Year Six Plan
At the end of each year the year six children present the school with a pohutukawa tree and a plaque. This is presented and then planted at the end of the Year 6 Graduation Breakfast. Here is an example of the depth of feeling our students have about leaving. It was written by an ex Pinehill pupil during her year 7 year. Her father passed it onto our Principal who then shared it with the staff. Media:Graduation_Breakfast_Recount.pdf
I have discovered a need for our year 6 children to be prepared for life without the Pinehill Way. A lot of children have found it extremely difficult moving into classrooms where other students are rude, obnoxious and generally disruptive. They realise that this cuts down their learning time and because the ex Pinehill students have not been exposed to this sort of behaviour makes our ex pupils feel uncomfortable and in some cases threatened. So I have devised a unit of work to be completed in the 4th term of their last year at Pinehill School. As a final process the children could place their work on the school website for them to refer back in future years if they need some support or strategies to cope with life beyond The Pinehill Way.
The Pinehill Way is such a powerful philosophy that our students will carry this sense of citizenship with them for a long time. Preparing them and getting them to cope with others who do not have these 'values' is a challenge that we need to take up to ensure success at Intermediate school and beyond.
The above unit has been devised to ensure realistic conversations occur about the reality of life beyond Pinehill School and the choices students will have to make. A good frontloading activity may be to use these links on bullying to set the scene and encourage some good conversations. This first link is a video of The Warriors talking about anti bullying. Warriors Anti Bully Talk
This next link is a slide show showing different types/stages of bullying from the bullies themselves and their victims. This would be an excellent reference to use. To pause on the pictures and have groups discuss what is happening, how the people in the photo are feeling and why etc would be extremely beneficial and a powerful way to engage children's thinking. Bullying Slideshow
This has been taken directly from a unit of work based on crime reduction and social responsibility. New Zealand Police. (2005). Doing the Right Thing: Fostering Positive Values lessons for primary school classes. Other New Zealand Police resources that you could gain more lesson plans which are specific to the learning needs in your classroom are: Kia Kaha: A Bully-Free Zone. This is a kit which is available from your local police education officer. It comes in 2 levels - years 0-3 and years 4-6. Both units have lesson plans that you could pick out and use or complete the whole programme if your classroom would benefit from it. Another resource which is available from the New Zealand Police is the Dare To Make a Choice programme. This is a programme based around drug education but it lends itself to resisting peer pressure so once again depending on the class needs some plans from it maybe useful.
Media:Podcast_Y6_Planning_Sheet.pdf
This is an easy to follow, step by step guide, that the students and not so confident teacher can use from planning the podcast right to the reflection at the end. A great website to look at podcasts students have already completed is Point England School
I have included this rubric as children at year 6 level should be achieving most of the stated skills at the ultra expert level.
Here is an example of how a colleague of mine currently reinforces The Pinehill Way with her year 6 students. Once again, although there is not a focus on ICT this could easily be adapted. The class could use word processing for the leaves, add photo shots of kindness 'in action' or a group of children reading the weeks 'new leaf additions' by way of podcast and then uploading this to add to the class blog.
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