This is the first publication of our Community newsletter, it has been a while in the making. A big thank you to all the contributors to this first edition.

I hope you had a an amazingly refreshing holiday break. It’s scary to think that we are now half way through the year and we should be on the way to achieving all this ambitious targets we set at the start of the year. You know the ones … Reduce wine intake, read at least one academic book each term, exercise the dog at least twice a week and  keep the spouting clean and oh yes. I hope you are showing more measurable progress on all of these than I am. (But there is still the next six months.)

On a serious note, a big thank you to you all for  completing the Kahui Akõ staff survey. In the end we had responses from all schools and a total of 158 teachers. I know this took some extra effort at the end of a busy term but the overall engagement was great. We have established our own baseline. (And  more than a few ideas for how to move forward.)

Overall the results have been surprisingly positive and reinforcing. There is more happening than I had imagined and there is real optimism amongst you all for the future of Kahui Ako. Just a case of getting organised to deliver.

To this end I would like to highlight some opportunities this term to "Communicate and Connect." 

Obviously we hope this newsletter will be a positive start. Two more newsletters will be published over the term. (Week 6 and Week 10.) Look out for these in you emails. If you have something you would like to see feature/contribute, share it with your Across school teacher on their school visits. We want the newsletter to be informative for you as teachers and be informed by you as teachers. You sharing your successes inspires others.

On August 16th the Across School Teachers will be facilitating a Cafe meet and greet in Rakahuri at the High School 3:45-5:15pm. (See attached photos.) These are themed chat groups designed to initiate communication and topics of interest across the community. We had 30+ teachers attend the last session and we would love to see this double in Term 3. We see real potential here for teachers with common interests to meet face-to face, not everything should be on-line, and build a network. I know it is another meeting, but if we can establish these informal networks they can lead to formal groupings in the future. 

Otherwise, have a wonderful start to the term, enjoy the last weeks of winter and  "teach to make a difference."

David Taylor

Lead Principal

Pūketeraki Kāhui Ako