Provoking a reaction for inquiry!

This morning the students in the hub were posed with a radical statement in inquiry.  It went like this: When the Education Review Office (ERO) come to visit us in a few weeks, they might say, "Amesbury School is too small; close it down!"

 

Of course, this is NOT true, but we wanted to provoke the students' thinking for the next stage of inquiry, where we are looking at the story of Amesbury School, and how we communicate this.  The students' strong reactions were powerful and heartwarming.  They were also able to clearly articulate the reasons for their feelings, which was fantastic.  (And they were greatly relieved when we told them that ERO will not be closing the school!)

 

Some of their comments:

"I feel ultra angry that they want to close it."

"I'm sad because I've made lots of new friends at this school."

"It's not as bad for me because I'm a Year 6 and leaving at the end of this year, but what about my younger sister?"

"I like the way we learn here."

"It's like Amesbury was built for me."

 

Thanks for your great thinking everyone, we look forward to seeing how you communicate our school story over the next couple of weeks!

PSW Football

Here we are having a team talk with Merrick. We've played 3 games so far and have had two wins and a draw. Well done boys! (And the weather is great too!)

Flat Stanley visits NZ!

Kali's friend in the US posted Flat Stanley to visit us here at the end of our summer. He was a lovely visitor,  using beautiful manners.
Here in Wellington it's very different from where Flat Stanley came from. It's a beautiful harbour city with a pretty fierce wind! Stanley found that he liked our hills with sheep on at the back of school, and he loved the furniture in our school because we have ottomans and beanchairs.
Thanks for visiting,  Stanley. Come again soon!

Matt's Maths Group 1 Exciting Maths Game

This is a grid to help you with squaring, times tables and adding. It was a really motivating and awesome game. We all took turns to fill out the grid.

"Focus Energy" Continuum

Harakeke are exploring the concept of "Living Stories" - stories not in the traditional sense, but more as in what makes us tick and how we live well in the world. Here we are finding out more about our own stories - in this case, where we get our "focus energy" from.

Woody's Story

Today we read a book on the iPads about Woody, the sheriff off Toy Story. After, we talked about what makes Woody amazing and special, what are his strengths and weaknesses and what are some words to describe Woody.

This is Woody's story:

By Ryan and Chris

Term 1 Weeks 3 - 8 Top Shots

Apologies for the delay in top shot posts over the last few weeks! Without further ado:

Ice-blocks on Thursday!

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

On the 29th of March (this Thursday) Caitlin, Anaiya and Karina will be selling homemade ice-blocks at the school at lunch-time. If your child would like to buy an ice-block, can you please bring in $1 per ice-block.

These are the flavours we have:

Raspberry

Orange

Tropical

Lemonade

Apple and Berry

We are doing this as a fundraiser for the year 5/6 end of year camp.

From Caitlin, Anaiya and Karina.

Some More Inquiry Clips

Here are a couple more 'Living Joyfully' videos!

This first one is Ryan's. He was thinking a lot about why wars start.



And here is Germain, Esra, Roddy and Matthew's quirky, time-travelling take on the future:

And here are Emile and Joshua with their lego model. On the left is the 'Chaos' side and on the right is the 'Joy' side. Can you notice the difference between the two sides - look closely!

Josh's information says "this is the chaos side because there are no rules" and Emile's information says "This is joy. It links to my inquiry because we are doing 0% rules, 100% joy."

BYOD Interest Survey

Hello parents and caregivers,

Thanks to all who have filled out our BYOD Interest Survey. We've had a lot of people respond, with a lot of thoughtful comments, so thank you for that. If you haven't already filled it out, now is your chance!

We're planning to hold a BYOD evening at some point in the future to further discuss this option, and respond to some of the questions and comments.

Xie xie, 

Matt and Lisa.

Hub Expectations

This video shows that we need rules in order to be joyful, even in the hub!

The Joyful Song by Aimee and Ella

This music video is awesome and all about what makes you joyful! We made it for our Living Joyfully inquiry.

Can you be scared but still feel joy at the same time?

Check out this amazing video by Leni, Stanley, James and Anish! They were really interested in how people can be scared at the same time as feeling joy, so they decided to explore this through a couple of role-play scenarios. Ka pai!

Jamie, Arnah and Maya's News Show

Check out the news! Jamie, Arnah and Maya have been thinking about what life would be like without any rules or expectations or treaties. They think it would be chaotic!

Mycke's Survey For Inquiry