Kia ora e te Whānau

It has been great to be back this week after my return from principal sabbatical.  Thank you for such a warm welcome at the gate and in the playground!  It has been a pleasure catching up with children and whānau about their experiences over the summer and throughout term 1.  Children have started term 2 this week refreshed after the holidays and there is a buzz in the playground and learning spaces with happy and engaged children.  Please see the latest Pānui from Rakinui and Takaroa in this week's newsletter.

I would like to acknowledge and warmly thank Jenny Felton for stepping into the Acting Principal role in my absence last term and to our leadership team and staff for all their support and work so far this year. The plans for the year were in good hands and as expected it was a very productive term as teaching and learning programmes and annual plan goals got underway. 

There are a number of new ākonga who have joined us this term. A very warm welcome to:

Kelly (Y7 Totara) 🙂
Boston (Y5 Raupō) 🙂
Sachi, Max (Y1 Harakeke) 🙂🙂
Leo (Y2 Harakeke) 🙂

The newsletter communications last term have shared the extensive work of the school and staff with you along with a wide variety of rich and student learning experiences  children have been involved in.  All school newsletters and celebrations of learning are  archived for  easy access in 'archived newsletters' under the news tab.  If you haven't caught up with the latest from Lyttelton Primary School in a while I recommend a look through our school fortnightly newsletters.

A number of events are planned over term 2.  Totara get underway with their second term of the Technology programme at Christchurch East School on Monday afternoons. Our school cross Country is in week 4 held at Ferrymead Park. Thursday afternoon Winter Sport for the Rakinui Floor begins in week 5 and there is a significant and updated version of the Aupaki Tech Fest planned for week 8 held out of the Tūranga library. We look forward to sharing more with you regarding Matariki later in the term to coincide with our term 2 learning celebration. 

There are a large number of initiatives staff and leaders are involved in this year including: evidence to accelerate literacy, Mathematic pld, Cultural responsive practice and Te Reo, digital technology curriculum, positive behaviour for learning, enviro initiatives, better start literacy, Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum, the curriculum refresh and more!

With this in mind, you will be aware that Collective Negotiations have been underway for primary teachers and primary principals for some time.  You may have seen in the media that primary and area school principals who are NZEI TE Riu Roa members have voted to stop working with the Ministry of Education and to limit our work hours. We have taken this action as we believe it is necessary to highlight the significant issues that we need to address in the current round of negotiations. We are committed to continuing to lead our schools and to ensure that they are safe, healthy places where students are learning during this time. Our day-to-day work to do this will continue, but we will no longer be working with the Ministry on their education system work or to introduce or implement new initiatives. As principals we make a significant contribution of time and expertise to this work. There is little additional resource or staffing to support this which has a negative impact on us. We will continue to meet with our boards. We will not be available for work or to be contacted before 8am and after 5pm on weekdays. This includes sending or receiving digital communications. We will also not be available at all on Saturday, Sunday or public holidays. We hope to receive an acceptable offer in negotiations and will end the work ban when that happens.

Kia pai tō ra whakatā

Brendan