Every school develops a School Charter to outline the key areas of focus for the school for the long term and for the coming year. School Charters generally map out goals over three - five years. From this charter, the school then creates an annual plan each year to lay out how they will work towards the charter goals. The current year’s annual plan is always published on our school website. 

Strategic planning helps schools and communities work together to establish goals and objectives for their children’s futures. Our school charter runs for three years, and this year is the final year for our current charter. We now need to work with our community, staff and Board of Trustees to develop our charter for the next three years. As part of this planning, we need to review how we are doing so far - what is currently working well, and what can we do better or differently to further improve. We need to look at whether our aspirations for ngā tamariki (our children) have changed or adapted in any way.

We were planning on running community consultation around our school charter in the second half of this term. However, a move to Covid Alert Level 2 has meant we are not planning any events that bring wider groups of parents and community onsite. As such, our plan at this point is:

• Send out an online survey to initially gather feedback around how we are doing as a school, and how we can continue to improve

• Use this information to identify some key discussion areas for an in-person hui at school early next term, once we move to Alert Level 1

• Consult with our Board of Trustees and our staff in several consultation hui at school in Term 4

Here is our initial online charter survey. On the form we have asked people to add their names, as this can be really helpful if we need to clarify ideas or ask for further details. In order to develop a school charter that best meets the needs of all tamariki in our community, we need as much feedback as possible from a wide range of school community. We thank you in advance for your input into this process, so that we can work together to create the best outcomes for ngā ākonga.

Ngā mihi,

Urs Cunningham (Acting Principal) and John Bunting (Presiding Member, Amesbury Board of Trustees)