Kia ora koutou e ngā mātua, e ngā whānau, Talofa lava, Malo e lelei, Konichiwa!

Welcome to the second newsletter for term 1. The time continues to fly and already we are just over half way through this term!

Charter/Strategic Plan

At the recent Board meeting on Monday, the 2019 Charter and Strategic Plan was accepted. This document sets direction for the 2019 school year with specific annual plans under the strategic themes of

• Learning

• Relationships

• Hauora | Wellbeing

• Environmental Sustainability

This document will be available on the school website www.westmelton.school.nz by the 16 March and in hard copy in the office.

Curriculum update

Health Education Review

Thanks to all the families who responded to our survey about community priorities for Health Education. The draft report has been shared with our School Board of Trustees and teaching staff. The final document will be published on our school website in the near future.

New Pedagogies for Deeper Learning

We are extremely proud of our teachers who have been asked to share their deep learning practices at two up and coming events for educators. Focusing on Play-based learning and NPDL with teachers around New Zealand and Canterbury through the ‘Grow Waitaha’ organisation.

Learning Conversations (Goal setting)

We were delighted with the response from our community supporting the recent goal setting conversations held over a two week period. Currently, the assessment team are reviewing these important conversations to inform future decision making around how our learners manage their learning in partnership with families and school.

Staff have had an informal opportunity to hear feedback from parents throughout the conversations, however we believe it is important to hear first hand from you on your thoughts and how you would like to be involved in your child’s learning from an achievement perspective. In this newsletter we invite you to participate in a short survey with your contributions for consideration.

As National Standards are now no longer mandatory for reporting on learning progress and achievement, we are drafting what this may look like after spending 2018 researching best practice, attending specific professional development, looking at what other schools are doing and what is best for our leaners and community.

As part of this review process we are considering the following initiatives,

• Learning conversations (known as Goal Setting) for the remainder of the year - frequency, when, duration…

• What will student led conferences now look like ( feedback received July 2018 from community)

• A parent portal where you will be able to have feedback on your child’s learning. Currently some communities have been using ‘Seesaw’ 

 Please take the time to share your thoughts and ideas in the survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8Y7M9WM

It’s Time/Kua Tae Te Wā

You may remember that teachers and principals took strike action twice last year to send a message to the Government that more needed to be done to fix the teacher shortage and make teaching a more sustainable and attractive profession.

After conversations with government in January, our union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, has agreed to return to formal negotiations with the Ministry. The Government has continued to state that there is no more money to settle the agreements but we are continuing to campaign for a quality public education for every child. We believe that winning more time to teach, a significant pay jolt to attract and keep people in teaching, and better resourcing for children with additional learning needs is as important as ever.

Any progress in negotiations will be reported to teachers and principals at paid union meetings around the country in the week of March 18-22nd. These meetings will be held during school time and where possible will not impact on learning as teachers have more than one meeting to opt into attending, ensuring there are staff on site.

Public polling has showed continued strong support for what we are trying to achieve for our students and the future of the teaching profession. Parents in particular see the struggles we already face in hiring teachers and finding relievers when teachers are sick.

We greatly appreciate your continued support as we continue our campaign to ensure every child gets the best possible teaching and learning.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day will be celebrated at West Melton School in front of the memorial on the front court with the service commencing at 10am. We look forward to remembering this special time with members of our school and wider community.