The last seven days

Kia ora everyone,

What an amazing week we have had since my last post. We really have had quite a few highlights recently. A big thank you all of the parents who turned out for our school cross country last Wednesday. I am sure you will agree that Mr Jenkinson and Room 10 put on an amazing event. It was great to have the whole school participate in the same event and see so may of our students give it their best on the day. For the official cross country results click here. Congratulations and good luck to those students selected to go to the Zones Cross Country Event at Windsor School tomorrow.

Friday was a great end to the week with lots happening. Team one got us started leading our whole school learning celebration assembly. Itis great to see our youngest students sharing their learning with the school. Team three went off to winter sports at Hagley Park in the afternoon. A number of the ClassSpace Pages have highlights from all of these events if you missed any of them.

And finally today your child/children would have brought home a pamper pack which was donated to the school to support our families through recent times. Here is Room 8 handing theirs out this afternoon. A big thank you to Deb in the office for coordinating these going out.

Have a great week everyone, please remember to check out the school website for new additions. The calendar is a new function we hope you will find useful.

Take care
Mike

Quick Update

Kia ora Everyone

We are having another great week at Christchurch East. This afternoon our staff had a professional development session with Marg Wright, who is assisting us with our numeracy programme development this year. Marg has been working with teachers and students in some of our classrooms this week. It was very encouraging to hear Marg's feedback about the progress our staff and students are making with our numeracy teaching and learning.

Some of our staff participating in the session this afternoon

Numeracy is one of our two major professional development focuses this year, the other is using digital technologies. I will look forward to sharing more about these two major focuses with you later in the term.

I hope the weather stays fine, and I see you all at the school cross country tomorrow morning.

Take care Mike

Friday Lunchtime Action

Kia ora Everyone

I was out and about at lunchtime today and it was great to see the variety of activities our students were both leading and participating in. Here are a couple of examples.

Yes it is that time of the year again. Winter Sports!
This is our year 7/8 Rugby Team having a team talk before practice

We had Team 2 students as part of their Learning Links Challenge,
running organised games for some very enthusiastic Team 1 students.
Great work everyone!

It is great to see Learning with Heart is not just restricted to the classroom!

Take care Mike

Artspiration

Kia ora Everyone

A big thank to all of our families who attended our Artspiration evening last night. The event was a huge success and I know the students and staff were thrilled with both the great turn out, and the positive feedback we received. I would like to thank everyone for the effort they put in to make this a true celebration of our students learning. Also, special thanks to Mr Englefield (our resident artist) for the time he put into organising the night.

I look forward to Artspiration 2012!

Take care Mike

Whats been happening at Christchurch East lately.

Kia ora everyone,

There has been lots of learning to celebrate around the school lately. Here are a couple of my recent highlights.

Last Friday our whanau groups met and discussed what they wanted our new edible garden to look like. Our students never cease to amaze us with their creative ideas and wider knowledge they bring to their learning. This project is going to be a great way to finish off term two. Here are a couple of the whanau groups researching and planning during the session.

At lunchtime today I made my way down to room seven to test my skill with the jigsaws they have made. We all had a great time. I would like to say I was the Jigsaw King, but Abbegail and Mathilde and the team were to good for me. Well done girls, thank you for a very enjoyable lunchtime.

I hope you all are enjoying the updates.

See you at the Artspiration at school on Thursday 19th May at 7pm.

Take care Mike

Welcome NZGSE Interns to Christchurch East School

Kia ora everyone

Just to keep you up to date with things around the school. We have five interns from the NZ Grad School with us for the next 7 seven weeks. This is a great reciprocal longstanding relationship we have with the Grad School which benefits everyone, including our students:

Stephanie Kokx in Room 10 with Trevor Jenkinson
Rachel Douglass in Room 9 with Victoria Brookland
Simon-Lean-Massey in Room 8 with Nick Jorgensen
Darren Robinson in Room 4 with Tania Sibley
Dulkara Martig in Room 3 with Carmen Aldridge

They will be with us until Friday 1 July (7 weeks). Thank you for making them welcome.

Take care Mike

Have you seen the NEWS?

Kia ora everyone,

This afternoon I was shown some of the ways our students are combining their reflection time with our new school website, by creating a regular News Update. Have a look at Room 9 and 12's NEWS.

Room 9 News                                     Room 12 News    

Well done team!

Mike

Artspiration Event is coming!

Kia ora everyone,

Please have a look at this link: Artspiration to find out more details. Our students and staff have put a lot of time into this event to ensure it will be great, I will look forward to seeing you there.

Take care,
Mike

Aftershock last night

Kia ora everyone,

Just to let you know, our caretaker Mr Graham Walsh is right on the ball checking the buildings first thing this morning after the aftershock last night. Graham does this regularly and more importantly straight after any significant aftershocks, to ensure our school is 'Keeping it Safe and Vibrant' for our students' families and staff. 
Have a great day:)
Mike

Principal's Blog is up and running

Kia ora Everyone

Last week, I went over to our library and was blown away. The Library Learning Hub was buzzing as a learning community with a variety of staff, parents and students all learning and being an active part of our learning community at Christchurch East. The only thing that concerned me was that no one else was not able to see our 'Vibrant Inspirational Learning Community in the Heart of the City' in action for themselves. 
This led me to start this blog to replace the existing latest updates section of our school website. I will endeavor to update this blog regularly to provide our community with insights into daily life at Christchurch East and what 'Learning with Heart' is all about. I hope you find my blog useful and decide to follow it.
Take care Mike

My photo of the day, is of Mr Jenkinson risking life and limbs to be a part of his students learning today. That's what I call commitment!