students and teachers alike would be better off if student workload were to be reduced permanently." 

3. Core Ed  have released their 10 trends for 2020 - This year, the report is retrospective and examines changes in education over the last 15 years, reflected on these changes and the impact that they have had.

4. Insights from learners in lockdown - http://www.evaluate.co.nz/learnersinlockdownreport/ - If you would like to explore a small scale research study that incorporates student voice during lockdown.

Week 9 - Term 2 - 2020

He aroha whakatō, he aroha puta mai

If kindness is sown, then kindness you shall receive

Week 9 8 Pipiri - 12 Pipiri StEADA meetings - Tues 9 - Wed 10 LEF Reports due this week	Week 10 5 Pipiri - 18 Pipiri Jane Austin Essay Competition - Thurs 18
Assembly/Ako Year 10 Assembly - PAC	Assembly/Ako Year 13 Assembly - PAC
Meeting  L & T Meeting	Meeting  Department Meeting

Information for Staff

1. NZQA have put up the link for examination markers - go to 
https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/working-at-nzqa/contract-vacancies/markers-and-verifiers/

2. If you missed the webinar on Tuesday for 'Lessons from lock-down - rethinking business as usual at Secondary school', where Claire Amos and Louise Addison talked about the changes that have been implemented in schools - the recording can be found HERE

3. NZCER have made their latest SET magazine with online articles freely available this month - there are a number of articles linked to wellbeing, digital learning, languages and more.

4. Over the last couple of months I have been given the opportunity to engage with educationalists, both in New Zealand and from overseas. One of these was a webinar on 'The Education Revolution', and one of the participants raised the question around 'why still have schools' as we were in the midst of teaching online.

The presenter was Shai Reshef who is the founder for University of the People. This is an accredited University with over 31000 students attending from across the world and who all attend online. The premise, is that the University is free, and students teach and learn off each other at no cost.

There is no need to charge fees when you do not have buildings, and you are not paying the Universities for their research component. They have small classes of 20 - 30 students where each week they are to post one original response to a question and respond to 3 other posts. You either participate or fail.
To hear more about it - you can listen to his Ted Talk below.

So
So

So Why School? This university model would require high motivation, self-discipline and a whole lot of student support. Students do need to force themselves to study and online learning does not work with lectures only.

But perhaps the real reason can be summed up by our Year 9 student responses when they were asked about what is the best thing about attending CGHS - resoundingly it is about relationships and connections! (Also great to see the canteen now making a comeback)

The second set of responses was in response to the question around what they thought should be a key focus if the year was 2035 at CGHS and what would be important for learning.