Kia ora, talofa lava, greetings

A very warm welcome back to another term, it's great to see the children and staff together again as we head into the Winter months. This week is actually my first week back at school as I had the pleasure of attending an education conference in Toronto last week.  

As a school, we have started our journey with a global project known as 'New Pedagogies for Deep Learning' (NPDL).  The pure focus of this project is about building academic success through cultivating future skills known as "the 6 C's" - Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Character, Citizenship and Communication.  Research says that these will lead our students to be successful in our ever changing world, both today and in the future.  Last week's conference was an incredible opportunity to learn more about this and I have been reflecting a lot about how these will fit in with what we are doing for our learners here at Clearview. 

I am very excited for our school to be part of such a future focussed project and we have committed three years involvement to this as we develop our own knowledge about deep learning.  This project is gaining significant momentum and what I admire about it is that all schools involved are trying to implement the same learnings, despite the country we live in or the education system we work within.  

This lead photo (above) is of the NZ contingent present at the conference.  During the week, I sat at tables with colleagues from countries such as Canada, Uruguay, Finland, The Netherlands, USA and Australia.  We may have been speaking with different accents, but we were talking about one common thing - education.  We were all passionate about education and giving our students the very best.

My week was topped off with a day visiting Aldergrove Public School in Toronto.  They have gone through significant change in how they embed deep learning opportunities for their students and how they partnered up with their community.  The opportunity to experience such professional learning was amazing and would go down as one of the most enriching and professionally beneficial learning experiences I have had.  Thank you to the BOT for supporting my endeavours to attend and I look forward to what we can do as a school as we continue to move forward.

Last week was camp week for Teams Spark and Quest and what a fantastic week it was!  The reports I have heard from students, staff and parents who attended have been excellent and I thank everyone involved for making the camps so successful.  School camps are always a highlight of the year and the experiences are long lasting.  New friendships are formed and/or strengthened, children are challenged to take risks outside of their comfort zone and there is always lots of fun and laughter.

Tomorrow, we will have holding a special welcome to all new students, staff and whanau to Clearview Primary in the way of a mihi whakatau.  This term we have had two new teachers start and it's great to have them on our teaching team.  Firstly, Miss Melissa Smart has begun teaching in HB 35 and secondly Miss Cheree Cowsill has joined the Red Sparks in HB 18. 

All the very best to our Year 4-8 students for their cross-country race tomorrow. I know many of our children have been training hard in preparation for the event and these efforts will be well rewarded I'm sure. It will be great to see lots of parents here to cheer on the children throughout the day too.

Finally in staffing news, congratulations to Miss Lorna Wright (HB 21 Teacher) who was married during the holiday break.  Lorna is now Mrs Fitzgerald.  We are all thrilled for Lorna and Liam and wish them a lifetime of happiness.

Enjoy the rest of your week and have a lovely weekend.

Naku iti nei, na

Rob Rush

Principal/Tumuaki