Tēnā koutou,

I would like to start off by wishing our wonderful Brian a speedy recovery. Brian was taken quite unwell earlier in the week and will be away from school until the end of this term. We are staying in touch with him and his wife, Lynn, to check in on how he is going. He is feeling a bit better, and will be resting and recuperating for the next couple of weeks. Brian is a legend about the place, keeping everything spic and span and safe for everyone. As with many people, we only truly notice how much Brian does for us all when he is not around to do it. We hope to see him up and around very soon, and we wish him a restful Christmas with his whānau.

Student wellbeing survey

As we are on the topic of hauora and feeling safe and well, we recently completed our second wellbeing survey with our Pōhutukawa students. Here is the link to the summary of the data collected, including a comparison of high level wellbeing data over the past four years.

Overall, we have made some great progress with it this year and we are really pleased with the positive shifts in our wellbeing data. The data clearly indicates that students feel safe and have a strong sense of belonging at school. We also have a good indication that many students are feeling that learning is personalised for them. Our data around a sense of agency in learning (feeling like students have some control and ‘insiderness’ in their learning) is increasing, which is pleasing to see. Our focus now is around focusing on levels of engagement in learning. We feel students have been showing this more this year, and we want to keep building on this, and also look at how we can accurately get a sense of the levels of engagement in learning. Another area to explore is ways of getting accurate wellbeing and engagement feedback from younger students.

Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to Belinda and Eilis for organising the wonderful Amesbury Games event last week. It was a great opportunity for ākonga to try a range of different physical events and to challenge themselves to give new thighs a go. We have had fabulous feedback from students about it, and a sudden increased interest in orienteering! It was a lot of work behind the scenes to make it all happen, so thanks to you both. Thanks also to all the whānau volunteers who helped out on the day and helped it all to run smoothly. These different opportunities don’t happen without additional support, and we are really grateful to you all for your help.

And so, on to Activities Week! We have camps, trips, and sleepovers happening over the next few days, so lots of excitement and activity all round. Here’s to a busy and fun filled week.

Ngā mihi nui, 

Urs Cunningham