Welcome

Welcome to our website – indeed welcome to our school! 

 I hope that our website will be a useful portal for you to get a sense of who we are and to communicate with us.  But nothing beats a personal approach.  I would like to encourage you to come and meet the team.  Gaye O' Connor (Deputy Principal), Debbie Collinson (Assistant Principal), Diana Benton (Administration Manager) and Gay Wilson (Office Support) are very friendly and welcoming ladies.  They will only be to happy to be of assistance. To contact me directly please email paulp@carlton.school.nz and I will respond as soon as I can or call Diana to make an appointment or to request that I call you as soon as possible.

 When I was appointed as Principal of Carlton School in 2009, I was ever cognisant of the fact that Carlton has a proud history of achievement and success.  My predecessor Trevor Hall, was in the job for 22 years.  During that time he led a stable, successful school which continued its 53 year history as a good school that is proudly owned by its community.  Trevor ensured that Carlton paid attention to its core business of teaching and learning.  During his tenure Carlton also became financially sound.  What a wonderful foundation for me and our team to build on.  So before I can talk about where we are at and where we are heading, it would be fitting to pay respect to those on whose shoulders we stand.  We are truly grateful for the 53 years of excellent staff, students, Boards and Parents whose labours have made Carlton a very successful school.

Every parent wants to know what a school offers their child.  They want to know that their child will be happy and safe at school. They also want to know that their child is progressing.

I hope this website will help to answer these questions for you.  If you would like to talk in person to either myself (Paul)  or our Deputy Principal (Gaye) please send us an email and we will be in touch to arrange a convenient time to meet. Paulp@carlton.school.nz or Goconnor@carlton.school.nz.

We are a Habits of Mind School. The habits of successful people have been studied in detail. Art Costa crystallised these dispositions down to 16 habits, which we explicitly teach to our children. We believe that this helps to set our children on the path to life-long success. If your child is struggling to read and write, we have 6 strong pathways to address their needs. Depending on the need, your child could be

1.  Placed within the class in a reading group with children of similar ability and need. This is called instructional group reading.  It’s been proven to be highly successful.
2. Your child may need to work with Gay Wilson (Teacher Aide with 25 years experience) in a group where your child will receive specific targeted teaching to help close the knowledge gaps.  Gay has experience helping young readers to success.
3. Sarndra Vincent runs Toe by Toe which is a remedial reading and spelling programme aimed at teaching specific skills to struggling readers across the school. For more information about this programme email our Deputy Principal goconnor@carlton.school.nz
4. Your child could be placed on to LEXIA, a computer based reading programme for a short period to help them practise and close the gaps in their knowledge.  Lexia is highly effective and it’s able to generate reports on your child’s reading behaviour which clearly shows us what their needs are.
5. Phonics is explicitly taught to junior classes – bucking the whole language trend of the last 20 years.
6. Our school has a Reading Recovery Porgramme which is recognised as being highly effective in getting selected children back on track.

Apart from these pathways, the Junior School is lead by Assitant Principal Debbie Collinson. Debbie is recognised as an expert in literacy. She was mentored by Dame Marie Clay and she is a trained tutor of reading recovery tutors. Debbie also served as Massey University's Literacy Advisor for Taranaki. 

Bullying is a big concern for parents. If you would like to know why so many parents want to enrol here and why we have an enrolment zone to control the numbers enrolling – please read about our positive choices programme (Our Programmes > Behaviour Management). It works because there are clear rewards and consequences. We are a no hitting school and we are very vigillent about bullying issues.   

We are a Health Promoting School. In accordance with that philosophy our programmes are aimed at nurturing the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health of our children.  The following practices align with this:

1. Fruit in School – our children receive free fruit everyday.
2. Kapa Haka and Te Reo – all children learn aspects of Maori Culture once a week.
3. Jump Jam – an aerobics exercise programme aimed at improving personal fitness.  There is also a daily fitness programme in operation.
4. Sport : We organise – cross country; soccer, netball, cricket, hockey; swimming; touch; flippaball
5. Keeping Ourselves Safe – run by the NZ police & various other anti-bullying programmes
6. The arts: We produce a musical every 2 years; Talent Quests are held in the alternate years. We also have a school choir.
7. A supervised summer lunchtime swimming session in our indoor pool promotes socialisation and physical fitness.

