PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Kia ora e te whānau,

Earlier this week, some colleagues and I were reminiscing about our first year of teaching. For me, my teaching career began over 25 years ago! Choosing teaching as a profession was one of the best decisions that I have ever made. Every day is incredibly unique and working alongside tamariki makes each week an adventure.

As I have shared before, this year I started teaching our Year 5 and 6 Accelerate Programme. I do miss being in the classroom and this programme provides the opportunity to continue to work with tamariki on a regular basis. This group of students has spent the last few months learning about significant historical events, exploring current environmental challenges and preparing solutions for the future. We have even had a visit from local scientist, Dr Phil Ross, to share with us his work with the Rena over the past decade.

As a final learning experience together, we are going to be finishing our exploration of Marine Biology by learning about the science behind SCUBA and then participating in a snorkelling expedition in Pilot Bay. By getting into our moana and seeing the environment, the students will experience their learning in the most authentic way possible.

That is what makes learning come alive - authentic opportunities that encourage our tamariki to explore, understand and design. Our school focus next year will be to continue to develop our localised curriculum that is unique to our kura. This will be a framework of skills, disposition and knowledge that each one of amazing Bethlehem Kids will have when they finish their journey at our school.

An incredible amount of mahi has already gone into building the foundations of our local curriculum this year. Work in the spaces of Science and Technology, Local History, Te Ao Māori and our Green Team has shown that there are strong interconnected themes across our kura: Identity, Authentic Learning, Learner Development, Environment, Collaboration, Community and Te Ao Māori. These foundations will be the starting point for our ongoing work as a kura next year. We will be seeking community feedback as we continue on our journey of building a strong curriculum for our kura that reflects us, who we are and what we value as a Bethlehem community.

Ngā mihi maioha,

Cath