Principal News

As we turn the corner on Covid19 it has been heartening to be able to return to a sense of normality.  Not having to wear masks anymore has made a massive difference for our staff and students.  The face is so expressive and important in a school context as it gives everyone better clues on how people are feeling and their emotional state.  

It was great to be able to return to whole school events and our athletics day was a huge success.  To see 500 children smiling, laughing and enjoying each other's company was a joy.  What was amazing was that everyone's behaviour was perfect and we barely had to redirect a student all day.  I also loved how the whole school showed great team spirit in the inter-house relays and a cameo from Grayson as he ran down the back-track hurdles over the lunch break.  

After keeping the number of people in the school to a minimum over the past two and half years it was wonderful to be able to open up the doors again and see such a huge turnout of parents to our Kaitiakitanga Museum.  This was the culmination of many weeks of hard work and thank you to all the parents who took an interest in what their child was working on.  Strong evidence has accumulated over the past three decades for parent engagement as a mechanism in the transmission of educational advantage.  Essentially, the more interest you put into your child's learning and how much you value school and education can have a direct impact on your child's learning.

Thank you to everyone who completed the Board of Trustees community survey this term.  We have been able to collate some important information and see some positive trends.  A special thanks to those who have made comments and suggestions.  We have listened to them and will definitely be acting on a number of your ideas.  I have included some of the graphs in the picture section.  Most notably the people who participated in the survey felt that the school was a safe place, the teachers were approachable, and that their child was overall getting a high-quality education.

We were very pleased with our results but also know that we can do a lot more and we will be having a Teacher Only Day on Friday 18th November to start making plans for 2023 and to give the teachers time to write your child's report comments.

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the democratic process and elected our new Board of Trustees.  A special thank you to everyone who stood for election and congratulations to Peter Renton, who will continue as Board Chair, Rhys Wilson, Sarah Summers, Gus Geary, Steve Carr, and Mari-anne Coughlin.  Some of the work they will be working on in the final term of the year will include refining our policies and procedures, reviewing the 2022 Annual and Strategic Plan, creating a 2023 - 2025 Strategic Plan, reviewing and analysing student achievement data and continuing work on major property projects.  It will be a very busy next three months for our Board of Trustees.

We have some personnel changes next term with Grant Phillips leaving Tahuna to take a promotion at Abbotsford School.  Grant has been a long and loyal servant to the Tahuna community and will be missed.  He has taken on a number of leadership roles within the school and his influence on our education outside of the class programme has been immense.  We all wish Grant the very best in his new role.

Finally, as always, I hope you get some time together as a family over the student's break and that your child will come back ready and refreshed for a big and final term of 2022.

Nga mihi nui

Simon Clarke

Principal