Room 1

Transitions

We have all been lead to believe that earlier is better, whether we are talking about athletics, academics, waling or talking, this idea has become deeply ingrained in our society. But truth is when children arrive at school at the age of 5 and what we would call ‘struggle’ to read- is because their the part of your brain in charge of reading, writing and maths does not develop fully until the age of 8- I have seen first hand the pressure and anxiety children face if they are forced when they are not ready to read and write.

My classroom is a learning through play classroom- where the children are given opportunities to engage in invitations which I initiate based on interests in the classroom- I then work with children in small groups or 1-1 for reading, writing and maths  as I am aiming for quality sessions to promote the love, joy and engagement of learning rather than focusing on the number of groups I take daily. BUT this is done through observing where they are and letting the active signs of readiness be my guide to supporting a child’s learning.

My programme allows me to interact and observe play more frequently and help develop the passions and interests of your child. This enables me to explore the whole curriculum with the students on a deeper level rather than just focusing on reading, writing and maths and this allows for a more balanced approach to learning for all students.  

Children come for visits on a Friday from and during this time I explore their learning stories with them from their books. Here I can get a better idea of the whole child and this helps guide my transition for your child into Room 1. We as a school use a live reporting system called Educa- similar to Story park, however we use this from Year 1-13 to capture the holistic nature of each individual over their schooling journey at CAS.

We work within the New Zealand Curriculum framework and this describes the range of levels that are likely to be present in a group, however they are not fixed as students- as we know-progress is more significant than achievement levels.