Wow, it has been a super busy and successful year for the Southland Team in 2021. We created a one day Southland NZSL Immersion Hub at Wallacetown School which has been very popular. A big thanks to Emma Clarke for taking the lead on this. We have been able to host some events to connect with our learners and whanau. Thrown back into lockdown, our team navigated innovative ways to engage with our students and worked well collaboratively to make things fun for our students. There were competitive streaks coming out between Staff Members too which made for fun times.

Our fabulous team see students all over Southland, from Tapanui to Stewart Island so we have to be innovative with the ways we work with students when distance can be a challenge.

At the end of Term 2 we sadly farewelled Jill Meikle who had been our wonderful Lead Teacher. Fortunately, the very capable Helen Gibbs from our team stepped up to become our new Lead Teacher and is doing an amazing job of keeping us in line. A big thank you to Alice Woodcock who took on the role of Lead Teacher in the interim.

In Term 1 we welcomed our Whanau to an informal evening to meet and greet others. It was a great night to meet up with families and see past students.

We were lucky to be able to hold a KIT day in term 2 at Wallacetown school so all students could get to see our lovely Hub classroom. During this day we split into groups and did a rotation of activities to celebrate NZSL week, such as; making pizzas, icing biscuits and NZSL games.

Covid 19 has again created uncertainty with planning events but we have plenty of ideas for our future planning.

We would like to thank our wonderful students, our wonderful whanau and Ko Taku Reo for giving us all these opportunities to make learning better for our students.