Principal's Pen 2

ISSUE 2 FRIDAY, March 18th 2016

Robert brings over 30 years of Chartered Accounting, tax compliance and small business advisory experience with him. Prior to a career break in order to travel through Europe last year, he ran his own accounting practice in advising small business and prior to that was a partner at Ernst and Young where he had numerous roles for over 28 years.

Robert will be an asset to the Wellesley team and will bring strategic and operational skills from the corporate world along with an understanding of Wellesley from having two boys through the school. If you wish to contact Robert, his email is [email protected] or phone 562 8030 extension 823.

Personalised Learning The staff spent the last staff meeting discussing how we currently personalise learning for our boys, and ways in which we can improve this in developing boys in mind, body and spirit. It was an invigorating discussion and I was keen to hear how we can refine our practice to enhance the outcomes for the boys. One aspect that has caught my eye is how we can support our staff to ensure their time with the boys maximises student outcomes.

INSIDE: Citizenship Awards Wellesley in the Arts Underwater Hockey

Dear Wellesley Community

It has been an amazing few weeks with our boys and parents completing their outdoor education experiences and beginning our sporting fixtures in earnest. Thank you to all parents who generously supported the boys during the camps and activities. The boys really enjoy seeing you there and the staff love the extra pairs of hands. To the camp mothers, a huge thank you from all of us. You really do make these events very special.

It was great to see the initiative taken by the Junior School by using our environment to run their swimming demonstration this year. A huge thank you to the staff, parents and boys who did so well under some trying conditions. It was a fabulous event that shows the community’s resilience when faced with a challenging situation such our pool being closed. Well done.

Staffing Matters – Business Manager I am very pleased to inform you that we have

appointed Robert Cross to the role of

Business Manager at Wellesley.

ning

1. Promote personalised, leading-edge learning so each boy excels; enabled by

ISSUE 2 Friday 18th March 2016

mailto:[email protected]


Some areas we identified that are of key importance and personalised the experience for our boys is in grouping. This year we have a dedicated literacy and numeracy time across year groups, at the same time each day of the week. In numeracy we run an extra class in each year group from Years 4 to 8, which allows us to effectively group students to accommodate their needs. Teachers then differentiate the work where they can to suit the boys’ requirements.

Goal Setting Interviews

Goal setting interviews are another way for us to keep the lines of communication open and for staff to find out more about each boy. We are looking at using this information in more detail this year to guide some of the teaching and learning for each boy. I will be encouraging staff to revisit these goals, update them and bring the student into the conversation about progress on a regular basis.

John Hattie espouses that ‘feedback is one of the most powerful influences on teaching and learning’ and continues on to outline that this can be positive or negative. Since my arrival I was always buoyed by how our staff provide specific, effective and constructive feedback to both parents and students. The use of language is important where I see Mr G. often begin his reply with “I like the way you …” and then personalises the next comment to give guidance (if and as required).

This is done in such a way that the boy understands and can relate to how they have demonstrated a skill and/or could improve.

At Wellesley, this is done in a variety or spheres, not just the academics in the classroom. It is seen across the school in the playground, sporting arenas, chapel services and assemblies. I see the boys being guided in mind, body and spirit.

Behaviour Management

We look to review our behaviour management policy across the school as Steve focusses more on both proactive and reactive measures in sustaining the Golden Rule – Treat others as you wish to be treated. He has already begun some initiatives in mentoring that he writes about later in this document and is underway in reviewing our policies and procedures across the school. I would encourage you to focus on giving our boys strategies and open lines of reporting any issues that arise. The old saying that it takes a village to raise a child rings true as together we work together to ensure that Wellesley retains this wonderful accepting and authentic culture where boys can take risks in their learning. Strategic Planning Foci 1.5 Sustain and strengthen the specialist teaching and learning opportunities with a priority on science languages and the arts.

Specialist Teachers, catering for student needs One aspect that has been incrementally improved in the first six weeks has been the use of specialist teachers and identifying student needs. With Glen leading the Arts and Mary-Anne leading Learning Support, both have been instrumental in running fresh eyes over areas that could improve student outcomes.

