Tēnā koutou katoa, 

I hope you and your whānau are all doing well as it definitely gets colder and we head into winter. We have been experiencing a higher teacher absence over the past couple of weeks, with a number of staff away due to needing to isolate for Covid reasons. However, the number of Covid cases within our school community is remaining low and steady. We currently have two teachers confirmed with Covid, two ākonga with Covid in Koru Main Group, five ākonga with Covid in Harakeke, and three ākonga with Covid in Pōhutukawa. We do not have any current cases of Covid in Kōwhai, where our youngest students are based. As generally happens, the majority of these cases were already in isolation at home when they were confirmed with Covid. For any cases who were at school prior to testing positive, whānau teachers will continue to identify close contacts and their families will be contacted by Rachel to remind them to keep a close watch for symptoms. 

This term we made the shift to running some events and activities across the school, mixing students from different hubs. This means regular activities such co-curricular lessons, electives and kapa haka are happening each week, and students from different hubs are mixing and learning together. We are very pleased to be able to do this again, but it does mean a higher risk of passing various viruses and illnesses between different hubs and a wider range of ākonga. We ask that you keep monitoring your whānau carefully for signs of sickness, and stay away from school if you or your tamariki are unwell. Please ensure you test if your child shows any symptoms of Covid, and follow the isolation rules if someone in your household has Covid-19. Just a quick reminder that we have a good stock of rapid antigen tests at school, so please contact the school office if you are struggling to access them, and we can get some tests to you. 

Student wellbeing and engagement data for 2022

At the end of last term we completed our Wellbeing and Engagement survey with ākonga from Pōhutukawa Hub and Harakeke Hub. The data from this survey helps us to see what is working well for our students, and what we can continue to improve or work on. The survey we generally use is our own Amesbury survey, which consists of 49 statements that are grouped into 5 categories: safety, engagement, agency, belonging, and personalisation of learning. Students respond to the statements in one of four ways: hardly ever/never; sometimes; often; mostly. Examples of statements are: “I feel safe at school.” “My learning is challenging.” “My teachers listen to me and take time to talk with me.”

Some key strengths from this year's data:

• The categories of safety and belonging showed the highest mean data. This is particularly important during Covid, when anxiety levels are high and time at school has been disrupted for many ākonga.
• Students strongly signal that they feel cared for and respected by teachers - 94% of students answered often/mostly for ‘teachers care for students’, 90% of students answered often/mostly for ‘teachers treat students fairly’.
• There is a strong indication around ‘teachers take action if someone is treated badly’. In 2022, 86% of students answered often/mostly, compared with between 64% - 74% in the 2019/2020 surveys.
• There are high levels of positivity around getting on with people from different cultures. 90% of students answered often/mostly for ‘teachers get on well with students from different cultures’. 83% of students answered often/mostly for ‘Our school wants us to get on with people from different cultures’.

Areas to work on:

• Agency (students having choice, voice, and the space to make decisions about their learning) is the single lowest area. Within the area of agency, most indicators around having choice in learning are fairly high. Indicators around having say in what happens at school are much lower, with 63% of students answering ‘hardly ever/sometimes’ for ‘I have say in what happens at school’ and 63% answering ‘hardly ever/sometimes’ for ‘I have say in what we are learning’.
• Another area that generally scored low is around celebrating students and their achievements.

Both teams have now created some actions they will be taking within their hubs as they respond to the data and look to keep adapting and developing what they do to meet the needs of ākonga. It is really useful to have this data from our tamariki so that we can see how students are feeling about what is happening at school - what is working well, and what we can keep developing. 

Noho ora mai - stay well and look after yourselves. 

Urs Cunningham