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From the Principal's desk

Bruce Kearney —

Dear Parents and Caregivers, It is now Easter and I hope this newsletter finds you all well.

My family is currently sharing a cold around being locked up together, and this morning they all made me have a shave and put something else on other than my yoga pants and ‘wham make it big!’ t-shirt from the 80s. It’s very sad. Here is a quick update on what is happening in your school:

· Our tutor teachers should be making contact with all their groups. I have contacted most of mine (still a couple to go) and it has been fantastic talking to parents and students who are making the most of the lockdown, but also looking forward to seeing some school work happening.

· Many of our teacher have trialled teaching online this week. The Ministry of Education in Wellington informed me that we were not allowed to start teaching this week, and so we have asked teachers to ‘trial’ this week by having Google Hangouts and posting work to our online classrooms. Our official start of the Term in Wednesday 15th April. Please remember that this week was an optional week for staff and students. I want to thank those staff who put their energies into this trial week.

· This week’s trial has highlighted some issues:

o Our AP, Kim van Vuuren, has had the unpleasant role of creating a secure and reliable platform for online learning. She has worked tirelessly with a wide group of people including the MOE, our IT company, teachers and students. This job has been incredibly frustrating and not in any way easy from a remote point of view. I think what happens is that the Government has a great idea to get computers to students and then, once it is announced, the implementation and demand for them is larger than expected. This has not been helped by the fact that we had no time at the end of the term to get devices out, and are not allowed back to access them. All I can say is that Kim is working extremely hard to support our families and dealing with some fairly difficult people. Please be patient and kind to her if you are requesting help, she truly is doing her best and I am incredibly grateful that I am not having to deal with it as I would have lost my cool some time ago! An example of this was the MOE letting all schools know that Skinny was providing free internet access. Kim was the first to order it as a trial and quickly found that they required people to pick up the modem from their local library. Since the libraries were all closed, this idea fell down. The offer was removed shortly after she informed the MOE. One step forward…two steps back. This has happened a number of times, and always to Kim, as she is the first to investigate these offers. I think they have blocked her phone number now…

o Parent expectations of their children during online learning seems to be a little varied. I think that we were probably working at about 90% teacher involvement this week, which was great. We do need to understand there is some ‘looseness’ to online learning. Here are my suggestions:

§ Make sure that your son or daughter is online and engaged for the one period where they are ‘in class’ online. All students by next week will have been informed when this is. Already this week we had classes running and running well. This is the most important element of our teaching and learning. If you are suspicious, have a look at your child’s email and classroom. Let me say…they know how to access both. If you are still unsure, email the teacher.

§ Having one period online means that they have three periods a week to self-manage their work. Again, check their Google Classroom. There will be no homework so they should get all their work done during the day. Sit down and chat with them about what it looks like. Don’t forget that our students spend quite a bit of time socialising and chatting, which is the one thing they miss the most about school. I would say a fair amount of work time would be 40 minutes for each hour. They will get a lot done in that time. We have five periods in a day. Here is an example of a possible day:

9.30-10.10 Maths

10.30-11.10 Science

11.45-12.45 Online class with teacher

1.30-2.10 English

2.20-3.00 Business Studies

Good structure, plenty of breaks and starting late – finishing at 3pm.

· Our head students have compiled an Easter video for you all. Please have a look. They are fantastic young people. Four of them are also recording their ANZAC day speeches to share with the RSA and I will share them with you all.

· Finally, we are currently trying to get ahead of the game a little. Our DP, Elizabeth McMeeken, and Matua Remi are investigating possible timetables for our return to school. Our experience has told us that changes are often placed upon us at short notice, and if we are expected to reduce possible contact for a few weeks while school starts we may have to try a different timetable, for example juniors in the morning and seniors in the afternoon. This is exceptionally complex (and well beyond my ability), as it includes making sure that classes have the same amount of contact time, and organising buses, canteen, music lessons etc. Who knows…we may not have to do it, but it is better to have an action plan in place, rather than running around making things up as you go.

· I have included in this newsletter a more robust document from Kim van Vuuren on teaching and learning from home. I hope you find it useful.

Happy Easter!

Bruce Kearney, Principal