School Charter
Chelsea Primary School Charter 2011 - 2012
Mission statementChelsea School ’s task is to create confident, connected, life long learners by encouraging personal growth in a well resourced, supportive environment. |
Vision Statement“ Chelsea School encourages academic excellence and fosters progressive thinking and a love of learning”
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Values – “The child, the heart of the matter”Success for allall students can learn and achieve to their potential Passionenjoyment, energy, drive and a commitment to life-long learning Excellence / Panekiretangavaluing achievement and encouraging high expectations Innovationencouraging creativity, curiosity and critical and reflective thinking People /Manaakitangavaluing people and treating each other and ourselves with respect, honesty and integrity Community / Mahi Tahirecognising and utilising the contribution of all of our people Cultural Diversityvaluing the multi-cultural nature of our school and the special place of Tikanga Maori and Te Reo Maori Ecological Sustainability/ Matemate-a-onerespecting and protecting the world we live in and particularly the special environment in and around our school
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Chelsea School is a place where:
The education of the children is paramount and standards of excellence are encouraged and supported.
The Board of Trustees ensures that the policies and practices of the school reflect the mission statement.
We strive to create an environment that in educational terms, encourages and develops self worth and confidence, and encourages risk taking to develop the skills required for the children to grow into caring, well rounded, responsible adults who will make a useful contribution to our society.
We teach the children to value excellence in all things, especially in attitude and effort. Creativity and risk taking is encouraged, as is the correlation between rights and responsibilities.
Every effort is made to cater for each child’s learning needs.
Individual and cultural diversity is respected and nurtured. This is a multi cultural school where all cultures are respected and valued. The children are exposed to our unique Maori culture as part of the delivery of the curriculum, and every effort is made to address any Maori issues through consultation with our Maori community.
The school will provide instruction in Te reo Maori for full time students in accordance with the curriculum for English Medium schools.
Should we have a request for Te Reo to a more sophisticated level, a dual enrolment with the Correspondence School will be sought.
The school will take reasonable steps to incorporate tikanga Maori (Maori culture and protocol) into the schools curriculum.
Mainstream classrooms and school celebrations will reflect Maori Culture through waiata, greetings etc.
Classroom programmes will include components of tikanga Maori as appropriate. All children will have the opportunity to participate in the Kapa Haka group
Mainstream classrooms and school celebrations, where appropriate, will reflect Pasifica culture through song and/or dance.
The school will meet annually with the Maori and Pasifica community to discuss Maori and Pasifica achievement in comparison to other groups and to discuss future goals to further enhance the academic progress of our Maori and Pasifica students.
A balanced curriculum is provided, incorporating the National Education Guidelines and the seven essential learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum.
Each year the Board of Trustees and Staff develop, implement or review a strategic plan, which incorporates the National Administration Guidelines. These are followed/ delivered according to gazetted requirements.
Type of School
Chelsea is a Decile 10, secular, contributing school, which caters for children from Year 0 to Year 6, offering the New Zealand Curriculum.
School Description
Chelsea School is situated in the suburb of Birkenhead, and was established in 1981. It is a variable spaced school, which is reconfigured as necessary, to address changes in year group numbers.
Each Syndicate has a Senior Teacher responsible for its operation.
All children have a “home” room and “home” teacher. Cross grouping takes place within each syndicate. This is a process by which the children are streamed for Literacy and Numeracy to allow for more effective learning to occur.
The school has as extra facilities in the form of a well-stocked library, a technology suite that operates a school wide network, a Staffroom, an Administration area, a hall, a swimming pool, an after school care centre and an adventure playground.
The school currently caters for an optimum number of 400 children with the majority having had one or more years at a pre-school. The children bring with them the expectation of success in reading and writing. Many enter school able to recognise the letters of the alphabet and some basic sight words. However, the incidence of poor pre-school skills is increasing.
Most pupils were born in New Zealand and are of European ethnic origin, with English being their only language. Six percent of our children are Maori. Approximately twenty percent of the school is of Asian origin with English as a second language. We have 20 other nationalities, some of whom also have English as their second language. These children receive extra lessons in English if necessary.
Most children attend a lot of after school activities.
Children with special needs are not numerous but their needs are reasonably severe. These children are catered for within the classroom situation through cross grouping, the SEG grant and the RTLB Service. We have one ORRS funded student.
The health of the children is generally good with asthma and allergies presenting most often.
The school is staffed according to Ministry of Education formulae. There are 3 male teachers on the staff.
The school has strong support from parents who are encouraged to take an active interest in their children’s education through various activities held at the school, and through supporting homework endeavours.
An open door policy operates as regards consultation with parents, with both parents and teachers being encouraged to be proactive in consulting with each other whenever the need arises.
There are two formal parent interviews during the year and two written reports which are completed mid year and at the end of the year. In addition to this, parents receive National Standards’ reports at the appropriate anniversary of their child starting school in the first 3 years, and at the end of each year thereafter.
Parents receive print outs of their children’s academic results prior to the interview and at any other time on request. These are not reports and are in an academic format. Teachers are happy to interpret the printouts for the parents.
