by Rachel Whalley

ePrincipal Annual Report 2021

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Kia ora koutou katoa 2021 was another year of opportunities for ākonga and kaiako in the VLN Primary.

Our Gifted Learners Programme was extended and supported by MoE funding. Students participated in a wider range of curriculum and accessed specialised Gifted programmes such as Mentoring and Complex Thinking. Creative Writing, Literacy and Biology programmes ran for the first time this year. 

Although student numbers overall were similar to the last four years, the number of participating schools jumped markedly with 34 schools getting involved for the first time in 2021. This growth in school participation created extra demands on our support systems. However our experienced support team shone throughout. A big thank you to Lucie, Jen, Jan and Helen for all your work in support and administration. It is a logistically challenging job bringing all our teachers and learners together into our online environments and ensuring that quality learning is at the forefront. The depth of professional knowledge and experience in our team provides a strong foundation for the VLN Primary.

In addition to our Gifted Learners and extension programmes, languages programmes continue to be a large part of our curriculum in particular Te Reo Māori. Our Te Reo Māori kaiako team grew to four including Koka Jules. This helps provide more resilience to our te reo provision. 

Kōtuitui Networks of Expertise enabled more professional opportunities for our eteachers. Teachers were supported with time to engage in professional conversations and activities. We developed a new Professional Growth Cycle, Quality Practice framework specific to online teaching and Te Ao Māori Pathway. The VLN Primary contributed to the Kōtuitui PLD Covid response to schools. This involved hosting Virtual Cafe drop in support sessions with one specifically for our small rural schools led by the VLN Primary Principals. We ran Zoom sandpit sessions and shared spare capacity Zoom licences with VLN member schools.

Kōtuitui supported the development of case studies which focused on how schools participate in online learning and support their learners. Thanks to Jen for creating this valuable resource and to VLN Primary Schools - Oakura, Banks Avenue and Waitoriki for contributing to these studies. You can access these case studies here.

Well done to all our tamariki for a successful year of learning in 2021. A special recognition to those 71 students who received Special Award certificates for excellence in learning and to those who received prizes in our draw. 

Here is a quick round up of further highlights from the 2021 year:

We continued to collaborate with our secondary colleagues throughout the year with the support of a MoE contract. The purpose was to create a single national VLN that would enable a consistent national approach that will be inclusive of more schools and learners. Although the VLN Primary is already doing this in the Primary education sector, joining to create Y0 -13 VLN would increase pathways for our learners, and grow our professional capacity, resilience and voice within the education sector. This work has not been without its challenges, such as managing competing priorities and relationships across the different VLN organisations. However we remain committed to this mahi and feel this is the right way forward to achieve sustainable outcomes for our schools and learners.

As always I would like to thank the Ministry of Education for the support they have given the VLN Primary over many years. Without their partnership we would not be able to provide these opportunities for our learners.

Abridged version, read the full report and all our Annual Reports in the attachment below.

 Attachments