We appreciate it is really difficult to juggle family, homeschooling, and work balance at this time. At least the weather has been kind so far. We look forward to everyone returning to school once we are allowed to do so again.

As a Board, we are reviewing the mid-year achievement reports which are extremely encouraging. We are proud of the tamariki and their continued academic and personal growth.

To continue to grow our success, the school is actively investing in the new Structured Literacy program which you may have heard about in the news recently. Pegasus Bay was an earlier adopter of this approach, which was identified by a senior leader through Professional Development and follow-up research. The initial results of this program are extremely encouraging, and it appears to make the pathway of confident reading and writing fair cleared and more accessible for our tamariki. We are now looking to roll this approach throughout the school as appropriate.  In addition, we have also been researching the 'Maths, no problem' program that is designed around the maths teaching methodology in Singapore. It has been used in our Year 8 cohort this year and results have been very positive.  Staff across the school are now receiving professional development on this, and we will roll it out across the school in 2022.  

The Board and school leadership team are looking to refresh the curriculum to ensure it remains relevant and contemporary. We expect to provide further information early next year, and will invite whānau to consult with us as that time.

We are thrilled with plans for the development of a new playground, along with a purpose-built sports shed to house our outdoor sports equipment.  We hope these projects will be completed for the start of the 2022 school year. 

We want to say a big welcome to Dan Perriam who has joined us as a home room teacher in Peka Peka, and also welcome back to Sandy Watson, Roger Smith, and Jenny Hood as our regular release teachers.  A special thanks and good luck to Tessa and Caprice who have left our team recently. 

Finally, a huge thanks to all of our staff. We continue to evolve and change every year, and the success of the school and our Tamariki is only possible through your amazing support.

Greg Van Meer

Chair, Pegasus Bay Board of Trustees