In this article we share the process for the upcoming Whānau Conferences… discuss the 'where to?' after National Standards… ask you to help review our school policies for 2018 and inform you about our lockdown emergency drills.

Kia ora

It has been a busy start to the term and classes are now settled into the year.

Whānau Conferences

One of the most important events this term is the Whānau Conferences to be held in weeks four and five. These are an opportunity for whānau to focus on the year ahead and to set goals to work on. By this time, teachers will have had the opportunity to get to know your child and will have information to share that will also help in this process. We also send home a discussion document that helps you provide additional information about your child that the class teacher may not already be aware of. We encourage all whanau to come as this develops the partnership between home and school. Follow this link to an article in this newsletter explaining these conferences in more depth, and providing the link to the booking website.

National Standards

As you will be aware, at the end of last year the new Minister of Education Chris Hipkins announced that schools would no longer be required to report on the National Standards. This decision was related to a range of concerns associated with the National Standards, in particular the language used to report achievement to both the student and whānau.

The Ministry of Education has indicated that they will be working with the sector to develop a new system to replace the standards. In the meantime, please be assured that at MPS we will continue to use a range of assessment tools to make robust judgments about our students’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

We are committed to sharing high quality information about achievement with parents and students that is assessed against the levels contained within the NZ Curriculum. These levels are closely aligned with the outgoing standards but will also reflect a broader range of learning areas. The sharing of this information will continue to take place in a variety of forms including Learning Conferences, regular contact with teachers and formal written reports.

We are excited about working with the Ministry and our community to develop a new system that better reflects the progress our tamariki are making and will keep you updated as this develops. This will also form part of our policy review being carried out at the same time.

Policy Review

At Mt Pleasant School, we keep all our policies and procedures online on SchoolDocs. This ensures easy access to our policies and procedures for parents and also allows for their easy review. The policies are reviewed on a three-yearly cycle. However, feedback on policies can be sent at any time.

Our SchoolDocs policies and procedures are organised under the National Administration Guidelines:

• NAG 1: Curriculum

• NAG 2: Documentation and Self-Review

• NAG 3: Employer Responsibility

• NAG 4: Finance and Property Management

• NAG 5: Health, Safety, and Welfare

• NAG 6: Legislation and Administration

Later in this newsletter, you will find a Policy Review article giving you the details of how to provide feedback on each of the policies for review in 2018. 

Emergency Drills

As part of our Health & Safety responsibilities, we holds drills to ensure we all know what to do in an emergency. Yesterday we held our Reverse Evacuation or Lockdown drill. This is where all students and staff are held within the buildings or in a safe place while an emergency takes place. This can be for many reasons.  Should we activate a real lockdown, communication between the school and the community would take place via our Emergency Text Alert System, our MPS App or our school email tree (as discussed in last week’s newsletter). This will keep you informed while keeping phone lines free for communication if required. Because of security reasons, we cannot give the details of the practice we use during these events. However, if you arrive at MPS and there is a two-tone audible alarm sounding, we ask you leave the property and remain outside until the alarm stops sounding. If you are on the school grounds when it sounds you should enter the closest classroom and follow the directions of the staff.

MPS Rebuild

Finally… as we announced late last year, we have appointed designers to begin the planning for our building developments. We are presently working on the timeframe for the year ahead. As part of this we will be holding consultation events over the Term 1 period. We will be sending home a specific outline of this in the upcoming weeks. We look forward to engaging with our school and wider community with these developments. We having exciting times ahead!

Have an enjoyable and balanced weekend.

Kia pai tō rā

Chris Nord