Mo tou ma, mo tou kainga, mo tou ao - For your lifetime, for your community

As part of our annual goal around the ‘Ako | Learning’ focus, we are currently reviewing our school-based curriculum to ensure its alignment with the New Zealand Curriculum. As part of that process, we are developing a graduate student profile which identifies the type of Grey Lynn School citizen we are gifting to the world by the end of Year 6. Once we have identified by the end of Year 6 Citizen we will then develop age-appropriate stages from Year 1 through to Year 6. Our aim at Grey Lynn School is to prepare learners for their future by encouraging and developing the skills knowledge and capabilities which they need for the 21st Century. Last term we asked for your feedback about these ideas which alongside our student and staff voice will create this profile for our school. This will be our core task tomorrow at our Staff Only day and we look forward to sharing this back to you soon.

Yesterday Primary and Secondary colleagues took a strong stand together through industrial action in a strike. We urge the government to urgently come to a settlement which will raise the status of the profession and ensure a sustainable educational workforce that is essential to ensure effective educational provision in Aotearoa over the coming decades. We took strike action to achieve this goal, which we believe will benefit our society as a whole. We urge you to support us in our campaign. Please see the Back the Teachers website for more information about our campaign.

Our thanks to our Parent Group ‘Team Aroha’ for supporting our staff with a fresh fruit platter and a monthly magazine bundle which have been enjoyed in our staffroom at our break times. We feel supported and spoiled! Thank you for your acts of kindness.

Recently at our Inner City Swimming sports two of our students broke swimming records - Noah Fa'alogo-Lilo broke one record and also won the cup for the best all round swimming for Year 6. Erika Orbell also had an outstanding day , breaking a total of 3 records . Congratulations!

Last week we experienced the anguish and pain of one of our Grey Lynn mum’s and her child being hit by a car on the pedestrian crossing outside our school after hours. While Mum experienced serious injury, they were both extremely lucky that it was not worse. We thank the Grey Lynn team of staff and our Downers Team next door for the quick response and support they provided. Mum and son are doing very well and we are thrilled with the progress of their recovery. Thank you to all the community who pitched in to support! Please email Auckland Transport and ask for further safety measures to support our crossing! Our community and family voices matter and can make a difference for better and safe change. The BOT and I will be sending a letter to voice our concerns and we would appreciate it if you voiced yours!

Do you think you have a skill set in the area of GRANT applications? We are looking for someone who can assist us to apply for grants for school projects we have in mind. Please contact the office if you can help us out.

Alicia Whata

Grey Lynn School Principal