Flemington School Whole School Science
Tuakana / Teina Relationships during whole school science.
As a school we have adopted a whole school inclusion way of
learning science. We are using this approach, which is a
change, of how we usually run our classrooms, to address the needs of all
students. We are aiming to create and environment in which every student
has the opportunity to flourish.
One important principle of inclusive learning is that no two
learners are the same. We have found that in our groupings there are
visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners. We are giving each group the
opportunity for these students to learn in a variety of ways. Our
findings have found that some are more hands on with the experiments, some can
talk about it better than others, while others are keeping the groups learning
journey up to date with the exact learning they are doing. Our practice
is supporting and accommodating most of our students.
The relationships that are forming throughout the whole
school are also coming through. The younger children look up to the older
ones. These relationships are forming a model for a buddy system.
The junior children know that someone is there, helping and guiding them in
their learning. Learning does not just come from the teacher. This
way of learning recognises the value of ako and that the roles may sometimes be
reversed with the younger child guiding and teaching the older students. The
model is also used between the senior room and junior room once a
fortnight. We have seen the junior children become more confident with
the senior children and more willing and ready to work with them.