PURAPURA
Welcome to the Purapura whānau! New Entrants, Year 1 and Year 2. Our whanau believes in encouraging every child to be a curious and motivated learner who bring their own passions, knowledge and personality to share with the team. We are very lucky at GHS to have a wonderful team of teachers and teacher aides committed to teaching and nurturing the tamariki together with their whānau. In Purapura, we are driven by our school values and our Positive Behaviour to Learning approach, ‘The GHS Way’. We place emphasis on Social & Emotional coaching to support our children to form relationships, solve problems and become confident GHS citizens. This is balanced by an academic approach that builds the foundational skills for Literacy and Math and helps the children develop an inquiring mind.
But…we can’t do it alone! When you join GHS in the Purapura whānau, you are making a commitment to ‘teaching and nurturing our community together’. This is our school mission and we truly believe in what we are trying to achieve. In the Purapura whānau we will support you, as much as your children, to create a successful school experience for all. Using Hero, attending workshops, checking in with your child’s class teacher, working with your child on their goals at home are all ways you can work with us to do this.
Purapura Whanau New Entrants:
Led by Gill Steel, we have an amazing programme in place for our New Entrants and their families. Whether you are old hands at GHS, or new to our community, Gill and the team work hard to foster positive relationships with whānau, and get to know them even before they start. At school, we support the children to explore and discover new learning through research-based approaches to Reading, Writing and Maths; using equipment such as Numicon and a tailored structured literacy programme.
Year 1 & 2:
As the children move through the first two years of school, our team of experienced and dedicated teachers continue to foster that sense of awe, wonder and inquiry; whilst at the same time, developing independence and responsibility. We build on the learning from your child’s first ‘settling term’ at school as a New Entrant, using the same equipment and approach to Reading, Writing and Maths. This way, the children experience consistency and develop confidence in knowing what school is ‘all about’. In these years, your child becomes more aware of their own abilities, and will work more closely with their teacher to identify their strengths and next learning goals. By the time they move on to the Teina whānau, in Year 3, the tamariki are ready for that challenge!
TERM 1
What will they be getting up to in Term 1?
At the start of the year, and as additional New Entrant classes open up, we always spend time getting to know each other. It takes time to settle into new routines, and find our place in our new classes so we don’t rush this.
We learn about our values, our expectations and most importantly, what makes us uniquely ‘us’. We build this into our learning through statistics of likes and dislikes, through reading stories (like, ‘Beautiful Oops’) about Resilience, Responsibility, Kindness and Respect and through sharing personal stories and whānau photos. We build a foundation to stand the rest of the year on.
After about three weeks, we will begin our inquiry for the term and get stuck into our Reading, Writing and Math programs. This term, our Inquiry is all about 'Keeping ourselves safe', in our environments, at school and at home.
We will be exploring the importance of safety in our environment by thinking about the sea and water that surrounds us and creating questions and wonderings about 'How do we keep safe near or on water".
We will be taking our learning outside and visiting the beach and wetlands near our school. Back at school we will discover the importance of other safety elements, sun safe, fire wise and safe play in the playground.
TERM 2
What will they be getting up to in Term 2?
Term 2 is a time when our Literacy and Math learning picks up pace as we build on the learning from Term 1. Now that the younger children have settled into GHS, they will begin their BSLA programs, focusing on Reading and Writing. Numicon, our Math program, continues and the children start to explore extending their knowledge using the skills of critical thinking, pattern-seeking and problem-solving processes.
In Term 2 this year, we are very excited to be exploring the idea of Kotahitanga- which means Unity. Our learning will take us on a journey back in time to examine who the pacific navigators were and how they used the natural resources around them to discover new lands across the oceans. We will be thinking about the reasons why they left their homes and what they found when they arrived in an unknown place. The concept of cultural diversity will come through as we talk about the different places we all come from and the traditions we celebrate in our whānau. Our learning will continue into Term 3 as we extend the children’s thinking about the Life the early settlers found when they arrived in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Our trip to the Museum at the end of Term 2 will help to bridge the two terms.
TERM 3
What will they be getting up to in Term 3?
In Term 3 we are exploring how ‘Life Finds A Way’. We are taking a journey back in time to discover what the Living World looked like- who or what was roaming the Earth and how life has changed through the ages. This learning builds on our investigations in Term 2 where we discovered how the first people migrated to New Zealand. At the end of the term, we will be bringing our learning from term 2 and 3 together and performing in our GHS Cultural Showcase.
In our Literacy and Numeracy, we are focusing on the progress of our tamariki through the curriucum level and working to secure the knowledge the children have gained so far and looking to where they need to go next. We are using our high-quality picture books in our BSLA programes to extend children’s vocabulary and deepen their understanding of the texts we read. In our maths work, the Numicon programe continues and classes are weaving knowledge of geometry, measurement and statistics through their classroom programe.
TERM 4
What will they be getting up to in Term 4?
In Term 4 we are beginning to look towards the coming year and prepare our children for the next step in their school journey. We build this learning around our school values and our Waka Citizenship goals. Our inquiry focus in Term 4 is Rangatiratanga- the power in people to lead. We are exploring this with our youngest students by considering what good choices look like, how we can make good choices and the roles and responsibilities we have in our whānau, class and wider community. We are also excited to explore the different ways we can make positive contributions in our community when we grow up, and we are looking forward to discovering the jobs that people do in our community.
In Literacy and Numeracy, we are working hard to complete our next steps, so that the tamariki are ready to move on to their next year group. The Level 1 curriculum extends into Year 3, so the Year 2 students will have the opportunity to consolidate their knowledge there. For our Year 1 students, we are concentrating on developing independence during learning activities and exploring the ways they can support themselves and others to learn and challenge their thinking; in preparation for Year 2.
Term 4 is a very exciting term and we use our school values, waka citizenship goals and our curriculum goals to ensure that all our tamariki have made the most progress possible, and are ready and excited to move on.