In 2023, our NZSL Immersion 1-day school has seen an exceptional year, marked by our unwavering commitment to fostering a secure, enjoyable, and inclusive space for our Deaf learners.

Selecting photos for this yearbook, we're reminded of some amazing learning experiences we have been able to explore. Striving for our learners to feel a sense of belonging, success, and achievement. We began our year by focusing on our 'Ko Wai Au?', supporting our learners to discover and share about themselves. This brought a sense of pride to our learners and helped everyone get to know each other on a deeper level.

A highlight for us this year was completing a science unit, where our learners were encouraged to think like scientists and conduct various scientific experiments by moving through the scientific method. This unit was celebrated by a visit from a local legend, scientist and historian, Lloyd Estler, who shared some exciting artefacts and knowledge.

We also introduced New Zealand's history Curriculum into our 1-day school and took this opportunity to explore Deaf history and the history of Deaf Education.

We have planned to finish our year by bringing our learning back to Hauora, supporting a sense of wellbeing. We want to give back to the community in Southland, so we planned a visit to a local rest home where we sang to the residents and gave them baking. We will gift the gifts we created throughout Term 4 to the Salvation Army for Christmas.

We love exploring new ideas and enjoy our tuakana teina approach to teaching, ensuring that we value and utilise everyone's strengths.

Of course, at the heart of our NZSL Immersion 1-day school is NZSL. Seeing our learners become more confident using NZSL and creating their own goals to explore and achieve has been great. We have fun learning NZSL through immersion, a bilingual approach to learning and also through poems, games, books and singing.

We have continued connecting with the children and staff at Wallacetown School and have enjoyed participating in shared learning opportunities through Book Week and NZ Shake Up.

We have welcomed many visitors to our 1-day school, always excited to share our learning. We had fun with Paul Buzzard visiting and sharing some stories with us. We also had Matthew Flynn and Kim Georgine come to film us for a promotional video for the NZSL Immersion 1-day schools. We enjoyed Matthew showing us some new resources on Turi TV that we could enjoy. We also welcomed Sarah de Heer, a senior leader at Ko Taku Reo and other staff keen to come for a look.

We are excited looking ahead to 2024 and what learning opportunities we can bring to support our Deaf and hard of hearing learners.