Matakana School - An Inclusive School Approach

All schools have the obligation to recognise and respond to the diverse needs of their students. This includes students who are not achieving, students who are at risk of not achieving and those who have special education needs. Schools must also develop and implement teaching and learning strategies to address these needs. This applies just as much to students who struggle to read as it does to those with obvious disabilities or who are gifted and talented.

We provide a range of extension programmes within the school. We also arrange several workshops throughout the year which might involve visitors or visits out of school.

School Leaders

To be positive role models who exemplify the Matakana Magic ethos for all our school students. To have a group of mature, responsible and reliable students able to work cooperatively with the school Management Team to continuously improve our school. A school  leader is a communication link between the pupils and the teachers. This is important in our school because it gives the students a voice. They arrange and help with school events such as parent evenings and special school functions/activities. To become a school leader they need to show interest in the school as well as displaying good behaviour and responsibility. They get a chance to become a school leader in year six.   

House Leaders

Year 6 students who have been identified with leadership potential are given the training and the opportunity to build on skills pertaining to a good leader. These students are given opportunities to develop their organisation, comparing, communication, and cooperative skills. They organise and run house assemblies, games sessions at morning tea, fundraising activities and support adults in running school events. These students are also Peer Mediators and understand their position as role models.

 

Peer Mediators

This role provides an opportunity for year 6 students to develop a more mature practice of empathy. Students are guided in how to be good leaders, appropriate role models to younger students and work cooperatively with their peers, putting the needs of others before their own free time.

Technicians

Ten technicians take a leadership role in running the sound, lighting during any assembly gathering. They are rostered on a weekly timetable and are available to support other teachers on an on-call basis.

The Technicians are expected to create and design slideshows for events and assemblies.

 

Information Centre Techs

Year 5 students are given the opportunity to take on responsibility and build leadership skills as the info centre techs at lunchtime. These monitors are in charge of running the information centre at lunchtimes, overseeing people in the information centre, issuing books and reading stories to younger students.

We have two Head Information Centre Techs. They are both year 6’s who demonstrated exceptional qualities when running the Information Center the previous year as a year 5. Their role is to oversee the year 5’s and to be there to support them during lunch times.

Class Councillors

Year 6 students are given the opportunity to be a part of the class council. This develops responsibility and leadership skills. Class councillors meet with classes three times per term.

The class councillors then meet, discuss ideas, decide what ideas they would like to pursue and come up with an action plan for implementing these ideas.

 

Yummy Monitors

Year 5 students, on a weekly basis collect yummy stickers from classes. Money raised is used to purchase new sports gear for the school.

Year 5 and 6 Responsibilities In the senior school each class has certain responsibilities. These include: shop duty, student receptionist, running of the sports shed, emptying paper bins, composting and organising sports gear in classes. All Year 5 student responsibilities are recognised and tracked for leadership potential in and opportunities in Year 6.

 

Auckland Writers Festival (Year 5) This annual event is a great opportunity for students to meet and learn about both New Zealand and International authors and illustrators.

Young Writers Competitions

As writing competitions arise, children are given the opportunity to participate.

 

Weekly Writer’s Chair (Years 0-2) Each week students are selected to read out their writing in front of the junior school. This gives an opportunity for developing student’s talent in leadership and public speaking, as well as providing an audience for their writing.

Tuhi Publication In 2019, we began to compile a yearly publication called Tuhi. Throughout the year, students’ writing and illustrations are selected to be included in the professionally produced publication, which is then available for the school community to purchase.

 

Concert Choir

A chance for our singers to be trained by Dianne Morgan. She takes a special concert choir group as well as teaching year 3 to 6 students how to sing.

Information Centre

The information centre is an interactive area for students to take their learning further. Kim Scott continuously makes changes and improvements to the information centre and she purchases new and exciting materials for the students.

Kim ensures students can issue more books over the holidays. 

 

Travel Wise Ambassadors

TravelWise Ambassadors are given the opportunity in leadership, to extend their skills in organisation and management. They are examples of positive role models for the younger children and provide activities for others to be involved in, while having fun and being mindful of Road Safety and Sustainable Travel options.

Kapa Haka

A chance for our students to immerse themselves in Maori culture, build performance skills and demonstrate their leadership. This is a substantial cost and commitment by the school as we release two teachers to run this programme. Year 4-6 students choose to participate and Year 3 Maori and Pasifika students may also join 1 year earlier and further extend their cultural engagement in and understanding of te reo, tikanga and protocols.

 

Radio Crew

Each year four students are selected to be Radio DJ's, they work together to plan live broadcasting shows during school hours. The DJ's undergo training at the start of the year, however, most of their experience is gained on the job.

School/Class Assemblies

These assemblies provide a once yearly opportunity for students to perform in front of the school community, incorporating drama, acting, music and public speaking.

 

After school extra curricular activities

Drama, guitar, dance, art class, sports training. We also allow community groups like soccer and netball to use our fields and courts.

Lunchtime Clubs

Junior Waiata, EPRO8, Drawing, Jump Jam, Storytime and Supakids, for those students that have been given permission to attend.

 

Inter-school sports.

Swimming, hockey, soccer, netball, athletics, cross country, ripper, rugby.

We compete at an elite level in athletics, swimming and cross country.

Camps

Year 4 to 6 students all participate in the camps starting with an overnight stay at school in Year 4, building to a three night camp at Moirs Point in Mangawhai in Year 5, and Camp Bentzon, Kawau Island in Year 6. There is a cost as we need to employ relievers to cover the year 5 and 6 camps.

 

GRIP Leadership Course

Twenty school and house leaders attend a leadership course in Auckland. the idea is to inspire leaders of the future by providing excellent role models.

Vector EPRO8 Challenge (Year 5 and 6)

The school enters three teams into the inter-school science and engineering competition.

