Digital Learning Update

Our teaching and learning at Western Springs College/Ngā Puna o Waiōrea is complemented by digital devices and the excellent digital tools we have available to us. In our recent digital orientation we familiarised Year 9 students with the processes for using their devices at school and the suite of Google tools/apps we use to help them learn.

Digital citizenship is an important part of all our students’ lives. All students will learn this year about digital safety and their rights and responsibilities in their online lives. Using our school value of ‘fairness’ the students will explore ways to keep themselves and others safe and what being fair online means for them. We are also intending to host an evening presentation and discussion with Netsafe for caregivers about online safety. More details when a date is confirmed. Netsafe has a large number of resources available for caregivers here. 

A major part of their learning takes place on Google Classroom, which is now used by 140 million educators and students worldwide! Google Classroom saves students and teachers precious time and allows teachers to share resources, give good feedback and record student progress. Our teacher/student familiarity with Google Classroom and Google Meet have been invaluable during distance learning due to Covid lockdowns.

Caregivers can receive weekly Classroom progress updates via email. Teachers will invite parents  to receive those updates.  You will need to accept the email invitation in order to receive the invites. If your student(s) are in Year 10-13 an invitation may have been sent already. If you haven’t received it please check email by searching ‘Google Classroom’ or look in your spam folder. In the event that you haven’t received an invitation one will come shortly, so please look out for it. The invite will be sent to the email address you have given to the school for correspondence. 

There’s more  information here about how guardian updates work and what you will be able to see on the update. 

A big thank-you to caregivers for your support in the recent lockdown. Teachers have reported all went smoothly and we do recognise that your input is a large factor in that success.