Tainui+School+Milestone+5

Tainui School 41 Tahuna Road, Dunedin. Phone 03 4550-566 Fax 03 4550-157 email office@tainui.school.nz  Tainui School Milestone Report 5.2.3 During 2008, Tainui staff have attended and are continuing to attend the various workshops and seminars organised for the cluster. These have included workshops on Blogs, Wikis, Schoolmaster, and the inquiry process. One staff member travelled to Rotorua to attend the learning@schools conference in February. A member of the University of Otago College of Education E-Learning Advisory team ran a workshop on e-learning and numeracy 6 May for the whole staff and this has resulted in a greater awareness of and use of web based resources available to support learning in this area. Four staff members are enrolled in a workshop to be held on e-learning and the arts in term3. One on one training sessions by the cluster facilitators have occurred aimed at increasing I.C.T. skills specifically targeted at teachers’ individual needs. This has greatly increased teacher confidence and ability in using I.C.T. We have four staff members attended the New Century Research seminar to be held on 17 May, presented by Jamie McKenzie. We will have staff attending the Kath Murdoch seminar to be held on September 4. Regular input from the staff who attended these events has occurred during weekly staff meetings. A special staff meeting was held for the staff member who attended the learning@schools conference to report back. There has been increased use of I.C.T. in classrooms with Powerpoints, digital photography, e-mail, D.L.O., webquests, and other web based learning occurring. We have begun the implementation of Schoolmaster in the school and staff development sessions using the Schoolmaster trainer were held on 18 February and 27 March. We have continued to develop expertise in using this programme and now use a number of assessment and planning modules. A further training session will be held on June 11. A B.O.T. subcommittee has been formed and has developed an action plan to update and to increase all I.C.T. equipment in the school. This plan includes the provision of data projectors and sound systems in all classes and the necessary data cabling for this to occur, along with the provision of other hardware suggested by the staff including pods of laptops. Sufficient digital cameras have been purchased to allow for one in each class. An interactive whiteboard will be trialled in a senior class during term 2. A school wide inquiry process has been developed, based on the Kath Murdoch model. This has been implemented and a successful inquiry unit entitled ‘Gardens’ was taken through the whole school during Term One. This culminated in a highly successful parent assembly and presentation held on April 16. It is the intention of the school to undertake a further school wide inquiry based unit during term 3.