Tēnā koutou

Today is a significant day in Aotearoa New Zealand history, with many of our whānau and staff taking part in Toitū Te Tiriti and the hīkoi to parliament.  New Zealand’s teachers are bound by Our Code, Our Standards, which explicitly states that they must honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi in their practice.  This commitment is enshrined across multiple standards, including designing culturally responsive learning environments and engaging in partnerships that reflect Te Tiriti principles.  As the Teaching Council’s guidelines make clear, this is not an optional ideal but a professional obligation.

On page six of Our Code, Our Standards, it states: “As teachers, we are committed to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi and we understand this has implications in all of our practice.”  The Education and Training Act 2020 reinforces this mandate, requiring schools to integrate tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and te ao Māori into their teaching, governance, and curricula.  This obligation goes beyond neutrality — it actively encourages schools and teachers to foster and uphold the principles of Te Tiriti.

We are committed to community cohesion and engagement and would like to take this opportunity to hear your thoughts.  We will use your feedback to help guide us with our planning for 2025.  We are using Te Whare Tapa Whā as our base.  Te Whare Tapa Whā was developed by leading Māori health advocate Sir Mason Durie in 1984.  The model describes health and wellbeing as a wharenui/meeting house with four walls.  These walls represent taha wairua/spiritual wellbeing, taha hinengaro/mental and emotional wellbeing, taha tinana/physical wellbeing and taha whānau/family and social wellbeing.  Our connection with the whenua/land forms the foundation.

When all these things are in balance, we thrive.  When one or more of these is out of balance our wellbeing is impacted.  Your responses will help to review our plans and actions, to ensure they are relevant for families today and in the future.

Anyone who completes the survey will ensure that their tamariki whānau roopu gets a point.

The survey will be open for one week and will close on 25th November survey link 

Our unconfirmed ERO report has been sent to us and is ready to publish on ERO's website.  The report is in two parts:  Current State and Where to Next.  These are the main statements:

Part A - Current State:

Learner Success and Wellbeing

• Most learners make sustained progress and achievement throughout their schooling: 

Conditions to support learner success

• Strong leadership is improvement focused and pursues strategic priorities for the school 

• Respectful, collaborative learning environments encourage students to be engaged with and contribute to their learning

• Well-established key organisational conditions prioritise student wellbeing, progress and learning. 

Part B - Where to Next:

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

•  sharpen the focus on increasing the regular attendance of learners by including this in strategic planning for the school

•  continue to track, monitor and respond to information on the impact of initiatives to improve outcomes 

•  strengthen the school-wide understanding and use of data to inform teaching and learning practices to accelerate the progress of learners who require it.

We have been working on our classes for 2025.  This is the last opportunity if you would like some input into the kind of environment that your child does best in, then please let me know (principal@lyallbay.school.nz).  Kaiako are not yet in set spaces, so please do not request a particular kaiako, as that kaiako may not be in that room for 2025!   We also ask that you do not ask for your child to be with a particular group of friends.  This can get tricky if other parents have asked for something quite different.  Our kaiako do know our tamariki well and always try to make sure they are with others they know.  As our classes all work collaboratively, there are always opportunities for tamariki to be with different groups.  This opportunity finishes on Friday 22nd November. 

We do have some staffing changes in 2025.  Sadly some of our kaiako are leaving us for other adventures.  Miss Cowan, after 29 years at Lyall Bay School, is taking her talents to St. Anne's School.  She will leave a huge hole in so much of Lyall Bay School and will be sorely missed.  We know that St. Anne's will benefit from her organisational skills, te reo Māori, sport, design for learning, empathy for tamariki and so much more.  There will always be a special place for Miss Cowan at Lyall Bay School.  Alex McLeay is moving north to be closer to her whānau, and later to go overseas.  Alex has been such a powerhouse, growing the Garden to Table programme and has kept us all on our toes with our sustainability as well being an amazing kaiako.  We know being closer to her family will be wonderful and we wish her all the best.  Annie Ruddock is also on a new adventure and is taking her career to Worser Bay School.  They are lucky to have such a bright and bubbly kaiako with so many talents.  Annie gives everything she has, we have loved her laughter, energy and her singing.  I think everyone will miss her dance moves at breaks too!  Annie, it is great to see you are making the most of being a kaiako and learning new things all the time.  All the very best to you. 

We have employed some new kaiako to join us in 2025.  Most of you will know Rebecca Blaikie.  Rebecca has completed her training and will be joining us. Rebecca has many talents, one being Botany, how exciting.  We also will welcome Caitlin Dittmer and Ursula Grierson, who both live in Wellington.  Caitlin is starting her teaching career and is very excited about joining us and Ursula has been teaching at Maidstone Intermediate.  She is looking forward to a change in direction.  Terri Cochrane is joining us from Auckland where she is currently teaching.  We will be welcoming them all when they join hubs for transition days in the last week of term.

Today our Interzone athletes competed at Newtown Park.  We will share results and photos in the next newsletter. 

This week our W.A.T.P Hui is all about the beach!  Meet us at Lyall Bay Beach, bring a picnic, learn more about Beach School, have your say, chat with the community, and have a great time.  Here is a link to a movie about our Beach School https://www.lyallbay.school.nz/   See the flyer for details. 

Looking forward to seeing you all at the Hui at the Beach.

Kia pai te wiki
Melanie