Good Afternoon Parents, Caregivers and Children,

Today I would like to acknowledge and celebrate some ex Puketaha Students who have reached their final year at secondary school and are being recognised for the leadership and positive influence they have and continue to make in their respective schools. Charlotte McKinnon (2016 leaver) was announced as Head Girl at Fairfield College, Aiden Payne-Isaacs (2016 leaver) has been announced as Deputy Head Boy at St John's College and Joseph Grigg (2016 Leaver) was announced as a school prefect and Head of Fitchett House at St Pauls Collegiate. All of these are well deserved and significant achievements for these three outstanding young adults. It is very rewarding to hear of their success and like their secondary school, we have full faith that they will serve themselves, their family and their school with courage in these leadership roles. Well done to the three of you!

This week we have held our first Whanau/Teacher Catch up's. We are delighted with how these have gone and the opportunity it has provided us to strengthen the learning partnerships that exist. Our feedback from our teachers has been very positive. They have enjoyed the one to one approach with yourselves and the time to just chat as adults about your child's learning and personalities. So far this change in our reporting to parent process has been a positive one and it is a reminder that sometimes we too often look at the risks associated with change, rather than the opportunities that change may bring or even the risks associated with not changing. Thank you for your support with this.

Finally, at the end of last year we asked you to fill in a survey around the new Relationships and Sexuality Education that is being asked of us to deliver within our programmes. A part of this process was to consult with our community in regards to the delivery of this programme. Thank you to the 62 families who completed this survey. The results of the survey can be found here. Community_Survey_Results_2020.pdf 

As a teaching team we will now take some time to reflect on this feedback and look at what a learning programme may look like. Before any programme takes shape in the classroom we will consult with our B.o.T and host at least one parent evening (likely Term 3) to gain further feedback from you.

Tomorrow we have our first Powerful Learning Assembly for the year. We hope to see many of you there.

Warm Regards

Geoff