Road side digital sign

A very wonderful project that I have been involved with in researching, designing and contract letting over the past few months has been our new LED roadside sign.

Our thoughts behind the over all design was we didn’t want the vertical sort of digital sign you often see outside schools with scrolling text on plain background. We wanted something funky, something that picked up on our buildings architecture, black poles etc. and was capable of displaying interesting graphics.

Part of the design was the security aspect: distance from the front boundary, height off the ground, robust fixing to heavy poles in strong foundations. As far as the vandalism aspect goes the screen itself is several small screens. These are easy to replace if need be but are in themselves very robust. They are apparently also easy to clean: i.e. graffiti paint etc. One excellent feature is the light sensor which dims the screens brightness on dull days and at night and then boost the brightness on sunny days.

The project was in two contracts:

 1) Black poles including underground thrusting of power and data cables and their connection to distribution board and network cabinet respectively: Construction Management Group, Dave Redmond: dave@cmbuild.co.nz  

2) Digital sign including the static sign & their combined metal frame and installation from Digital Signs, David Jaques: Dave@digitalsigns.co.nz

   

Both of the contractors have excellent “can do” attitudes. CMBuild were the contractors involved in the build of our latest classroom block. Digital Signs were great to work with too.

I highly recommend both companies to any school considering moving in this direction.

The software for the sign is PC compatible only so, being an Apple school, we also had to invest in a PC laptop. 

This step into the latest technology has been made possible with funding from the Mt Wellington Foundation.

Fiafia 2018

The return of the biannual Fiafia (Cultural Festival) was another great occasion. This was once again a wonderful opportunity for every student to participate in a cultural performance. They chose to participate with either their own cultural group or took the opportunity to experience another culture. Every time we hold the Fiafia we discover "hidden" talent that would possibly have otherwise gone un-noticed. The success of each item was in no small way due to the many volunteer tutors from our wider community who, along with our staff, held weekly practices leading up to the event. The large outside stage, huge stretch tent canopy, stage lights, digital backdrops and outdoor concert sound system helped to make the show a wonderful evening spectacle for the 2000+ audience despite the weather's attempt to put a huge "dampener" on the evening. The poor weather this year, has highlighted a need to find independent funding for a permanent cover for the hard court area. 

Our latest ILE

The school year has begun with the long awaited opening of our new 4 learning space ILE.
This is the last part of a protracted programme, that I have been heavily involved with, of a 5 classroom rebuild and 5 classroom roll growth development.
It is so wonderful to finally have the Year 2 team out of their "temporary" accomodation and into this beautiful purpose built Innovative Learning Environment.
For my fuller reflections on ILEs see my blog dated 19 Sept 2016.

School Production 2017 "Live Stream"

Once again I had the privilege of directing the bi-annual school musical production. This year's show was a past original play "X Stream", revisited, up dated and rebranded "Live Stream". The show's season ran for 3 nights, Tuesday through Thursday, in Week 10 of this past Term with a matinee/dress rehearsal on the Monday where the audience was invited guest from our neighbouring schools and kindies.The production was open to all the students right across the school to audition for acting, singing and dancing parts. There was also opportunity for students to be involved in digital set backdrop design, lighting, sound, stage management, costuming and props.
The basic plot was a conservation story about finding an alternative home for Tuna the long finned eel because her local Omaru Creek was polluted. Original script 
Here is a some short highlights to give you an idea of the backdrops, costuming etc. You will notice that rather than the main characters wearing masks that would hide their faces they wore decorated bicycle helmets.
Big ups to all the students and staff who made this such a great Learn, Create, Share experience.
If you'd like to use this play at your school please do. Just acknowledge Pt England School. If you have any questions regarding the staging of the show please feel free to contact me either in the comments below or directly to garth@ptengland.school.nz   

40' Sports & Flounder Tank Container.

The 40' container, proposed for extra sports gear storage and the housing of the tank for the baby flounder nursery arrived on site this week. The artist's impression below illustrates the configuration of the shared space (3m for the tank & 9m for sports gear) and the location of the container against the western end wall of the school hall.

The juvenile flounder project is an exciting combined initiative with Kauri Flats School.

Cycle Tracks Open

There was great excitement and joyful enthusiasm when the cycle tracks had their Grand Opening on February 23.

A big thank you to Toni Dale from Bikes in Schools for co-ordinating funding applications, contractors and suppliers. Funding was received from: Maungakiekie - Tamaki Local Board, NZTA, Variety the Children's Charity, The Lion Foundation and Dimension Data.

The 400m circuit and pump tracks were constructed by Trailpro. The bikes were supplied by Avanti Plus and the 2 storage containers were supplied by SEA Containers.

The assorted sizes of over 80 bikes will mean our tamariki of all ages will be able to have regular rides. The tracks will be open at lunchtimes for general riding and classes can book track times for specific riding skills sessions.

As I've said previously, it is a truism that a house doesn't make a home. Equally, ILEs (Innovative Learning Environments) are much more than the bricks and mortar, fancy furniture, 1x1 devices and ultra fast broadband connection.
Pt England School was built in 1953 and of the original classrooms 11 remain. Additional to these rooms we have 4 relocatable (temporary) classrooms with the remaining 12 teaching and learning spaces being specifically constructed as ILEs. The 4 relocatable rooms are to be replaced by mid 2017 by a 4 space ILE. That means that by July 2017 well over half our staff and students will be located in a purpose built ILE. 
In the month since my last post I have conducted an informal, anonymous, online survey of the teachers in the specifically ILE classrooms and what follows is a brief summary of that survey.

• 66% of them have taught for 2 or more years in an ILE
• 22% 1yrs experience & 12% 6 months
• 66% enjoy and 33% mostly enjoy teaching in an ILE

     +ves:

• student centred focus
• village raising a child, using teacher strengths
• other teachers to always communicate and collaborate with
• ability to provide for differing learning styles
• flexibility within teaching practice
• beginning teachers learn from those around them
• varied spaces for learning and class activities.

     -ves:

• more conscious of managing noise level
• when there is a reliever, it effects whole ILE not just the one class
• can't do my "own thing" when I want to, no real room for spontaneity
• have to be much more collaborative
• disruptive kids can easily disrupt the entire space
• students have to work hard not to get distracted by other things going on around them

     Interesting:

• all teachers need to be on board and able to work together
• enjoyed it more than I thought I would
• knowing others are close by makes you think much more about how you speak to the children/how you are coming across
• some personal ideas can be limited because there are other teachers to be collabrative with
• 3 classroom space works better (more easily) than a two space

     Pedagogical changes:

• give students more choice of where they learn
• Heaps! Mainly around the village effect - how to create a collaborative approach with teaching and learning (meeting every morning as a village, how to teach small groups in a large space, using the spaces properly for teaching and learning, etc)
• more openly reflective. I would always think in my head, but having to record it for others has been useful.
• reflecting/ inquiring into teaching practice as a team
• more collaboration

      Student enjoyment of ILE:

• LOVE having almost all their friends in the same space
• like having the options to work in different places with different people
• more room, more freedom, more options
• like having more teachers
• there are other teachers available during the times when their teacher is working with a small group
• Very much. They become a very tight knit community
• an entire grade level to be together provides a very social atmosphere
• more engaged and take ownership of their work as there is more flexibility around how they choose to accomplish their tasks
• don't like not having their own space

      Student learning benefits:

• it allows for better grouping opportunities which in turn helps achievement
• students seemed more engaged
• hard to quantify, especially when you consider all of the other innovation, inquiry etc. that has been put into our teaching and learning
• students enjoy taking charge of their own learning and having some choice

      Could a single cell be an ILE?:

• Group teaching, use of instructional videos, GAFE, Learn/Create/Share can be
• Reflecting/ inquiring into teaching as a team in-time is only really possible in an ILE when you share the experience/ challenges.
• more ILE on my own. More flexibility to respond to individual student needs and can ramp up the creativity 
• ongoing teacher collaboration is the biggest advantage to being in an ILE. Going back to a tradition "single cell" classroom would be very difficult if it were with a group of teachers who did not openly collaborate on a daily basis.
• giving students choice and flexibility with completing tasks

My reflection so far on these responses is that there are some space advantages in a purpose built ILE that help facilitate learning. ILEs help meet various learning styles through their greater flexibility. In a predominately Maori/Polynesian school, as ours is, the "village" aspect sits well with its ebb and flow of people, programmes and resources and developed sense of community.  However to suggest that the original 1953 rooms and the relocatable rooms are not innovative would be far from the truth and would do a disservice to the educators in those spaces. All of those rooms have access to wireless ultra fast broadband, have at least 6 iMacs each, all students have their own device (either iPad or Chromebook) and the teachers are actively inquiring into their practice. In fact, some of the teachers surveyed felt they could be more innovative on their own with more room to be spontaneous. 
My next challenge is to consider a meaningful way I can survey the students involved in ILEs. It would need to be from a "what do I enjoy, what don't I like" angle and not "compare and contrast". The old ways are "so last year" that few of them would be able to remember what it was like with any great clarity. 
In the meantime, if you've taken the time to read this post I would love to hear your thoughts and reflections.