Each curriculum and pathway has it’s own priorities, learning areas and outcomes. That means that sometimes there will be activities or experiences that students in one pathway may participate in, that the other may not. That’s ok. Different curriculums require different things. At the moment, both are currently being revised nationally.
Outside of learning experiences, we also have whole school events that build whanaungatanga | connection between us all, and sometimes cross over both curriculums. These events are important to help unify us as one school – Birkdale Primary School.
2023 Organisation:
Teams
Next year, there will be 12 classes. 8 in Auraki [2 teams] and 4 in Rumaki [1 team].
Rumaki – Te Puāwaitanga: Tī Kouka, Māhoe, Pūriri and Koromiko
Auraki – ‘Juniors’ [new name coming]: Tōtara, Kōwhai, Pōhutukawa and Kauri
Auraki – ‘Seniors’ [new name coming]: Mānuka, Rīmu, Tānekaha and Kahikatea
Compared to this year, Te Puāwaitanga will have an extra teacher. This is to make sure that teacher release and leave can be covered without having to employ English speaking relievers which can disrupt students’ language aquisition. We can never find te reo Māori relievers and learning a second language is hard enough!
In Auraki, Junior team – one of the classes will be a reception class. This is the extra class. All new Y1 at the beginning of the year, and Y0 starting after will start in this class. We have chosen to have a reception class to help students transition into school easier – and to also help us identify any support learners may need earlier. Students will be assessed and stay as long as necessary before transitioning into a more traditional class. Tranisitoning will stop when we need to balance the numbers to keep from overcrowding, we expect this to be around Term 3.
Teachers
Teachers have not been finalised for specific classes, but we have employed 4 more teachers to complete our staffing entitlement for 2023.
Next year, we welcome Tahlea Fong in Rumaki, and Malia Natiti and Kirstyn Ratu in Auraki. Sarah Dunn has been employed as a part-time release teacher to cover some leadership release and the Classroom Release Time [CRT] in Auraki. All NZ teachers are entitled to 10 hrs a term CRT – Rumaki teachers will cover this release among themselves, the whole reason for the extra teacher allocated.
Classes in Auraki will be spending an hour a week with Sarah who will be teaching NZC Music integrated with Dance and Drama. She currently teaches music at another primary school. Some may ask why students in Rumaki don’t get specialist Music/ Dance and Drama teaching as well – this is an example of knowing why we do what we do, and making sure that students experience opportunities authentic to their learning pathway. A music class based on the NZC and not TMoA, in English, would not be appropriate. In TMoA, ‘Te Toi | The Arts’ is expressed and taught differently.
Unfortunately, the welcome of new teachers means we also say goodbye to Whaea Pamela who has decided to resign and leave the day-to-day demands of the classroom behind her. We will still see her around relieving from time to time. All the best Whaea Pamela! Whaea Judy will also not be based in Pōhutukawa any more. We thank her very much for supporting our teachers in the junior area of the school. Her wealth of experience has been invaluable!
Classes
2023 class information will be sent home on Wednesday 14th December, when students will have met their new teacher and classmates. They will bring home a notice and a welcome letter from their teacher, to let you know this information for 2023.
English
Afrikaans
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Filipino
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Maori
Portuguese
Samoan
Spanish
