18 March 2022

Last Friday morning, I met with 3 families who are looking to join us over the next while. I heard myself talking a lot about where our hearts and heads are focused as we educate for the future. (A few hours of this with a mask makes you feel extremely thirsty, let me tell you!)

The words 'whole child', 'holistic', 'teaching how to learn not just the content' can appear meaningless unless parents can see and hear it for themselves. They witnessed snippets of this as they moved around the school - on a Friday morning that is potentially risky but our children were engrossed in their learning!

The same morning, I received this feedback from a parent whose child was here and is now almost on the way to finishing Secondary School:

"I wanted to thank you. You'd often talk about the value of the students being self-directed. Well, it’s really paid off. X is a self-management supremo these days, she’s like a third year university student. Work, see friends, work, go to her part time job, call friends, and get herself to football (well mostly!). As a Yr 12 she seems to be nailing it and I’m grateful to you and the team for that formative learning tool (even though I didn’t really get it at the time!)"

I thought I'd share it (with their permission to) as it's what I often think - some of this input won't become realised until well down the track, so it's always so refreshing and motivating to receive feedback like this.

This year, we have a number of specific targets we are aiming for - some focused definitely on the 3Rs and some more holistic targets. As I always say, it's an AND world with one feeding the other to create the whole. So we know the what we need to focus on - the why we need to.... the creativity and the points of difference between schools is the how we do it!

Please find the targets for 2022 below:

  1. Students will make the expected shifts or more in Maths.

  2. Students will make the expected shifts or more in Writing.

  3. Students will make the expected shifts or more in Reading.

  4. Te Reo Māori will be improved across all areas of the school. (Levels 1 and 2.)

  5. Students grow their knowledge and understanding of culture across the school and our communities.

  6. Increase students’ GRIT in Years 3-6.

There are, of course, layers of planning behind these - and the rest of the curriculum.

Teaching is an interesting job alright - never a dull moment!