Your Child's School Report

How user-friendly is your child’s school report? One of the reasons behind introducing National Standards in New Zealand was to ensure school reports were easy to understand.

The School Report’s Structure

The report should include:

·        your child’s progress in relation to the standards;

·        your child’s progress in relation to their own goals;

·        recommended steps to support your child’s learning.

If you have a child in years 1 through to 8, the report will cover aspects:

1.      measured against the targets set out in the National Standards, namely:

·        Reading (fluency, understanding);

·        Writing (creativity, spelling, punctuation);

·        Maths;

2.      not measured against the National Standards, such as:

·        Science and Technology;

·        Health and Physical Wellbeing;

·        Key Competencies (works well with others, actively contributes to the class, asks questions).

The report will indicate whether your child is achieving Below, At, or Above expectations. Some schools also have the categories Well Below and Well Above to provide more detailed feedback. 

Want to find out more about learning styles and how to give your child the best chance of getting good results? Then email us with your specific questions on info@clc.co.nz.

About class sizes....

In his book, "David and Goliath", Malcolm Gladwell postulates that small class sizes aren't necessarily the best thing for students and their learning outcomes. This doesn't mean larger class sizes are better. The author simply states that just as there is a class size that's too large, there's also a class size that may be too small.

Small classes mean individual attention, but they also mean a lack of a certain energy, variety of opinions, momentum to undertake large projects.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the individual child's learning style. Check it today at Creative Learning.

Technology At School - Good or Should We Think Again?

Schools all over New Zealand, Australia, Europe and USA are doing it: making tablet computers compulsory for students, ordering smart boards, redesigning classrooms into e-learning centres. It’s cool. It’s trendy. It simulates the future workplace.

But is it for everybody?

By its very nature, e-learning is best suited to highly visual people, because of the wealth of imagery offered by the computer: text, pictures and diagrams, graphs, photos, videos. Please note that we distinguish the following types of visual learners: visual (pictures), visual (reading), visual (internal). While the former two styles are well suited to online learning, the latter one, which relies on forming images in one’s mind, is neutrally suited to online learning (i.e., it is neither enhanced nor limited by the use of computers).

Auditory (listening) learners can be accommodated if the online-learning course uses recorded speech and sound-effects (such as pings). Externally auditory learners who need to discuss the learnt material can be accommodated by using voice chat facilities.

Tactile learners are disadvantaged, although their need can be partially satisfied by touch-pads, mice and/or touch-screens. For the tactile learners, online-learning can be further enhanced by having to match pieces of a puzzle on the screen or match questions and answers using the drag-and-drop technique. Such students can also be encouraged to make their own memory aids offline, such as sculptures of molecules or board games depicting new topics.

The real challenge, however, comes with externally kinesthetic learners who need to move around and learn with their whole bodies. Because they rely on real experiences as the most effective way of assimilating information, online-learning is not ideally suited to this type of learner. To enhance their retention and enjoyment of information intake, the online-learning course should offer off-line projects to enhance the online sessions. These learners need to get away from the computer, move their body and DO something with the information they have just received via the screen. Learning sessions for these students will only be successful (and hopefully lead to understanding, skills, competencies, and knowledge) when they have physically experienced and/or actively ‘done’ something during the learning process.

Is your child visual, auditory, tactile or kinesthetic? Find out today.