Our school is an inclusive school. If you have a child who has a significant disability, why not enrol them with Arahunga, our partner school? We have an Arahunga satellite class on our site which is very much a part of our school. We are inclusive – and your child will have many chances to integrate within the mainstream context.  For more information contact Arahunga School Principal James Abernathy on 027 3487139.

We pioneered a boys class at Carlton. This is now the fourth year of its successful operation. This class caters for years 5 and 6 boys for whom a different style of teaching may appeal. It is more tactile and hands on. Academic learning is broken up into shorter time units by either physical or tactile activities. They have a higher ratio of adults to pupils than the standard class. The boy's class is a fully digital class - one laptop per child. Their teacher is especially trained to deliver a boys programme. This is NOT a naughty boy’s class. These boys are selected across the range of our male population. There are academically gifted students to the academically challenged, sporting champs to the not so skilled; and artistically gifted to the not so gifted. In other words – a normal mix of boys. The one thing they have in common is agreement from their parents and teachers that they would benefit from being taught in a different style to the traditional model.  It’s a collaboration between the child, the parent and the school. Once a year we have a boys class dinner. Parents, the boys and our staff meet over meal to discuss the class.  If you would like to read the 2011 boys class survey – please click here.

Our school is rapidly modernising its computer equipment. (In 2008 we had a ratio of 1 computer to 10 children. In 2011 the ratio is 1:3!  In 2012 we established 3 fully digital classes.) We have plans to roll out fibre optic cabling so that we can take maximum advantage of the government’s ultra-fast broadband rollout in Whanganui. We plan to improve our children’s ability to blog, to collaborate, research, share and learn online.  They will podcast and Skype and log in to lessons from around the world – wherever there is a centre of expertise for them to tap into.  It’s already happening at Carlton – watch the pace pick-up as ultra-fast broadband is unleashed on learning at Carlton.

We are growing leaders. Each year we select a headboy and headgirl to lead a team of 8 school leaders. They meet each week and contribute to the running of the school. School leaders have the ear of the deputy principal and are a direct line to her for what’s going on amongst the student body. They lead assemblies, meet school visitors, perform a range of duties to help the school run efficiently.  Our leaders are sent on a leadership development day to inspire them into continuing their leadership journey.  Young leaders enjoy a leader’s dinner once a year with the Deputy and myself. We book an exclusive room at a good restaurant wherein we enjoy each other’s company and celebrate their contribution to the success of the school.

We haven’t forgotten what it means to be a child. The wonder and awe of the world and the joy of playing.  Our children are allowed to climb trees – they learn their limits and test their skills and boundaries.  We have soap box cars that children race around the playground in. It’s a simple Kiwi No.8 wire design – 4 wheels – rope – two planks!  The joy our children derive from playing with them is priceless.  We’ve promised them a new go-kart track soon – on which they can race, push uphill and careen downhill, complete with all the road signs.  We also have 4 Huffey Sliders for the Senior School to use.  We often have a massive water pistol fight on the playing field. Kids bring their super soakers, line up in house teams and FIRE AWAY. It’s a blast! Our houses also compete against each other in a variety of games such as tug-o-war or house wheel relays for no other reason other than the fun of it.   Through play comes tremendous opportunities to learn.

We are the second largest primary school in Whanganui. We often have to turn children away because we don’t have the space. There is a reason for this. Our school has a good reputation within its community. Our Board is stable and committed to raising student achievement and it accepts no excuses in that regard.  When you enrol here, you become part of our family and your child’s interests are our interest. You can expect the best from us, as we do of you and your child.

Come and visit us and see what we have to offer or read our ERO Report.   

Welcome to Carlton.

Paul