PB4L - Tier 2

Next Tier of the PB4L

There are 4 schools with the intent that we all work together. 

- Bathgate Park

- St Clair

- Mornington School

- Waitati School

Getting started in Tier 2 - 

What might Tier Two systems and practices look like in your school?

Whakatauki - 

Me mahi tahi tatou mo te orange o te katoa

We should work together for the wellbeing of everyone

Teachers should discuss what is going well and share ideas to help and encourage change. 

The Feathers are broken down values, and we keep reminding the students. 

The best thing a Tier 2 school can have in a rock-solid Tier 1...

The key is to keep Tier 1 going and not have it drop off. 

MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support): Ten percent of the students will need this. They aren't separate things; they run together. 

PB4L is responsive to what is happening in our school - it keeps evolving and growing to suit the needs of the students.

Sharing why Tier 2 is needed - Supplying support to the middle 10-15% of those students that will benefit from Tier 2. Will need individual support for the 5% that need that extra.

We need to keep things calm and predictable so that we are all on the same page and so that those children are safe. 

A consistent approach to discipline and focus on the restorative process. 

Next training day: Identify those kids that are on the cusp. 

Reflection:

What are three positive changes we have observed at our school?

School Hui: We remind the children of the values and have a weekly focus. All teachers are doing this now. We are looking for the positive.

- The Waitati Way - The positive phrasing of the way. 

- Restorative practices - natural consequences

- Calm spaces - regulation 

- Mini chats - questioning: Does that match what happened? How can we restore this relationship? 

There is a change in language around Major Minor. Which adult will deal with this? Who is the responder? That's a principal, team leader, and teacher.

What is the most effective response? Change this for the action/child, etc. 

How did you work together to achieve these changes? All adults are involved in this. 

Tokens

Individual, house groups, whole school

Token to the individual for a specific thing, which goes into the house group and then works towards a whole school reward.

Tokens - sales@exquisiteproducts.co.nz

How to keep Tier One strong while we are working on Tier 2

1. Keep a strong team—share the load and keep things alive. (Is there one person who, if they left, would make the systems disappear?) Keep bringing new people to the team.

2. Use your fidelity of information - You should always know what your next step is on your action plan. This is not about getting a certain score. It's about how we can keep improving. 

3. Use your school discipline data—you need to use it for decision-making. When was the last time we shared our data? We should use it monthly or termly (the minimum is termly), which will help with the Big 5 report. What day is it, and who was involved? 

4. Implement PB4L in the classroom. How much of the school day do children spend in the classroom? Where is it working, and how can we extend it to the needed places? (Book - Teaching for positive behavior)

Next steps - 

- Organizing a once-a-month pastoral meeting to review the monthly report and help inform where we are with our hui messages.

- Do the BoQ  with Tara

- Do the EBS with the staff

- Sort out tokens for the individual to school-wide incentives

- Draft a short item for the newsletter on why we are engaging in Tier Two.

What do the Tier Two team do?

- Builds the process of systems and practices

- Provides  Tier Two training and support to all school staff.

- Places  students

Create a system that includes:

- A Process to identify at-risk learners.

- 

Tier 2 Day One workshop with All schools - 31 July 2024

Whakatauki

E hara taki tia i te tia

takitahi engari he toa

takitini

Success is due not to the work of one but to the work of many

The central part is teachers talking to teachers about why these might be happening.

3 new discoveries:

- Our children are responding well to the gem jar

- Like having the positives

- Helps with the Tier 3 children

2 interesting facts:

- Has kept the ones that didn't usually get recognition feeling getting heard and noticed.

1 lingering question:

- At what stage do we put the stuff on Edge? How do we keep it consistent?

Paper written "Stop doing that!" written in 2021

Today we are:

1. Understanding the gist of Tier Two - Why, where, Who, and how?

2. Identifying 'at risk' students/learners

3. Introducing classroom practice teams

Tier Two - The Why?

Developing a culture where the children feel like they have a place in the world and create valuable and socially ok learners/society.

The purpose of Tier Two - 

1. Prevent developing or decreasing the frequency and/or intensity of students' inappropriate behaviors.

2. Provide standardized interventions that effectively and efficiently support students yet do not require the time and resources to develop individual plans.

Tier two is what we can do with groups of students, like identifying students who might need to have more social skills to help develop the skills they need to survive. 

Check-in/check-out - Set up one template and check in with them.

The Continuum of the Behaviour Support - The Where?

When you think of the continuum, there are three zones, Tier One, Tier Two, and Tier Three. Tier One, we are comfortable doing this; Tier Two, we can do it with help; Tier Three, the anxiety comes in, and you don't want to do it, for whatever reason. 



You need to shift away from the whole language. These are our high fliers, Tier Three children. It's not the behavior. It might be the task that needs some extra support in different areas. 
We don't stay in one areas of the triangle, we all have areas of strength and areas where we need support.
Tier Two interventions are for behaviours, not students:
- They are for 'at-risk' students who require additional support
They are not for Tier Two students because there is no such thing.
This requires a change of thinking and language on our part.
Ross Green - Kid do well if they can



Good video to watch:
Ross Greene - Kids do well if they can

What is getting their way? 

If they can do well, they will do well because kids do well if they can. 

Where does Tier Two fit within the continuum?

1. Tier Two students and interventions support the approximately 15% of students who are at risk of developing chronic behavioral problems.

2. These students continue to engage in frequent low-level inappropriate behavior (2-5 major ODRs) and/or would benefit from extra attention and targeted support.

Who is already meeting to talk about at risk students?

What interventions do we already have in place?

PBIS world - good for ideas for Tier 1, 2, & 3

The Tier Two student support model - The what?

Tier One implemented with Fidelity

What would someone new to your school see or hear that indicates PB4L - SW is implemented with fidelity(means the way that it was supposed to be done, but what does it look like in our school)?

- Consistency of the language/expectation/response/recognition

- Conversations about school values

- Explicit teaching around the values/expectations

- Visuals - Around the school, flow charts, where to access

Evidence-based teaching for positive behaviour

"Teachers supporting teachers"

Using a problem-solving approach, groups of teachers develop solutions for problem behavior.

Edutopia - a good website 

Our Foundation is dedicated to transforming pre-K-12 education so all students can acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to thrive in their studies, careers, and adult lives. Founded by innovative and award-winning filmmaker George Lucas in 1991, we take a strategic approach to improving education.

What 5 things would I place on my bookmark for new teachers/staff?

1. WIN - What's important now?

2. 2x10 - 2 positive comments a day for 10 days

3. Conversations should be calm, respectful, collaborative, and involve mutual listening

4. What happened?

5. What can I do to repair the damage?

6. ABC - Always Be Calm

7. Drop the rope 

8. Values on the bookmark to remind us of the values

9. Be firm, be fair, be gone

10. Zones/calm down tools- breath, meditate

11. WAITATI WAY

12. Connection before correction

13. Stop, Breath, Calm

14. Co-regulate

15. Certainty over severity 

How can we make our gems more cohesive within the school vision?

How do we know that supportive learning environments are created in all spaces?

What supports staff with PLD around this?

What tools do you use to support staff in reflecting on their practice?

Identifying students:

- students who need extra support

Some behaviors will be obvious from what students do (externalising characteristics), whilst others will arise from how students are (internalizing characteristics). These characteristics include anxiety, depression, and withdrawal.

Tier Two is as much for the children that are internalizing as well as externalising these experiences. 

Two main methods of identification:

1. Analysis and regular monitoring of existing school data.

5 groups of data might be useful.

- Behavioural incident referrals

- Attendance data

- Information on progress and achievement 

- formal assessment results, eg, PAT's, e-asttle

- Data on achievement in relation to curriuculm

Data decision rules

Help trigger discussions about 'at risk' students and the supports they made need

- Two major behavioral incidents since the beginning of the school year

- Persistant minor behavioral issues (eg. five in one term?)

- Four instances of unexplained absences or lateness.

- Academic indicators that are well below the average level of achievement for students at the school.

2. Nomination by staff, whanau or students. It goes back to teachers talking to teachers, without the 'moaning' about the behaviour but helping to solve the problem. Can also be the student, whanau or someone else who has noticed. 

How to develop your data-decision rules

1. Review the (see slide show)

How wide will you cast your net?

What data will you use?

Who is going to cast the net?

Who is responsible for checking the net?

What is acceptable 'catch'?

Planned, deliberate and consistent

26th Feb 2025

Tier Two Team Training Day

 We must make it valuable and work for our school, or it won't get done. Needs to be done in the way that it's designed. 

Whakatauki - Comes from the Tier Two manual. Success is due to the work of many.

Tier Two is teachers supporting teachers with the little niggles that happen. 

Last time - 

- Learning how to complete a simple, functional behaviour assessment(FBA)

- Understanding the purpose and organisation of classroom practice teams.

- Developing a simple behaviour support plan for an individual learner. 

FBA -

Step 1 - Describe the behaviour

Step 2 - Identify the antecedent - What is causing the behaviour

Step 3 - Identify the consequence

Step 4 - Identify the function - What is the student trying to obtain or avoid,

Step 5 - Check for the setting events - What's going on outside for the child, things that aren't in the classroom, e.g., family circumstances, pain, etc.

Classroom practices teams process - (12mins)

- Clarify and summarise the current problem behaviour (2mins)

- Identify a replacement behaviour (2 mins)

- Identify strategies to support behaviour change (4 mins)

- Plan how to monitor the progress ( 2 mins)

- Set a follow-up date ( 2 mins)

Remember the twelve mines to the process. Wanting the teacher that is at the centre, to not talk for the 4 mins (Identifying the strategies to support behavior change)

Strengthening the Tier One practices - helps those students, possibly Tier Two, fall back to Tier One. 

Remember to notice positive behavior. 

Tier Two is for those people that are internilising their issues, the team needs to see what's happening for the children. How do you build a system for those children who are internilsing these feelings, who is picking them up and having the conversation with them?

DO THE MARCH CATCH!

Look at all the children that are on the systems so that they either don't exculate or become a major. 

One thing more to do - Who are those kids that are opting out of class more than 5 times? What is the issue around the thing that they children don't want to do? 

Strenghtening the classroom practice is a large part of Tier Two, as is decision making, they are a constant circle that you can go back through many times so that they can choose to make a change to their actions, if. they are struggling them we can there to the intervention for Teir Two. 

Tier Two interventions:

- Check in/Check out

- Small Group Social Skills

- Academic support - We are good at doing this. 

- Check and connect - One to one support for individual children

- Newcomers club - How are they recognised for doing the right thing? 

It's more of a challenge when putting behaviour supports involved. 

Key Feature of Tier Two interventions:

Trying to create a sense of something special for Tier Two - Got to supply mana enhancing activities that require minimal effort and time commitment from teachers. 

Consistant with universal school-wide expectations - keep them the same across the board. 

Keep in voluntary and sell it so that they want to do it. For example playing boards game with those kids that need extra social skills to help them gain those skills. Even if it's just once a week, it gives them the chance to interact with other children and you can coach them through. 

Pastoral Support - Make a visual with descriptions so that the staff can see what is happening around the school and then they know who it is open too and them when it is and who is running it. 

Check in/Check out - These support positive adult attention through calling out, talking back, being off-task etc. 

Most effective for students who enjoy positive adult attention and are willing to participate in the intervention. 

Check in/Check out

Want them to get as many points as possible. 

- Create a check in/check out form to use. A consistent form to use with across the school. 

- Link to the school wide expectations/values

- Descriptors can be individualized eg Hand and feet to yourself, follow directions, use materials appropriatly.

- Monitor for success

Only recording a score on the reminder that they needed to follow the expectation.

Key Elements of a successful CICO process

The form is only one part of the process, it generates the conversation and the positive conversation. 

 Checking in - Participating students 'chech in' with a facilitator each morning.

Regular teacher feedback - Students receive specific feedback about their behaviour from their teacher at the end of each class period or natural transistion.

Checking out - The student returns to the facilitator to 'check out' at the end of each day.

Parent and whānau involvement - the student takes their positive progress record card home with them and the parents can sign if it comes back.

Data collection and progress monitoring -  The factilitor captures the percentage score earned by the student in their CICO excel file

A well-considered exit strategy - The core componant of CICO are gradually faded rather than abruptly ended. Try to fade rather than suddenly stop. 

They should only be on CICO for no longer than 6 weeks, if it doesn't work then you need to try another strategy. 

When they are ready to move out of the CICO process you need to knowledge that for the students. There is an info sheet for the parents, that can be sent home at the beginning. At the of the process the children 'graduate' from the process, you can have a wee party or afternoon tea and can receive a certificate of completion.

Remember to thank the staff for their participation in the CICO process, you can also pair it alongside a coffee voucher or chocolate. 

Tangible acknowledgments for the kids with our Waitati Way on it. 

Maybe create a new beginning of the day, a celebration of the day before where we can give out the tangible things and remember the positives. 

Monitoring student Progress - 

What are we going to do with the data that we are collecting each day? Is the CICO having an effect on the behaviour?

Remember to collect and analysis the data - 

Before the student begins the intervention(Baseline phase) - While the intervention is in place - After the student has finished the intervention

Assessing the effectiveness of CICO is a large part of the part of it, means that we can change the intervention if needed. 

How are they reacting to the CICO?? It's how we respond to the process. 

Six top CICO tips

- choose your CICO facilitor carefully

- CICO is likely to be most successful when learners who like adult attention.

- Standardise your CICO daily progress reports

- Use your data to monitor the impact of the intervention

- Have a plan for 'fading' learners off CICO

Next Steps:

1. Develop a form

2, assign a CICO coordinator to oversee and implement

3. Use your data decision rules to choose three or four students that would be willing to take part. 

4. Create a pastoral support sheet

It's about putting more supports in for these children. 

Creating a sense of buy-in and ownership for the children 

Teacher Only Day - 4th June

 Learning Talk: build the culture

We did the reading on page 16/17 of the book Learning Talk: build the culture. We had to discuss the following:

1. Which if these actions do you think we demonstrate well as a team? What evidence supports your thinking?

2. Which if these do you think we need to pay more attention to as a team? What evidence supports your thinking?

As a team we discussed these and came up with something we need to work on as a team.

We decided that we need to work on showing loyalty and maintaining our integrity.

Peaceful Play for Kids: Lifelong self regulation skills through Breathwork and Mindful Movement

Jennie Abbot - 

We are trying to connect our bodies with our mind and help those children with trauma/autism to do the same. Being mindful is being aware of our bodies in a moment-by-moment and we need to build this over time and we are planting a seed that will grow over time. 

Yoga and mindfulness teach us acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them, - without believing that there is a right way or a wrong way, 

Yoga is a tool to achieve mindfulness and self-regulation. 

Benefits of mindful movement with breathwork for children of all ages:

- the foundation of self-care

- improves focus

- Self-regulation foundation

Remember to introduce these tools when they are calm. 

Some tools:

- Ocean breathing

- Bumble bee breath

- Lion breath

Daily situations that mindful movement and breathwork can support:

Child has very high energy

- Come in from outside play

- Trouble calming down

child is disengaged

- Zoning out

- Not listening

- Unfocused or distracted 

Child need to transition

- Time to transition from activities

- Lining up to go inside or outside

- Arriving at school/home/other

Tips for teaching breathwork to children

When leading breathwork, you will need to exaggerate your breathing, make it extra slow and deep, and make lots of noise! 

Tips and tricks 

- Imagination smelling

- Dee and loud leaving

- Use lots of props or games for all ages

- Holding their breath during movement? Regular reminders

- Reflective breathing for co-regulatino

- Making breathing and mindful movement accessible and part of daily routine

Leading movement and breathwork with confidence

- What to expect

This will happen over time, it's not a goal that hey need to reach, but they will one day use it. 

- Supports Diverse needs

Put your hand on their back and slow your breathing down at the same time, this will help slow their breath.

- Trauma informed practices

Need to given them a lot of choices, and often, because we don't know how they are feeling. Honor their choices.

- When to stop breathwork

If they seem calm and they are becoming adgitated, it works against them. If they seem to be getting angry with their breathing then it's time to stop. 

5-12 years old

- Talk about the benefits of breathwork

- Using some props

- If you are having trouble falling sleep at night then breathing is good way to help

Yoga Poses

- Triangle pose

- Tree Pose

- Pigeon Pose

General Tips on sharing Mindful movement with children

- Kids yoga is noisey, fun and will feel a bit uncontroled. Lets allow kids be kids

- We believe that whne presented in the appropriate manner ANY child can do yoga. Bring in things that are are engaged with eg minecraft

- Introduce tools when reglated and calmm then pracitce regulartly

-Yoga is gentle and show never, ever hurt.

- Please no inversions with kids (no headstands, shoulder stands etc) or super challenging balancing poses. Let's keep expectations realistic, bodies safe and set htem up for success.

- Recognise different energy levels - and meet them wehre they are. High energy need big movements, louder noises and bigger breaths. Love energy needs gentle movement, gentle voices and quiters voice.

- Please never critique children attempting breathing or poses or during relaxation because we need to practice non-judgement when presetning yoga and allow the children to process in their own way and in their own time. They will come to it when they are ready! Please encourage them in their journey

Deeper Learning - Teacher Only Day

 28th March 2024

The most important part of Te Mātaiaho is the word Mātai. Meaning that we are diving deeper into the learning and the curriculum.

Let's look at it more closely and more deeper, and the purpose of why we are doing it. Digging deeper into the curriculum. 

Neologisms = new words that have been made specially for the new curriculum. It's about localizing the curriculum. 

Mātairangi - The guiding kaupapa

Look beyond the horizon and draw near the bodies of knowledge that will take us into the future.

Mātainuku - Creating a foundation

Ground and nurturing the learning.

Mātaitipu - Vision for young people

Grow and nourish a thriving community. 

Mātairea - Supporting progress

Build and support progress.

Mātaiaho - Weaving learning within and across learning areas.

Weaving the learning strands together. Putting it together. Where understand, know, do. Progress outcomes come in here. 

Mātaioho - School Curriculum design and review.

Awaken, arise, and prepare for action. Our progress in reviewing should make us think, highlight things we need to work on, and change things. 

Mātaiahikā - Connecting to place and community.

Keep the hearth occupied and maintain the stories by firelight. Our curriculum is how we do this place, taking it from the local place and putting it into how we need to do it here. It acknowledges the traditions of Waitati school; it has its own way. We are a school in a community rather than being a school community. National consistency with local flexibility.

Deep dive into Mātaiaho

We need them to know some things, then do something (solve an equation), and they all weave together to develop understanding. There are big ideas, and they are consistent across the phases. We want them to develop their understanding, but what we want them to do becomes harder. The progress outcomes build understanding and can't be left to chance. We can change the context of how we teach it. 

Deep learning comes when we have all three things because we can't have one without the other. 

Backward by design:

What do we want them to come out the other end with? 

How can we assess this? 

What learning experiences can we use to deepen the learning?

Roots of Behaviour

 Roots of Behaviour - Thinking Brain & Relationships

Readings/Books:

- Oliver Sacks - The man who mistook his wife for his hat.

- Temple Grandin

- Olga Bogdashnina

- Bruce Perry - Body keeps the score

All behaviour is communication - but what is that communication?

What is happening for our kids? What is happening within our bodies for our kids? How does heart rate collate with their behaviour?

 

What is going on below the surface for the children? What does that look like?

Healthy attachment is only 60% of the time. 

There are two critical responses - rah mode (heightened state) and shut down mode or preoccupied.

Insecure attachment - creating imaginary friends, talking to themselves, etc. 

Calm

Alert

Alarm - some kids come into school here and have an addictive component, ie sugar/gaming

Fear

Terror

These five states determine our thoughts, feelings and experiences. Kids with trauma are attracted to one another, and they are in the alarm state often. 

"you don't get sad unless you have joy first."

Boundaries are about keeping what is essential in.

To get deep sleep to get the rest our bodies need before midnight. No screens 2 hours before bed.

If you are in a power struggle, then the adults need to drop the rope, and then you need to reconnect with the child.  

Only do the restorative practice with both sides involved. 

Need to search out where they are on the Bruce Perry continuum.

If they do something in a pattern, they try to regulate the brain. 

The need to control is connected to the Alarm state of the brain.

What can escalation look like?

We only talk at people when we haven't been heard before. 

You can't work harder on your problem than you work on it.

Talk to the kids quietly and within arms reach. 

Needs to build a connection and relationship with those that need it. You need to develop those roots with "I am..." statements. Organizing the brains for learning, then we use evidence; for example, you are a reader, we are readers. 

Draw the brain up for young people and then draw some roots and start with the positive experiences. 

Heart Rate

A successful child who is ready to connect would be around 100 bpm. 

It's not a program that makes a difference; it's the people that make a difference. 

Heart rate is one piece of the puzzle. 

You need to give language to the thing that they are feeling. 

The biggest threat is relationships, but the biggest way we develop is relationships.

The brain is so different when it comes to Autism that it needs to have a learned script. Practice these in a calm space, but then, with repetitive practice, it becomes natural. 

Are we a leader or a follower?

What do my learners need?

Cuddle buddies - weighted toys

What do I want her to tell herself when she wants to call out.

This Roots of Behaviour course is so worthwhile. It talked about all of the kids that you see, not just the Neuro-Diverse, trauma, or behaviour problems; it's about the ones that seem to be coping but, deep down, might not be. They are the ones that we have to look at and after so that they also have success. 

Te Mātaiaho

 New Karakia - 

Mātai aho tāhūnui,

Mātai aho tāhūroa,

Hei takapau wānanga,

E hora nei

Lay the Kaupapa down

and sustain it,

The learning here

Laid out before us

Te Mātaiaho - The refreshed New Zealand Curriculum, The learning areas of Mātaiaho, Mathematics and Statistics

The new curriculum is a massive part of the practice. 

The three principles are...

This vision is for children because they sit at the centre. Their aspirations and how they see themselves as learners matter.

As of today, it is about the deeper the learning. Instead of Level's, it's now phases. 

They fit into the different categories - Why, What, How

See the slides that Joneen sent for the diagram of the how, why and what

Phases of Learning:

It is lots more focused on the children.

Culturally sustaining teaching and assessment:

Talks about the caring of the learners, then connected, making sure that you are intentional about covering everything. How are we going to approach this?

It's the whole school's responsibility to make sure that we have this covered. 

Key Learning areas - 

Gone from 800 AOs down to 40 key learning areas. 

It's about doing less but doing it better and more deeply. 

The draft for English and Math has come out and needs to be in place by 2025.  

The understands - the big ideas that stay the same.

The know's - in math, are your strands.

The do's - are your modeling etc. 

We look at progress in a more child-centered way so that we match what we do to their development. It gives clarity about what this is going to look like. 

The Math Curriculum - 

Impact Ed have put together a one page of progress steps. 

This is something that could follow the child through the years. Building the knowledge is key for understanding. 

The new curriculum looks like it is more user friendly and straight forward. You are more capable of going deeper into their learning and pull them side ways. 

Here is an example of Progression in Action

Joneen is willing to come out to school and help us plan our maths etc. 

Structured Literacy Journey

  Bex's reflection on the Structured Literacy journey

I was at a stage in my teaching where I knew that that was possibly more I could do for the struggling readers/writers, but I wasn't sure where to start. I began my journey with Structured Literacy when a couple of friends started talking about it. This interested me, and I made sure that I researched and read the Science of Reading. I then looked at lots of different research and resources that Sara and Nelly had shared with me, but my mind was spinning. 😵‍💫 

I then discussed with Tara about structured literacy and her thoughts around it, and where I wanted to go. At the beginning of my pathway, I needed to find some stops to help my learning. I was very interested in Liz Kane, but her Dunedin and the South Island workshops were full, so I went to Ideal and Carla McNeill. I noted that she had a workshop running and signed up. 

That day was very overwhelming, but it made sense to change my literacy program. We signed up for the iDeaL platform, and I started to explore that. It was a very intense website, and took lots of time away from school to work out. I decided that I needed to see Structured Literacy in action and had done more reading and research around Liz Kane; I also purchased the code and looked at that, but I still needed to see it in action. I chose four children in year two that I thought would benefit from Structured Literacy. I talked to their parents in that group and told them what I was planning, that I was in the learning phase, and would like their buy-in to move forward. I assessed them and knew what they needed but didn't know where to start...Hence why we visited Grants Braes.

Mikaela and I talked and decided that a trip to Grants Braes saw it in action. We organized it and spent the morning going over the school to observe the teachers at the different levels; we saw the Haggerty and PA in action. Then we saw the code in action. I took this back to school and implemented the Code and LLLL assessment to see what I needed to do with my intervention group. We focused on sounds with handwriting, to begin with, and then moved to words. Sounds - words then moved back and forward a few times until they had secured their first sounds. I only sent one book home a week, and it was that we had practiced for the week. I was mucking my way through, and I was seeing progress. Slow and steady, learning as I went, and the kids were having success, and I saw it coming into the classroom. 

At this stage, I recognized that the Totara group would benefit from some spelling lessons. I tested their spelling and saw they needed to return to year one of the Code. From here, I taught them the spelling rules they needed to include and introduced them to the iDeaL platform for learning spelling rules. I began to see results in their writing and spelling. This also helped their reading, and the difference in their confidence was visible too.

Around this time, I noticed that my intervention group of children was gaining confidence and ability. Their writing in the class had shot off, and the boy who would sit and cry in the corner was now eager to write and would write any chance he got; this was a massive improvement for him and made me very confident with the program we had created.

Towards the end of Term 3, the difference in the groups that I was taking for spelling and structured literacy was terrific, and this showed in their end-of-year results; it was enough for me to think about rolling it out across our junior team. So, with our little resources, we took the term 3 holidays to roll it out, group the children, and start with a structured literacy program. My fellow teacher was enthusiastic about it and was beginning to get some of her own resources, and the teacher in the NE room loved the structure and immediately saw improvements with her kids. It was a success, and we had parents on board, which always made such a difference.

Early in Term 4, Mikaela and I held a Structured literacy workshop for parents, where we unpacked what we had learned from the last year and why we wanted to roll it out. We had such a great take on the idea from all of the parents that came.

At the end of the year, when I came to test the children, we used the PM+ Running Records for my intervention group, and they had all made accelerated progress with seeing them 20 mins a day, 4 days a week. It was empowering, as it worked for everyone and gave such a good base.

The BOT was happy with the results, and we got approval to roll it out across the school in 2022.

In 2022, we rolled it would across the school. At this time, other teachers were learning, and we had three teachers learning about Structured Literacy and how to use it in the classroom. This was an excellent opportunity for me to help those teachers learn and walk through their journey.

As we moved into 2023, with everyone on the same page, it was decided that the tuakana team would use the iDeaL platform for spelling and use decodable for reading until they reach concept #22. Then we can transition them to the PM+ reading system and focus on comprehension.

The results that I have seen through the iDeaL platform for spelling were remarkable and gave a clear graph of where they were and their next learning steps. This has transferred to their writing and their reading.

Now that I have sorted using iDeaL for spelling and writing, my next steps are to take it into their reading. I have been to Holy Family Wanaka for their open day and asked many questions about how to take it to read. They use the LLLL readers; iDeaL has linked these to their scope and sequence. I am using this for my planning, which helps connect them. As they pointed out in Wanaka, you can use any decodable to teach reading but stick to the scope and sequence of iDeaL.

Here is a link to the Structured Literacy Site that Tara, Mikaela and I started at the beginning of the our journey.

Ski Camp Leadership

 My first year leading the ski camp was full of unexpected surprises.

The weather was the first one. Since we went in August, there has been a lot of rain around, and with the 65th birthday of the field, they were trying to preserve the snow for this event.

We went in the week when the celebrations were. This means that the field was packed; we had two days where the area was closed, and in my planning, I didn't think of this scenario or what to do on a rainy day. This was completely unexpected, and on reflection, I will plan some activities when the ski field is closed.

There were some things that I know for next time:

- Set all my cards on the table.

For example - Safety on the field, parents' responsibilities, and expectations of where the children are allowed on the field. 

I ran a meeting before the camp for the parents and helpers attending and set out the expectations verbally; I may have done this as a written copy with them signing it. I was just doing what Chris had done the previous year. 

I did doubt myself a lot on the ski camp; I was worried that I would make a mistake, make the wrong call, or people would disagree with me. I have more faith in my ability and make the best call for everyone and the best decision for the group.

The positive was that many children pushed themselves to get to that next level, that next run, or go on the chair lift. The team bonding was lovely, and they loved playing board games, exploring in the snow on the first afternoon, sledding, creating snowmen, laughing, and sharing a joke. 

My takeaways from last year:

- Make it clear that I have the final say on where the children can go on the field.

- Have more faith in my decisions.

- Have activities for when the field is closed.

- More interactive, engaging evening activities - board games were suitable, but the environment was too noisy.

- Go through the RAMS with a BOT member, open school docs, and use school docs alongside. 

- Send out the ski camp booklet earlier so parents can get the necessary things.