Sheffield Contributing School

Sheffield is a rural, contributing primary school with a decile rating of 9. The roll is stable, and has ranged from around 85 - 110 pupils over recent years. There are 5 classes, and the teachers are supported by support staff. The school is situated 60 kilometres west of Christchurch, nestled among the foothills of the Southern Alps. Lakes, rivers, ski-fields, national parks, Christchurch and countless other recreational activities are less than 30 minutes away. The school grounds are extensive. Ongoing landscaping and property initiatives have developed further native bush areas and places for the students to work and play. The school buildings comprise five traditional open plan classrooms. A library, an administration area, learning support room, an adventure playground, a sandpit, and a new resource building complete the permanent fixtures. The school is well resourced in all curriculum areas. Particular emphasis in recent times has been the development of high quality ICT equipment. Each classroom has access to a television, a large number of laptops and iPads and a learning management system. Special needs assistance has been built into the school budget. Teacher aides and part-time teachers work with individuals and groups of children for short blocks of time, sometimes withdrawing children, other times working within class programmes. A number of children have ongoing resourcing for individual special needs and have part-time teacher or teacher aide assistance funded by the Ministry. Teachers implement programmes which extend and challenge children of all abilities.Support services attend the school regularly. These include the Public Health Nurse, Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour, Speech Language Therapist and other specialists. The school P.E.A.K. values are at the heart of everything we do at Sheffield School. As a result, relationships between students, staff, board and parents are positive and the school enjoys fantastic support from the Sheffield community. The Board of Trustees and PTA are very proactive, supporting a wide range of initiatives which benefit the students. Parents are involved in many aspect of the programme including PTA, fundraising, sport, camps, transport, classroom programmes, library and options programmes. The children are a pleasure to teach. They are well supported from home and come to school keen to learn. There are very few behaviour problems in classrooms or in the playground and bullying is not tolerated. Children’s interests are broad and include athletics, swimming, tennis, cricket, netball, rugby, soccer, hockey and basketball. Keas, Scouts and Guides are operating in the area. There are many cultural activities available including a dance school, speech and drama clubs, gymnastics, art classes and various music tutors. Sheffield School maintains close ties with the other schools in the Malvern district, coming together regularly for sporting and cultural events. The school has recently participated in ICTPD project, as part of the Malvern cluster of schools. ICTPD (Information and Communication Technology) is a Ministry of Education funded initiative, which offers exceptional professional development opportunities to those involved.