Like many of you, I had hoped that disruptions to teaching and learning had passed, and this year would see all of us returning to settled routines at school. We have kept life at school as normal as possible for everyone despite the industrial action that most of the education sector is taking. I am hopeful that this week will see a resolution to the year long collective bargaining campaign.

As a member of the Principals’ Council I have been supporting the negotiation teams and pushing for a few things that would make teaching and principalship a more attractive and sustainable career choice. Centrally funded student support would go a long way – a SENCO, a counsellor, a walking DP and a Learning Support Coordinator in every school would be ideal. We are blessed here to have all of these roles on our staff, funded by our operations grant. Many of my colleagues cannot afford these ‘stars’ in their schools.

It was lovely to see so many parents participate in the recent learning conferences. Our teachers commented on how proud they were of their students articulating their learning goals and next steps. If you couldn’t manage the times on offer, please contact your child’s teacher and arrange another more convenient time. Our teachers are expecting this.

Look out for another Celebration of Learning event later in the term. I know both our students and teaching staff loved seeing parents here enjoying their child’s achievements and celebrating our curriculum.

On Friday June 2nd all teaching staff from the Newlands primary schools are joining us here for a combined teachers only day. We are using this day to focus on our core curriculum - literacy, maths and science. We have a speaker from the Ministry of Education to guide us through the refreshed curriculum. We use these shared days of professional learning to develop clear pathways and strengthen practice across our school community.

I have included an article on attendance in this newsletter. This issue has a high profile right now and it was very helpful for us to explore the bigger picture and also what is indeed happening here at our school.

We have yet to confirm the final amount raised for Run for Us but we have been celebrating the students' achievements in distance and a couple of stand out fundraisers!

The recent Red, White and Brass movie experience, nearly 90 participants in Tough Guy Tough Girl this week and the upcoming Strike percussion performance remind me of how diverse and dynamic teaching intermediate middle school students can be. In these times of change and damning media reports celebrating our students and our school cheers us all.

Nga mihi nui

Angela Lowe

Principal