Eskdale culture
How we learn at Eskdale: in te ao Māori, outdoors, through play and with technology.
Kapa haka
Kapa haka is a proud part of school life at Eskdale. Our rōpū learns waiata, haka and tikanga together, performing at school events and festivals through the year.
Short intro is draft wording: confirm with the school.
EFS at Eskdale
Education for sustainability encourages new approaches to how we design our curriculum. It gives our students the chance to become confident, connected, actively involved, life-long learners.
We take a whole-school approach, weaving sustainability topics and community projects into learning at every level.
Get involved: our senior team runs EFS activities across the school on Friday afternoons. If you’re free from 1:30pm, contact Mrs Aiken or Mrs Rolls through the office.
Every classroom has a food scraps bucket and a paper bin.
Please pack lunches with little or no waste: reusable or beeswax wraps, containers and bento boxes, and no plastic wrap.
Structured literacy
We teach reading and writing through a structured literacy approach: explicit, step-by-step teaching of the sounds, spelling patterns and language skills children need to become confident readers and writers.
Intro is draft wording: confirm with the school.
Learning through play
In our junior classes, children learn through purposeful play: building, creating, exploring and solving problems together. Play grows curiosity, oral language, resilience and the confidence to give things a go.
This page is under construction on the school’s current site: draft wording to confirm.
Digital technologies
We value a blend of digital and hands-on learning. Students and teachers choose the best tool for each task, whether that’s a Chromebook, an iPad, or pen and paper. It keeps students engaged, gives them ownership of their choices, supports personalised learning and reflects how people live and work today.
Junior school: each classroom has a pod of iPads, used when they’re the right tool.
Senior school: we run a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programme so every student has their own device, and learning moves easily between home and school. Our preferred device is a Chromebook, as students use Google Docs and Chrome for their learning.
Digital citizenship expectations
- Mobile phones are handed in to the office at the start of each day.
- No unsupervised device use: not at break times, before or after school, or on buses. (One-week confiscation; a parent collects the device.)
- Screens face into the classroom.
- Only teacher-approved websites.
- Signed BYOD and school device agreements are returned to the office.
- Bring BYOD devices charged; chargers stay at home.
- Devices are never left on the floor.
- Devices are not a reward for finishing work early.
- Browsing history must not be deleted.
- No personal Gmail at school, and school Gmail isn’t used for social media.