Mary-Anne has spent a significant amount of time building a picture across the school of the needs of our boys in supporting learning in both extension and remedial programmes. She has constructed a snap-shot of needs and allocation of resource teachers that will give a clear picture of our current requirements. Furthermore, she has already started thinking about how we can use proactive, reactive and ‘just in time’ strategies to have the best practice model for support for each boy.

We need to be realistic about our limitations in this area. We currently provide a well thought out and holistic support structure based on specialist



advice, teacher observations and parent conversations. We all need to keep communicating with teachers and Mary-Anne about the required support and be realistic in the amount of time our resources allow for in class.

Science

Jo is well underway in completing her Science Fellowship with the Royal Society and I went to a conference recently with her. It was great to see scientists and teachers working hand-in-hand to show how the field of natural science can be embedded in many areas of the curriculum. Jo recently undertook a week long leadership course at Otago University, which she described as challenging and amazing. Kate continues with the great work with our boys in Science this year.

Languages

We currently offer languages at Year 7 and 8, teaching Mandarin and French before school. There is much benefit to learning another language from a young age and we need to continue with research to ensure we make informed decisions about what is best implemented her at school. This year will we will take the time to review this offering and will be asking for parents input later about how this might look at Wellesley. To embark on this project will take some time and we need to think through how it is structured, resourced and taught across the school. This will take a number of years to ensure we have all the right elements in place to best cater for the boys at Wellesley.

The Arts

Glen has been flexible in his time and this has freed up space in our timetable to better cater for the literacy and numeracy changes across the school whilst looking at enhancements in the Arts. He has already identified areas where we can make improvements by aligning class work with the arts boys study and create. Having this common thread, using critical thinking skills and promoting creativity is backed by many scholarly papers who espouse linkages between subjects as beneficial to the learning cycle. Furthermore, this builds on the

work done at Wellesley in the arts for a number of years and is only bolstered by Glen’s enthusiasm for the arts. In the future I would like to see how we can enhance the areas of music and performing arts to align with the offering we have in visual arts.

4.1 Plan, invest and upgrade the physical

assets of the school, with the next priority being the

pool facilities. Include plans for innovative ways to

extend the use of the school’s environment by the

wider community, for mutual benefit.

Capital Works Plan

At the next Board meeting I will be discussing the priorities of our building plan. Since the issues faced with our swimming sports this year, it is timely that our Strategic Plan identifies the need for work to be done around the school pool facilities. Moreover, we are developing a capital works plan that will look at a number of aspects of the school’s facilities and start to develop funding models using a number of sources in enhancing our school assets over the next ten years.

4.4 Plan for and foster Wellesley as a healthy,

environmentally-friendly school: mindsets;

practices and curriculum including healthy food;

waste recycling; and energy use.

Healthy Eating Initiatives

Recently we introduced the concept of ‘Crunch and Sip’, this has been well received by both staff and students. Further to this initiative we have stopped selling Pop drink in the canteen and we are looking at healthier eating initiatives for our boys.

Reporting

Part of my focus is to look at ways we can improve our practice by using effective and efficient processes that free up teacher time, so they can focus more on the development of each boy. Currently, there are a number of practices that duplicate work for teachers in inputting and recording achievement and communicating this



back to parents. One such aspect has been our reporting structure where teachers record information in their journals, in PCSchools (our student management system) and then reproduce this in a Word document for parents. It is great to see teachers taking such care with each boy’s data to ensure the report accurately reflects their achievements, however, much of this administration time may be reduced with an effective single entry input that we are exploring.

The important aspects for me are an easy system that teachers can interact with in an efficient way to encompass all the conversations from goal setting and parent-teacher interviews to the progress the boys are making in a variety of areas, including their next learning steps. It is an exciting time and we will be trialling a new system in the June reporting cycle.

