St+Bernadettes+Milestone+6


 * Name of School: St Bernadette’s School Name of lead teacher: Gerard Shaw**


 * Milestone 6 Report November 2008**

The last month has been a bit of a milestone in itself for the staff of St Bernadette’s, and indeed the whole school community. After two and a half years of planning and fundraising, our **computer suite** is up and running. We are all excited, relieved and very thankful that our dream has become a reality. Each staff member has their own **individual goals** in relation to this computer suite, but the collective goal was to ensure that we are, as a staff, in the best possible position to pass on skills to pupils and provide a range of learning opportunities and instil an enthusiasm for ICT within the students.

The suite was ready for use on the 18th of October. We are proud to say that the computers have been used every school day since then. Every year level is taking full advantage of the opportunities available to develop their skills. On Tuesday the 18th of November the suite will be **‘officially’ opened**. The community will be acknowledged for their wonderful efforts in providing this amenity, and parents and caregivers will be shown the capabilities of the computer suite. The fifteen computers will have a students ranging from Year 1 to Year 6 demonstrating 15 different applications. This will demonstrate the versatility of the learning opportunities as well as the appropriateness for every age group in the school.

Teachers have worked very hard with **professional development** to ensure that we were successful in this goal and a summary of professional development is included in the conclusion of this report.

A significant amount of work is also being undertaken by staff and board members to ensure that **care, safety and security issues** are fully developed and implemented in this process.

We wish to acknowledge the **Otakou Cluster** for their assistance in providing skill development, confidence and support for teachers, as the staff take on the commitment of ‘running’ the computer suite. It is quite a daunting task for staff to undertake the responsibility of administering the learning involved in such a complex and expansive initiative. We are very grateful to Sarah, Alistair and Richard for their significant work in making us confident ICT providers for the students of St Bernadette’s.

In addition to the computer suite, staff members have continued in their commitment to **Inquiry Learning** development. As reported in previous milestone reports we devoted Term 1 to ensuring that we in a position to carry out our first inquiry topic in Term 2. This meant a huge commitment from staff over the ten weeks of Term 1 to making sure we were comfortable and relatively confident with our inquiry model.

By the start of Term 2 we were ready to start our first inquiry topic, ‘Get the Message’. The Olympics provided the theme for the Term 3 Inquiry topic, ‘The Best We Can Be. This term we have focused on the importance of ‘Water in our Lives’.

It is satisfying that we have, as a school, completed 3 inquiry topics in 2008. We have learned from the process and already have begun planning for our first unit for 2009.

In addition to the computer suite preparedness and inquiry understanding, we have continued our familiarisation and confidence with the **School Master** management programme.

Below is a **summary of the IT professional development** undertaken by staff since the last milestone report. It is important to also note the commitment that staff has made to independent study and practice outside this PD to ensure that the best outcomes are provided for the children.

Guy Claxton Sharon and Anne-Marie

Cath Murdoch Amy and Roger

Graeme Watts Roger

Student Workshops Gerard, Amy and Roger

Key Note Workshop Amy, Sharon, Roger

IMovie Workshop Sharon and Roger

PowerPoint Worshop Margaret

Photo Organising Workshop Anne-Marie

School Visit from Sarah (2) Margaret, Sharon, Anne-Marie, Roger, Amy

School Visit from Alistair Margaret, Sharon and Anne-Marie

Kids Pix Workshop Margaret, Anne-Marie, Sharon

Photo Story Workshop Margaret, Anne-Marie, Sharon

Religious Education and IT Taken by Gerard at Arrowtown conference.

Interactive White Board Demo. Jan and Gerard

- Gerard Shaw (Lead Teacher)