Letters to Parents

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

   This letter is to introduce myself as your child’s teacher and to outline the expectations I have about learning and behaviour in room 6 in 2014. 

Learning and Behaviour

   Children should all understand by now that the main reason for them being at school is to Learn and that the best way to become better Learners, is for them to become better self managers. I will be continually encouraging children to manage their own behaviour and learning, and to take increasing responsibility for their own lives. Please assist me by encouraging your child to take responsibility for themselves, in every area of their lives, as much as possible, considering the fact that they are still young children. Poor self management will lead to ineffective learning and can disrupt teaching.

Teacher Contact Details

   Please note that we have a class blog up and running this year and that I will be using the blog for all communications with parents about news, events, homework and anything else that may be going on around the school. The Blog address is: http://room6stmarysrotorua2014.blogspot.co.nz/

   You may contact me by email at any time. I check my mail at least twice daily Sunday to Friday. My address is david@stmarys.rotorua.school.nz

I am also happy for you to contact me by cellphone, or at home, for urgent matters, at any time. Please come and ask if you would like my cellphone number.

   If you have any other questions about room 6 in 2013, or if you have any issues or problems you wish to discuss, please contact me sooner rather than later. I have an open door policy, but please, be aware that some days can be very busy. The mornings are not a good time, unless it is brief, or in an emergency. After school, especially later in the week, is the best time for me to meet parents.

If you were unable to make it to the ‘Meet the Teacher’ evening, but would still like to talk to me about something, please contact me to make a time for a meeting.

Homework

  

   Homework is a delicate subject that arouses a variety of opinions among parents and I wish to make my philosophy clear from the beginning. The most important homework for young children is personal reading and this will be my main homework focus for the year and the only absolutely compulsory homework. It is often apparent, at the beginning of the year, that some children are not reading anywhere near enough on a day-to-day basis, outside of school. When possible children should be reading for a minimum of 20- 30 minutes a day, outside of school, (usually in the evenings) including holidays and attempting to read a range of materials at their level e.g. fiction books, non-fiction (fact) books, children’s magazines, and appropriate online materials aimed at children.

   Putting in the reading mileage (reading a lot, often) helps learning in all areas.  Many independent learners even at 7-9 years old are reading for several hours a day. Please note it is free for Rotorua residents to join the Rotorua Public Library and children’s books are free to take out. Children may also borrow books from St Mary’s School Library and my own personal class library.

   Reluctant readers can be hard to motivate at home. One technique that I found worked well with my own son at 7-12 years old was to model reading behaviour by reading my own book or newspaper on the bed next to him as he read (and be ready to answer questions). Of course some of the younger members of the class will need direct assistance in reading their books to you. Some children, who need extra help will go onto the Home Reading Program and will receive books to take home on a Monday, to be returned on Friday. Children under the National Standard will also receive one-on-one tutoring in reading, to try and give them an extra boost in order to catch up. Books are not systematically sent home with all children at the Middle School Level.

   If possible I would like to see children spend about 5 minutes a night on memorizing their basic facts, including times table facts for the more able mathematicians, for instant recall. This is mainly a memory exercise for gaining factual knowledge, rather than a purely maths one, and will greatly assist classroom teaching of increasingly complex math’s strategies and concepts. It is a simple fact that many children need someone to help and motivate them.

   Repetition out loud is one way to reinforce the basic fact to memory, especially if it part of a competition or game. Online math’s games such as tut-pup can also be a fun way to learn basic facts and I am encouraging children to sign-up to tut-pup so they can practice basic facts at school and at home, by competing against other children online. Please remind your child that they need to choose a level or a times table that is challenging, not one that they can already do. Many children in the class will understand the math’s concept that 3 x 5 is 3 groups of 5 and can work out that the total is 15 (especially if given equipment, or by using skip counting), very few know 3x5=15 as an instantly recalled fact.

   I have enrolled the class in the Studyladder website and they have already been issued their personal usernames and passwords for logging in. We will be using this site in class but the children can also access it at home. I will be assigning some tasks from this site for homework, but the best bet is for children to find and do work at their own individual level. The assistance of parents and caregivers to get started will help. There is a huge amount of material on the site. Children will also usually receive a short research and writing task for homework. The task may be linked to our school term Concept. This term our concept is Citizenship. I am also encouraging the children to use the class blog and to look at the posts and links at home, as well as at school. Homework can be done in a homework book or on a computer.  In 2013, for spelling, we will be running our Smartwords program again, but essential word lists are available on request for those parents who like using these lists.

   Some families are very busy and some children are very tired by late afternoon, so it is up to parents to judge how much a child is capable of doing each day and week. Again, please note that the 20-30 minutes reading a day is the only ‘must do’ homework on ‘most’ nights. If a child is too tired or angry, forcing them to read is not advised, it’s better to leave it until tomorrow. If a child persistently refuses to read please come and see me. I will post all the homework on the Class Blog homework page each week. Please ask for a paper copy to be sent home if you require one.

     

Middle School Teaching Program

The children will be doing narrative writing (stories) this term and learning about recount writing, which will be linked to our concept of Citizenship. In RE we will be doing the Jesus Strand as well as looking at Lent. In reading I will be looking at introducing the children to a wide range of comprehension strategies. The children are currently being grouped for maths and will receive teaching, at their stage, on place value, and addition and subtraction strategies. We are looking at the Geometry and Measurement Strand in math, position and orientation and temperature to be more precise. Here’s hoping for a productive year of learning in Room 6 in 2014.

Yours Sincerely

David Bach

Classroom Teacher   

Hello and Welcome to Students, Parents, Family, Whānau and Caregivers

We are pleased to welcome you all to the start of the school year for 2014.

We hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and have managed to spend some time with loved ones over the summer. We are all refreshed and ready to start the year.

The Team

We have a wonderful group of enthusiastic teachers teaching your children this year. The Middle School has 4 classrooms this year, of Year 3 and 4 children.

Room 5            Teresa Rush                         teresa@stmarys.rotorua.school.nz

Room 6            David Bach                             david@stmarys.rotorua.school.nz

Room 14          Lynley Schofield                  lynleys@stmarys.rotorua.school.nz

                        (Team Leader)

Room 15          Tai Waititi                               tai@stmarys.rotorua.school.nz

If you would like to know anything that is happening, or have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us, either in person at school, or by email.

Meet the Teacher

We are having a Meet the Teacher evening on the 13th of February. This will be a chance for you to come and meet us, and hear about some of the things that will be happening in our classrooms.

Junior school - 5.30 and 6.00,

Middle school - 6.00 and 6.30,

Senior school - 6.30 and 7.00.

Teachers will be in their own rooms and we have staggered the times so you are able to get to more than one classroom if you have children in different year groups.

If you would like to meet with your child’s teacher privately, then you can arrange that with them.

Learning

This term the Concept we are learning about is Citizenship. The Fruit of the Holy Spirit is Joy and our values are Happiness and Unity. We will be studying Prayer and the Jesus Strand, this term for RE.