Tēnā koutou e te Whānau

Welcome to the last newsletter for Term One. It has been a fantastic term full of exciting learning experiences for our children. This is captured beautifully in this week's Take a Peek video. I know you'll enjoy watching it. These opportunities are only made possible by the ongoing support of our community and the hard work of our staff. So a big thank you for making this such a great term.  

Last week I had the privilege of representing the Selwyn region at the New Zealand Principals' Federation Moot in Wellington. The Moot is held annually and gives an opportunity for principals from across the country to share the challenges and successes schools are experiencing directly with politicians and the national executive. 

During the day, the new Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, outlined the education initiatives Labour has brought since taking over in 2018. These initiatives are just the start of education improvements in Aotearoa, with more to come. We expect some significant announcements in the coming week, so watch this space!

Minister Tinetti also stated that although many school leaders had expressed concerns about the pressure the NZ Curriculum Refresh was placing on schools, this needed to be pushed forward as it was a key piece of work for improving education in our country. The changes to the NZ Curriculum go hand in hand with the introduction of the Common Practice Model and the National Learning Priorities, which are designed to improve achievement outcomes for students across all sectors.

There were addresses from Bruce Jepsen (Te Akatea President) and Saane Faaofo-Oldehaver (NZ Pasifika Principals' Association President). They shared strong messages about improving support for Māori and Pasifika students and our obligations to Te Tiriti O Waitangi.

The programme also included a political party panel discussion featuring Labour MP Angela Roberts (an Associate Minister of Education), Greens Co-leader Hon Marama Davidson and National's educational spokesperson Erica Standford. Erica spoke about National's somewhat controversial announcement last Thursday regarding its new education policy. She stated that National had learned from the mistakes of National Standards and that the new policy was not a rehash of the Standards. More details about this will follow.

The feedback gathered from each region was shared in the afternoon, and this will be included in the NZPF manifesto to go to the government. The common themes to emerge included concerns about the lack of resourcing, challenges of dealing with the increasing number of complex student needs within our schools, principal wellbeing and population growth. These themes were shared across the country. Specific reference was also made to the frustrations of education continuing to be used as a political football and the disparity in funding between the primary and secondary sectors.

Overall, the Moot was a great experience to be involved in and completely reinforced the challenges we all face. We look forward to the coming policy announcements on education, which, we can only hope, will help address some of these challenges.

Finally, as this will be my last newsletter for a while, I want to wish Cathie Zelas and Tracey Mora all the best as they take over the reins as Acting Co-principals when I depart for my sabbatical next week. Anita Head will also be stepping into a new role next term as the Acting Associate Principal. I know our school will be in very safe hands in my absence!

I look forward to reconnecting with you all when I return in the last week of Term 2.

Ngā mihi nui

Stuart Cameron 

Principal