Friday 1 May 2020

Kauri Whānau: Term 2 Week 3 in Lockdown Update

Kia ora everyone,

This week has seen a greater uptake with video-conferencing across our Kauri learners. 

  • It was fabulous to see so may faces at our 'camp concert' yesterday afternoon. Despite a few tech issues, with lagging, there was a great vibe during the concert and we loved watching so much talent on show. 
  • Our daily social Zooms will now always be at 11am. The numbers are growing and we are enjoying a variety of games.
  • Writing and maths Zooms are also growing. It was interesting reading the children's feedback from the survey we put out today and hearing that video-conferencing can bring so much clarity and understanding when previously there may have been some confusion. 
  • In order to join one of these Zooms, the process is: 1. Watch the daily video to see what Zooms are happening that day, there are also listed on the Learning at Home page. 2 Email a teacher - Nicky, Hannah or Megan and say you would like to join a Zoom meeting. 3. We will sign you up to the Zoom and you will get an email with the code, just before the meeting is scheduled to start. 4. At the start time, click on the code and you are in. 
Each day we are in and out of children's work checking on progress. Today we noticed a number of children had yet to start their writing. After sending out a quick email to those learners, copied in to parents, there was a flurry of activity! We will keep sending out these prompts when we see the need. 

We are keen to see more children interact with our maths problem solving and hotspots. Attending a maths Zoom meeting might be helpful for a number of children. If you think this would help your child, please encourage them to attend on Monday. 

There has been a lot of impressive work happening and we are thrilled to see the progress that a large number of children are making. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need some support with your child's learning or motivation.


Assembly

Here is our welcome assembly for term 2 in a slightly different format than usual. Please go to full screen to watch it.



Cyber Safety (when using school Google Logins)

As you may be aware from the school cyber safety agreement, Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto has various cyber safety systems in place in order to keep students safe. We have one system called “Highlights” that we would like you to be particularly mindful of during lockdown. 

This system allows teachers to see Chromebook screens and/or Chrome browser tabs whenever that device or browser is signed into a school Google account during school hours. This is an important tool that teachers use to keep students safe and to offer support while students are learning. It also has privacy implications and is one of the main reasons we always ask and remind students to only use their school account for learning purposes. If you want your child to use their personal device/browser for other purposes or without the school cyber safety systems in place, then it is important that students sign out of their school account and sign into a personal account created by you. If your child has borrowed a school Chromebook, they should only be using this with their school login and for learning purposes.

We also utilise a specialised web filtering system to help keep our students safe online. This filter automatically alerts staff whenever a student account is potentially being used to access unsafe content on the internet. Like Highlights, this filter system is active whenever a student is signed into their school account, even if they are at home. If we receive a concerning filter alert during lockdown, we will contact you via email.

It is important to note that teachers never rely on just the filtering system. We work hard to actively monitor students’ screens and always ask students to work in a place where their screens are visible. We strongly encourage you to adopt a similar approach at home by making sure children only use devices in a family area where they can be easily seen. We also encourage you to actively check that your child/children are using the device in a safe and positive manner.

Junior Neighbourhood Support Canterbury challenges you to…
Make a Stop Motion Lego Movie!

You can use lego or other toys to share one part of your Covid-19 isolation time. Some ideas for experience to share include (but are not limited to):
Keeping 2m away
Going to the supermarket
Staying at home
Leaving the house for exercise
Easter or ANZAC Day 2020

Send your entries to jns@canterburyns.net before Level 2 ends and we’ll put them into a movie that everyone can watch.

If you need some help getting started with Stop Motion, have a look at https://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-Motion-Animation-for-Kids/ 

Stop Motion Studio is a popular Apple and Android app to use to film and you should only need the free version. If you are using a Chromebook, you may like to try Stop Motion Animator (from the Chrome Web Store).



No comments: