One Chapter Closes For Another To Begin

The last week was our last week based at the wonderful Hobsonville Point Primary School. I'm really pleased we didn't move straight into our building as it has given us the opportunity to keep our focus on the learning relationships and the pedagogy rather than buzzing out over our building and its spaces. It has given us the chance to get used to the shared spaces that are a feature of the primary school.

After last weekend's great Open Day Monday started with the group of students who acted as hosts at the Open Day being filmed as extras for a video that is being filmed to promote Hobsonville Point.

Lights! Camera! Action!

It's been neat to experience another round of our timetable which includes a different range of Modules from Big to Small to Spin. Each involves different sized groups of students with different combinations of teachers learning in a range of different spaces and configurations.

Small group collaborating around the campfire with Kylee

Cyndi facilitating a large group at the waterhole

A lot of my time throughout the week was concentrated on getting ourselves and our stuff ready to move to our building. Thursday was a neat interruption to that as we held our first ever Athletics Sports at the Millennium Institute. I was trying to figure out where all the spectators were when I realised they were all competing!

It was a fantastic day during which students and staff got right into the spirit. This Tuesday we will honour our first ever champions and record holders.

Bryce kitted out as official starter

I spent almost all of Friday moving stuff and helping to ensure our infrastructure was going to be ready for our move in on Monday. This was after our Friday morning Professional Learning time which was once again a highlight of the week. This week Ros took us through developing our critical friendship understanding with our critical friend and reflecting in our MyPortfolio.

Collaborative Professional Learning setting a great vibe

I am fortunate to be paired up with Steve Mouldey  and look forward to having my practice challenged by such an innovative and future-focused thinker. You can follow his regular thought-provoking posts in his blog and you should follow him on Twitter (@GeoMouldey).

We both came to the conclusion that an effective critical friend relationship is one that embraces the concept of warm AND demanding. It has been neat to see this concept emerging as a central part of our wider kaupapa for the school.

On both Saturday and Sunday a lot of time was spent at school making sure our building was ready to welcome us tomorrow. Pete did an outstanding job on both days, not only moving people's resources into their spaces but also setting up the auditorium for our celebration. Sunday afternoon evening was spent with Ben and Raj moving printers and getting my head around the wireless and printer environment.

But Saturday night was all about .........

The Boss