About Us
Students enjoying the playground.
Concord School is set in large, established grounds surrounded by mature trees in a residential neighbourhood. The school determines to be a community focal point and supports positive family values such as Respect, Honesty, Responsibility and Confidence, that have been identified by the school community. These values are further supported through programmes such as the Virtues project and Quality Circle Time. The staff are committed to empowering our children to be creative, curious, confident, connected, independent, resilient, resourceful, actively involved learners, who strive for success through best effort, self-determination and the courage to make wise and healthy choices for themselves.
The school is located in a small suburban area with residents from a range of socio-economic and educational backgrounds. The ethnic composition of the area is largely European with approximately 18% of the student population. identifying as Maori or Pacific Island in 2009.
Concord school has a hall, a library, a dental clinic, and a pottery kiln, and we host a satellite class from the Sara Cohen School for intellectually and physically disabled students. We liaise closely with the Concord Kindergarten, and a pre-entry programme for 4-year olds, Clever Cats, is run regularly and promotes the social integration and familiarisation of the school environment for this group of children as they transition to school. The Duffy Books in Schools and Grandparents Reading programmes, and the Numeracy Project, help to support our focus on promoting successful results in Literacy and Numeracy for our children.
The staff and Board of Trustees are committed to providing quality, effective learning opportunities for our students, and acknowledge the valuable input of parents/whanau towards achieving this goal.
Virtues
Virtues display.
Concord School is committed to developing a culture of character through adopting the philosophy and activities of the Virtues Project. Our purpose is to build on the values based programmes we were already using, by utilizing the strategies of the Virtues Project to help develop a "culture of character where respect, patience, self discipline, tolerance, cooperation and joy for learning are among the virtues our children master". It is our intention to create a positive, empowering environment in which our children will learn and grow by integrating the Virtues strategies into our curriculum delivery, behaviour management systems and social atmosphere. We also intend to create a total environment of caring and respect that works for all by having an inclusive approach and through modelling by the adults in the community as well.
As educators, the Virtues programme allows us to awaken the Virtues, which already exist in each child, by having the will and skill to teach respect, foster kindness, and model integrity. The Virtues also form the basis of our Golden Rules, and work alongside the Quality Circle Time and Golden Time programmes.
Each Monday we have a whole school Virtues assembly where we identify the Virtue to be the focus for the following week. Teachers then display the Virtue for the week and integrate teaching around it into the daily classroom programmes. Self-esteem is enhanced when shaming or blaming language is replaced by naming the Virtues, our innate qualities of character. There is an emphasis on speaking the language of the virtues to acknowledge, guide and correct. The language of Virtues reminds us of what kind of people we want to be.
Key Virtues For 2010
Respect - Honesty - Confidence - Responsibility
Assemblies
Every fortnight, on a Friday afternoon, we hold a whole school assembly where the children share what they have been doing in class, and teachers present certificates to those that have earned them for social and academic achievements. We celebrate the great things that are happening and our successes. Parents and families are invited to join with us in the celebrations.
Sometimes we have a speaker or a special presentation as part of our assemblies as well.
Assemblies are run by our senior pupils, under the supervision of a different teacher, each assembly. This is one of the senior pupil leadership roles.