CoL meeting: Transition 11/09/19

The meeting was opened by Sally who introduced:

• Grant, the Across Schools Leader for Maths
• Katrina, the Across Schools Leader for Diverse Learners
• Felicity, the Across Schools Leader for Transition to School and
• Sean, the Across Schools Leader for Wellbeing (wasn't present but was represented by Sally).

Sally described the process the CoL has been following, and will continue to follow over the next 18 months:

• the establishment phase (complete)
• the development phase (Terms 2 and 3 this year)
• the implementation phase (Term 4 this year to Term 2 202)
• the impact phase

Sally mentioned Angus McFarlane, whose name I need to Google! He has published a piece of work related to ECEs and is going to be publishing a similar piece for primary schools.

The CoL is working towards its review date of November 6th, 2019.

Felicity then described where we are at with transition.

Grant discussed Cashmere High's use of DMIC and Carol Butel's work with primary schools. Cashmere High is going to be focusing on Learning Progressions next.

Katrina, from St Marks, discussed Diverse Learners, saying that the most important factors are transition and wellbeing for these students. 

Sally stressed the importance of emailing or phoning if there are any questions or frustrations.

We split into groups.

Primary teachers sat together with Felicity and took turns to describe what is going well in each school.

I described our preschool visits and the value of having Paul to help with our children who present with challenges of one kind or another.

Other schools described their visits out to preschools. Where does the funding come for this, I asked. Some team leaders build it into their release time. Other schools fund time for team leaders, seeing this as being of value.

As a result of this discussion, Felicity has said that:

• she is going to put in a recommendation that time for this valuable aspect of transition be funded by the CoL
• she is going to put in a recommendation that SLT for some students be funded by the CoL, given that applying for funding through the MoE is invariably unsuccessful, and all teachers agreed that they have children with significant Speech Language challenges.