Update from Mr Sim

Kia ora koutou

Thank you very much to all the families who attended our Parent Interviews / Student Led Conferences last week. Our Board of Trustees, through our strategic plan, have set a goal of at least 80% attendance at an event like this and across the whole school we managed to achieve this target. A number of our spaces even managed to have over 90% attendance which is amazing. If you did not make it in for an interview and still wish to talk to one of the teachers please make contact and we will arrange one for you.

Yesterday Shelley and I drew the winners of the lucky prize draw for each of the spaces. The winners were:

Telisha Brougham

Krew Dethierry

Shryan Kumaran

If the winning families could please come in and see Shelley in the office, they will be able to collect their $50 Countdown voucher.

At the start of the week I sent out attendance letters for families where attendance has been less than 80%. Do you realise that for a student to be counted as attending regularly they need to be at school more than 90 percent of the time. Students who don't attend regularly will have missed at least five days in a 10-week term and 20 days of learning across the year. 80% attendance means your child is missing one day a week, 10 days a term and 40 days a year which is over a month worth of learning. If you equate this over the 6 years of primary school you start to realise the significant impact these absences are having. A 2016 study by the Ministry of Education showed the relationship between attendance and achievement. About 90 per cent of year 11 students who attended every class in term two attained NCEA Level 1, compared to 60 per cent of students who missed a quarter of the term, or two-and-a-half weeks of learning.

If you have any questions around your child’s attendance please come and see me. If there are barriers or challenges there we can work together to try and overcome these.

Finally thank you to all the families who attended our wonderful Mihi Whakatau last week to welcome our new students and families to the Shirley Primary School community. It was also a wonderful opportunity for our kapa haka group to be part of this welcome and for some of our staff to be able to present their mihi.

The coffee machine will be operating tomorrow morning from 8.30-8.55am. Parents and community are welcome to come and buy a barista coffee for $2. Coffees and hot chocolates are available from the window inside our school hall (Te Whare Putahi). Feel free to stay and attend our assembly at 9.10am. Our assembly tomorrow will be a Celebration one run by the House Leaders. 

Ngā mihi nui Alistair Sim (Principal / Tumuaki)