1 July 2020 

Kia Ora everyone,

Thank you for being such a supportive community during such an unprecedented time of change and uncertainty. As we draw the first half of the year to a close, we are mindful of how much everyone as a nation has gone through and we are extremely proud of the resilience and tenacity of our children. We look forward to reopening Term 3 by celebrating Matariki the Maori new year and starting refreshed and energised. 

Student Progress and Achievement

Due to the disruption that Covid-19 has had on the school learning system, our timeline for 2020 reporting has changed. After considerable collaboration our teachers have continued to formatively assess. This means that teachers have continued to work closely with our children, determining and identifying next steps to further their individual progress towards achieving within the curriculum levels in the NZCF. This has allowed for a transition that has focused on the wellbeing of each learner and an approach which has seen children not ‘stressed out’ by doing formal and summative assessment but rather working alongside their peers and teachers with individual and group learning. The New Zealand curriculum characteristics of effective assessment are;

1. It must benefit the student 2. It must involve the student 3. It must support the teaching and learning goals 4. It must be planned and communicated to the student 5. It must be suited to the purpose 6. It must be understood that it will inform teacher planning.

Our new timeline of assessment will include reporting to parents in Week 5 of Term 3 (learning conversations) and a full summative assessment report at the end of the year. Please remember that you are welcome to discuss your child’s learning at any time with your child’s teacher. 

Thank you to the PTA

Our school is extremely lucky to have such an active awesome PTA! Their hard work of organising and selling various food options over the last 6 months to all of us has brought to fruition the wonderful basketball hoops that have been installed in the last week. There has been huge excitement as our students play and enjoy the success of landing a shot because of the ability to adjust the height! The school council are working on their next project within the school and are looking forward to working alongside our PTA. 

Property

Due to the current water restrictions we are unable to wash our buildings. We are only part way through planned projects due to many interruptions related to covid. Current projects include; 

• Slip remediation (almost complete) back carpark

• Ministry of Education modifications for pool access 

• Ministry of Education modification to external deck R1-5

• Handrails and safety grips 

• Signage installation 

• Remarking of courts 

• Spouting and roofing work 

• Blind installation 

We absolutely love that families can use the playgrounds outside of school hours and are excited that we are able to reopen our gates again in time for the holidays. Please be mindful that we will have contractors and heavy machinery onsite and that supervision of children at all times will be important. Our school is protected by Intercept Security. 

Finally, this week our senior leadership team and Board Chair Peter Lehmann have spent time with the Education Review Office contributing our responses to the challenges of COVID-19 for the education sector's national report. We stepped through each level from the beginning of March through to the final week of Term 2 and concluded that we are so blessed to be part of such a caring school community who want the very best for our children. I wish you all a quiet and relaxing mid year break and look forward to seeing you all next term. 

Nga Mihi,

Nardz Stephenson