Kia ora whanau,

We have had another busy start to the term with a number of events and activities that students and staff have been involved in. It has been great to see our students demonstrate their skills and learning in a wide range of areas- Tech week, winter sports, school athletics, writing competitions etc. If you do have a spare moment, I highly encourage you to get along to one of the many sporting events that our students are involved in. We share our weekly schedule on our Facebook page if you are interested in getting out there to help support our students.

COVID & Winter illness

We are still experiencing a number of staff and students affected by COVID. While the infection numbers are not as high as we experienced in Term One, there are still a number of people affected by the virus. It is a timely reminder that wearing masks is highly recommended while inside classrooms with others (as uncomfortable as they are).

The advice from the Ministry of Education is that any child who has COVID-19 or is a household contact must remain at home for the legally required isolation period, regardless of whether they have returned a negative RAT.

Isolation is currently seven days with Day 0 being when a positive test was returned or from symptom onset. At the end of the seven-day isolation period if the child is still sick, they should stay home until they are well and for 24 hours after they no longer have symptoms.

There is no need to wait for an official message to leave isolation although you may receive a text message confirming their isolation period has ended.

If your child is sick or unwell please keep them at home until they are well, also please let us know so we can support their learning while they are at home.

ERO

Recently we had a review from ERO (Education Review Office). The model of review has changed since our last review back in 2018, we now have an evaluation partner who works with our school to support the kaupapa and learning that takes place here. Our previous report was a positive review of our school back in 2018, and this was again the case with our most recent review. Our evaluation partner from ERO noted the following points for feedback-

‘The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to achieve equity and excellence for all’

• A leadership team and board who are highly committed to improving outcomes for all ākonga, with a focus on achieving parity for Māori

• A localised curriculum in the junior school that is responding to individual learning needs

• Strong learning-focused relationships between kaiako(teachers) and ākonga (students)

• A commitment to a culture of inclusiveness through whanaungatanga and manaakitanga

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• Continuing to build culturally responsive and relational pedagogy in consultation with whānau, hapū and iwi

• Extending the curriculum developments in the junior school into the senior school to further respond to individual learner needs and aspirations

• Continuing to develop and refine school systems and processes to realise the aim of all ākonga achieving their personal best

• Supporting kaiako (teachers) with targeted professional learning opportunities.

In the next few weeks we expect to receive the final report from ERO. We are not expecting it to be any different from the information already provided. Once we have this report we will share it with our community.

Prizegiving

At the end of every year we celebrate the various successes our students have achieved at our annual prize giving. Over the past two years these have been severely disrupted by COVID. We are reflecting on how we run our prize giving and would like to hear your feedback on these events and how we can improve them. If you have any suggestions on these events could you please complete our short survey so we can take these into consideration for our events later in the year. 

Prize giving feedback https://forms.gle/EfoKTEQDdnAB6y7K6

Nga mihi nui.