Secretary of Education: Sharyn Paio 2010

Kia Orana and welcome back to the 2010 school year. I trust that all staff are fully rested and rejuvenated and looking forward with optimism to a year without the interruptions experienced in the past. Many of you have used much of your vacation time to improve your qualifications and I commend those of you who have taken this initiative. I do understand the personal sacrifice required when undertaking further study and I trust that your efforts will be rewarded with success.

The Ministry of Education has spent the past six months planning its restructuring. Our aims continue to be the provision of ongoing professional support for schools so that teachers can provide our children with high quality learning and educational opportunities. We also need your support if we are to continue to raise the benchmark in terms of levels of student achievement.

Changing the Culture of PE in Cook Island Schools.

We had a successful 3 ½ day workshop in the holidays, with a total of 25 participants from schools all over the Southern Group.

We covered a range of ways to change the competitive culture in our schools to move away from a Sports focus in PE, and focus more on the Education part, where teaching Essential Skills in PE, such as Problem Solving, Communication Skills, and Social-cooperative skills leads the focus away from competition and winning.

Vanessa Palmer from Tereora helped with this session, and put our teachers through a lot of different activities, both physically and mentally challenging.

Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) Cook Islands:  1999 – 2008

This year will mark the eleventh year in which the AMC has been coordinated and offered to selected schools.

The 2009 competition date is Wednesday August 5th.

Westpac Cook Islands have been very generous in sponsoring this competition as well as being a major sponsor for many years in Australia; the AMC began in the 1970’s. Over the last 10 years, the total package has been worth $4,000 (special awards) and AUD$4,750 (entries & solution books).

The Expo Team

Expo environment:

A live theatre of bright-eyed young people with colour and movement; a hubbub of noise, chitter-chatter, music and announcements. The buzz of engaged korero, young people and exhibitors talking, chatting, asking and answering questions, Radio 88FM announcements, demonstrations, bus-loads of students coming and going. This is the visual feast of Careers Expo 2009.

Northern Group Lifeskills Programme

The Cook Islands Ministry of Education is dedicated to ensuring that accessibility of quality learning opportunities throughout the nation becomes a reality.

The ‘Outer Islands Life skills Programme’ is a vehicle in which this reality is put into action to achieve the following

 “All people in the Cook Islands will have equal access to quality learning opportunities across the full spectrum of human endeavor from birth.”

ESD & EIU STUDENTS’ CONFERENCE

What is ESD & EIU?

ESD is the acronym for Education for Sustainable Development. It considers three areas of sustainability – environment, society and economy - with culture as the underlying factor.

EIU stands for Education for International Understanding. It primarily focuses on the understanding of the diverse cultures with the intention of bringing peace to our lives.

Article 1: Part 1:- What is Inclusive Education?

By Laisiasa Merumeru – MOE Inclusive Education Advisor

As the Ministry of Education’s Inclusive Education Adviser, I had often been asked questions such as: What is Inclusive Education? What is the difference between Inclusive Education and Special Education? Does the term ‘Inclusion’ mean the inclusion of children with a disability or special needs parse?

Music and Literacy; Something to Think About

Dear Fellow Educators

Music is such an integral part of Cook Islands culture, acting as a carrier for its stories and traditions.Additionally, it is an important way of sharing Te Reo with our student. Read more to find out why it is important for other reasons…

School Terms & Holidays

2010 School Terms:

Term 1    Mon 25 Jan - Friday 16 April (12 weeks)
Term 2    Mon 3 May - Fri 23 July (12 weeks)
Term 3    Mon 9 Aug - Fri 8 Oct (9 weeks)
Term 4    Mon 18 Oct - Fri 10 Dec (8 weeks)

2010 School Holidays:

Sat 17 April - Sun 2 May (2 weeks)
Sat 24July - Sun 8 Aug  (2 weeks)
Sat 9 Oct - Sun 17 Oct  (1 week)
Sat 11 Dec - Sun 23 Jan 2011 (6 weeks) tbc

Physical Education Update

Lead Teacher Workshop

We had a successful 3 ½  day workshop in the holidays, with a total of 25 participants from schools all over the Southern Group. We covered a range of ways to change the competitive culture in our schools to move away from a Sports focus in PE, and focus more on the Education part, where teaching Essential Skills in PE, such as Problem Solving, Communication Skills, and Social-cooperative skills, leads the focus away from competition and winning.

Avatea School Carnival

Today…Friday….4th September 2009 From 12noon till 6pm

Games & Activities

• Disco
• Computer games
• Movies…etc etc

…with lots of prizes to be won

Fresh produce and pot plants Stall…fruits, veges and pot plants
Nic Nacs – 2nd Hand Stall…selling all sorts of goods for the young and old…

Food stalls include:

…sold from 12noon

• BBQ…at $8 a plate
• Chicken curry…$5 a dish
• Goat curry…$8 a dish
• Coffee, Tea, & Milo
• Cakes, muffins, ice-cream, etc
• Asian dishes from $5
• Raw fish at $5
• Chicken rolls, Kebabs & Sizzles…from $2 - $5

and much much more…sold from 3pm

• Umu food at $10 a plate

We look forward to your support…thank you

Performing Arts: Northern Group

What an amazing experience it was for me to come and visit your beautiful Northern Group Islands. It was an especially exciting time due to the Life skills program, which brought new learning and friendship and wonderful examples of how the Performing Arts afford people an opportunity to express their culture and build community. Traditional Arts are a great strength in all the communities I visited.