Supported Learning Resources Newsletter
Welcome to our Term Two 2015 newsletter
We love it when we get an email or a message sharing some great news, a small success, or even a giant leap of faith!! Lately that has been happening a lot with staff sharing great stories about what their students are achieving and how pathways are opening up for them because their skills and knowledge are being nationally recognised. It really makes our day to have a photo emailed or some feedback from a Teacher or TA sharing a great story … it makes us smile for hours!!! And it really puts all the politics, stress, time and energy into perspective when we see how adolescent friendly, appropriate material can help a student achieve … and let’s face it, we all love seeing photos of students enjoying their learning, or doing something crazy or fun!! So, we want you to see them too so we have shared some photos and stories on Pg 2-­‐4 about your student’s pathway to “Success for All. This will be a regular addition now, so let us know what you are up to and email us a snap for the next newsletter! Have a great holiday everyone, from the SLR Team
Contents:
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It’s All about the Students
– Celebrating SUCCESS
Page 5
SLR Updates
Page 6
NZQA Updates
Page 8
NEW resources coming
IMPT updates
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2-4
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Term 2 2015
It’s ALL About The STUDENTS …
Celebrating “Success For ALL”.
We know you always have your students in mind when you create programmes … and we know that there is always hours of work goes in by staff and students before you even begin an NCEA Supported Learning assessment. YOUR learning programmes are where the magic happens … where the creative, thoughtful, engaging and “BIG picture” work happens … so we want to make sure we keep that in mind at the halfway point of the year. Take some well deserved time to celebrate all our students success and to feel incredibly proud of the options and opportunities NZ teachers are giving students … we know WE feel proud to be associated with the huge range of schools who are supported students to achieve “Success for ALL”. We know you are all doing amazing activities with your students, so send us a snap and caption and we will include it next time! 2
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Term 2 2015
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Term 2 2015
The FREE PLANTING ROOT mini-­‐
booklet and assessment material has a range of tasks for preparing a garden or plants, and then growing and using them. Our NCEA L1 Supported Learning assessment material PLANTING ROOTS is free to all schools. Just email us to receive your free .pdf’s and get your students growing their plants … and have their skills recognised with 2 NCEA credits and get cross-­‐curricula opportunities. 4
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Term 2 2015
Supported Learning Resources UPDATES
Updated versions for 2015 Supported Learning Resources
Candidate Assessment Material & Teacher Guidelines
Reminder that if you were a 2013-­‐14 customer, you will have received FREE your updated 2015 versions of ALL your purchases in week Jan 12-­‐16. Please replace or delete previous versions, check everyone in your school is using the 2015 version and update any material asap that we send through. It is a school’s responsibility to use the correct version to ensure your assessments are accurate and up-­‐to-­‐date with any changes. QUICK TIP: Look
for the new hands
logo on your .pdf
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Work & Community domain update – June 2015
NZQA have very recently “rolled over and revised” all the Supported Learning unit standards within the Work & Community Skills domain before the expected end of 2015. All new candidate material ordered will be “Version 5, Review 2016” from now on for Supported Learning standards. We had planned to send out all the FREE updates for “Version 5, Review 2016” to existing customers in December this year, but if you would like your update earlier for the remainder of 2015, just contact us and we will send you your FREE new version update. Recently we reviewed ALL workbooklets for spelling, layout, formatting etc. and this year we also updated the Workbooklets Series Two that link to the NCEA assessment material with new covers and learning checklists. If you would like a replacement copy, just email us and it will be sent out immediately. Workbooklet
Series 1 & 2
UPDATES
2015
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Supported Learning Resources
Looking
Forward …
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Term 2 2015
NZQA Supported Learning UPDATES
“Planning is
bringing the future
into the present so
that you can do
something about it
now.”
