Kia ora Parents/Whanau, The first week back, and what a busy week. The tamariki have come back and settled in very quickly, which has been great to see. There has been lots of positive learning going on. We had the Education Review Office in our school this week, our cross country was held on Thursday and next week we have the Year 5/6 camp at Waipara.

Education Review Office (ERO) visit

We welcomed a team of three ERO reviewers on Monday. They have spent the week giving the school a comprehensive education health check. They have delved into learning programmes including wider curriculum, behaviour processes, our values and how well they pervade the school, how happy our tamariki are at Redwood School, unity of vision and direction and much more!

The Leadership Team, Board, Teachers and Support Staff have all worked hard as a team to make a positive difference at Redwood School for all our tamariki… I am very proud to be part of such a great team and to receive such positive feedback about them.

The feedback from ERO has been very much appreciated. Some aspects they fed back were:

· Teachers know their tamariki well and teach to their needs and strengths

· Outcomes in reading, writing and maths are good and development in these areas is evident

· The school provides a safe and nurturing environment for our tamariki to learn in

· The thing that tamariki said they valued most were the teachers, because they know the children and care for them

· The values and behaviour systems are very strong through the school

· There is strong unity of vision and direction between Leadership Team, Staff and Board

· That the Board is well informed by the school and supports the outcomes for all tamariki

· The bicultural focus through the school is well developed and has led to improved outcomes for our Maori tamariki and flowed through to all our tamariki

· The good opportunities we give to our tamariki to learn and be involved in a range of things

The next steps for us as a school we have identified as reporting to parents without ‘national standards’, assessment across the broader curriculum eg science, PE, the arts, etc. and aspects of teaching the wider curriculum.

What has been fed back is not the final report version. In a month the report will be sent to the school for final comment and input before it is released in about 7-8 weeks by the ERO. I will keep you up to date about this and copies will be available on-line, on our website and through he school office.

Nga mihi,

John Stackhouse

Tumuaki/Principal