Tena koutou nga whanau, nga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa,

It has been wonderful the past week, with the weather being kinder, to see the students outside, playing a variety of sports and making the most of our wonderful environment. The value of whanaungatanga is consistently evident in the playground with the older students supporting the younger ones and helping them out when required.

Last night I attended the Strum, Strike and Blow extravaganza. This was a wonderful event, with children from around Christchurch combining to perform a range of music. We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in these performances. I would like to thank the students for all the work they put in preparing for this event and also thanks must go to Fiona Rice for the number of hours she has worked patiently with the students, preparing them and helping them hone their strumming, striking and blowing skills.

Over the past few years, the Board of Trustees has provided one-to-one digital devices for our students. As you will realise, this is a huge financial commitment for the school. Unfortunately we do have limited budgets and providing Chromebooks for our one-to-one programme means we are limited with our ability to spend on full laptops and other digital devices.

While Chromebooks are an ideal device for day to day usage, access to the Internet and Google Apps for Education (the platform students use for learning) it would be beneficial to be able to purchase some more powerful computers. This would broaden the opportunities for our students in areas such as movie-making, composing, programming and digital image manipulation. Developing skills when creating in these mediums enables students to develop more of a critical approach with regards to their consumption of these forms.

To assist in this we would like to encourage parents to consider BYOD opportunities. There are many benefits to students having their own device. They can personalise these with their own preferences and learning styles, and create a seamless home/school environment. Further information about our BYOD policies is on our school policies portal. Information about how to access our policies can be found here - search for BYOD.

We are gradually making a few changes to the school website. On the top, left-hand side there are a selection of ‘quick links’ with the topics people wish to have quick and easy access to. We are working on having a Parent Information ‘page’ that can be used as a quick reference for parents. This should be ready soon.

Have a fabulous couple of weeks, and let’s hope this fabulous weather remains.

Ngā mihi nui,

Jill