KORERO FROM FRASER

As I am writing this message, our staff are busy starting to put together ideas and develop initial plans for our Semester 2 programmes. This always creates a positive buzz and I know the students and staff alike look forward to starting on fresh learning modules and flight times come Term 3.

Last year we disrupted this process somewhat post-COVID lockdown in terms of how modules were both structured and planned for. Based on our experience and feedback from staff, students and you, our wider community, we have reverted back to what essentially has been our approach since 2016. This has been a positive move getting back to co-taught, integrated modules with the Tautoro structure (four teachers, three learning areas) in place for one line of our Year 10s timetables.

However we haven’t made the mistake of just reverting back without reflecting on what needed to change or be improved. This year staff development and professional learning has been focused on the philosophy of, ‘not new, better’. This has included thinking about how integrating learning areas is enhancing the learning, how we can refine and improve our assessment procedures and feedback to students (and parents/caregivers) and how we can make better use of our online tools to support better outcomes for learning. This is going to include ongoing professional learning for staff in how to make the best use of Education Perfect and currently is focused on how we can integrate the ‘Google Read and Write’ tool. This is an amazing support for all students, not just those who need additional support with reading and writing. Features such as summarising text, easy access to definitions and others make it a tool that helps all learners achieve better. We would love for you all to have a conversation at home about this tool and encourage it to be used often. We are thinking about offering a session for parents and caregivers too.

I look forward to seeing you on the side of a sports field or court some time soon.