Are our Transistion to School Visits increasing the confidence of our NE when they start school?

Scanning: What's going on for our learners?

After a year and a half of having implemented a transition to school program we need to know what effect is it having on the learners when they start school?

Are they more confident when they start school after having participated in a longer transition program that is focused solely on them?

How can we gauge this increase in confidence and therefore the effectiveness of the program?

My pedagogical focus is.... What makes a strong and rigorous transition to school program and how can we gauge the success of our own Tamahere Tupu program?

I am focusing on this because I need to ensure that our school starters are coming to school prepared as  best they can be for starting.

Developing a hunch/ My learning/ Taking action.

Look at other schools within the COL and visit their transition to school programs. Engage in dialogue with colleagues from Tamahere and beyond to ascertain their ideas and beliefs on what makes a strong program.

• Visit to Silverdale Normal School with syndicate leader to observe Jump Start program. This provided the basis on which our program was developed with ideas about content, connections to be made, length of visits and points of interest when starting our own program. I also visited Silverdale with my own children's kindy and formed ideas about what made their NE environment welcoming and a place where children beginning school could connect and feel secure as they continue on their education journey.
• Attend a COL education session on play based learning in the NE setting. Notes from play based ed session

Professional development related to transition.

See below reflection on 2017 course related to this.

. Building connetions and making links between ECE and NE setting

My learning....A large part of my learning will come from a lit review of articles about what builds strong transition programs. A collection of research essays from the students in the course  'Transition to School' 

Collegial dialogue will play a big part in my learning about what makes for a strong and successful program for our NE visitors. Frequent discussions about what they feel their NE's need prior to starting school will guide me in designing the program.

Taking action......

Sliding scale poster for parents and children to complete from both their perspectives about how ready the child is for school. This is to be completed in week one and in week 8 to track changes in their perception of how they feel about school before and after visits have been completed. (term 2) 

Talking to our tamariki and their parents about what they believe will help them to feel comfortable at TMCS when they start. What will make it feel like its 'their place'? Posters that they complete/ add to over the weeks with their whanau about what they are enjoying during visits and what else they would like to do so the program can be more specifically tailored to their needs. Parents to add their own suggestions here too.(term three)

Tamsin

027 8691848

Jenny Bell continued

Resilience:
Explaining to children to spring back and to rebound.
Resilience is on a continuum, reassure children that they'll have set back days but they can still work toward their goals.

Risk factors related to lessened resilience:
Life challenges
Developmental challenges
Their underlying temperament

Protective factors:
Stable lifelong attachment
Health factors including sleep
Support networks
Positive thinking
Positive attention-mindfulness
Social and emotional skills

Attachment tools for children:
Understanding feelings. Using a secret signal for the child to use when they are getting close to a 7 they then take the self for timeout.
Emotional self regulation
Self soothing ability
Empathy skills: Explicit teaching of what emotions look like on faces, in body language and in the sound of their voice.
Circle of support. Teaching them who they can go to when they need help and support. Explaining that everyone needs support at some time.

Learning Tools:
Problem solving skillls/coping skills
Gradual step plans to achieve goals
Identification of positive role models
Peer support
Benefits of giving to others
Interpersonal rewards

Body Tools:
Becoming friends with your body
Deep breathing exercises
Relaxation activities
Mindfulness. Two minute mindfulness, breath deeply hold it exhale, note three things you can see, three things you can hear and three things you can feel, repeat. Do this several times a day.
Self-awareness
Health factors
Having fun and enjoying life.

Mind tools:
Awareness of self-talk
Choosing helpful self talk and thinking
Changing unhelpful thinking to helpful thinking
Expecting good things to happen
Understanding of Feelings-Thoughts-Beahviour interactions




Tamsin

027 8691848

Cans for Good

> Thank you to our generous school community for donating cans for us to give to the Salvation Army who will pass them on to families in need this Christmas.
>
> The children in Titoki 6 had a wonderful time taking these cans and creating an enormous Christmas tree before the cans were collected for distribution.

What?
This year I assisted in organizing the Cans for Good can drive for the Salvation Army. I coordinated the cans being collected from the children on the day, worked with the Salvation Army to collect the cans and then wrote a blog post for our school newsletter to report on the success of this event to our school whanau.
So What?
This was a wonderful experience for our tamariki to look beyond themselves and think about how they could contribute to those in greater need than themselves. This provided a great way for our school community to come together to support a cause which always a wonderful way to build community and increase wellbeing by doing good.
Now What?
Continue to find opportunities to support and lead school events which build our community and help our tamariki to look at the wider world and ways they can make positive contributions to this world.
Report these opportunities and events to grow goodwill in our school and wider community.

Part two of days reflections 30/10/17

Making a strong program is vital to make our transitioning children feel at home when they start their new school.

A day connecting ECE and the NE classroom 30/10/17

Main differences between ECE and primary class room?

The ratios of adults to children, the physical environment, a classroom is contained an ECE centre is open and children can come and go as they please. Small spaces are not working for a play based curriculum as the movement is not as fluid and cannot cater to the come and go needs of a child leaning their own play.  The journey is the focus in ECE and in the primary classroom the focus is much more on the destination and getting people to the finish rather than working though the journey. Early childhood is strength and interest based where as a primary class is looking at areas of weakness and how we can improve those. Our curriculums both state that we must focus on prior learning and strengths and so therefore we can use this as evidence to why we use play based learning and how important it is to highlight these strengths and use them as our base board for learning.


Play based learning is harder to show the achievements at an academic level as the learning is shown in key competencies and social growth.

How do we share knowledge between the two providers?

