Planned change to school start and finish times for 2020 to support Professional Learning for teaching staff

You may be aware that a large and ever-growing number of schools across Canterbury and New Zealand have made changes to their start and/or finish times once a week in order to provide professional learning time for teaching staff.

At Middleton Grange School we have held back from doing this for some time, however the pressure to meet our professional obligations has increased significantly over time and this is being further exacerbated for us with some of the new requirements that the Ministry of Education are placing on us in regards to: NCEA being reviewed; ensuring our teaching staff are culturally responsive in their practice and able to support ‘Wellbeing’ across the school and the need for supporting e-learning across the school including BYOD for Years 9-13. In addition to this, our main priority is to be continually upskilling ourselves as staff to ensure we teach from a Christian, Biblical and Christ centred context and create a ‘rigorous learning culture based on an understanding of truth as revealed in the whole counsel of Scripture”. (MGS Mission Statement)

From the start of 2020 changes to the regular teaching programme will be:

· Year 7 to 13 Students – Monday’s / 9.15 am start
There will be a later start time for Year 7-13 students every Monday morning with their Monday classes commencing at 9.15am. This will allow all teachers of Year 7 to 13 classes to have Professional Learning time from 8.00 am until 9.10 am every Monday morning. Each Monday Form Time, Interval and lunchtime will be slightly shorter meaning that lessons in the afternoon will only be impacted by being 5 minutes shorter than normal. School will finish at the usual time of 3.20 pm.

· Years 1 to 6 Primary School Students – Wednesday’s / 2.30 pm finish
Classes will finish at 2.30 pm every Wednesday for Primary School students in 2020. This will allow Primary teaching staff to have their Professional Learning time from 2.30pm on Wednesday afternoons. Primary teaching staff have identified Wednesday afternoon as being more suitable for them and their parent community as opposed to Monday mornings
Parents or caregivers of Primary aged children (Years 1 to 6) will be expected to collect their children from school at 2.30 pm every Wednesday in order to allow the Primary teaching staff to participate in their Professional Learning time. For Year 7 to 13 students, the usual Wednesday afternoon programme will remain unchanged.

Where needed and by mutual agreement, provision will be made to look after Year 1 to 6 students who need to remain at school after 2.30pm until 3.05pm on a Wednesday due to family circumstances. Further details will follow in a later newsletter to facilitate this process.

This is a trial arrangement for 2020 and we will review the effectiveness of these strategies during the year. The Middleton Grange School Board of Trustees supports these initiatives and will be eager to see outcomes that have positive benefits for our school community and especially our students.

Further details about these initiatives will follow in subsequent newsletters and we will also keep you informed via our school website and Facebook page.

We would appreciate your prayers and support as we trial this new model of Professional Learning for our teaching staff in 2020 and we will keep you informed as to how things progress.

In Christ

Mike Vannoort

Principal