Kia ora e te whānau

It is newsletter time again and a great opportunity to share some student learning, celebrate achievements and keep you informed.

I try to identify a theme for the content of these updates while acknowledging some of the week-by-week events and celebrations. Our Learning Teams adopt a similar approach so that you can gain insight into teaching and learning across the curriculum and school.

With the recent publicity around the New Zealand Curriculum refresh in Maths, I thought you might appreciate a snapshot of what we’re doing to enhance maths learning for your tamariki.

Our school started a journey of Maths development in 2023. This has involved working with an external provider on a phased four-year programme, dedicating significant resources to improving teaching and learning, and undertaking multiple review cycles based on student progress, achievement data, teacher observations, and feedback.

Because Maths has been a focus for our school for some time, we are well in advance to other schools when working through implementing the refreshed Maths Curriculum. This curriculum is relatively consistent with how we teach maths at Te Rito Harakeke - Marshland School, resulting in what we refer to as technical shifts related to what we teach and when (curriculum content and concepts) and how we teach it (teaching approaches). The most significant shift is the phased learning structure, which introduces some concepts at earlier year levels than before.

Currently, we are working on refining our teachers’ curriculum content knowledge to align with these changes. While this work happens throughout the year, it does mean there may be some variations in reporting. The existing reporting framework does not fully translate to the new phases, and the Ministry has yet to define the new expectations for reporting. Minister Erica Standford will be making a press release at some point soon to communicate the predicted fluctuations in achievement while the refreshed curriculum is implemented.

In the meantime, your tamariki continue to make positive progress in maths. We look forward to sharing this with you through Term 1 reports, which are published on the 4th of April via your HERO App and via Learning Conferences occurring on the 9th -10th of April. Despite these curriculum changes, our tamariki are taught well by skilled teachers and supported by competent Teacher Aides.

Our Teacher Aides are also engaging in Maths Professional Learning and Development (PLD) in the coming weeks to extend the use of Spring Into Maths to accelerate learning for identified tamariki. We engaged in the Spring Into Maths pilot programme in 2024, and due to this success in accelerating tamariki learning outcomes, we are extending this across all Learning Hubs.

Below is a snapshot of our school’s performance in Maths, based on the PAT Standardised assessment data from the end of 2024 for Year 4-8 students. This assessment has now been made available to Year 3 students, but as our 2025 assessments are still in progress, the data shared here reflects results from 2024.

It’s important to note that because PAT assessments are typically conducted at the start of each year, this end-of-year data is actually benchmarked against the national norm for the year above (e.g., Year 4 students are compared to the national norm for Year 5 students). This means our students’ maths achievement is even higher relative to national benchmarks than shown in the graph.

We regularly submit and analyse school-wide assessment data in collaboration with other Te Ara Tūhura Cluster school leaders through the Maniakalani Outreach programme. For those whānau new to our school, the Te Ara Tūhura Cluster consists of a group of neighbouring schools who we work with to share practice and enhance tamariki learning outcomes.

While our tamariki continue to excel academically, they are also achieving great things in sports. We were incredibly proud of the Twenty-three tamariki who competed in the Zone Swimming event on Friday, March 21st. Fourteen have now qualified for the Central Canterbury Swimming event on April 3rd. This is an outstanding achievement!

I’d also like to acknowledge the dedication of our tamariki who volunteer for Road Patrol. These students recently met with Senior Constable Jeff for additional training. Thank you to our community for your patience as these students learn their new roles.

We look forward to sharing more successes with you soon

Ngā manaakitanga - best wishes

Leigh Fowler