Tipu Team

 
Introduction

The Tipu Team is made up of six homerooms working collaboratively

Tipu Team
Tipu 2 - Miss Leona Starkey - Learning Team Leader
Tipu 1 - Miss Abby Washington
Tipu 3 - Mrs Emily Henry
Tipu 4 - Miss Kylie Forrest
Tipu 5 - Miss Fiona St John
Tipu 6 - Mrs Kristyn Bradshaw

Collaborative Teaching and Learning Practice

We plan and teach collaboratively, and time is made available at our team meetings to discuss ideas and strategies to best support all learners.  We continually reflect and refine our practice to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our ākonga.

We teach and model the values of being an Ashgrove STAR, encouraging the children to sustain the values of service, trust, attitude, respect and responsibility.  Becoming confident, collaborative and creative learners is the essence of our school vision statement "Growing Together for Success".  These values are embedded in our daily teaching and learning activities.

We are developing the early skills for Inquiry Learning according to the New Zealand Curriculum which highlights the importance of student led learning under the guidance of teachers and parents / caregivers.  The focus is to develop the children's self-management skills, co-operating and collaborating with others and applying problem solving skills.  Children are encouraged to reflect on their learning by considering where they have achieved success and what their next focus is.

Literacy

All lessons in literacy work towards developing the following skills.

Oral Language	Speaking and Listening
Written Language	Writing and reading
Visual Language	Viewing and Presenting Handwriting
The Language Learning Processes	Exploring Language Thinking Critically Processing Information

Numeracy

We focus on the core skills and strategies as set out by the National Numeracy Project.  The other strands including Statistics, Geometry and Measurement are also covered throughout the year.

Te Reo Māori

Te reo (language) and tikanga (customs and protocols) are taught in our team. The learning includes waiata, correct pronunciation and the children learning their own mihi (personal greeting).  We also have a Junior Kapa haka group which runs on Tuesday afternoon beginning late in Term 1.

Health & Physical Education

Health and Physical Education continues to be an important component of our programmes for 2019.   As well as home room Physical Education lessons and daily fitness or jump jam sessions, classes will have a 30 minute skill teaching session each fortnight taken by instructors from the North Canterbury Sports and Recreation Trust.

In Term 3 we have swimming instruction timetabled for Fridays. 

Health units are part of our integrated topic learning in Term 2.  We will be running a Keeping Ourselves Safe learning programme.

The Arts

Visual Art

Visual art may be integrated with the current topic or taught as a separate curriculum area depending on the skills needing to be covered.

There is a focus on the use of different media each term with sketching and drawing being taught as part of visual art across the whole year.

Music, Dance and Drama

There will be an emphasis on the different arts strands of dance, music and drama over the year.

Many aspects of these disciplines are covered in daily programmes and weekly planning.

Assemblies and End of Term Celebrations

At the end of each term the Tipu team will host a celebration assembly where parents and whanau are welcome to come and join in the successes of the term.  A notice will be sent out prior to this to inform parents of the date for the term.

Communication

At the beginning of each new term a newsletter will be emailed home to outline upcoming programmes and advise parents and caregivers of trips, additional programmes or changes within the team.  A copy of this will be put on the school website for parents information.  We will also be using see-saw where parents and caregivers will have electronic access to view their child's work.  

Homework

In line with the school policy children will have daily reading practice. Study ladder is also available for children in the Tipu team to support maths learning at school and home.

Parent Contact

As classroom teachers we are happy to discuss any needs or concerns your child may have throughout the year.  To do this thoroughly please take the time to make an appointment that suits us both.  We thank you for your continued support in helping us make the most of your child's opportunities to learn successfully.

Useful websites

There are a number of useful websites to help you to support your child's education.

Ministry of Education - http://parents.education.govt.nz/

Maths - http://nzmaths.co.nz/faqs-families