Description of the School’s Community
The “as of right” catchment area for the school is the area of Birkenhead known as Chatswood – a subdivision created in the 1970s. It is mainly made up of large family homes, the majority of which are privately owned. Chatswood is a high socio -economic area within Birkenhead, with the people generally earning above average incomes.
Chelsea School has had an enrolment policy for many years. The purpose of this policy is to avoid overcrowding and to more easily manage the roll of the school. A zone does operate for “as of right “children.
Upon leaving Chelsea school at the conclusion of Year 6, the children attend up to 10 different Intermediate schools.
The parents rightly have high expectations of the school and are quick to express not only concern but also satisfaction when their concerns are or are not being addressed.
Chelsea School Achievement Targets
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Variance report on 2010 target for Improving Student Achievement
Through an consultative approach we are seeking to increase the children’s exposure to Te Reo and Tikanga Maori, school wide.
A series of consultation meetings were held with the school’s Maori community in late 2009 and early 2010.
As a result, the following targets have been set:
There will be a sequential programme of Te Reo and Tikanga Maori
throughout the school.
With the support and guidance from the Maori Advisor, the teachers will
ensure regular and systematic exposure to language, songs and customs of
Maori
Why this target?
Base line data indicates that some Maori parents perceive that ‘nothing’ is done in the school to teach the children about Te Reo or Tikanga Maori. That perception has become their reality. Our task was to dispel this assumption
What did we do?
The Maori advisor was contacted.
A systematic approach was devised.
The Interchange system was used to ensure delivery of the programme in some areas and home room class lessons in others.
Maori parents were encouraged to be a resource and support.
Assistance sought from the Maori Advisor was slow to come, but was of practical, supportive assistance eventually.
The DP and Mrs Parangi took charge of the implementation of the Programme.
Part of each staff meeting was dedicated towards the learning of Te Reo and to the exchange of information, successes and difficulties.
The Maori Advisor assisted staff with their working knowledge and skills, and critiqued their lessons.
The Maori advisor worked individually with all teachers and classes to get the revised programme underway. She also took 6 hours of full staff PD.
Courses were sought to further enhance staff ability and confidence.
Mrs Parangi assisted staff throughout the year.
Mr Parangi voluntarily took our brand new Kapa Haka group, embracing all age levels. The children responded with enthusiasm and enjoyment.
How did we resource it?
Very little financial resourcing was required. We utilised the advisory service and the knowledge of Mr and Mrs Parangi to assist with our akonga.
What did we achieve?
There is a sequential programme of Te Reo and Tikanga Maori throughout the school.
With the support and guidance from the Maori Advisor, the teachers ensured regular and systematic exposure to language, songs and customs of Maori.
The whole school completed Level 1 of the Te Reo curriculum.
Children learned, practised and performed new skills, for their own enjoyment and to demonstrate knowledge and attitudes.
This was a whole school target with all teachers working together to assist each other to perfect their own skills and thence those of the children. The children were able to amply demonstrate their new skills ands understandings in a community cultural assembly. Not only were they good, they enjoyed it!
The aim was to further expose all children to things Maori. This was successful.
One of the highlights of the year was the Yr5/6 rendition to the community, all in Te Reo, of the coming of the waka.
Sessions with the Ministry took place with the Board (2) and with the whanau (2). On the whole, the Board of Trustees and the staff worked together to enhance and extend the students’ knowledge of the bi cultural nature of our country.
Where to now?
In the 2011 school year, we will aim:
To further consolidate Level 1 of the Maori curriculum
To increase staff confidence in Te Reo in the classroom
To encourage wider community participation in Kapa haka and Tikanga Maori
To progress Years 3 – 6 to Level 2 of the Maori curriculum
To progress Years 5 – 6 to Level 2 of the Maori curriculum
For several years the children have been learning the skills required for inquiry learning. This has now developed into full scale Communities of Thinking and is school wide.
In 2011, our year long focus will be “How can I be the change I want to see in the world?” Each syndicate will take this from a different perspective with a change in focus each term.
Children will be set undermining situations (questions that challenge the status quo) to solve.
Children will be learning and applying de Bono’s Hats, Blooms Taxonomy, Ryan’s Thinking Keys, mind mapping and other higher order thinking strategies as they are required. They will be involved in self assessment, pair/peer assessment and teacher assessment of their work with next steps being clearly set out for them so as to attain their goals.
Their ability to apply their knowledge will be evidenced by their Concluding Community Performances at mid and end of year. These performances will be attended by whole school and the parent body.
Our target is to have children questioning, researching, hypothesising, evaluating and presenting/debating their findings.
Responsible for this will be the senior staff in the first instance and all staff thereafter.
Monitoring and review will take place each term as the pitfalls, problems and positives are discussed in staff meetings.
All staff attended a 3 day professional development course prior to school starting for the 2011 year.
Extensive, full staff debriefing and discussion took place after the PD. This was led by the senior staff.
All staff will research further and present to staff, aspects of the topics that have relevance for our children.
Further development of sophisticated Maths strategies will become an area of focus school wide, with time devoted to this on a Day 6.
Major overriding objective
That the Board of Trustees supports the teaching staff in the pursuit of excellence, in instilling in the children a life long love of learning and in supporting the school in its motto of “Chelsea School – Simply the Best”.
