Our guest at our meeting was Wendy Kofoed head teacher of Newmarket Primary School. She has been a Principal at Newmarket Primary for 18 years.
Before that she taught at variety of schools including Victoria Ave Primary where she taught the current Ministry of Education Nikki Kaye.
For Wendy it is an exciting time in education. There is a paradigm shift from the Traditional teaching methodologies to innovative methodologies using technology as the driver.
Newmarket school has to make do for the very tight space so aims to provide the best experience can through clever use of that space.
This is because three quarters of students living high density houses in Newmarket area and very few have backyards so the School becomes their backyard.
The garden shed built by Rotary Club of Newmarket gives kids there chance to potter about in garden. The number of children who take that opportunity is mind boggling.
Newmarket school has three values. Kindness, Respect and Perseverance. Those values drive the education process at Newmarket.
Newmarket is going through exciting time with the construction of the four level classroom blocks with anticipated occupation date of December 2017. It will be connected to the balance of school by a bridge from the block to the rest of the school. As a consequence Newmarket is very much focused on the future and the innovative use of space for education. As noted the school has a small footprint so that has to be used efficiently.
The school lets it’s students climb and jump on and off the famous rock walls. They climb on the trees. Sure some students fall from time to time but the point is that teaches the students that taking a risk sometimes means a bit of pain.
Through the innovative use of technology Newmarket is a part of a global learning culture. There is a future focus curriculum creates expectation they will make a different to students.
The Newmarket teaches children to take risks as it wants them to become problem solvers. Sometimes to succeed there has to be failures.
Wendy in her address mentioned the Jetsons of 1970s TV fame. She said at that time the Jetsons vision of the future was dismissed as fantasy. But when you stand back and think where we are now many of the elements in the Jetsons cartoons have come to pass. Artificial intelligence, Makerspace, online learning spaces, wearable technology, interaction between the real world and the digital world. And Remember the Jetsons was set in 2050. The late of development of technology suggests that the world in 2050 will be very similar to that of the Jetsons 2050.
Wendy also commented that technology is important as it is one of New Zealand’s major export earner.
One of the important parts of Newmarket Primary’s education process is to ensure that the students give back to the community. The kids grow veges in the school garden for the City Mission. They undertake projects that benefit the local community.
Finally Wendy talked about Makerspace science technology engineering arts. The school provides spaces for children to encourage them to design experiment build and event. The garden shed is an example of this.
In closing Wendy thanked Newmarket Rotary for it’s support over the years.