The 'E' Team
























KAMO INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL
Te Kura Takawaenga O Kamo


NAU MAI - HAERE MAI
WE ARE THE 'E' TEAM


What is the 'E' Team? Well we are a specialised teaching unit situated in Room 12. Our room is a colourful and vibrant environment where we use adult interactions, games with a comfortable and easy atmosphere.

What does the 'E' Team do? We nuture kids with a wide variety of needs, from the lowest readers, spellers and maths kids to the highly gifted and talented children in our school. A classroom where all sorts of kids work together on different aspects of learning.

Who is the 'E' Team? It started with Mrs J Parry (Our fearless leader) who began Room 12 with a VISION and PHILOSOPHY that all students have 'special needs' i.e. each child has strengths and weaknesses.

So The Team Is:
Mrs J Parry ~ (Leader)
Mrs L Lloyd ~ (Co-leader)
Mrs S Smith ~ (Lead Tutor)
Miss K Richards ~ (Tutor)
Mrs S Easterbrook ~ (Teacher)
Mrs H Butler ~ (E.S.O.L Teacher)
Mrs J Howard ~ (Teacher)
Miss H Clark ~ (Resident Artist)
Mrs L Williams ~ (Tutor)
Mr P Polamalu ~ (Tutor)

Plus our wonderful Volunteer Tutors

So what does the 'E' stand for? We are involved in 4 different support programmes within Kamo Intermediate. These are ENHANCEMENT, ENRICHMENT, EXTENSION and E.S.O.L (English for Speakers of Other Languages). Lets look at what they are.


~ ~ ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMMES ~ ~

"Enhancement is targetted at children performing below their chronological age in reading, spelling and maths"

STRATEGIC READING - STRATEGIC SPELLING - STRATEGIC MATHS
All ENHANCEMENT Programmes are based around:
  • 1 to 1 Tutoring.

  • High Frequency or 'mileage' i.e. tutoring sessions 3 times a week.

  • 10 to 15 weeks per stage (30-45 intensive sessions of 20 - 30 minutes).

  • Proof of Progress Pre-Testing, Mid-Testing and Post-Testing.

  • Trained Tutors (ALL Tutors teach reading/spelling/maths).


    • STRATEGIC READING
  • Began as IWI Reading Programme - Since 1995 with M.O.E funding to the whole of the Kamo area.

  • Targets LOW Progress Readers i.e. reading below their 'chronological' age.

  • 'STRATEGIC' as for strategies *Tutors-trained in the use of specific strategies. *Children-Specific strategies needed to become independent readers.

  • Results - ALWAYS Good, If Not Amazing - Change in Attitude, Self Esteem and Reading Ability.


    • STRATEGIC SPELLING
  • Modelled on Sucessful Provan Format of Strategic Reading

  • DEVELOPED last year and still EVOLVING.

  • Focus is on intensive, learning words taken from a list of essential spelling words, along with learning basic spelling patterns and rules.

  • Use of spelling games/resources - e.g. Ashley Speller Books 1-5, Chunks game


    • STRATEGIC MATHS
  • Also Modelled on Successful Format of Strategic Reading and Spelling

  • Focus on Basic facts and processes

  • Maths resources/games - Leap Into Mentals Books 1-4

    •

    ~ ENRICHMENT PROGRAMMES ~

    Refers to "learning activities providing DEPTH and BREADTH to regular teaching according to the child's abilities and needs". (quote)
  • Enrichment activities are normally in ADDITION to and different from the regular classroom activities by way of OFFERING CHALLENGE.

  • They are designed to ALLOW students to EXPLORE a variety of concepts and ideas. to SPARK students INTEREST; encourage DISCOVERY of their STRENGTHS and begin to UNEARTH their passions.

  • How do we do it? - A team of teachers (G.A.T.E. Gifted And Talented Education Programme Team) provide PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ALL STAFF through a series of staff meetings to 'ERICH' all classrooms with 'Gifted and Talented' teaching and thinking strategies.

  • Why we do it? - This ensures that ALL STUDENTS (not just an identified select few) are exposed to HIGHER LEVEL THINKING STRATEGIES; BRAINSTORMING and MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUES to GENERATE and ORGANIZE IDEAS; DIFFERENT LEVELS OF QUESTIONING to STIMULATE DIVERGENT THINKING; and that these strategies are then incorporated into the class programme; students are exposed to this enrichment on a daily basis.

    •

    ~ EXTENSION and Enrichment PROGRAMMES ~

  • EXTENSION IS CLOSELY LINKED TO ENRICHMENT, and to serve the range of abilities and interests in Gifted and Talented students.

  • WE DRAW UPON BOTH APPROACHES IN PLANNING AND PROVIDING A WIDE RANGE OF EXTENSION AND ENRICHMENT PROGRAMMES. Because of the extensive nature of our Enrichment and Extension Programme and the co-ordination of a large number of students and teaching staff; we are able to target a wider range of talented students.

  • WITH MORE THAN 30 PROGRAMMES RUNNING, INVOLVING OVER 250 STUDENTS, WE HAVE TARGETTED UP TO 40% OF OUR STUDENT BODY.

  • This programming approach allows us to encompass a large range of students with talent, instead of solely basing our identification procedures to 1.0% - 3.0% as theorized by some educationalists. Some of our very talented students do have the opportunity to be involved in 2-3 extension groups over a 7 day cycle.



    • That's mostly what we do in Room 12! We also do the school's student newspaper (KIDZBIZ), the student gazette (which goes out fortnightly with the school's newsletter) and the language extensions (French, Japanese & Spanish). Not bad for a colourful, vibrant little classroom! So to borrow from Bill Gates (please don't sue us)

    Your Potential . . . Our Passion!