Welcome to our 1st newsletter of the year.

We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of 2 newsletters a term. Apart from a note from me and a couple of teachers occasionally, all the content is written by our students. Writing the school newsletter seems a perfect way to showcase our writing in an authentic context. And giving our students a voice!

I hope that some of the issues we faced earlier in the term have been resolved - unacceptable bus behaviour, irresponsible driving and parking on wet days, and lateness to school among them.

Now at the end of week 5, we seem well settled and into good routines. I am pleased to see more and more year students taking responsibility for their possessions, managing their time and making good choices in the playground.

We are using a new digital monitoring platform this year called Linewize. It gives all teachers clear and timely insights into what their students are exploring online. We can track everything done on our domain, both here at school and after hours off site. For the most part our students are managing themselves well while using our internet.

My initial concerns are the students who are intent on exploring inappropriate sites and content well into the night, using our school domain. We are discussing this behaviour with the individual students in the hope that knowing we can track their searches will be a discouragement.

Please be vigilant about your child’s access to the internet. A child exploring the world wide web at 1am in the morning is not in a good place for teaching and learning the next day. I urge all parents to have rules in place for device use at home.

Earlier this week all the school boards met at the college for an evening of sharing and learning about their role as board members. It was very interesting to hear from all the principals about the history of their schools and the ways we are working together.

This week saw all our teachers who are members of the NZEI attend Paid Union Meetings. Teachers, like principals, have been asking for some general parity with their secondary counterparts – more access to leadership units, increased release time to manage workload, improve their practice through observations and PLD and meet the ever-growing needs of students in their care. Your students are always at the heart of the matter. I suspect that there will be a ballot that signals a call to strike. If that is the case, the strike day will be March 16th, the same day as secondary teachers. The board and I will keep you informed.

The image above is the 1st iteration of our new co-constructured school charter and values. I look forward to sharing it with you in the coming weeks.

Thank you for supporting our casual dress day. We are very pleased to be able to support the distressed communities in Tairawhiti and Hawkes Bay at this time.

Nga mihi nui

Angela Lowe

Principal