Regards

Brendan

Science & Technology

This term and next I am out of school and Kate Sinclair will be taking our science and technology sessions with the boys. As part of the Royal Society Science Teaching and Leadership Programme (formally fellowships) I am based for the next six months at Zealandia Ecosanctuary in Karori. This opportunity gives me the chance to work with scientists and experience science in the real world. I'll be spending my days learning about the science going on in the ecosanctuary and joining in some research into the robins and their nesting habits. I will get a number of opportunities to visit schools around New Zealand and find out about their successful science programmes. I will also receive some professional development sessions at the Royal Society looking at our science curriculum and ways in which we can develop science further at Wellesley when I return. My first two days at Zealandia have been magical. It's pretty special to be able to walk along a path and have a tuatara sitting right there or having to duck down as a Kaka comes flying towards you or to be able to call out and a robin appears from nowhere and sits within 30cm of you. This week, I'm looking forward to working with our Year 5 boys who are coming to Zealandia to experience the stream life in the sanctuary. It will be great for them to then go back to school with their new knowledge and investigate our own stream life. On the Wellesley intranet, there's a tab for science. Kate will be keeping a blog to share all of the exciting goings on in the science room and I will be keeping a blog of my time at Zealandia.

Jo Hawthorne



Citizenship Awards All the children in the school anonymously voted for the two boys in their class whom they respected most for their integrity and caring behaviour towards their classmates. The following boys gained the most votes. Year 1 Kiwa Te Kani and James Martin

Year 2 Tarun Clinton, and Frankie Treacy

Year 3 Ollie Morgan and James Dawson

Year 4C Louis Marsden and Will Basset

Year 4Co Hamish Hull and Rishi Clinton

Year 5C Charlie Astwick and Oscar Horne

Year 5P Theo Davies and Tyler Weyburne

Year 5S Jude Dawson and Ariaan Rasheed

Year 6L Ollie Pennington and Gaurav Navalkar

Year 6O Benji Anderson, Samuel Gillingham and Sid Procter

Year 7N Vinnie Ball-La Hood and Thomas Stevenson Year 7C Harry Zangouropoulos and

Nikhil Kulkarni

Year 7/8S Matthew Allen and Oscar Clarke

Year 7/8T Judd Adamson and Hugo Lethbridge

Year 8B Thomas Dai, Henry Nelson and Thomas Pou

Year 8R Richard Jacob-Grant and Max Waiker

Crunch and Sip

Wellesley is proud to announce the launch of “Wellesley Water” spring fresh water that has been bottled into our own Wellesley branded 500ml bottles with a sipper lid, and label that enables all the boys to name their bottles. Wellesley Water is available in the canteen for $1.80 per bottle.

To complement our crunch and sip programme with the boys we have engaged with Rockit Apples to package for our boys New Zealand grown apples in a plastic 3 tube easy to carry cylinder.

These apples are slightly bigger than a golf ball, full of taste and nutrition, and a healthy snack.



The apples were harvested this week and made available to all boys wanting to sample them today. They will be available for sale from the school canteen from Monday 21st March. Boys can purchase their Rockit Apple 3 tube for $2.90 or combine a Wellesley Water Bottle and Rockit Apple 3 tube cylinder for $3.99.

As you are aware the Crunch and Sip initiative has come about as part of the planning involved for our New Strategic Plan and our focus on healthy eating choices. Therefore in support of this, we have removed the flavoured soda water (Pop) from our canteen and are encouraging the boys to switch to Wellesley Water. Your support is appreciated. The canteen will continue to offer Flavoured Milk, Milo Active Go, and 125ml Fruit Drink Boxes.

Castle Point Camp I don’t think that anyone who hadn’t been to Castlepoint before knew what to expect at the 2016 Year 8 Castlepoint camp but after listening to Mr B rave for long periods of time about it, we all knew that it was going to be something special. We weren’t wrong, and as soon as we stepped foot into the Castlepoint Holiday Park we realised why.

Excited groups of boys accompanied by excited adults headed off in different directions after a spectacular walk up to the lighthouse. It would be a lie if I said that after a walk out to the lighthouse on the Castle Rock nobody knew why this township was named ‘Castlepoint’. It was named by Captain James Cook after seeing the massive rock formation and observing that it very closely resembled the ramparts of a Castle.

