Newsletter Term 1 Week 2

Kia ora koutou katoa, 

On behalf of the staff, leadership and School Board we extend a warm welcome to the 2023 school year – it will be an exciting year. 

New Building

We are delighted to report that the Ministry of Education and Woodview Construction have brought forward the completion and handover of our new building, and as a result, we are planning to start moving our Kōtare and Tui teams soon. 

The building will enhance each team’s ability to deliver the very best collaborative teaching and learning in the amazing new spaces.  Each floor has open learning spaces, smaller breakout spaces/rooms as well as maker spaces (kitchen and wet areas for arts, technology and cooking activities). The building is complemented by impressive social stairs which will provide a medium-sized meeting and presentation auditorium, as well as additional quiet seating and learning areas. Modern audio-visual equipment complements the spaces and ensures the entire building will be flexible to our ongoing needs. Outside there will be a landscaped courtyard space and ample play space all around the building. The upstairs spaces connect via an airbridge to the garden areas so maximum indoor/outdoor learning will be possible. The whole project will be finished off with an amazing artificial turfed new basketball court for all to enjoy.

We are looking forward to seeing whānau and community members at the blessing on Tuesday of next week (14 February) led by Kaumatua Danny Watson. The blessing will commence at     5:30 am and be followed by light refreshments. So that we can confirm the numbers for catering, please let us know if you would like to attend.  Link

Recovering from the Floods

We hope that whānau and friends are recovering from the recent distressing floods, which caused so much damage and destruction. Please remember we are here to help if we can so please reach out to us. We care about you all and have been upset to see some of our Windy Ridge whānau in distress. 

Whānau Connect Meetings

As we have already communicated, we were gutted to have to cancel our whānau connect days due to Ministry directions to remain closed until 7 February. We are planning to reschedule the whānau connect sessions in Week 5 (28 February and 1 March). We will send out finalised arrangements and booking information early next week.  We look forward to connecting with whānau and tamariki then. Again our sincere apologies for having to cancel these events. 

Strategic Direction for 2023

Last week the School Board approved the Annual Implementation Plan for 2023 based on our Strategic Plan (2022-24). Over the next few newsletters, we will outline what we will be focusing on and share some information about the initiatives that we are planning.

Goal 1: Grow Teaching and Learning:

Through this goal, we will continue to focus on school-wide curriculum review, development and implementation; so that each student achieves their potential through quality teaching and learning opportunities.

Actions: 

1. Refining and embedding learning through play across all levels of our school. To help us achieve this we will be working with Longworth Education who will be coaching and mentoring our teachers through the play-based learning process. 
2. Further development of a school-wide approach to Structured Literacy. This will be led by Jude Tabuteau and our Learning Matters facilitator, Ruth Blair, focusing on spelling, reading and writing.
3. Further development and commencement of our Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum. We have developed our framework for this year and tamariki will start to engage in learning around this new area of the curriculum.  We will be looking at how we plan for our wider, 3-year plan, as we move forward.
4. Develop and implement best practices around effective modern learning environment pedagogy and practice. This will involve carefully considering and evaluating how we use our new building, its many facilities and flexible spaces, and how our tamariki learn most benefit from a collaborative teaching approach. As part of this, we are working with outside agencies to ensure that we cater for all student’s needs to ensure our new building is fully inclusive of all learners’ needs. 
5. The establishment of a Garden to Table programme. Garden boxes have been installed on the back hill behind Rooms 1-4. As well as learning about gardening students will get to use the maker spaces to learn about how basic foods are prepared and cooked. This programme will be led by Mrs Brown as part of her enviro leadership.
6. The implementation of a school-wide Arts programme will see students learning about music, dance-drama and art, each as part of a weekly rotation throughout the year.  As a culmination, we are looking to hold an Arts showcase later in the year.

We look forward to a great year ahead.

Take care, everyone,

Ka kite anō au i a koutou.

Jonathan Lambert

Principal | Tumuaki