Literacy
Reading Together
Throughout 2019 our learning centres have been planning and taking Reading Together workshops with their whanau. Reading Together is a research-based workshop programme which helps parents and whānau to provide effective support for their children's reading (and thereby also supports teachers in their classroom programmes). The programme consists of four one hour workshops where parents and whānau can share their experiences of reading at home, learn some strategies that will enhance their understanding of the reading process and how they can make reading at home with their child an enjoyable experience.
Please contact your school if you have missed this years workshop and wish to attend one in 2020!
Liz works alongside a child as part of the Reading Together workshops.
Malvern Schools Reading Together
All kura (schools) in the Malvern Kāhui Ako have been running Reading Together workshops with groups of parents and children throughout this term. This is a researched based programme which aims to help parents/whānau to provide support with reading at home.
Reading Together involves three workshops held at the kura with the final night being held at our local Darfield Library. Emmaline Sibbald, our local librarian welcomed our schools. Her wonderful librarians gave us an amazing tour of what they are now offering children (and parents) in the library. We learn about the newest items available to enhance our experience of reading with our children. these include Te Reo picture books, themed book packs and more recently children’s books that have the story recorded for listening to as we read. All of these resources are available to the wider community.
We want as many parents as possible to have the opportunity to experience Reading Together and have been fortunate to gain funding from the Ministry of Education to assist us. This funding means that free childcare is available for parents, there is food - to sustain us during a relaxed one hour session, and some kura providing extras like books and book boxes for the children, certificates and framed photos of parents reading with their children!
Parent feedback is valuable and has included comments such as “We definitely find more time to read. Dad helps out more with reading time. Great way to spend more time as a family.” and “It has given us heaps of new ways to approach reading and has encouraged us to be more relaxed about reading.”
Next term our Early Learning Centres will be running a set of three Reading Together workshops for our wonderful four year olds and in the future there will opportunities for our year 7 or 8 parents to attend a workshop involving reading at a very different level.
Curriculum Progress Tools
Throughout terms 2 and 3 principals and teachers from Years 1 to 7 have attended workshops on The Curriculum Progress Tools taken by Liz Carston and Evaluation Associates.
Through all teachers using these tools we will have consistent collection of data around the progress of our students from across our Kāhui Ako. This will assist principals and teachers to develop programmes around literacy - in particular writing.
Principal Meredith Devonald with two of our Darfield teachers Kiri Conrad and Jackie Conrad during one of our Curriculum Progress Tools.
Principal Dion Stechmann with two of our teachersDebbie Schnell (Glentunnel) and Kelly Maude (Greendale) working together.