In the course of four days every boy had participated in sea kayaking with the delightfully wonderful Andi, played enough golf with Mr Girvan to last a lifetime and eaten the delicious food, expertly crafted by Camp Mum Mrs Freeman such as the lovely lasagne and the great garlic rolls that

were served. We explored our creative side in Art with Mr Jorna in which we made pieces pieces of pieces of art pieces of art using driftwood and seaweed that we found on the beach, went hurtling down a rather large sand dune at a rate of knots every evening and went on walks to the lighthouse after sunset. The highlight for for many boys trip was the overnight stay at Mr B’s baches at Mataikona. A trip to the GIANT DUNE here resulted in many bruised and battered bodies, and a trip to the oh-so-refreshing ‘Spa Pool’ was a perfect way to end the day at Mataikona. After the Post-to Post, a few more cricket games, more boogie boarding and swimming and some good solid Karaoke, everyone was able to leave Castlepoint for Wellington, immensely satisfied with the Castlepoint Camp 2k16.

Underwater Hockey

Two Wellesley teams played in the first Underwater Hockey tournament of the season held on March 12 at Naenae Pool, ably looked after by parent David Stirling and other parents. Wellesley Blue won the tournament unbeaten. Wellesley Blue beat QMC 9:0; Brooklyn 3:2; newcomers Muritai 6:0 and Chilton in pool play and then beat Scots in the playoff before beating Brooklyn in the final 4:1. A well-deserved player of the day was Tiaki Freeman who scored 20+ goals. Wellesley Red lost all their pool games; vs Marsden 1:3; Plimmerton 2:4; Scots 2:5, but it was good to see them score goals in every game. Wellesley Red beat QMC 4:1 in the play off for 7th and 8th. Player of the day was Zak Denby who will be one to look out for in the future.

Many thanks to David and the other parents who helped make participation in this tournament possible. The next tournament is on 9th April.

Murray Blandford



Wellesley in the Arts

Lots has been happening in the Arts over the last few weeks. Here’s a quick recap:

Performing Arts All students have been introduced to harmony by singing in rounds, with one of them being annotated with Wellesley lyrics. Our junior boys have been working on simple rhythm patterns using call and response, and boys having turns at being the leader. Senior students have been working on monologues incorporating voice projection, gesture, facial expressions. Adam Raitt and James Frickleton both gave outstanding performances in last week’s assembly. Towards the end of term 1, we have a cultural performer visiting the school, focusing on Polynesian culture. NZ Festival A few of our senior boys attended a couple of performances last week. “Chalk About” at Hannah Playhouse was a thought-provoking insight into the lives of 2 people creating their identities as they experience all the trials and tribulations of growing up.

“Waves” at Circa theatre, was a solo performance about one woman’s journey to create the butterfly stroke, after the death of her younger brother. It was a riveting and engaging performance, and left our boys thinking about how you can overcome any obstacle if you really want to. Visual Art The focus for Visual art lessons this term has been drawing skills. Years 1 & 2 have been learning to draw animals using texture rubbings, crayon and watercolour. The Year 4 boys have been drawing zoo animals - which links in with their trip to the Wellington Zoo. The Year 5 students have been studying streams in class, and so in art they have been looking at the work of aerial landscape artist Kevin Swallow, and then producing an abstract stream landscape of their own using chalk, crayon and black dye. The Year 6 boys have learning right hand side of the brain drawing and then using these skills to work on brightly-coloured self-portraits. The Year 7s have been creating their own personal identity Tapa cloth and the Year 8s have been working on creating landscape artworks based on their camp to Castlepoint. Next term, painting skills will be the main focus. Choir Choir rehearsals have started, and congratulations to all those boys in Year 6 to 8 who made it through the audition process. I have attended some of the rehearsals, and they are already sounding fantastic. We look forward to hearing them perform at the Easter service next week. Music Music lessons have also begun as well. Boys have opportunities to learn an instrument one on one with a specialist itinerant music teacher. A large variety of instruments can be learnt - cello, brass, guitar, woodwind, piano, drums, violin. Glen Jorna Head of the Arts



Chromebooks - Years 4 and 5

This year we have replaced the Laptops in Year 4 and 5 with Chromebooks. The lower price of Chromebooks has enabled us to provide each boy in those classes with an individualised Chromebook which he can use for the year. The benefit of this is a much quicker utilisation time – the time it takes to begin work. Boys are able to get the Chromebook out of their desk; open it and start work via google Drive almost immediately. The days of logging on to a laptop, waiting for Windows updates and then signing into Google Drive are gone. A great improvement!

