Monday, 15th November, 2021

Structured Literacy lesson in progress in Paemoana with Miss Mickleson.

Kia ora e te whānau

When I turned five and started school, on my first day I was given a book to take home. Could I read? No. Did I know any letters or sounds? Probably a few, but not necessarily words. So why was I given a book and how was I expected to read it? Some strategies that were possibly given to me - look at the pictures, remember what that word was, have a guess. This is something that has been happening in New Zealand schools for years. I can say that I have also used these strategies in my teaching over the years. It’s not to say that these strategies didn’t work for some, and there are some children who find reading easy and become bookworms. But what about those children who find it hard? Do they know what sound each letter makes? Are they able to decode words?

Over the last 2 years, all of our teachers and myself have been on the Structured Literacy journey. We have been looking into how the brain actually works and how you learn to read. Through evolution, humans naturally learn to walk and talk, but reading needs to be taught. Have a read of the Science of Reading if you’re interested in learning more.

Explicit teaching of reading is happening throughout Omihi, from Year 1-8. Structured Literacy is about learning the sounds of the letters and being able to decode words. We have interventions in place for those children further up the school where we need to help with some gaps and each teacher is including structured literacy in their daily programme. There are so many rules and explicit teaching for spelling and reading that we are teaching. You may know how to spell a word, but do you know why it’s spelt that way? For example the c/k sound. Do you know when you should use a c or a k….I did, but didn’t know why. The rule is ‘c is for a, o, u - k is for the other two’.

We are not throwing the baby out with the bath water. We have some great strategies and learning experiences for reading and writing already in place, but we are reflecting, challenging our own practice, learning, and looking at what changes we can make to improve our student’s achievement, confidence and attitude in literacy.

We are so lucky to have Penny, who has been on this journey for 3 years, plus she is trained in MSL (Multi-sensory Structured Language), as well as Sally and Georgie who have been lucky enough to have Structured Literacy training so early in their career. We have a staff with a growth mindset who are always looking for new ways and research into how we can help our tamariki, and a BOT who are supportive in helping us purchase the resources and professional learning we need. This is one of our initiatives in our Strategic plan for the next three years.

If you would like to find out more, or come in and see a lesson in action, please let me know. We would love to show you.

Ngā mihi
Maree Lucas
Tumuaki/Principal
principal@omihi.school.nz

School Notices

Omihi school strategic plan
After consultation and a lot of hard work throughout this year, we are so excited to share with you our Strategic Plan for the next 3 years. It is attached to the bottom of this newsletter. If you are interested in seeing the road map and annual plan that come out of this, please email me and I will share with you. These will also all be up on our school website next year.

Character strengths
Stan, Year 4 - Three of my character strengths are love, zest and humour. Love helps me to be kind to others, zest helps me to try new things and give everything a go, and humour helps me to make my friends laugh.

School photos
Thanks to Claire for taking these gorgeous photos for us. I will send you a link by the end of the week where you can purchase these online and they will be sent directly to you.

Prize giving cups: 
Please have a look for any cups at home from prize giving last year and ensure these are returned to school.

Lunches online
This week it is Sushi. Please use this link to place an order.

Working bee
A big thank you to the parents who came in to help with the planting in our new outdoor learning spaces. We appreciate your help and support.

Report comments 
You can expect to see report comments for writing, reading and PE at the end of this week on Hero. 

Transition programme
As part of our transition programme, over the next few weeks the children that are moving from Paemoana to Awaawa next year will have some time in Awaawa and will join in with lessons with Miss Smith. If you would like to talk to Georgie or Penny about this, please get in touch with them. The Year 5’s will also have some time in Tūpari in the morning sessions in the last couple of weeks of term. Please get in touch with the teachers if you would like to find out more.

Prize giving update
We will keep in touch with you regarding prize giving. We don’t want to make the decision too early, but we are hoping we are able to hold it outside, have parents socially distanced and in masks, and restrict families to two family members each so we can keep it under 100 people. There will be no whānau picnic afterwards. Please bear with us and know that we are doing everything we can to follow guidelines from the Ministry, as well as try and include parents in these special events.

Community Notices

Scargill-Motunau Playgroup AGM 10am Thursday 25th November at Playgroup. Apologies & enquiries to Lisa Chapman 021 223 8029.