- Lakelin
There are exciting times are ahead for Supported Learning and our students and we have been patiently waiting for the official and final confirmation from NZQA to support their process regarding new Supported Learning unit standards and the final structure of the new NZ Certificate … and they are nearly ready to be listed and go out for consultation! re-­‐aligned once the current standards eventually "expire". It also means we can develop even more contexts within a skill range to make schools you have a range of material to choose from to meet your students interests in the future and give students critical recognition for their work placements and work-­‐readiness skills. As we have one of our own advisors working on the NZQA writing panel for Supported Learning standards, we are very excited about the modernising and aligning of the Supported Learning domain after many years. It is great that Supported Learning is being recognised as an important growth area for students and standards are being modernised to reflect the developing needs of complex learners ... just like in all subject areas that go through regular NZQA reviews. For us as a company and for the wide range of schools using our material, it is very reassuring to see the move towards blending skills and knowledge into meaningful and relevant standards that give credit to students learning rather than assess stand-­‐alone skills without a context. This is exactly how we design our current NCEA assessment material and booklets, and we are already confident that our material will be easily We are excited about the new units that have been written and how they have been grouped together. They will challenge students, add even more acknowledgements to their skills and knowledge, and offer more options and opportunities for schools to build programmes that ensure the student is at the centre to ensure engagement, value added and pathways. The addition of skills for work unit standards ensures recognition for each students work awareness and readiness, and offers valuable recognition for work experience and placements which we know are happening with many students already. Continued on next page …. 6
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What does it mean for you? 1. ALL current Supported Learning unit standards will be reviewed at the end of 2016 and then there will be a further period of probably 2 years when they are “expiring” before they are officially “expired”. So, your current unit standards could be used with your students through to the end of probably of 2018 before it will cost you any more as we offer the free update to take you through to then. 2. The new Supported Learning unit standards will start to be developed this year and will be available for purchase from 2016 for those who are keen to get started on new material or as options for students. 3. The National Certificate in Work and Community Skills will be expired at the end of 2017. The New Zealand Certificate in Skills for Living can be started from listing and will eventually replace the Nat Cert from 2018. Note: the unit standards within the Nat Cert will continue to count towards NCEA until the standards themselves are “expired” … which is very reassuring and exciting! Note also, the new unit standards will also be stand-­‐
alone unit standards at NCEA Level 1 that you can pick and choose from for your students and the New Zealand Certificate in Skills for Living is an optional qualification and programme. Term 2 2015
How will you know what is happening? Once the new qualification is listed very soon, it will go out to schools for consultation. This means you can have a good look at the outline and credits that will be available in the future. We are looking forward to re-­‐aligning our material for schools and offering options and opportunities to make the transition smooth and positive. All official information about the new unit standards SHOULD be coming from NZQA who have invested time, money and expertise into modernising the Supported Learning domain. Your Principal’s Nominee should pass on information to you, and we will also keep you up-­‐
to-­‐date to ensure we support NZQA information. Rest assured, we do plan on offering our existing customers like yourself a discounted price from 2018 to ensure you have continuity with material and resources. Up until then, your SLR material should continue to be used so you get a return on your investment (which we feel very strongly about) ... and you will already be ahead of the game by using a style of material now that can be re-­‐aligned easily as it blended and thematic … great news for all of you who have been future proofing!!! We will keep in touch will all NZQA news and developments!!! To help you understand the new unit standards and what they mean for your programmes, we will be communicating with you next term about:-­‐ 1. The NZQA Consultation document 2. FACT versus OPINION on the new standards & qualification 3. Potential combinations/options for your students 4. How our present material fits into the future standards 7
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Term 2 2015
A NEW Science Series developed for learners needing support and focused topics within Year 9/10 Science (or for older students). We are developing 25 .pdf workbooklets to align with the NZ Science Curriculum. More d etails will be emailed out soon, but if you would like a flyer outlining the topics, just email us & we will send it right along for you to share! The Living World – 6 titles/workbooklets The Physical World – 7 titles/workbooklets The Material World – 7 titles/workbooklets Planet Earth Beyond – 5 titles/workbooklets “Education for All” – options & opportunities
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