culture and philosophy

Our Culture

We provide an excellent, all round education for all children aged from five years to 15 years. Our school is a dynamic place of high quality learning, with small classes and spacious, peaceful classrooms.

Your child will have their family values reinforced in a safe but challenging environment that will bring the out best in him or her. We have a strong academic focus but also a special emphasis on the Arts, particularly Music. From Year 5 on your child can learn a musical instrument and be part of an exciting Performance Music programme as part of their fees. (Note you will have to hire or buy an instrument.)

Both you and your child will be treated as individuals and he or she will have fun learning with us. A strong and active partnership exists between home and school. We encourage you, as parents, to be involved in, and support your child's education. Every day is an open day at our school for parents and grandparents.

Our Philosophy

- Educate the whole child through a balanced programme catering for the intellectual, social, emotional and physical needs of the child.

- Build character based on Cornerstone Values within a disciplined environment.

- Foster in each student a love of learning and the development of skills to be an independent life-long learner.

- Provide an environment where teachers and students respect each other and are on first name terms.

Developing Cognitive Skills

This school places high value on teaching children to be effective and independent learners. To this end all students are deliberately and systematically taught how to use a range of Cognitive Skills of which the following are examples.

Multiple Intelligences

Rangitaiki Independent School follows Dr Howard Gardner's philosophy of Multiple Intelligences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences

Habits of Mind

Arthur L Costa, an international educationalist, defines intelligent behaviours as "behaviours (that) require a discipline of mind that is practised so that it becomes a habitual way of working toward more thoughtful intelligent action."
http://www.artcostacentre.com/html/habits.htm

Thinking Hats

Use of Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats ensures students have a specific way of thinking through problems and evaluating their work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats

Graphic Organisers

Graphic organizers are a helpful way to organize information and are useful because they help our students understand how things go together and assist them to remember information better.
http://themes.pppst.com/graphic-organizers.html