There is simply not enough shared knowledge as most of children arrive as unknown quantities and we have to try to figure this out during the transition visits. Big Question How can we make this knowledge more easily shared, what can we do to get this information clearly shared in a way that is honest and gives pertinent information.

We must look at what the learner sees as their strengths and use this learning as a platform for growth in the school environment. 

The visions of the two curriculums are very similar and provide a great base to grow confident, connected children of the future. Te Whariki appears to be more holistic and encompasses the whole child and their overall growth.

Curiosity is interwoven throughout Te Whariki, my planning in the primary setting needs to be informed by this to ensure that curiosity is a main focus. The key competencies really mirror Te Whariki and are so important to maintain as a focus in the junior classrooms. 

The above picture looks at how we can utilise the key comps as a growth progression from TW. This needs to come before and with any academic learning as its meeting a child's basic needs for the day in order for them to be ready to learn.

STP 2.3 &6.3

Minimising physical restraint Course. MOE 24/10/17

STP4:4
Notes From:

Guidance for NZ Schools on Behaviour Managment to Minimise Physical Restraint  Presented at TMCS 24/10/17

In all circumstances attempt to de escalate rather than restrain any child in your school.

As teachers we are not 'in charge' or loco parentis for the children in our care. The parents are still in charge of their child even when they are at school.

The policy dictates that in no circumstance are we, as teachers, able to restrain children. 

If a child is throwing chairs in a classroom, the rest of the class is removed from the class. The child throwing the chairs is left in the classroom without being restrained but the other children are made safe without any restraint occurring. 

However if a child was going to harm themselves by running on to the road it is ok stop a child from doing this.

There is acceptable physical contact this is along the lines of common sense ie holding hands if children want to, comforting children, helping with transitions up and down stairs etc.

Big questions? How does this new legislation impact on the emotional and physical safety of the rest of the children? What will happen to their self esteem when their work is destroyed by another child? How will they feel when they have witnessed violence in a classroom? How will this impact their learning when their education is disrupted by a fellow classmate on a regular basis?

Try to keep in mind that those children that need the most loving are often the most difficult to love.

With children with challenging behaviour always try to look for the 'Why' behind this behaviour. All behaviour is communication and it has a function and a purpose, we must strive to look for what the message is behind their behaviour. Are they trying to gain something or avoid something, working out which of these this is may help with our management of this behaviour. If the behaviour works then it will be used again and often escalated to make what they want happen even quicker. We need to be consistent and reasonable in our response to behaviour to affect change. If we wobble and are inconsistent then the behaviour is unlikely to change for the better.

Look at the iceberg and what's hidden beneath the tip of the iceberg which is the behaviour that we can see. What's going on beneath the surface at home?

To relate this to Preston.....when he needs attention take five and give him one to one attention if possible so he feels connected and less inclined to attract attention in negative ways.

When we start to understand the 'why' behind their behaviour we can start to adapt or teach a more acceptable, replacement behaviour. Reinforce what we want to see so their needs can be met in a positive way. 

Praise, praise, praise positive behaviour and what you want to see and you'll see more of it.

Make the program interesting to their particular desires and so they can then engage. 

Be aware of what triggers you or pushes your buttons and how you can manage your response to the child that you're working with. These particular areas are where we may fall down in our management of challenging behaviour as they are specially significant for us.

Manage our reactions by: personal calming, not taking it personally, make it about the process not the person.

Respond constructively: Build trust, maintain safety, retain dignity, build relationships, maintain professionalism.

Always work to preserve the mana and dignity of everyone involved.

Encouraging ready to learn behaviour: Our job as teachers is to balance managing safety with teaching. We also need to, as part of our key comps, to teach behaviour as well as curriculum.

For children to model from us we have to be consistent and calm so they can depend on us and base their response on our consistent and calm reactions.

How to build positive relationships with children?

-connect so they feel safe and comfortable. Make connections with their big world not just their school world.

-make students feel valued.

-students need to know we  want the best for them.

-understand that children have a back ground out of school and that what we are teaching them may conflict with the morals and values that they are taught at home.

-students believe that they are understood and their best interests are at the heart of the matter.

-school is predictable, they know the rules.

-help them with your physical posture, side stance, open escape routes, maintain personal space, appropriate eye contact.

-show support for the student with your manner, calm, in control, attentive, interested, empathetic.

-your language should: seperate you from the problem, makes a situation win/win, supportive language that shows you want to help.

Making a behaviour plan for a child that can be challenging.

The plan needs to be very specific, made by people who know the child very well with clear steps that prescribe how specific, stated behaviours should or could be managed.

At this stage of the presentation we were able to formulate a behaviour plan with our colleagues for one of our challenging children.

Notes from autism speaker, ideas hints and tips

STP 2.4

People with Autism.....


Present with three issues:
Social issues
Communication issues
Repetitive behaviours-focussed on one particular thing for a long period of times.

Mild presentation historically wasn't diagnosed as autism.
Severe stress exacerbates symptoms, symptoms with time and management can be hidden and people on the spectrum can function in society. Specially if their IQ is within normal range.

Unpredictable school setting can cause extra stress for ASD child, this can be managed by increasing predictably and explaining what is going to happen. Give advanced notice about relievers and expected transition to help child manage their expectations. Ten minute then five minute warnings to help anticipate transitions. All children on the spectrum have different needs, you cannot use a general strategy for managing all children with ASD.

Observe children and try to recognise how they respond to sensory stimulation such as light, sound and touch and then work our how they can lessen exposure or manage the way they cope with it.

Use social stories to help children manage stressful situations. Use a calendar, show them as much as you can before the event happens.

Steven Wiltshire of London the human camera