Why the Move?

The new year will bring a number of changes to Ridgway School and you may be wondering why.

The first change is that Rooms 9 and 10 will be used by Year 3 and 4 classes and Rooms 6, 7, and 8 will become the senior team classes.  One of the reasons for this is to make it easier for classes that are in the same learning pod or team, to work together by making sure they are as close to each other as they can be.  The second reason is that our senior classes (Years 5 - 8) are all quite large and will at times want to spread out and use the Big Space as a place to work.  Our Year 7 - 8 students in Room 8 will be able to spread out any time they want by simply opening the doors.  

You will have noticed that our assemblies are rather tight these days.  Our oldest students are in Room 8, and they will easily be able to open up the doors and move a few pieces of furniture to create a larger assembly space for us.

Teachers are also moving about a bit in 2015.  Some are moving up a level, and others are moving down a level.  None of these shifts are particularly large for the teachers involved, and some teachers are returning to levels they have spent time at in the past. Moving between levels is a great way for teachers to keep themselves fresh and expand their repertoire of skills.  Teachers need to have a thorough understanding of the curriculum at all levels in order to meet the diverse needs of all children in their class.  The best way to acquire this knowledge is to actually teach at all levels at some stage during  their career.  In order to see new things we sometimes need to look from a different viewpoint, in shifting levels occasionally, teachers are able to gain new insights that will help them increase their ability to see what needs to be done.  

There will be other changes too of course, and I will say more about these later.

Kathryn