Kia ora koutou, 

Well it is certainly interesting times ahead in the world of education! I have been listening to our new Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins but don't yet have a clear sense of exactly what is to come. What we do know is that National Standards will be gone, and while many of my colleagues are strongly opposed to National Standards, I believe their introduction has provided a depth of information and clarity for both parents and teachers that we did not have before. Watch this space....

I am looking forward to watching our Kapa Haka group perform at the Peninsula Schools Kapa Haka festival on Thursday. This is being held at Belmont Intermediate, starting at 10am. Devonport is the first school to perform if you would like to join us.

A reminder that we will be holding two information sessions on Thursday to share our new student achievement reports with you. These reports will contain detailed graphs and we would like to take the opportunity to help you unpack and understand these before we send them home.

The STEM room will be open for viewing after this session, and board of trustee members will also be there for a meet and greet if you would like to chat about the upcoming board election - to be held in December.

The sessions are 3.15pm and 7pm on Thursday - starting in the staffroom.

This Thursday is also the first session of our 6 week Te Reo Maori language course for parents.  This will be taking place in room 4 from 3.15 - 3.45pm. There are still available spaces if any other parents would like to join the group.

On Friday this week our 2017 ePro8 team is off to compete against other North Shore schools. Good luck to the team and thanks to Mrs Booth for giving up her lunchtimes to make this happen.

On Friday we will also be hosting approximately 30 teachers from the schools on the peninsula. These teachers will be getting together as part of our Community of Learning to engage in professional development and planning for 2018.

If your child is moving into year 4 next year,  a reminder that we will be holding an information evening in regards to the use of technology (specifically iPads) to support learning. This will be held on Thursday 9 November at 7pm in the hall.

Finally, it is with genuine sadness that I inform the community that Mr Michael Lawton will be leaving us at the end of this year. Mr Lawton has been teaching at DPS for 5 years and is a highly respected and loved teacher. Mr Lawton's son Max starts school next year and he was keen that they could attend school together, at a location closer to his home. Murrays Bay Primary is the school that was lucky enough to entice him away. We congratulate him and wish him every success in this new position.

Have a wonderful week and I look forward to talking to you at one of the many upcoming events.

Naku noa

Melinda