ERO Visit to MIS 2011 - Term One.

The Education Review Office visited Melville Intermediate during Term One.   The past visit had been a difficult one, it had been re-written, the final report that is, I believe five times.  I can't comment on that because it was prior to my arrival at the school.   With this years visit one of the advantages of working online for the past three years was that we had footage of every event, every major happening and proof of it.  We were able to give a presentation to the ERO officers about what we'd done and link it to a post online.  I don't know how effective it was, I think it went well, but in retrospect there was a lot to take it.  I certainly thought that it was a useful tool to illustrate some of the work we've done, I stand by most of the material that's been produced, I've never claimed that it was particularly clever or earth shattering (in essences its the same thing for the last four years now so there's a significant amount of treading water, I think there has to be, otherwise I'd have burnt out).   So its nice to be able to present it every now and then.

 The Hands.

Students at Melville Intermediate have considerable opportunity in a number of areas including digital e-learning.  Classrooms have a minimum of 10 computers at Melville Intermediate School although most have 14, in addition to this we also have a fully operational computer suit available with 30 computers and secondary rooms with a further dozen computers.  In total we have 220 computers available for the use of students and 304 students at present - at any one time we have potentially computers for 70% of the students of Melville Intermediate School.  We make computers available to students to increase engagement and motivation.  This year is the first year that new students in the classroom of Melville Intermediate School have been born in the 21st century. 

During the past three years Melville Intermediate School students have begun to become increasingly active as digital citizens with their work being published online for a national and international audience.  Our work has been viewed in 113 countries or over half the world.  In 2011 our aim is to have half of the classrooms at Melville Intermediate School regularly online in some formal capacity.  Our class page from Room Eight has had over 30,000 visitors since it was created in 2009 and we're in the top ten in the world for google searches involving the keyword/phrase 'Mihi' and 'How to Make Poi'.

We've had some exciting events since 2009 which can be higlighted through our online work.  Our CPA, Cultural Performing Arts Groups have put on a huge number of shows, one of the highlights was the Wintec Graduation performance last year.   Our students performed at this event in front of hundreds of graduating students.  We also performed at the Founders Theatre and various local schools and events such as our end of year Hamilton rest home shows.

Our students compete at sports to a high level.  Last year students from Melville Intermediate School competed in 17 out of 18 Waikato Inter Intermediate Sporting Codes.  In addition to competing at the Winter Olympics competition for a week each year, since 2009 we've also entered Swimming, Hip Hop, Football and Basketball at a national level at the annual AIMS tournament in Tauranga.  Our school was extremely proud of our Girls Basketball in 2010 who came fourth in New Zealand, and our 2009 team that won the national finals.

One of the opportunities for students at Melville Intermediate school is our Options modules of work on Thursday afternoon.  These electives allow students to develop their skills and talents in a range of lessons in extra areas of the curriculum, this Thursday we sent two students from our school around with a camera to film Options so that you could have an insight into whats available for our students.

Each year the two years of a students time at Melville Intermediate School culminates at an extremely important event Y8 School Ball which is the final formal occasion for our departing students.   We also have numerous other highlights from the year for our students including Y8 School Camp which is being held shortly at Finlay Park Adventure Camp.  Students have a significant opportunity in performing arts in the annual  School Talent Quest and in 2010 we staged a School Production.

Recently we have Avis Leeson at our School to promote the use of our school garden.  She was extremely impressed by our school and students and Room Eight took the opportunity to interview her which you can watch here.

Melville Intermediate School students have digital opportunities at our school that stand out.  We encourage students to see opportunities with computers as a learning tool to engage them and motivate them in school. 
We're proud of our success and recognition that E-Learning has brought Melville Intermediate School.  We've received recognition from the Ministry of Education through the TKI Middle Schools Website as an example of Pedagogy.  We've been featured in publications, nominated for online Educational awards such as and featured on TKI Software Learning Snapshot.

Melville Intermediate School students have using the culture of our students to educate across the world about New Zealand and our culture.  We've also found a niche tutoring other classrooms in New Zealand with language, you can see examples of our work on Maori Mihi, Broadlands School or our 2011 work here.

Using Language, relating to others and participating and contributing.
Finally we've also produced numerous tutorials and examples of work for the world to see, this video is a class of students in Califorina, using Maori Rakau sticks to play a game, based on Melville Intermediate School students video work.  And finally we'd like to finish with a very special video this video is of a student in Krasnoyarskiy kray, Siberia performing a  Maori Mihi based on work of students from Melville Intermediate School.  Melville Intermediate School students have a real impact on the world.