Jean Batten School

Jean Batten School is a state, contributing, primary school located in Mangere East, Auckland. 

 

The area adjacent to the school was established in the mid 1960s.  The school opened in February 1970 and gradually built to a roll of over 700 in 1973.  Since then the roll has settled to the level it is today (around 460 pupils).  A significant factor in the school’s roll is the number of migrant families settling into the area.  This has resulted in a wide mix of cultures being represented in the school, many of whom speak English as a second language.

 

The school was officially opened by Jean Batten on 7 March 1970 and we are proud that our school has been named after this famous New Zealand aviator.  Of Jean Batten’s many famous flying feats, her greatest achievement was to fly her plane, the ‘Percival Gull’, solo from Great Britain to New Zealand in 1936 - the first person to do this.  The school’s motif is an image of Jean Batten’s plane and our motto, ‘Faith in God – Confidence on Oneself’ is attributed to her. Although Jean Batten lived most of her life overseas, she visited the school on several occasions and, following her death in 1983, she left a significant amount of money to the school in her legacy.  One thing she requested the bequest to be used for was a prize for annual oral reading competitions which we now run at all levels of the school.  Legacy money is also used for prizes associated with the school’s annual speech contests, other competitions and for music.

 

The school hall was opened in August 1999 by Mr Rick Batten, a nephew of Jean Batten. The Grace McPeak Information Centre (library and ICT suite) is named in memory of a former principal.


Mission statement

At Jean Batten School we challenge our students to navigate their learning on high-flying pathways that will prepare them for take-off into the future.

 

Vision statement

High flying students.

 

Principles

High expectations

·         All students will achieve at or above national achievement levels

·         A strong focus on raising achievement levels in literacy and numeracy

·         Recognition and celebration of success.

 

Learning to learn

·         Students taught, and encouraged to develop, higher order thinking and reflection skills

·         Nurturing of independent learning skills

·         Use of inquiry learning and SOLO Taxonomy as a teaching methodology.

 

Treaty of Waitangi

·       

All students participating in te reo Māori me ōna tikanga lessons.

 

Community engagement

·         Families share in their children’s ongoing education

·         Responsiveness to all school community cultures

·         Following practices that recognise the multi-cultural make-up of society.

 

Cultural diversity

·         Teaching programmes which help our students to understand the traditions, histories and heritage of other cultures in the community.

 

Coherence

·         A logical curriculum that develops the whole child and leads to further learning.

 

Inclusion

·         Individual learning needs and styles of students catered for in a non-discriminatory manner.

·         Programmes developed to meet the special learning needs of individual students.

 

Future focus

·         Use of inquiry learning strategies to investigate, problem solve and consider local and global issues that affect us all

Developing skills and confidence in the use of information communication technologies.


High Flying Students Value:


H

onesty

I

nnovation

G

enerosity

H

ard work


F

airness

L

earning

I

ntegrity

E

xcellence

R

espect

S

tamina