Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

E tū kahikatea whakapae ururoa Awhi mai awhi atu Tātou tātou e.

Stand tall like the kahikatea, surrounded by strong saplings. Give love, receive love. All of us.

Welcome to our Term 2 whānau newsletter which focuses on our learner value of GROW.

The kahikatea is our tallest native tree which can grow to heights of over 60 metres and has a life span of 600 years! The whakatauki above points out that this journey of growth is not alone – it takes place in the company of younger trees, saplings. By standing strong together they can give and receive love and strength to each other, and weather the storms of life.

This is a great metaphor for our school. We draw tremendous strength from our learners. When we walk together and lean on each other for support, we will grow the most.

As a school community, we continue to travel through difficult times with Covid still interrupting many of our plans and impacting our staffing. With winter upon us we also have the flu season and a range of other bugs and sicknesses to stand strong against! I encourage all staff and students to continue with effective hygiene habits and healthy lifestyles to keep sickness at bay. As a school, we have given all our staff the opportunity to receive the flu vaccine, which is just one of many ways we can help protect our staff and students.

School Attendance

Earlier in the month, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced a $88 million package to tackle school attendance issues, particularly due to Covid-19 impacts. One of the issues is that average attendance rates across the country are currently sitting at about 60%.

For Ko Taku Reo, our Enrolled School average is at 70%, which is the Government’s target for 2024. For secondary students, our rate is slightly higher at 75%. While we still would like to see this improve this is encouraging to see.

NZSL@School Funding

This year’s budget has seen a significant boost to funding for NZSL in Schools. This extra funding is going to be dropped in increasing increments over the next four years. It will help support more early years access to NZSL through Deaf Aotearoa’s First Signs programme and a portion of this will come to Ko Taku Reo to support the ongoing development of the NZSL@School programme. This is a really exciting area of the school that will benefit us as we grow and develop NZSL amongst our staff and students.

Matariki Taonga

On the 8th of June, I had the great pleasure of travelling with some of our Turi akongā and staff to Wellington to be part of a very special Matariki wānanga for our school.

Dr Rangi Mātāmua (Tūhoe) gifted us mātauranga Māori taonga which had been passed to him from his ancestors. He spoke of ancient Māori hand actions associated with Matariki, the gods, the stars and the phases of the moon. He was keen to see these gifted to our Turi community, not just for our Matariki celebrations this year, but as taonga from which Turi Māori can develop their own signs.

Dr Mātāmua is a Professor of Mātauranga Māori at Massey University and a leading scholar and researcher in Māori astronomy, tikanga and te reo Māori research and revitalisation. He has been a driving force for the recognition of Matariki as a national holiday – a world first this year and an important part of our national identity.

I’m grateful to our Māori Strategic Lead, Dr Kathie Rifle, for organising this event and the support of many staff who made it happen. It was a fantastic opportunity to be a learner and grow my knowledge, and to see Turi Māori and Māori coming together with shared language and stories to be part of this experience.

Board Elections

An important event in the school calendar next term is our Board elections, which happen once every three years. This is an important event in the life of the school and those elected have a big responsibility for their three year term.

The Board doesn’t get involved in the day-to-day running of the school, but has governance responsibilities which include: helping to set the strategic direction for the school; monitoring and evaluating student learning outcomes; approving policies; and financial stewardship. More information is available on the School Board Elections website.

Start thinking now about who might be a good person to nominate for election. We’ll call for nominations towards the end of July and will communicate more about the election timeframes throughout Term 3.

Student representatives on the board are elected every year. Although these elections were held earlier in the year, the timeframe of these is changing to come in line with our parent representative elections. This means we will end up having a second round of student elections this year, and those elected in September will be on the board for 12 months as usual.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy winter break and am looking forward to a busy and fulfilling Term 3.

Ngā mihi nui,

James Le Marquand