Kia ora Parents / Caregivers / Whanau

Reading through the various articles in this week's newsletter, as well as over recent weeks, it's apparent how clever and engaged our students are.  The things our learners take on and achieve, both inside and outside of school are worth recognising and celebrating.  It's brilliant to see children getting involved, trying new things or following their passions and I applaud them for doing just this.

We pride ourselves on the vast and diverse range of opportunities we offer our learners at Clearview and we also take pride in how our children take these on and excel.  Over recent weeks, we have had children swimming at the Canterbury Swimming Champs, mountain biking at McCleans Island, playing basketball, orienteering in the countryside of Hororata and training hard for the upcoming school cross country early next term.  There are visual art, music, singing and cultural groups, coding clubs, gardening clubs, Jump Jam and various sports teams as well as a vast range of leadership opportunities on offer for the children to opt into.  When you add all of these things up, on top of their normal daily classroom programme, it can make for an action packed, challenging and stimulating learning environment.  Therefore, the children and staff will certainly be ready for a well deserved holiday break as Term 1 draws to a close tomorrow.

Please remember that many of these opportunities on offer at Clearview are additional or complementary to the normal daily instruction that teachers plan and deliver.  They are also planned and organised by our staff who give up their precious time to ensure that we can offer these kinds of opportunities.   A big thanks to them, as well as the many parent volunteers that help make these opportunities a reality.  Much appreciated!

Tomorrow, we have an exciting inaugural event planned called the "Clash of Clearview".  At the end of each term, we will be holding a Staff versus Students competition, starting tomorrow at 12pm with a game of netball.  The students have designed a trophy that will be up for grabs each term in a bid to have some fun and competition between our staff and students.  While we are starting with netball tomorrow, the competitions will be varied each term.  Planned for this year is a wearable arts show, an engineering/problem solving competition and some tabloid sports.  Feel free to come along and watch the action.

LINC-ED

When we start back next term, we will be making the parent portal into LINC-ED live for parents.  LINC-ED is our new electronic school management system that has a lot of functionality for both staff and parents.  For parents, you will be able to login to view things such as your child's attendance data, student achievement information, school account and in the future, parents will be able to pay their accounts securely via this portal.  LINC-ED allows teachers to share learning anytime, anywhere and this can be viewed on any device. We are excited about the potential that the software offers. 

A set of instructions on how to log in will be communicated during the first week  back next term.  We will also be holding regular drop in 'tech support' sessions for parents to be shown how to access LINC-ED.  

As we have mentioned earlier, the way we will be reporting to parents on student progress and achievement will be changing to be more regular and timely.   Reporting will be in the form of "Written Posts" and "Learning Progressions".  Instead of traditional "Mid and End of Year Reports" being written and sent home twice per year, we will be publishing these "Posts" and "Progressions" termly which will be accessible via the parent portal.  

Getting set up with access to the parent portal will be a priority and first on the list.  At the end of Week 2 next term, teachers will be publishing a written post with a focus on a Clearview Competency and in order to access this, you will need to be able to login to LINC-ED.  Here is a quick snapshot of how the release of LINC-ED will be rolled out in Term 2:

Week 1:   

• Parent Portal goes live to parents
• Instructions on how to login will be sent home
• Daily tech support sessions on offer (times and days will be sent home on Monday)
• Parents can log in and become familiar with LINC-ED

Week 2:

• Competency "Post" will be sent home to parents.  (Friday)
• Tech support sessions on offer (if required)
  

Weeks 3-8:

Parent education regarding 'Learning Progressions" will be communicated.

Week  9:

Learning Progressions for Reading, Writing and Mathematics released to parents

Wishing you a very relaxing and safe holiday break, take care and I look forward t seeing everyone back when we start on 29th April.

Nga mihi nui

Rob Rush

Principal / Tumuaki