From Tony

Recently our Board held their first meeting of the year, and Andrew Corkill was re-elected as Board chair for the 2024 year. This was a fairly straightforward decision for the board, serving as acknowledgement of Andrew’s leadership and guidance over the last few years. Andrew has been on our Board since 2018 before the school opened.

As Principal, I am hugely appreciative of the support that our Board provides, and their dedication and commitment has played a huge role in the success of our kura. You can read more about our Board here: https://www.teaomarama.school.nz/school-board 

Secondly, this newsletter contains an overview of our Student Achievement summary shared with our Board. Our results are pleasing and we can see the impact of sustained time at school for both students & staff (2023 being largely unaffected by COVID-19) , and the impact of professional learning, time, $$ and extra staffing.

Many of you will be aware of the new Government’s educational policy of “One hour a day of reading, writing and maths”.

For us, this policy doesn’t make much difference for our school, as we have always had a flexible approach ensuring these core areas are explicitly taught and also integrated throughout our day. Our teachers have always skilfully used the curriculum to teach in ways that best suit the learning, including the importance of actively involving students, working collaboratively and learning through play.

This approach is underpinned by research, and is also evident in the progress being made by our learners.