Kia ora koutou,

Welcome to Term 4!

Term 4 is always a busy but fun time of year, where we seem to pack in as much as we can before Christmas. We have a full calendar ahead, including Ag Day, Athletics, Orini Fun Day, Greats and Grands Day, the Kaakano 2 Sleepover, Maahuri Year 3 and 4 Camp, Student-Led Conferences, the PTA Disco, Christmas Picnic, the Year 7 and 8 Waimarino trip, and our End-of-Year Prizegivings and more!

For staff, this is also our assessment and reporting term. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be gathering evidence of learning to determine end-of-year achievement levels and prepare reports for parents. It’s a full term that flies by quickly but is filled with sunshine, excitement, and good memories. Most of these dates are already in the calendar, and more information will be shared as each event approaches. Please keep an eye on HERO to stay up to date.

Thank you for your engagement and patience with the water situation, a small spanner to start the term! If the school ever needed to close for any reason, the notice would be published on HERO. While a lot of information comes through that channel, urgent updates will always appear there, so please make sure you can receive those messages. 

You may also have seen a Community Consultation form on HERO. Every three years, our Board reviews our Charter, which outlines our big-picture goals and direction for the school. From this, we create our Annual Implementation Plan, identifying the actions that help us move towards those goals. A key part of this process is gathering input from our community, staff, and students. This feedback is then collated to find common themes and priorities that shape our Charter.

Some aspects are set out in legislation, including the Education and Training Act, where schools are expected to:

• Provide a safe, inclusive environment.
  
• Give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
  
• Deliver the NZ Curriculum and a high-quality education.
  
• Promote regular attendance.
  
• Support well-being and equity.
  
• Be well governed and accountable to their community.

The Ministry of Education also provides guidance through the New Zealand Curriculum, which sets the expected learning outcomes for students, as well as guidance on what we teach and, to some extent, how we teach it. There are also other guidelines and expectations around best practice, which include aspects such as Structured Literacy and dedicated timetabling for Reading, Writing, and Maths. We make sure all these aspects are reflected in our Charter and Annual Plans, alongside and including the voice of our community and school, to help shape our direction and priorities.

We really value your feedback as parents and whaanau, as you may bring a different perspective from those of us inside the classrooms. Your insights help us understand what our community values most about learning at Puketaha. To encourage participation, we’ve added a little incentive — everyone who completes the form goes into a prize draw! The top prize is a $100 New World Voucher. Whatever your motivation, we’d love to hear your voice so we can confidently say our Charter reflects the collective views of our community.

Here’s the link to the form. https://forms.office.com/r/akdmF9f7fq

Thank you to those who have already completed it, and thanks in advance if you’re about to.

We look forward to seeing you at the different events over the term!

Ngaa mihi,

Nyree Olliver