December/Hakihea 2016
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December/Hakihea 2016 Table of Contents Page 2 Term Dates Page 15 Class Communities Page 3 Principal’s Letter Page 16 High School Page 4 Board of Trustees Page 22 Middle School Page 4 Rudolf Steiner Schools Trust Page 26 Lower School Page 5 College Page 28 Kindergarten Page 6 Fair Update Page 33 Sports Page 8 Gift of Hope Charity Group Page 33 Kapa Haka Page 9 Financial Update Page 34 Eurythmy Page 10 Attendance Dues & Donations Page 35 Festivals Page 12 Office Update Page 36 Other Notices Page 14 Digital Media Update Page 38 Classified Advertising Term Dates TERM DATES 2017 TERM 1 (100 Half Days - 10 Weeks) Thursday 2nd February - Thursday 13th April Waitangi Day - Monday 6th February Last day of term four is Friday 16th December. TERM 2 (98 Half Days - 9 ½ Weeks) Monday 1st May - Friday 7th July School finishes at 2.00pm Queen’s Birthday - Monday 5th June for Classes 1-12 TERM 3 (98 Half Days - 10 Weeks) Monday 24th July - Friday 29th September Mid Term Break - Friday 1st September First day of term one 2017 is TERM 4 (84 Half Days - 8 Weeks) Thursday 2nd February Monday 16th October - Thursday 14th December Labour Day - Monday 23rd October Teacher Only Day - Friday 17th November TOTAL 380 HALF DAYS 2 From the Principal Dear Parents and Whānau, participating in a collaborative project to develop a New Zealand High School Steiner/Waldorf Curriculum. This year As 2016 draws to a close and we say farewell to our Class we’ve also been approved by the Ministry of Education to 12 graduates, we also farewell two of our senior staff: form a Community of Learning and our community’s shared John Lawry – Technology, Crafts, Outdoor achievement challenges have been approved by the Classroom; John is a veteran Steiner/Waldorf Minister of Education in the last few weeks. These will be teacher and College member, has been with us for reflected in next year’s annual plan. Finally, we have begun 14 years, and has been the leading light in our work on our new playground and expect to break ground school and across New Zealand in the development on this after the close of school this term. Our hope is that of Outdoor Classroom. the new structure will be ready at the start of term 1. Des Pemerika – High School Deputy Principal. After Following last week’s prize-giving ceremony, I would like to 10 years at Michael Park in the capacity of senior publically acknowledge the academic, artistic, sports and Biology teacher, High School Leader, High School leadership excellence of a number of students in our high Deputy and College member, Des is moving to a school and those who were awarded scholarships for larger deputy role at Mt Roskill Grammar. tertiary study. It is pleasing to see this year, for the first time, a new award for proxime accessit which went to On behalf of the College of Teachers I want to say a sincere Tabea Trounson. Also, special congratulations to Benjamin thank you to both John and Des for your colleagueship and Delamore who received both the award for Dux and the the rich and valued contribution you have made to the Colin Lawrence award. College and to the life of the school. We wish you well for the future. I wish you all the best for a wonderful festive season and summer break. On the back of our stunning 2016 Fair result (our best ever) I’d like to say a special thank you to those in our parent Noho ora mai, community who consistently gift their time and energy to making this school the extraordinary place that it is. Apart from the School Fair in November, we’ve particularly appreciated your contribution to our camps and classroom programmes, the Fair Committee, class parent representatives, our Doll, Craft and Woodwork Groups and Adam Dubignon to the School Fundraising Handbook. For this I extend my Principal gratitude. In the New Year our focus will be on the development of a new prospectus, a digital media guide and a guide to camps. Over the course of 2017 we’ll also be rolling out phase two of our website development with enhanced functionality. It’s been a busy year. We’ve had a superb result from our ERO review in May and are among the few schools to have been awarded a further 4-5 year review cycle. ERO were also very impressed at the way the Special Character is evident at all levels of our school. As a College, we’ve kept the focus firmly on Living Waldorf Pedagogy, one of the key strands in our vision, with the launch of a new foundations course for teachers new to Steiner/Waldorf education, and two teacher conferences in the September holidays. Michael Park also hosted staff from Christchurch Steiner School for a review of our Special Character and are 3 From the Board of Trustees As I reflect on the year that has been and the myriad of ups and for our children and of course you the parents. We make a great downs that the World, New Zealand, Michael Park School and team and I’m grateful to be able to serve this community. myself personally have negotiated it reminds me that change is a constant. We have had a very stable and productive few years As the term draws to a close there will be lots of final things at Michael Park with consistently outstanding performance as happening, but just as many new things, new class rooms, new evidenced in our ERO review. jobs, new friends to meet, new places to go and discover. I’m both sad and excited about the future of the school, I know And let’s not forget that we get some well-deserved time off to that I join many of you in the sadness of losing Adam, Des and spend with loved ones, friends and families. I would encourage John. I’m equally if not more excited about the prospects that you all to enjoy the good weather and downtime as we step face us moving into the next phase of growth and energy for the enthusiastically into 2017 and all that it may bring. school, change is GOOD. Kind regards At the board level we have been excited by the work going on within the school against the annual plan and seeing the results. 2017 will be another great year of success building on the work that has been done. Ngaire Cooper I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Adam, the College, the RSST and our wonderful dedicated staff including those behind Chair the scenes in Admin and outside making the space wonderful MPS Board of Trustees From the RSST I am writing this Spiral article as the Chair of the RSST but I am they would learn at the pace they would need to. Some of our conscious it is my last one writing it as a parent of the school. friends and family challenged that the boys weren’t learning to My youngest son graduates from Class 12 this year and my read at 5. Those challenges disappeared into the mist when time as a ‘parent’ in the Steiner school system will be over. both boys happily picked up novels at 8 and could read with a high level of comprehension. These skills came from the many 20 years ago, my husband and I were deciding how we would stories that the school brought alive and that we told the boys like our sons to be educated and we came across the Steiner at home. We learnt that storytelling and having interesting philosophy of education. Neither of us had any experience with conversations with our sons were some of the best ways to this form of schooling but we knew we didn’t want our children enable our sons to gain great literacy. to have the same experiences we had in other forms of education. As our sons have made their way through their When the boys moved into the middle school, we had to be school lives, we too have made our way learning how to be stronger partners with our class teachers to help the boys parents in a Steiner school. navigate finding themselves. Middle school is a time of great discovery and great angst. Independence and the self become In the early years in the kindergarten, we learnt how to provide high priorities for our children. For us as parents, we had to the environment at home that would best support our revisit where we had placed our boundaries and allow them to children’s development and the philosophy at school. We saw stretch in the right places. It was also the time where we how if we as parents didn’t keep the messages consistent with needed to be more active in supporting our children to what our children experienced at kindy, then our children complete their work and help them understand the necessity became hopelessly confused about what was right or wrong in of meeting commitments. behaviour. Working together with the kindergarten teachers, we could support our sons to be ready for their learning In High school, our role was to support our teens to learn that journey at school. good results only come from effort and that social and relationship skills are as important as academic and sport When the boys went through junior school, our roles as performance. In our world today, teens are faced with many parents evolved again.