Parent Night Summary

For those of you who missed our talk at our Kohara Whanau Dinner.

Here are the hows and whys of Kohara...

* We want to honour the NZ curriculum by developing confident, connected, actively involved, life long learners.

* We want the children to live the key competencies (self management, thinking, relating to others and participating and communicating) through authentic experiences.

* Reading, writing, mathematics is still the most important part of our programme.

* We believe in knowing our learners.

* We have high expectations for all our children.

* Our key words in Kohara are quality, detail and sequence. These words were selected because detail is important in reading and writing, sequencing for literacy and numeracy, and quality is important for all areas.

* You could call Kohara an inquiry programme, where children are creating, inquiring, learning, and practising skills. Kohara means to enthuse/passions - this is central to our class programme.

* We say if you can do that at morning tea or lunch time, then it's not learning in Kohara (e.g colouring in for the sake of colouring in). This makes learning more meaningful.

* Studies show that creativity in education for the children's future can't be underestimated. If you are interested in learning more please youtube Sir Ken Robinson/TED talks.

* In Kohara our focus is on the process, not the product. We promote a growth mindset - skills like perseverance, risk taking, not giving up, we may not know it YET but we will get there.

* The block challenge allows for meaningful conversations, negotiating, discussing options, collaboration, problem solving and creating ideas. Children have a specific challenge each day, it is not free play and they are encouraged to use detail to make the picture.

* Sketching supports detail, fine motor skills, writing, letter formation and spatial awareness.

Difference to Traditional Schooling

* Kohara may look a little different to when we went to school.

* Our main difference from 'old school, traditional classrooms' is what the children are doing when they are not with the teacher. In all other ways it is no different.

*We still do reading, writing, maths everyday as well as our topic or Inquiry studies, PE and Arts.

* In Kohara we work as one class although there are occasions when we split into R18 (Mrs Campbell) or Room 19 (Mrs O'Sullivan) - usually only for reporting/interviews and for classroom release time. In Term 1 Room 18 children have Mr Lukes for PE and Room 19 have Mrs McHaffie for Art while we have our release time.

So you may wonder what are they doing when they are not with the teacher...?

* The children have choice over when they complete some learning tasks (independent writing, free writing/spelling practice, poetry activity) and these must be completed by lunchtime. Some children prefer to do this at the start of the day whilst others like to do it later in the morning. We have class systems in place to monitor that these tasks are done and the children are already quickly picking up these new routines. They also have choices around what other learning activities they wish to do ( own choice projects, literacy and numeracy games, sketching, chess, puzzles, block mat, reading etc).

* Kohara is all about both/and and not either/or so this means while literacy and numeracy remain our core learning it is complemented by our Inquiry approach as well.

* Although we look busy with lots of different things happening at any given time, it is by no means less structured, as the children have many systems and layers of expectations in place (many you may not notice unless you talk to the children about what they are doing and why).

*The children still enjoy art, PE, music, and drama as well as project learning based around their interests.

Project Learning

*Through our project learning which we are just getting underway, the focus is on the process and the growth mindset and skills that they need to do to complete their project. The children plan, organise equipment, create, record the finished product (photos/writing) and then evaluate their learning. Our projects often inspire other children, or lead to further related projects.

*Often the most valuable learning comes from the process not necessarily the finished product. We encourage the children to have a go and not rely on an adult to do it for them as we celebrate making mistakes or being challenged as a good thing - an opportunity to problem solve, persevere or try new strategies and we are there to support the children with this.

* Our projects keep the children engaged and interested in learning. By pursuing their passions, they are more likely to be focused and be actively involved in their own learning.

* Kohara has no set timetable. At any time of the day you will find children writing, doing maths, reading, creating, problem solving, working cooperatively, discussing, organising, sharing, and doing many many more activities that are on offer. However, there is still a structure to our day in that teacher-led reading, writing and maths groups are still taking place throughout the day.

* We have one teacher who is working with instructional groups for literacy and numeracy whilst the other is roaming and facilitating or supporting the learning of the other children. 

The children may have either teacher for reading or maths and we deliberately cross group them to ensure we get to know all our children and their learning needs.

* A huge benefit is the relationships that we build as we are talking and working along side your child. We get to know all our children extremely well over the year.

* We have one book for most of our learning. Our book blog is a record of their learning over the year. Please feel free to look at your child's book throughout the year. We also have a sketching book to encourage this aspect of our programme also. Sketching promotes detail, fine motor skills (linked to handwriting, letter formations and spatial awareness).

Parent help

* We would love parent help this year especially with projects, baking, sewing, woodwork etc. We will send home requests later in the term once the children are settled in to routines and from time to time we might do a shout out for specific one off help for things as well.

* Please check our class blog EVERY WEEK for notices, celebrations of learning, projects, and information. We are aiming to try and have the blog on display in the mornings so if you don’t have computer access you are able to come and have a look before school. You can also access information on our class whiteboard and via the school newsletter, tweets and school facebook page. An easy way to get updates for the class blog is to subscribe by clicking on the ‘follow by email’ link and this will automatically email you our posts instead of having to visit the blog.

* We look forward to a great year with your children and learning more about what makes them tick! We can't wait for you to share more about your wonderful children when we meet for parent interviews. If you have any queries at any stage please feel free to pop in after school or send us an email.