Curriculum

Reading Recovery

Reading Recovery is just one of Owairoa Primary School’s teaching programmes for students who require extra individual teaching.

Reading Recovery provides intensive individual help to children who are not making the expected progress in Reading and Writing after one year at school. The programme has two main purposes:
To accelerate a student’s progress in reading and writing so they can work at the appropriate level after about 12 – 20 weeks on the programme
To identify students who will require further intensive support beyond the short term Reading Recovery intervention.

All pupils at Owairoa are assessed by the Assistant Principal after they have had one year at school. Pupils who would benefit from Reading Recovery are put into the programme as soon as a place is available.

It is a highly regarded programme which originated in New Zealand and is available in many New Zealand schools and around the world. Students have an individual lesson for half an hour every day. Reading Recovery teachers undertake a one year training programme in accelerated teaching techniques.
It is a very expensive but very effective programme. The costs are funded by Owairoa Primary School by fund raising.

Literacy Programmes

Reading and Mathematics Support Programmes have been established to assist children who are achieving below expected levels. These programmes are unique to Owairoa Primary School.

The Reading and Mathematics Support Programmes have been very successful at helping those children who lack self-esteem, have switched off their learning, lack focus, or feel like they are failing.

How can the Reading or Mathematics Support Programme
help your child?

• • Your child will be carefully assessed by a Specialist teacher.
  • Each child on the programme works at a level where they can succeed.
  • The next learning steps are identified and strategies are put in place to help achieve what is to be learnt.
  • Your child has the advantage of working in a small group with a Specialist teacher.
  • Specific resources to assist learning are provided as part of the programme.
  • Progress is carefully monitored by the Specialist Teacher.
  • A strong link between home and school is established where the child, the parent/s and teacher work together as a team to achieve the required learning.
  • Parents are given step by step guidance by the Specialist Teacher to ensure home learning has a positive and successful outcome.

The Reading and Mathematics Support Programmes successfully help children to:

• Gain confidence.
• Improve self-esteem.
• Become active learners.

ESOL Support

The ESOL programme at Owairoa is vibrant and alive!

Our programme targets speakers of other languages – students who enter school and who are unable to speak any English, or have limited English language skills. It may take anywhere from six months to two years to develop Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills. Although a child may learn to communicate in English very quickly and ‘know’ many words, it can take up to six years for them to obtain full understanding of academic English.

Students work in small groups, on a class by class basis, with one 45 minute lesson per week for Year 1 and 2, and two 45 minute lessons for Years 3 – 6.

The focus for all children is on oracy:

• Communicating in English.
• Learning to express their ideas in English.
• Learning to have a conversation.
• Learning to understand and follow directions.
• To give and receive information/exchange ideas.

There are two teaching rooms – a small one for Year 1 and 2, where children can feel secure, mix readily with each other and share ideas easily and a larger one with desks and more space suitable to meet the needs of senior students for Year 3 – 6. Children have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities – puppets, role plays, mime, creative tasks, and research activities, all of which will enhance and extend their knowledge of the English language.

The school environment has many areas of interest for the children to visit. This encourages them to have real ‘hands on’ experiences and to develop an awareness of what is happening in the world around them. Other experiential learning activities provide a wonderful opportunity to extend their vocabulary by learning and using new words.

International Day is an annual event here at Owairoa Primary School, where students have the opportunity to celebrate their own culture. All students are invited to dress in their national costume or in something in a colour which represents the country they identify with.

All students have the opportunity to make a flag and can wave this proudly in the ‘grand parade’ around the school grounds. All students then have the opportunity to participate in a concert to showcase music, dance and other items from their ‘other’ country.

The students of Owairoa are immersed in a rich Health and Physical Education curriculum. During the year there are a variety of school-wide sporting events: swimming sports, cross country, and athletics day. The top athletes from those events are chosen to represent the school at the HPPA Inter-school competition. Owairoa students have become well-known for their outstanding behaviour and sportsmanship when representing their school.

Weekly fitness lessons are taught with the aim of developing essential physiological skills as well as to raise the fitness level of each student as they gain an overall appreciation of health/hauora and physical well-being.

Each term the school’s Sports Specialist teaches specific skills, attitudes, and values through a variety of games, exercise, sports and movement activities. The children thoroughly enjoy these focused lessons.

There are numerous opportunities for children to join sports teams at the school. A large range of summer and winter sports are offered. The teams are involved in inter-school competitions during lunchtimes where they represent their school in their chosen sporting domain. The passion and enthusiasm these children have is outstanding.

There are also class competitions throughout the year, Fun Day tournaments for each sport, and numerous other organised sporting events which involve a wide range of children.

It’s great to see children getting involved in different sports and the personal mana they gain from their involvement in Owairoa sporting activities.

