Partnerships and engagement with our parents and whānau to support student learning

Kia ora e te whānau

As you know, I have recently sought parent and whānau engagement through a survey and ‘coffee and cake’ sessions to support future planning and development for Marshland School - Te Rito Harakeke. I want to thank those who engaged and shared your perspective and ideas through these forums.

To analyse the data, I identified common themes that were evident and omitted any form of personal identification. School leaders and staff have engaged positively with this constructive feedback and idea generation. I have summarised some of the ideas to share with you in this article.

From analysis, some of the common strengths or valued practices were identified as:

• Our quality, caring and passionate teachers and admin staff.

• School communication being timely, purposeful, and celebrating student learning and achievements.

• Our school culture, caring family values, and sense of community.

• Our great use of outdoor play spaces, equipment, and education opportunities.

• Creative, innovative, and engaging learning experiences.

• Our Tuakana Teina (buddy) programme with senior and junior students.

• The quality of our Kapa Haka.

• Digital tools used to share student learning and examples of student work, such as Seesaw.

• The opportunity to openly share perspectives on school matters and discuss ideas with staff.

Some of the common areas for consideration were identified as:

• Providing more community events and engagement opportunities, including cultural celebrations.

• Continuing to raise the profile of sport and P.E., including younger students engaging in more whole school sporting events.

• Providing more opportunities for Tuakana Teina (buddy) relationships across the school and inter-hub interaction.

• Enhancing partnerships through informal contact and connections between teachers, parents, and whānau to discuss student learning more regularly and make their learning more visible.

• Ensuring celebration assemblies and other school events are more accessible to working families, such as using video or holding these outside school hours.

• Increased opportunities for learning across The Arts, including music, drama, and dance.

• Continue to refine reporting formats and processes to provide more explicit expectations of achievement and progress.

• Broader conceptions of success for certificates and increased leadership opportunities for all students.

• A continued focus on written work and science, in addition to digital technology for older students.

We have already made a few changes to our systems, structures, and processes based on this feedback, such as publishing reports earlier this term, tweaking our reporting terminology and holding learning conferences after reports go out. We intend to keep this analysed data at the forefront of all school decision-making. We are putting a lot of consideration into any next steps identified from this feedback.

From our shared discussion, we realised that we may not always communicate the things you want to know or in a way that aligns with your preferred mode of communication. For example, we realised that we had not shared enough information about our Ferndale (Piwakawaka) partnership and the opportunities students have to interact with other students throughout the school day. "The partnership between Marshland and Ferndale is mutually beneficial for all students involved. Together we are promoting inclusion and fostering a community where all children feel a sense of belonging" (Meghan Krizanc, staff member in the Piwakawaka hub).

We are committed to our goals of enhancing inclusion, understanding and acknowledging diversity for all of our students through this Piwakawaka partnership. We engage in regular partnership meetings with Piwakawaka staff to strengthen inclusive practice - seeking increased opportunities for shared student learning. I have included some photos of students interacting with each other in this article. 

Finally, you will see that our updated Home Learning policy is on SchoolDocs (password is marshland) based on your feedback last term and our internal review process staff. As a result, we are also outlining expectations for each Learning Hub on our school website. We will continue to review Learning Hub guidelines in an ongoing way to strengthen consistency and alignment of expectations across the school.

Your contribution to our review processes and willingness to share ideas is highly valued and appreciated here at Marshland School. With your support, we can achieve our mission statement of ‘Success for every child’. 

Leigh Fowler

Principal