Kia ora Parents, Caregivers and Students of Coastal Taranaki School,

Firstly we welcome the following students to our community:
- Samara Rouse, Year 9
- Milly Dennison, Year 6
- Xanthe Hawksley, New Entrant

eLearning Update
As our e-learning strategy 2006 – 2010 is essentially achieved, e-learning Lead Team members Hamish Hislop and Joel Dodd, and I visited (with Omata and Oakura School Principals and lead teachers) a number of Christchurch Schools with a view to gaining some insights into how others are integrating IT into learning programmes. I believe the consensus is that we compare very well, but that we do need to accelerate a more general acceptance of the critical role IT can play in personalising learning. One key area that we need to develop, and the main reason I include this ‘taster’ in the newsletter, is that of increasing the electronic connectivity between home and school.

For example, Joel Dodd’s senior students and Year 10 are able to download support material and home learning assignments, and engage in digital conversations about them. Hamish Hislop is involved in a ‘Parent Portal’ project involving our Learning Management System, KnowledgeNet. This will allow parents to see examples of their children’s work through e-portfolios, and to comment on how they are doing.

We will be soon compiling an inventory of the ‘e-capability’ of each household (Do you have a computer? Are you on broadband? etc.). Perhaps we could aim to dispense with printed Newsletters within the next 18 months?

Because of the almost universal acceptance of the need to have broadband and IT at home, our thinking is that the school’s focus should be to provide the infrastructure to enable web-based learning, but that we should move away from being providers of the ‘platform’. Some learning institutions already allow (older) students to bring their i-pads, laptops, notebooks, cell phones and so on to school to enable their learning. Prices continue to fall, and such technology has much more than an entertainment or social networking value.

We have also discussed the concerns we read about almost daily with regards to ‘cyber citizenship’. As digital natives, our children are way ahead of most of us in terms of their connectivity with the world. But how e-intelligent are they? It is very easy to stray off the safe path in cyber space or to be lured into doing so. Do we know what our children are accessing or connecting with? Are we keeping ourselves safe?

We will seek your input into our new e-learning strategy. We expect to be able to provide support and learning for our parents so that e-learning and m-learning (mobile-learning) tools work positively for you and your children.

Health and Safety
Our perennial friends – Head Lice – have us scratching our heads for an answer this year.  We have had them on and off since the end of Term 2 and we can only appeal to parents of junior students more especially to carry out daily checks and vigorously treat your children.

No one is immune – the head lice do not have a selection policy – so please follow the guidance that was sent home last week or =look on the Department of Health website.  We regret the need to phone and carry out checks, and we can but look forward to a time when we are able to relax once more.  Thank you to those who are vigilant and helping us win on this one.

With kind regards,
Principal Allan Miles