A large focus of the first two weeks back post lockdown has been on strategies to support the emotional regulation of our tamariki. Academic Achievement is another important focus that we wish to address here.

I was immensely proud of the "learning from home" programme that was delivered by our teachers and engaged in by your children. Upon returning to school the students have settled well into the rhythm of school life once again.

Many commentators (including the Secretary of Education, Iona Holstead) outlined the importance of focusing on the emotional wellbeing of students as we return to school. At St Joseph's we have primarily done this by introducing the zones of regulation (as explained in a previous article). However, we can't solely focus on this and neglect academic rigour.

Over the last few years, St Joseph's has developed our curriculum delivery to improve student outcomes. Included at the bottom of this article, for those interested, are our schoolwide 2019 end of year data, which was based upon "Overall Teacher Judgements" or OTJs. 

OTJs are developed from systematic assessment and extensive classroom observation and offer a fairer and more holistic measure than a one-off assessment. Due to limited class time, however, we won't have the breadth and depth of information required to offer a mid-year OTJ. In lieu of this, we are developing an alternative mid-year report that will be based upon a one-off assessment in each of reading, writing and mathematics.

In the next week, you should receive a Key Competency Hero learning post based on your child's return to school post lockdown. After this, the teachers will be spending the remainder of the term marking and analysing some assessments and developing a mid-year report. These reports will be published on Thursday 2 July. The regular fortnightly learning posts, along with a lot of other "business as usual" will resume in Term 3. 

Warm regards