Thank you for your support of our Teacher Only Day on Tuesday. I know for many of you this can be quite an inconvenience.

Closing the school however is the only way that we can provide professional development for all of our teachers at the same time. (We will all be teaching an extra day to make up for this at the end of the year). 

Tuesday was most successful. Being able to have all the teachers from Fenwick, Oamaru North, Intermediate, Waitaki Girls' and Waitaki Boys', along with representation from Kindergarten, come together to share in professional learning was a positive way to launch a call to action the Vision and Goals of our Community of Learning / Waitaki Ara Kahui Ako. Our Purpose as a Kahui Ako is to establish a network of educational professionals committed to working collaboratively to build collective capability. Through Collaborative Inquiry we will establish a seamless educational experience that will create a sense of belonging, raise achievement levels and ensure successful opportunities are provided for all learners to contribute to their community.

Our professional learning day was facilitated by Rebecca Sweeney from Core-Ed. With 120 teachers from all sectors of education with a range of experiences. Rebecca's task was to lead us through developing a shared understanding of the process of inquiry we will all use and more importantly how a collaborative approach will build our collective capability which will ultimately change and transform some of our teaching practices. 

I was excited by the conversations and energy in the room and the future actions that will arise as a result of new learning that will happen for teachers and students.