We all know that Te Ao Mārama is a special place. It’s a place for our students to come and feel empowered to learn and grow. To achieve “their” success. This is made possible by the wonderful team of teachers and ILA’s.

Wait, what’s an ILA? An ILA is an Inclusive Learning Assistant, and they are a special part of the Te Ao Mārama Team. At the last Board of Trustees meeting, we had a presentation made by Anna Pratt and Pamela Bishop on the inclusive learning support provided in Te Ao Mārama.

The learning support team consists of Anna Pratt, the Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCO), Pamela Bishop, the Learning Support Coordinator (LSC), ten Inclusive Learning Assistants (ILAs), and Big George, the school wellbeing dog.

The additional learning support that is currently offered at Te Ao Mārama through this team and the teaching staff are as follows.

• English Language Learners (ELL)
• Literacy Inclusive Learning Support
• Numeracy Inclusive Learning Support
• Working Memory Support
• Social and Emotional Learning
• Various Individual Learning Support plans
• Individual Behaviour and Engagement Support

What surprised me about the presentation is how many of our students this team reach. A little under half our students are receiving a direct benefit of this additional learning support, and all students indirectly through ILA’s freeing up teacher time, allowing teachers to provide more focused teaching.

The Board acknowledge the importance of this team-based approach within Te Ao Mārama school and consider that the level of support we offer is meeting our students needs and helping them to achieve their full potential. “Their” success. This level of funding isn’t cheap and costs $340,000 per annum, of which only approximately half is received from Government and External funding agencies. The shortfall is funded with Board approval from school reserves.

The Board would like to specifically thank the ILA’s for their dedication to our students, for giving up their break times, and for genuinely caring. So to Keryn, Deborah, Buffy, Shannon, Debbie, Rainy, Kylie, Kimai, Hayley, Ngaroma and Jewel – Thank you. And to Big George – Good Boy.

- Dawn Gibbs

Please click on the images to enlarge to open the PDF attached below.