Dear all,
Welcome to another newsletter edition for EIS. It's been a busy week, but productive, so that's great.
A big well done to all Secondary teachers for the successful invigilation, organisation and marking of the exams this week, especially to Mr Scholtz - great work! Mr Scholtz has written an article about the process so I will not steal his thunder. I will just say a couple of things from my perspective:
Number one, the result matters less than what we do with them at this point - Why did we achieve that score? How can we achieve a better score? Am I aware of the areas for development and how can my teacher support me? Can I reference my score as we proceed throughout the year? Ultimately, if I want to hit a dartboard, I need to know what it looks like and how to make that happen. If we do not answer those questions then how do we achieve our goals, so we will use them to good effect.
Number two, the students have been more resilient and confident throughout the process then I can remember. Is this because they were more prepared? Is this because they are increasing their resilience as people? Is it because the exams are not their finals? Ultimately, it could a mixture of all of these things. What is certain is that it is great to see and I, of course, wish them all the best in their results. Well done Secondary students!
For Primary, assessments will come next week, so I also wish them all the best for that. In the meantime, they had an excellent House Competition that I was able to see in action. Well done, Ms Holly, for organising the day which focused on team-building; here's what it looked like:
Don’t Wake the Dragon - The premise is that the children are villagers in a town under siege by a fire-breathing dragon. The only way to save their village is to line up in order of height. But they can’t talk to each other, or they’ll wake the dragon! Once the children feel they have lined up correctly, they should simultaneously say “Boo!” to scare away the dragon. (First team to say ‘Boo’ Wins=10 house points).
Circle Sit - While still in their lines from last task, each person rotates a quarter turn in the same direction (forming a circle). If everyone is standing close enough together, they can sit on the lap of the person behind them, all at the same time, and remain supported. First team to successfully sit down in a circle, on the lap of the team member behind them, wins! (10 House points).
Cross the River - In this game, children must collaboratively cross a “river.” “Rivers” have been created with two lines marking each side of the river bank, in the color of your team. Each team of children is given six square cardboard “rafts” to use in crossing the river. Impose rules on the rafts to encourage the teams to apply critical thinking skills. For example, if a raft is left unattended, it will float away; or if a raft has more than two feet and one hand on it, it will sink. A monitor is required to remove the rafts that are out of play. Break children into smaller groups and have them compete to see who can cross the river fast enough for an added challenge.(First team to successfully cross the river=10 house points).
Find the Dino’s - House teams find their circle painted in their house team color. When the word ‘go’ is said, team works together to find hidden dino’s under the snow. (First team to find all 20 Dinosaurs= 10 house points).
Ss you can see, it's a great event with a great focus; one that serves multiple purposes - team work, character building, logical deduction, communication etc. There is always more going on under the surface.
Aside from that, there has been an interesting trip this week for Mr Marsh and his Year 4 group. They went to a medical clinic and learned how to be doctors and nurses, so please check out the Year 4 newsletter entry. One thing Mr Marsh assures me is that those medical professionals never want to become teachers, I wonder why! I was delighted to watch Mr Khaled teach a great French lesson to our Year 6s this week as well. Ask them the time in French, I think they could give it a good go and in quite some detail.
The next two weeks are going to very eventful and we are looking forward to the big days ahead!
All the best,

Mr Lee N. Daglish

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