Wednesday 11 November 2009 http://taonuischool.wikispaces.

com

Success Teamwork Respect Individuality

Vision Enjoyment
Next Assembly Friday 20 November
Kainui Tennis Tournament 25 November
BOT Meeting Wednesday 2 December
Kainui Athletics (Yr 5-8) Friday 4 December
School Prize Giving Thursday 10 December
Last School Day for 2009 Wednesday 16 December 1pm

Students End of Year Report

The purpose of reporting is to inform parents about the progress of their
children. This year we have refined our Report Form to include statements that
clearly indicate where students have achieved against expectations.

In the next few newsletters we will include information on how we have arrived at
these judgements and how they will be reported on the form.

This week: Reporting Student Reading Achievement.

At Taonui we expect students to be reading at their chronological age or
above with 80% comprehension.

Students reading is monitored throughout the year by teachers who are

constantly making professional judgements about individual students learning in
reading. These judgements form the next learning steps for students.

Teachers undertake more formal assessments that include analysis of students

reading and comprehension using previously unseen texts. A reading age level can
then be established.

Other formal assessments completed by our students are the Progressive

Assessment Tests (PAT) and Supplementary Test of Achievement in Reading
(STAR). In the end of year report parents will be provided with the current
reading age of your child and the stanine level achieved in the recent STAR
assessment for Year 3 – 8 students. Our School STAR reading results are on
the following page.

These formal assessments will form part of the reporting of the new National
Standards to be implemented in 2010.

This assessment will be reported on your child’s report as either below, at or

above expectations and the next learning step will also be identified.

Next newsletter: Reporting student numeracy achievement

 Assembly Friday 20 November
Not to be missed so mark this in your calendar, on your fridge…
Join us for a BBQ lunch
Assembly will include a presentation of our new report form.

School Reading Results

Year 3 – 8 students have completed the Supplementary Tests of Achievement in Reading
(STAR) that assesses student’s ability in word recognition, sentence and paragraph
comprehension and vocabulary range. The year 7 and 8 assessment also includes the language
of advertising and reading different genres or styles of writing.

This assessment is nationally norm referenced and student results are included here with
comparisons to the national norms. Students with high learning needs are not able to complete
the STAR test
National % Taonui % of Stanine
Description
of pupils pupils Score
Outstanding 4% 4% 9
7% 36% 8
Above Average
12% 14% 7
17% 28% 6
Average 20% 4% 5
17% 14% 4
12% 0% 3
Below Average
7% 0% 2
Low 4% 0% 1

Comment
 54% of our students in year 3 – 8 on this assessment are above the national average.
This is an outstanding result.
 The remainder of students are within the average range.
 The most pleasing aspect of this is the movement of students from the below average
category into average or above.
 These results reflect the work teachers have put into improving student reading, in
particular the focus on developing comprehension skills.
 It is also evidence that our special needs programme including Tape Reading, use of
Teacher Aide time and the provision of additional teacher assistance has worked.
 Individual student results will be reported as a stanine level in your child’s report.

CHRISTMAS RAFFLE
Raffle for Christmas - please if each family could donate an item and leave in the office
before the 25th Nov. Some ideas could include chocolates, Christmas goodies, tea towels,
toiletries, BBQ items, anything really (no alcohol). These will then be put into
hampers. Tickets will be sent home with the children - $1 per ticket - raffle will be drawn at
End of Year Breakup. Thank you for your support from the fundraising team.
 BNZ Physical Exercise Challenge
Carol, Tina, Julie and Stephen formed a team to enter the small business section of the BNZ
challenge over the last 5 weeks. Teams from Manawatu, Horowhenua, Tararua, Rangitikei and
Feilding were entered. Weekly exercise times were entered into the Sport Manawatu web
site.
At the end of the challenge our School Staff team were 3rd overall and 1st from the Feilding
area. We received a BNZ trophy and individual prizes for our efforts.

2010 Term dates

Term Start date End date

1 Tuesday 2 February Thursday 1 April (80 - 86 half-days)

2 Monday 19 April Friday 2 July (108 half-days)
3 Monday 19 July Friday 24 September (100 half-days)
4 Monday 11 October No later than Monday 20 December (100 half-days)*

Pet Day Results

Junior Calf Chelsea Hopkins What a great day had by all. The weather
Junior Lamb Chelsea Hopkins was fantastic and the children had an
Floral Cup Edie Campbell-Dickson awesome time. A great turnout by parents
Baking Cup Kayla Fenn and thank you for your support. Those
Inventions Cup George Tucker children awarded trophies will need to return
Dog in Best Condition Kayla Fenn them for engraving.
Best Pet Emily Guylee

Thank you to our helpful and supportive judges Irene McQuillan (calf & lamb),
Pauline Waugh (baking), Mrs Rankin (floral) and Lesley Butler (dogs and pets).

National Standards
Recently there has been much in the news about the introduction next year of the
National Standards in reading, writing and numeracy. The standards are on display on
our office notice board and can be found online @
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards

School Charter & Strategic Plan

The Charter is being reviewed by the Board and 7 key strategies identified as
priorities for the next 3 years. We have included these over the page for your
information. Please take the time to read this document and if you require any
clarification please contact Stephen and a time can be arranged to discuss any issues
you may have. Community feedback will be sought and we have decided to give more
time and your input will be sought prior to the next BOT meeting.

Tennis
The tennis tournament postponed today will now be held next Wednesday 1.30 pm at
the Feilding Courts.