Middle Syndicate
In order to establish a strong foundation of mutual respect and positive relationships in our Middle Syndicate team, a core focus throughout 2019 was our Developing Positive Relationships (DPR) values of Faith, Hope, Compassion, Respect, Honesty, Generosity, and Responsibility. Our teaching team were committed to developing a shared understanding of the way we wanted our teachers and students to think and act in our school.
Manaakitanga At the beginning of the year our focus was ‘Identity’ (self, family, class, team, school, community, national and international). Students shared their family culture and identity through a range of discussions, multimedia platforms, learning experiences, and presentations. All students contributed to developing the class and team identity by running assemblies, team singing, weekly Growth Mindset Persistence Awards,
sustainability projects, shared inquiries, friendship programmes at each year level, a Year 5–6 speech competition, and the introduction of Key Competency Awards.
e-Portfolios Seesaw was used as an effective platform to share learning at class, group, and individual level. Families connected to Seesaw to keep up to date with daily happenings and learning in the classroom. Extended family members also accessed the Seesaw app to have conversations about learning at St Andrew’s with their family members. Seesaw was also used effectively to send out reminders and messages to support families and ensure they were up to date.
Mathematics All Year 4–6 teachers undertook professional learning to integrate the newly introduced Prime Maths Interactive Suite. Year levels had Mathematics in the same 23
