Last Friday saw our amazing Kapa Haka group perform at the Onepoto Festival. While there were some challenges with the event running late, our students had their time on the big stage and made us all very proud. They are certainly a loud and strong group. A huge thank you to Mrs Louise Lavulo who leads this group so well.

Auckland Transport have been working with us to try and find solutions to the safety at the school gate concerns we have. Next Wednesday and the following Wednesday, they are trialing blocking off Otakau Road from 2.00-4.00pm so cars cannot enter or exit the street at this time. They have done this in other Auckland schools with great success so want to try it here. It is aimed at encouraging parents to park further away eg Milford Mall, and walk to collect their children. Please see the their flyer further in this newsletter.

Over the past few weeks we conducted a survey about the various ways we report to parents. We asked you about the timing and format of these, and for any comments. 227 people responded, which was fantastic, and, as is expected from a large, diverse community, the responses were diverse. For example, while some liked the student-led conference day as it was, others wrote of the challenge with childcare and time off work. While some thought the parent-teacher-student meetings were good especially for goal setting together, others didn’t want their child to be there at that time. Some other key ideas that we will certainly look at were; that at the meet the teacher evening, each teacher leads their session in their classroom (not as a team), that written reports have an online/digital version; that the timing of when the reporting events happen is looked at. Overall, most parents were happy with the variety of ways we report, with many saying it is a great school, they have happy kids, they appreciate the communications, and like seesaw (but would like more on it). We have started to discuss these results and will make some decisions on what reporting will look like next year, giving everyone plenty of notice about these. Thank you to those who responded.

In summary:

Next year we are holding a Summer Daze School Fair on Saturday 14 March. More information will come to you in the new year but please save the date. It will be a fun community event!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Ngā mihi nui

Sue Cattell