Dance Group

Each year at Owairoa Primary School we have three dance groups, one made up of Year 3 and 4 students, while the other two are made up of Year 5 and 6 students. The groups contain up to 20 students each. These children get the opportunity to perform at regional festivals, school assemblies and of course the Owairoa Gala.

From Year 0 to Year 6 the whole school participates in ‘Jump Jam’ as part of our fitness programme. This is an aerobics type dance which is great for improving coordination and the children just love it. The songs are up beat and each dance contains simple moves that are repetitive and therefore easy to learn. This makes the experience a positive one for children with no dance experience yet still enjoyable for more confident dancers.

In the classroom children also learn about dance in Performing Arts units. During such stages of learning the students are exposed to a range of styles, for example jazz, hip hop and folk dancing. Children are able to experience each style and will learn how this fits into a social context, for example the Pasifika influence on New Zealand hip hop. During the year the Senior school put on productions, and at the end of the year the Junior school put on concerts, all of which include some dance so that children are given the opportunity to show case their learning.

Kapa Haka

This year has marked the start of another exciting year of Kapa Haka at Owairoa Primary School. Again we have had so many children wanting to be a part of the prestigious groups and we ended up having to limit the groups to 60 students in the senior group and 40 in each of the Year 3 and 4 groups. Another highlight this year is the start of a Year 1 and 2 group enabling younger students to get a taste of what Kapa Haka is all about.

Our goal is to learn a variety of songs (some new) to include in our brackets for the Koanga Festival and learn them well. The groups will also have opportunities to show what they have been learning at events such as the annual Grandparents Day, Maori Language Week and at their end of year prize-giving.

If there is anyone out in the community who would like to share their knowledge of Kapa Haka and would like to support the groups with their learning please contact the school. We are always looking for new songs to sing and new actions to perform.

In the mean time we will continue our journey of learning Kapa Haka as there are so many skills to be learnt and friendships to be made.

Music

As part of the balanced education, the arts play a major role in our students’ education. Music is an integral part of the education. A mix of genres, cultural, traditional and contemporary music is taught in line with the NZ arts curriculum. As well as music being integrated into classroom programmes, the students attend one music class per week with our music specialist.

Our students love to sing! As well as annual musicals, each year, students are invited to join either the middle school choir or the senior choir, depending on their age. The senior choirs have been attending the esteemed APPA festival now for 18 years and have been invited to join in local community festivals and concerts, which they very much enjoy.
Our middle-school choir has also been attending the Susan Prentice Kids for Kids concert for some years. We just love our music!

Ukelele Allstars

We at Owairoa pride ourselves on providing a holistic programme and giving opportunities for children to grow in the Arts.

Children in the Middle School are encouraged to learn an instrument and perform in front of their peers and large groups. Once a week during lunch they are able to join the Ukulele group to learn basic chords, strum patterns, and how to care for their instrument. After children have learnt basic chords, they are encouraged to take a small group of new players, sharing their learning and passing on the gift of music to their peers.

After the basics have been learnt and their performance skills have been enhanced they can then join the world famous ‘Owairoa Ukulele Allstars”. This year our Ukulele Allstars have been invited to perform at the Bucklands Beach Intermediate Winter Wonderland Concert, which will be our biggest performance to date.

Drama

The school caters to prospective young actors by facilitating specialist Drama education in their schooling. Our drama teacher will guide them through a range of drama activities and performances building self-confidence and ability to take risks and trust their ideas and abilities.

Drama classes at Owairoa promote cooperation and collaboration as well and improving voice projection, language fluency and articulation of words as well as creative thinking.

At senior level there is the opportunity to take part in school productions and concerts to extend and cater to rising stars.

Our students are learning to think and act in ways that safeguard the well-being of the people and the planet now and for the future.

Our Education for Sustainability (EfS) curriculum is about developing an attitude towards sustainability that is embedded within our school culture and helps us form and enrich the values of our students. Learning how to take action for the environment has developed from teacher directed and chosen ideas – known as the dimensions of education ‘in’ and ‘about’ the environment – to a more integrated, inquiry learning incorporating different curriculum areas – known as education ‘for’ the environment.

There are two main criteria for successful education ‘for’ the environment; putting our students at the centre of their learning and decision making; and ensuring our students get authentic learning opportunities.

OPS have an interesting range of opportunities for our students; from learning how to keep chickens, becoming a worm educator, collecting Paper4Trees, Pink Bags and to being part of the Trees for Survival native tree planting programme. As part of their inquiry learning, students make a connection to their immediate and local environment by creating, developing and maintaining different habitats such as the Bushwalk, Butterfly Garden, and an orchard, plus various gardens for flowers, fruit and vegetables.

These authentic learning contexts give our students the opportunity to use their growing knowledge and understanding to take action in a way that is significant and meaningful to them.