Term 3 Inquiry development

Kia ora,

With regard to our current ICT development goals my major thrust this term has been to recognise the fact that we have enough PD and internal capacity to achieve the goals that we set for the year. One of the primary focus areas has been the continued development of our Inquiry model. I was heartenend by the fact that the language of this model has been, to varying degrees and in varying ways, introduced to our students. The term inquiry and a basic understanding of this, has been slowly embedded in the school. To celebrate this I was very keen for teachers to share their current classroom practices in terms of delivery of Inquiry which now forms an integarl part of our curriculum. This has been happening in in school PD sessions with each teacher challenged to share their work in this area.

Through continued exposure to other schoolwide Inquiry models through the ICT development programme I am absolutely certain that path we have taken will meet our school's needs.

Further to the above, next term I do want to achieve a consistent presentation of the model in all our classes so that Inquiry can be easily referred to. We also need to make absolutely certain we all have a shared understanding of the different dimensions to our inquiry model and our set of assessment matrix indicators needs to be fine tuned.

Well done and many thanks to Fiona for stepping into the lead teacher role. She has embraced Inquiry and is now presenting a highly effective model in her class. She is truly leading the way for our school and other now turn to her for advice.

It is hoped that we can get everyone to a comparable stage by the end of the year.

Neil Hirini