Term 2 2006... Lets see what is ahead.. Visit the calendar page
Another important part of the term is PREP...If Prep is a bit of a mystery to you read the prep page for lots of information.

The Toko School Fundraising Committee organsied a bike trail on Sunday the 23rd of April. Great day. Caught up with a few ex Toko school students out there doing their thing, for example Daniel over in Spain working for Team NZ!! Yeah!! Lots of parents and teachers out supporting the school in a whole variety of roles.

Annual Meeting
On the 3rd of May we held the Annual Meeting of the BOT, Fundraising Committee and PTA. It ws followed by a public meeting where teachers shared information. As a part of this time we again had our Bouquests and Brick Bats time with teachers and parents in small groups.
It was a positive experience and excellent self review for the BOT and staff. Please check out the graphic which also has a review portion which explains what has happened already regarding the brick bat review!!!! Check out the principals report to the community.

Board Meeting 10th of May
There is a lot of time going into certain projects at school. One big thing is prep enterprises beginning to take shape. A small EXPO was held on Monday the 8th at which the children creating busineses were showing their wares and other children were finding out about the businesses they could apply for!
Another focus is the development of art for the Percy Thompson Gallery! Some great looking art is being developed around the school. Art is so important as part of the development of school culture! But art takes a lot of time and preparation as well! Art is No easy option!! Then there is the presentation of it and the hanging and of course we must assess!!! In all honesty the assessment of art is all immediate feedback to children verbally. exactly as it should be!
The talent program is really underway. This has been going well. Plenty of information elsewhere. A neat little video exisits here!

Thursday the 11th of May
Had a morning meeting with the ICPD cluster planning two important upcoming events for schools Kids Day, 29th of May, and our Regional Conference/ Teacher Professional Development day 9th and 10th of June. Cool.

Monday the 15th of May
Kelly is released a morning a week to work with teachers and children. The focus is better integration of ICT across the curriculum. The funding for this is coming from the ICTPD cluster. It is getting into teachers classrooms and assisting them with whatever needs they have. So far it is looking very beneficial. It was great today to see Kelly working in her own room too! Also today a whooping great big pile of New PE gear arrived!!! Cool!

Thursday the 18th
The Year 8 team won their debate against Bell Block Primary today! Well done guys. Plenty of willing assistance from Peter and Lynette helped prime both the year 7 and the Year 8 teams up. Sadly the year 7 team was beaten by St Joseph's on Tuesday... but again the inexperienced team performed very well!

Sunday the 21st of May
Jones Cup tomorrow! Well I hope so. We had a useful little working bee on Friday which really tidied the place up. In fact Friday afternoon I don't think I've seen the school looking better.. The lines were repainted on Wednesday, so everything was just looking smart! Oh for a fine day and an easy call at 7.30ish Monday morning! Seems like we have suffered some semi serious casualties on the weekend so we may have to only enter one team in the year 7 and 8 rugby competition!

Wedneday the 23rd of May
Guess I got my wish! A real, real good day! Monday the 22nd was a day to remember. And actually nice and easy to call early in the morning!
Highlights for me personally was the quality of the sound system! Awesome.. Plus great kids everywhere you looked. The place was full and looked as good as it could have looked!... and neat teahers everywhere too. Plus the way parents just offered to get into the refereeing when there were gaps.. Guys like Gavin, plus Stu of course, Rich, and others but it really made the difference. Great PTA!! THANKS... What is next!! Oh thats right, three weeks in the classroom and then its KIDS DAY!

Saturday the 26th of May
http://tokotalk.podomatic.com/
Here is our first ever podcast. Well worth a listen, but I'm sure there is a a mountain of room for improvement! Big thanks to Rachel for her time working with the children and getting them to this point!!

Monday the 29th of May
Samuel and Joanne were lucky to be chosen to attend the KIDS DAY organsied by the Bard Wired facilitation team, with most of the work falling to Rchel J. A real neat day and many thanks to the people on the ground for this cool event, which is a first in our area!

