Kia ora tātou | hello to us all

Today is a staff only day for NCEA and curriculum development, and our Year 7&8 students will be rostered home on Monday for further development of our curriculum at those levels alongside the primary schools in our catchment. I just want to explain why this is happening:

NCEA has been around since 2001 and a revamp has been underway for the last four years - this has been dogged by disruptions and has proven to be very complicated, with guidance still missing for some subjects, and our teachers need to be ready so that students experience well planned courses. In 2024, this will only affect NCEA Level 1 which includes Literacy and Numeracy requirements
The New Zealand Curriculum has been in its current form since 2007 and a rewrite was started a year or so ago. This isn’t intended to affect students until 2025 but all teachers’ planning is based on this so we need time to critique drafts and develop our plans.

Our year 7&8 teachers are working alongside the teachers of year 6 in our “kāhui ako” | community of learning so that students can experience one well-designed curriculum with a smooth transition to high school.

We’re not just doing staff only days during term times: our teachers are returning to work early next year to spend a day learning about the effects of neurodiversity on learning and behaviours and will have another day of learning together during the autumn holidays. We understand the inconvenience of these days for families and thank you for your support.

I’m very proud of our Teen Ag teams competing in the Rural Games at the NZ Ag Show. We had five teams, two from years 7&8 and three from years 9&10. They competed in 18 modules covering theory and fun action and our year 10 boys placed 2nd; star results in gumboot throwing from Maggie Bull and Dustin Rowlands!

Our Board met this week and it was good to welcome new trustees Rachael Scott and Ariana Batstone whose experience will be very valuable. We covered a range of reports including a concerning one about numeracy showing low levels in years 8-10 which we are working on a plan to address. We also noted roll growth (a prediction of 812 students in 2024) and further growth in international students, as well as a pleasing investment from Primary ITO in our Tawera Rural College Trades Academy.

It’s a busy time for recruitment, both new staff and internal roles, for me. Congratulations to Assistant Principal Carrie Whyte on her move to St Thomas of Canterbury from the start of next year.

Ngā mihi maioha (warm regards)

Andy England

Key dates:

See https://darfield.school.nz/calendar/

Friday 17 November: Canterbury Anniversary Day
Monday 20 November: Year 7 & 8 students Rostered Home
Thursday 30 November: Senior Sign out morning (9am-12pm)
Friday 1 December: New Entrants (Year 7) Transition Day
Tuesday 12 December: Junior Prize Giving, Last day for Students