Tena Koutou Katoa

By way of introduction, for those of you I haven’t had the chance to meet in person, I am James Le Marquand, Executive Principal of Ko Taku Reo Deaf Education New Zealand.

I have been involved in Specialist Education for over 30 years. Before joining Ko Taku Reo, I had been the principal of Arohanui Specialist School. As well as my role as a principal I have a background as a strong specialist education advocate which has included roles as the president of the Auckland and National Specialist School Principal’s Associations and the chairperson of Autism New Zealand. I was recently involved in the development of the conceptual framework of the Ministry’s Learning Support Action Plan. The premise of this work is something I am very keen to incorporate into our new organisation as we look to make the best use of the resources at hand for the benefit of our students and community.

2020 has been a very strange year for us all, with COVID-19 now a dominant part of a day to day reality that we are all still learning to live with. While there have been major disruptions to our lives and routines, as a school I have been extremely impressed with the general level of resilience shown by our students and the strong sense of whanaungatanga that comes a from the real need to look after one another. Our response to student learning during lockdown was recently applauded by the Education Review Office. Ko Taku Reo moved quickly to online learning and closely monitored each student, ensuring their needs were met and supporting the challenges that came with online learning for our Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. A big thumbs up to the Ko Taku Reo students, staff and families who supported this learning approach. We have learned so much so quickly about online learning and alternative ways of connecting with our student community at distance. While of course, this can never take the place of face to face connection it has opened a wider door for the use of communication technology for the future.

Some exciting news. In 2021, with the support of the Ministry of Education, we are launching a new initiative in the Wellington area. An NZSL ‘Hub-based provision’ is being established to support our Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in this area. This is a new service that will see students’ needs met through both fully enrolled or part-time day provision which will be supported by our enrolled and outreach teachers. We are keen to progress this new initiative with future plans to develop the learning pathway to include an intermediate and secondary education pathway. An update on the progress of this new project will be given soon.

So as term 3 comes to an end, I wish all our students and families a safe term break, time to rest and reflect.

Noho ora mai

Ngā mihi nui

James Le Marquand
Executive Principal

Ko Taku Reo Deaf Education Centre