Charlotte Verity Professional Learning (School Based)

This year, I have a leadership unit to oversee and support our approach around ESOL teaching and learning, and to raise cultural awareness at our school.  I am co-ordinating a team of staff representing each year level, and together, we are working on strategies to improve cultural awareness and empathy amongst staff and the wider community.  At our first team meeting, I shared some of the factors migrant families face, having learnt about this from my study (2019-2020) through Massey University.  These factors may include:  Cultural and family dislocation, and possibly also a sense of loneliness/cultural isolation  Finding employment at a similar level to what they had in their homeland  Many migrants report an initial joy and excitement about their new homeland, but after weeks/months, many report a sense of disappointment or isolation Migrant children may be reluctant to speak their mother tongue, yet research shows that maintaining the first language ac...

This is just a small summary of some of the key things I have experienced and learnt while working remotely in terms of connecting with students, collaboration and ICT. 1. Connecting with Whānau Core Blog: Start with Relationships     Key principles in here, have informed my approach: Affirming wellbeing: by providing a diverse range of differentiated learning options each day, and including our values explicitly. Noticing what students loved and providing more of those themes / learning areas (individual and for the group)           Relationships at the Centre: being available to listen and offer empathy or tailored responses has been helpful, e.g. a more individualised learning approach for some children, calls or zooms with some children. O ur school had trusted us to listen and identify what might help certain families, and then provide this within protocols.             Empower and Affirm Ākonga: fo...

Matt Eggleston – Psychiatrist, CAF FULL NOTES - SEE HARD COPY FILE Behaviours that may be linked to anxiety: Anger, questioning constantly, highly reactive, tearful, needy, constantly hurt or claims to be hurt, loud, bossy…and more.  ANXIETY IS SOMETHING THAT EVERYONE FEELS, AND IT HELPS US TO REACT APPROPRIATELY TO DANGEROUS SITUATIONS ; it can motivate us to be organised, and it can promote performance (e.g. feeling anxious about a test so making time to study). WE can teach children to recognise and use anxiety for their benefit. Successful coping skills can be learn, and these help people and children manage everyday anxiety. HOWEVER, MEDICAL / FURTHER ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SOUGHT IF IT BECOMES A DISORDER , which requires:  1. Developmentally inappropriate  2. Lasts for long periods 3. There is a functional impairment  4. There is SIGNIFICANT distress, i.e. that stops a person or child from functioning Normal Developmental Anxiety Infants: loud ...

I have been undertaking this course by part time study this year, and have loved the learning involved!  Talking with teachers and leaders from other schools has been refreshing and reassuring...many of us have gone through the highs and challenges of working collaboratively. The  collaboration strategies  others have shared have been really helpful, along with my learning e.g. * Identify your partner's strengths and values (e.g. using the Hermann brain model) * Identify and clear on your own values, strengths and challenges * Identify shared goals, e.g., for my colleague and I this year, that has been wellbeing and behaviour * Use humour  * Don't sweat the small stuff - choose what matters most and discuss that first * Establish and stick to tight meeting times e.g. 15min daily catchups * Establish clear and agreed strategies for behaviour management, including special measures / strategies for those with additional needs * Keep a dot point journal of...

Inquiry into the  Māori migration to NZ - 'Getting there Together' Term 2, 2015 During Term 2, students learnt about how the early  Māori worked together on the migration to NZ and in early Pa life. This aligned well with our school value of 'we get there together'. We also explored the flora and fauna of NZ at the time the  Māori arrived, and reflected on how it had changed since. Students then took this learning and practised 'getting there together' by forming small groups and worked collaboratively. Students planned to create an aspect of early  Māori life; planned and collected their resources to do so; and then problem solved situations together. One of the highlights of this learning was having parents in class to work with the students. One father came and taught a small group of boys about carving. He brought cultural knowledge and experience far beyond anything I could offer the students as a teacher, and having a different personality in the roo...