Sunday the 4th of June
Want to contribute to the Toko School entry on wikipedia???

Plus I've sent this weeks podcasts through. Really worth a listen. There is Georgia and Emily, Tyler, Sally, Kristal, and Samuel and something different from Mr B.

Teacher Only day and Regional meeting
Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th were busy. The ICTPD regional meeting was held in Stratford. Very well attended. The facilitation team were busy on Thursday getting the Stratford Primary Hal lprepared wiht amny many examples of our children's work from round the cluster.
Guest speakers Jamie McKenzie, Bruce Hammonds and Jill Hammonds were all there adding thoughtful insight!
Saturday saw the planned Teacher Only day arrive with about 90 folk in total invovled! Well that's how many lunches there were!
A really productive day prepared for the local teachers and visitors as well. Quite an achievement for the local Bardwired team.The big theme for me was again getting the kids thinking... and what makes for improved thinking in a classroom.. Well I guess it is insightful questioning that leads to enhanced thinking! Clearly a message for teachers... The accessing and then using the wealth of information on the web. Jamies slam dunk lessons are a step in the right direction, when used along side the unit that was planned and prepared for the children in our own class!
I alos like his comments about literacy... He acknowledges about 15 of them!! and lambasted the "Right wing crime… limiting the curriculum to two subjects!!!!" ie literacy and numeracy!! There is a loud and clear folowing here... every where it is literacy and numeracy... what about the meaningful 'rich' topics!!! Primary enterprise projects for example!! Wonderful numeracy, and the literacy of hard work and common sense along with common decency... There are even some cracks to fall into if that's what you choose to do with your time!

Jamies website My pool buddy! www.fno.org
Bruces Web Site leading learning
Bard's blog

Thursday the 23nd of June
We have received the results of of Methanex Investigations and they are very pleasing!!WOW factor
This is a Taranaki wide competition with children from many schools entering their investigations! To do so well is a real credit to both the teachers and the children involved.
Here are the results:
Individual Mathematics Investigation
Yr 7 1st Frank
Yr 8 3rd Craig
Merit Madison
Merit Tyler

Year 7 Group investigation
1st Emily and Sally


Year 8 Group Investigation
1st Samuel and Crystal
2nd Reagan and Joanne
3rd Georgia and Kristal
Emily and David Merit

By the way, wonderful to see Tracy winning the Year 9 individual investigation!!! and Christian in the winning Year 9 group category... great Toko kids continuing!
Links to previous years methanex results 2004, 2005, 2003
Can't say for absolute certain but the Year 7 quiz team scored very well with a very creditable 4th!! WOW factor.

An eventful board meeting was held on Wednesday night. We have received confirmation that the Ministry are will pay 75% of the cost of the IT infrastructure upgrade. Great.

Additionally we have received $5000 from pub charities for the cost of an artificial cricket wicket. This is a project that has been just bubbling along and it seems now it is near a reality. It is also time to develop the volley wall over in the tennis courts!

Market day 2006 Friday the 23rd
Well this was a success again! Cathy's classs did an awesome litle play, of about 15 minutes. Th children were very well prepared and it was a real credit to all involved. The MArket day itself was the usual full on event. Most businesses seemed to be able to pay of their loan this time. The banks worked well and many parents came to share the day with the children. To learn more about Prep click here!

Parent Interviews
Parent interviews Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 2.40 and about 6 pm.
We only had 8 children not represented at the Parent Interviews this week and we hope to catch up with these folk early in term 3 as our achievable goal is 100% participation. Teachers and children feeding back information about the learning at school over the first half of the year is an essential element of our partnership star!! It also falls nicely under the Challenging Curriulum star and I guess.... the Learning to Learn one too! I'm really interesterd in feedback about the interviews. I was present throughout in Room 5, so don't really get an over view. What is the reaction to the way we conduct mid year interviews?

Well that is that for another term!