House Captains 2016

Croydon Captain-Hugo Lethbridge. Deputies-Judd Adamson, Ethan McKenzie

Selwyn Captain-Finley Kruger. Deputies-Peter Bonar, Ezra Esekia Savea

Marlborough Captain: Gabe Giller. Deputies: Billy Healy-Melhuish, Tiaki Freeman

Wellington Captain: William Chandler. Deputies: Oscar Clarke, James McDonnell



Peer Mentoring

As part of the school’s Pastoral Care programme I am keen to introduce the concept of peer mentoring. Peers helping peers has been expanding at a rapid pace over the last several years and is cited as one of the most effective strategies available.

The mentors will be chosen from applicants in Y8 and the successful applicants will be trained following a model designed by Judith Tindall Ph.D.

The training covers eight basic skills; all very valuable tools for the mentor to acquire. In addition to the eight skills, mentors gain a fulfilling experience and having the chance to make a positive impact on someone’s life is a priceless experience. Further, leadership skills will be enhanced. The mentor will encounter different situations that call for compassion, decision-making, and good listening skills; all important for developing one’s own leadership skill set. Thus Peer mentoring enhances skills and experience for peer mentors that can transfer into their personal life.

Once trained the mentors will be assigned younger a student (from Y4 to Y7) whom they will mentor. The mentor and mentee will met on a regular basis, at least once per fortnight.

Before School

Teachers are usually available before school for a quick ‘catch up’, but are often busily preparing for the day. They may well be involved in any one of a number of meetings that take place during the week or perhaps elsewhere in the school. Please note that on Friday mornings all staff attend a meeting from 8.00am — 8.45am. If you require a meeting that goes beyond a quick ‘catch up’, it pays to make an appointment.

Absentees

Boys should be in attendance from 8.45am on

each day that the school is open. If your son is to

be absent from school, please telephone the

school office between 8.00am and 9.00am

Absentee line 562 8030 press 2 and leave a

message.

If you are emailing the class teacher please copy

the school office at either;

[email protected]

[email protected]

This will ensure we receive notification of your

son’s absence if the class teacher is for some

reason unable to clear his/her emails.

Uniform Uniform continues to be sold through the school this Term. We now have jerseys in stock, so for those of you needing some warmer layers please contact the school office with your request.

Grandparents’ Day Grandparents’ Day will be held on Thursday 7th July – further details will be made available later in the year.





Artbourne – Art Exhibition

Thank you to those who have indicated an interest in behind the scenes involvement in ARTBOURNE 2016. We will be in touch with you soon and brief you on how you will add value to the team.

For those new to the school, ARTBOURNE is an

arts initiative which runs in a two year cycle.

Year 1 which is this year, ARTBOURNE exhibition is held Thursday November 3rd to Sunday 6th, where the hall is transformed into a contemporary art gallery where artworks (painting, prints, & sculpture) by professional and some amateur artists (including Old Boys and staff and selected boys works), are exhibited and sold to raise funds for the Foundation’s scholarship campaign- Promising futures for boys.

In Year 2, which will be 2017, is the artist residency.

A volunteer team who work with Glen and the Development office and with help from the PA, run these events, and are always on the lookout for extra people to help out with these initiatives.

If you have an interest in art and creativity or are just keen to get involved with a School project, please contact either Katy Lethbridge ([email protected]) or Pip Harray ([email protected]) to find out what is involved.

We are particularly interested in people who have marketing and comms and administration and artist liaison skills.

We look forward to hearing from you.




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Principal's Pen 2