Mr Wilcox's final Highfield newsletter

Kia ora tatou,

It feels quite surreal to be writing my last Highfield newsletter and it definitely feels very emotional. Over the last three years I have worked tirelessly to create a school that is supportive, forward thinking and fun. As a Principal you give up so much of your own family life to take on a much larger family. The rewards of doing this are immense and you get to form fantastic relationships. However, this takes lots of energy and mental toughness. Like all humans we thrive from positive feedback and comments and it is really important to provide these, even for principals.

When I first took on the job I did not envisage that a pandemic would come knocking at our door. This has created different challenges, particularly this term with high student and teacher absences. At times it has been like a balancing act, but I feel Highfield has come out of this glowing and with lots of learnings for our future.

The tamariki at Highfield are very special and I thoroughly enjoy walking through the classrooms, playing sports and listening to all of their stories. They are always kind and accepting to me and I fully appreciate their honesty. Highfield is an awesome school that welcomes children from every different walk of life and it is so wonderful to see all of them getting on and forming lifelong friendships.

Our kaiako and support staff at Highfield are hard working and supportive of each other and it has been great getting to know each of them. I work quite closely with Nicola, in the office, and like me she is working so hard to ensure Highfield runs smoothly, from being the front of house, to working with staffing and finances.

Whānau, thank you very much for choosing to send your children to Highfield. We are a great family school and having you as part of this is very special.

A huge thank you to our Board of Trustees who help to govern the school. Without their help and time we would not be able to move forward and make progress.

Lastly, I wish Mrs Cooper lots of luck as she takes on the mantle of Acting Principal for Term 2, whilst the Board are interviewing for a new Principal. Robyn and I have been busy behind the scenes doing lots of transitional meetings to ensure that next term runs seamlessly.

Please take some time to read my brief synopsis of the last three years.

Thanks so much

Nga mihi

Stu

At the start of Term 3 2019 I became Principal of Highfield School with very little experience of leading a Primary School but with an exciting plan in my mind and I believe we have gone a long way to achieve it.
Therefore, without hesitation we began our exciting journey:
Our first job was to reset our Positive Behaviour for Learning to equip all teachers with the necessary skills to encourage a positive classroom environment and allow all students to feel accepted and welcome. This in turn allowed Highfield to revisit our behaviour systems and reward students for doing the right thing. Our gotcha system was adapted and students received certificates for displaying and demonstrating our school values. Therefore, we have regular gotcha draws and a whole school assembly that celebrates our successes. This combined with a more prominent house system has slowly changed the culture of our school in a positive and fun way.
My next aim was to rebrand the school by creating a shared vision that has ownership from all stakeholders, particularly from tamariki and kaiako. Through lots of hard work and many changes the school became ‘Together we soar to new heights’. This not only captured our aspirations but also the local environment. We then used this vision and our crisp new logo to create a school poster that displayed what is important to Highfield, our vision, strategic goals and values. These are placed around our school and we have a huge new sign advertising who we are and what we stand for. Part of the rebranding we used HAIL to build an informative, relevant and modern website that whanau, tamariki and kaiako can use without any hardship or fuss.
To ensure we live and breathe our school vision we have worked hard to be more collegial and collaborative across the whole school. Teachers, Teacher Aides share professional development so that we are building staff capabilities and in turn improving student outcomes. In the past year we have had ‘together’ assessment capable sessions sharing knowledge of how to interpret PACT and use the data to help differentiate planning. Moderating writing together has allowed us all to know what to look for particularly when working with small groups. This has built mutual trust, understanding and empathy. Three important ingredients for a healthy school culture.
In 2021 all staff, school leaders and school council created our Highfield Values Pathway. This piece of work started during lockdown with online meetings and then TODs and face to face meetings have allowed the school to have an exciting new teaching tool that aligns with our strategic plan, but more importantly gives specific guidelines, aspirations and a chance for student agency. We all know that if all pupils have outstanding values they all will have a successful future. At the same time we have aligned our strategic plan that has purpose and a clear direction.
Building and refreshing Highfield’s curriculum is really important and we have been fortunate to gain centralised funding and use this to work with a provider at Senior Leadership level and with all staff. Therefore, our curriculum review is well underway and we have co-constructed our Term 2 Social Sciences together, so that there is progression, continuity and teacher and student understanding. At the same time our supportive board recognises the importance of professional development and has helped the school fund a year-long structured literacy programme so that all staff sing together and students receive the same consistent approach and language. Last year we officially opened our whare, where we have specialised Te Reo teaching for all tamariki and professional development opportunities for our kaiako. Putting more te reo signs around the school has enhanced our bicultural understanding.
Other important developments have been creating a senior management structure that builds and supports all staff, students and community. Giving specific roles and responsibilities have brought teams together to share in good practice. Teachers and leaders use our co-constructed professional growth cycle to help guide, reflect and improve practice.
Our recent ERO report states:
Highfield School has made progress in addressing its priorities for improvement. Board members,the principal and teachers are working together to ensure positive outcomes for students. The school is now collecting reliable learning information to inform classroom and school-wide planning. Collaborative practices are successfully supporting an improvement focus likely to improve and sustain student progress and achievement.
The school has made sufficient progress to transition into ERO’s Evaluation for Improvement
Process.
Wow - we should all be so proud of what we have accomplished and the school is now in a perfect position to grow and carry on its exciting journey.
Once again, I would like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement during my time at Highfield.