 

Year 5 and 6 project based homework

Students are assigned open and authentic tasks and are able to develop according to their own interests and level.

Speech competition

Every year students in year 5 and 6 write and present speeches.

Finalists in each room compete in the room finals and our top three students progress to the inter- school speech competition.

 

Mathex

Entering the local area mathex competition to extend and motivate our top Maths students.

Inquiry Learning

Learning is packaged in broad concepts to provide scope for students to follow their own passions, interests and talents. Teachers work to facilitate learning, giving students the opportunity to develop their individual passions and talents.

 

Matakana Sports Programme

Each class receives structured sports lessons each week, by our sports coordinator Sharon, which is additional to weekly sport undertaken in the class program. These lessons provide opportunities for those with a talent in sport, to excel and be extended. It is proving to be a quality programme, as the lessons are well planned, and provide excellent models for class teachers to follow.

Home Learning Challenge

All students are encouraged to participate in a program centred around Matakana MAGIC (Key competencies). Whanau are encouraged to support the students with a range of activities. These may be outdoor or community based, sporting, hobbies or creative, for example. Challenges allow students to gain recognition for achievements outside of the school program.

 

Bee Awareness In 2020, all students participated in a bee education programme, delivered at school by Beetopia, a community beekeeping organisation. Hives are going to be accommodated at school in the near future, this will provide valuable learning opportunities for students.

CatchIT programme Senior students participate in a pest awareness programme, developing an understanding of what pests are in New Zealand. Each student is also able to take home, and trial in their gardens a variety of different traps.

 

Garden to Table program (Year 0-4) As a result of Ministry funding we have had the opportunity to establish the Garden to Table programme at Matakana. In 2020 this programme was piloted with all Year 3 and 4 students, and is now operating with all students in years 0 to 4. Students have been highly engaged, resulting in numerous learning opportunities, and the wider school community has provided strong support and encouragement for this exciting initiative.

 

Glee Club All senior students are able to participate in a weekly dance and singing class, which culminates in a sharing assembly several times throughout the year. These sessions have proved very popular amongst both boys and girls, providing opportunities for students to showcase their performance and choreography skills.

Move and Groove

Arts - 2019 saw the return of a whole school musical to extend our gifted singers, actors and dancers. This is bi-annual dance event is an opportunity to highlight talents and giftedness in the performing arts. Students who excel in this area not only have the chance to perform in the show, they are also invited to help choreograph their class dance.

 

Steam Lego and other ICT challenges 2020 was the second year that years 3 and 4 had the use of the Lego Wedo 2.0 Robotics kits. These kits allow for the integration of Inquiry Learning, Digital Technologies, 21st century skills and key competencies within regular classroom programmes. The use of this technology allows students who are gifted in areas of leadership and digital technologies to explore and extend their talents. For the first time, Year 1 and 2 students have also had the chance to participate in the challenges, using Duplo. And have been able to develop their skills using BeeBots, and other “Unplugged” challenges (non-device related computational thinking activities).

Lego Masters Challenge In 2020 one team of four represented our school in the Lego Masters competition as part of our Digital Technologies programme. Each year teams from the senior school compete to win this position. The teams who represent the school have previously performed extremely well, even winning an award for “best plan”.

Support Programmes

Mel Bentley is the Learning Support Coordinator (LSC), for three local schools within the Mahurangi Kahui Ako, Community of Learning. She works closely with school management, our SENCO, teaching and support staff, as well as students and their whanau to identify the learning needs within the school, and coordinates support accordingly. Mel also works alongside, and collaborates with, the Ministry of Education’s Learning Support specialist team and other outside agencies to support needs within the school.

Support Interventions may include a range of numeracy and literacy programmes, programmes focussing on student well-being and a range of initiatives to support our Neurodiverse students.

Counselling

At the beginning of the 2021 school year, a trained counsellor was employed for one day each week. When a concern is raised by a teacher or a request is received from whanau, consent is sought from parents, and our LSC liaises with the counsellor to provide support. The counselling may include working with individuals or small targeted groups, and may focus on building resilience or self-management skills, for example.  

Lego Therapy 

Though originally designed specifically for children with autism, Lego Therapy is a small-group, structured, highly engaging programme. It has been shown to be effective for students requiring support with emotional regulation, social skills and language development and also caters for the needs of gifted students.

Maths

Since 2020 we have implemented a small-group numeracy programme called COSMDBRICS, to provide a 6-8 week boost for students requiring extra support with number knowledge. This intervention has been run successfully by groups of trained parent helpers and teacher aides, under the supervision of our LSC.

Literacy

Dyslexia Screening

To address teacher and parent concerns regarding the possibility of Dyslexia, our LSC is able to conduct a short computer-based screening test which, whilst not able to provide a diagnosis, provides a probability of a student having dyslexia. For students identified as having a ‘moderate’ or ‘high probability’ of dyslexia, a plan is developed with the class teacher and whanau to support the student’s identified needs. 

Literacy support programmes

Our LSC runs targeted, small-group, literacy booster groups throughout the year to support students phonic awareness development, an important skill for both reading and writing. To support early literacy development, a teacher aide is trained to work individually with students using Yolanda Soryl’s Early Words programme.

Reading Recovery

This programme is implemented by Wendy Chittenden our SENCO, and caters to the needs of 6 individual Year 1 or 2 students daily. It uses the reciprocity between reading and writing to accelerate students' reading and writing achievement. We receive funding from the Ministry of Education to supplement the delivery of this programme.

Literacy Support

The Deputy Principal, Maryann Steel supports some individual students who are not reaching the School Standard but are not eligible for Reading Recovery. The programme uses components from Reading Recovery, to accelerate student reading progress. This is implemented daily whenever possible and tracked weekly.