Kia ora e te whānau,

It has been a busy start to Term 2 and things seem to be ticking over here at Te Puna Wai o Waipapa! The industrial action has obviously meant disruption to teaching and learning and I recognise how hard this has been (and may continue to be, but fingers crossed) for students and families. On all of these strike days and with rostering home we have our library available for students to come and use our resources and facilities to keep up with school work. We don’t get many takers but I did want to make sure people are aware that all students are welcome for self directed learning. Let’s hope for a resolution soon. Ngā mihi for your continued support. Our teachers are important and very worth it!

There is change in the air in our senior leadership team with Marie Stribling being farewelled next Friday. Marie has been a huge asset to our kura leading teaching and learning and will be missed. I know I am having to prepare for life without here to answer all of my questions! I wish Marie all the best with the travel she has planned and life after Te Puna Wai o Waipapa. With that, we welcome Hayden Shaw into the Deputy Principal position with the portfolio for teaching and learning. We were stoked to get someone with Haydens experience and expertise in the position and look forward to welcoming him to our kura at the beginning of Term 3.

All whānau should have received some reporting on your child’s progress. Year 9 and 10 had an interim report at the end of term 1 and seniors had their first report that was available on the portal at the end of last week. I hope they served a purpose for you, in particular giving you an indication of how your child was doing. You will receive an invite to book a tutor led conferencing slot very soon if you haven’t already! This is a great opportunity to get a decent overview from the person at Hagley who knows your child as a person and as a learner the best, their tutor teacher! There will be an online or face to face option and I would really encourage you to book in and have this conference. It looks different depending on the age of your child but in the senior school in particular it will give you an indication of progress towards NCEA. Credits may seem a bit slow coming on the portal so it is a great chance to see where your child is actually at! Co-constructing a plan for the next wee while is another key part of the conferencing.

Lastly, we had a video crew in last week which was full on in a good way! Essentially they are looking at innovative curriculum and in our case we looked at student empowerment. It was an incredible opportunity to showcase what we do and how we do it and it reminded me that we (read me) get a bit bogged down in the day to day that we sometimes lose sight of the cool things we offer here for our students. It was whilst being interviewed that I came to the realisation that building a foundation of strong relationships, positive wellbeing through a student exploring their identity as a young person then leads us to be able to do what we need to do to focus students on their learning outcomes and/or areas of specialisation. Now I have always known this about Te Puna Wai o Waipapa but it became a lot clearer! I love that our students express their identity (and that changes) through what they wear and how they are. I love that students stop me to ask how my day is going, make an effort to hold the door and embrace courses like Hauora at year 11 and 12 as that is just what we do here! I overheard a new student say the other day – “What is Hauora?” and the student who has been here forever replied “It’s cool, you will like it, just don’t overthink it”

I continue to learn everyday about our school identity and what that means for me as a leader. Authentic is what we aim for as do I! Happy days!

Reach out if you like, I am always open to feedback – rw@hagley.school.nz

Nāku noa, nā

Rowan Milburn

Tumuaki | Principal