Ngā mihi nui kia koutou katoa - greetings to you all.

This week half of our kaiako (teachers) attended a paid union meeting with our largest education trade union, NZEI (New Zealand Education Institute). The other half of our teaching team will attend their meeting next week. The union is exploring several key areas in these meetings: the need for improved specialist learning support for our tamariki; teachers’ and principals’ professionalism, which is being challenged in public discourse by our government; and the financial undervaluation of principals and our teachers.

Along with these key areas, another area NZEI and many educators across the country feel very strongly about is the proposed change by the government to cut back the Ka Ora, Ka Ako / Healthy School Lunches programme. Ka Ora, Ka Ako currently offers 230,000 students in about 1,000 of the least advantaged schools free healthy lunches, and is a major safety net against food poverty and poor nutrition. Parents of children at schools with free lunches told researchers the lunches helped reduce their grocery bill, increased financial security and helped change their child’s food choices - towards healthier options, and principals at schools receiving Ka Ora, Ka Ako say the programme has made a huge and lasting impact on students and losing it would be a tragedy.

Last week, teacher union representatives, education sector leaders and Health Coalition Aotearoa co-signed a letter addressed to Christopher Luxon calling on him to continue investing in the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme at current levels. If you haven’t already, please show your support for this extremely valuable and necessary programme by signing this Health Coalition Aotearoa petition to stop the cuts. You can also share this on social media and with friends, to encourage them to do the same, and support our most needy tamariki across the motu.

A few key reminders for the last couple of weeks of term

• Student conferences are happening in the final week of term. Bookings for student conferences are increasing, but we still have a significant number of families who have not yet booked a time to meet with their child’s whānau teacher. These meetings are a fabulous chance to connect with your child’s kaiako. It is a chance for your child to share with you about their learning, and for you and their kaiako to share your collective knowledge about your child. Please book a conference timeslot before Wednesday 10 April.

• Learning celebration: This is happening next week on Thursday 4th April. Please click here for more information about this.

And finally, a huge thank you to the parents and whānau who have been helping out in various ways at school over the past term, including:

- Helping with pizza lunch orders in the office

- Working with Kirat in the library to process and repair books in the library

- Donating fabulous prizes for our Easter raffle

- Making our amazing Easter raffle baskets, which look wonderful and really exciting

- Helping with preparation for the discos next week

- Signing up to coach touch rugby, netball and miniball team

- Helping out at the Ki-o-Rahi festival and/or NZ cricket tournament

- Coming along and helping on our Te Papa trip earlier this term

- Various other help and support around the school

Many thanks to you all for your help and support in these various endeavours. We are always looking to provide a wide range of opportunities and experiences for ngā tamariki, and your help and support makes this possible.

Kia pai te rā whakatā - have a lovely extra long weekend, enjoy the Easter break and treasure the time with whānau and friends.

Ngā mihi nui, 

Urs Cunningham