Word From the Principal

Stewardship / Kaitiakitanga

Our current school-wide focus is Stewardship / Kaitiakitanga... A kaitiaki is a guardian, and the process and practices of protecting and looking after the environment. This is an important aspect of our school which we have chosen to put in the spotlight for 2024. We have high expectations for how our students, staff, and community access and care for our resources which need to last and will be used by many students over time. We are proud of our unique space and hard earned resources. When we look after things they last longer, we have better tools, and we can enjoy what we have. We can’t get the new stuff we hope for if we have to replace stuff we already have before the end of its expected life.

The teachers decided to start our refocus on this with a competition and so classes have been earning points for how tidy their areas are. My personal highlight was the shoes in rainbow colour order, the students that measured out the spacing of their art work display, and the sports gear all lined up in rows with logos facing outwards. We don’t expect these to continue long term, but it has been a bit of fun with the competition and has raised to their attention ways we can keep our school looking fantastic.

This fortnight we are focused on: looking after our furniture, cushions, desks. Picking up our belongings - lost property is EVERYWHERE! Shoes, sweatshirts, hats, togs, goggles… Looking after our environment. Care for our trees, gardens, and picking up our rubbish - putting rubbish in the right bin.

Attendance

Another goal we are working on is student attendance. Every day at school matters. Learning is built in lots of little pieces over time. The MOE is setting targets for attendance and our teachers will be looking into who and why some students are regularly missing school as part of our local and MOE approach to improving attendance at school. Our approach will respect individual circumstances, such as genuine medical absences from school, while promoting the national message of every day matters. If your child’s attendance is of concern we will be in touch with you leading into or at parent teacher interviews next term to find out how to support each child.

‘Turning Up The Heat’ on Learning

The third goal we are looking at this term is enhancing our learning programmes to balance opportunities for students, with quality and quantity of learning in the classroom. The MOE has introduced the 10 hours per week reading/writing and 5 hours per week maths. While these curriculum areas have always been a priority, we continue to strengthen these programmes. Teachers have conducted initial assessment and learning plans are in place for all students. We will share initial curriculum levels and feedback around student effort and approach to their learning in short summary reports at the end of this term. This will be followed up by parent teacher interviews early in Term 2. Please get in touch with your child’s teacher as soon as you have any concerns or questions as we seek to continually improve and adjust our approaches in response to needs and feedback.