Kia ora koutou,

Welcome back, everyone, and also a very warm welcome to our new families who have joined our Puketaha School Community. It’s been lovely seeing the students full of smiles as they reconnect with their friends and teachers.

Last week the staff were onsite planning the year ahead, setting up the learning environments as well as engaging in a Professional Learning Workshop run by Kate Hortan. Our Professional Learning was focused on Teacher Collaboration, where we explored our personalities using the Myers-Briggs 16 Personality types. We learnt more about ourselves and how we best work together as a team. Our collaborative teams are something we really value at Puketaha. Our co-teaching teams allow our teachers to learn from and with each other on a daily basis. Teachers can observe other teachers in action, engage in professional conversations about the impact of different approaches, collectively problem solve, share up-to-date pedagogy and give each other immediate feedback. This helps us achieve our goal of continuously improving learner outcomes for all students. 

"Accomplishing the maximum impact on student learning depends on teams of teachers working together.” John Hattie

Engaging in a workshop to support the effectiveness of these teams was both valuable and fun. We reflected on ourselves as individuals and as a team and learnt about how to utilise our own and each other's strengths. While we were learning about ourselves and how we best learn, we were able to make connections with how children learn and different approaches we can use to help cater for the vast range of learning styles and personalities within our learning environments. 

During our Teacher Only Days, we also spent time reflecting on our learning from 2022 and making plans for 2023. Our 2022 school-wide data showed pleasing gains across Reading, Writing and Mathematics over last year. Even though the year was still very disrupted in terms of staff and student absence, by the end of the year, 91% of our students achieved at or above Curriculum expectations in Reading, 85% achieved at or above in Writing and 92% of the school achieved at or above in Mathematics. We were able to reflect on strategies that had the highest impact on learning, and we will continue to strengthen and embed these approaches this year. 

Over the last couple of days, I have been able to visit the students in their classes, and the children are settling in positively and setting up the class rituals and routines for the year with their teachers. You will have a chance to meet the teachers and visit your child’s learning environments at our Meet the Teacher Picnic next Thursday, 16th February, 5.00 pm - 6.30 pm. Families are invited to bring along their own picnic dinner and visit the learning environments to meet and greet the teachers informally. Our P.T.A will be running a complimentary sausage sizzle for our community to welcome both new and old families back to our school. 

The week after that, we have our Teacher/ Whaanau catch up’s, where you are invited to have a 15-minute sit-down meeting with your child’s teacher. This is a chance for you to share more about your child and set learning goals for the year. More information will be sent out about this with a code to make a booking online. These will be held on Wednesday, 22nd and Thursday, 23rd February.

We are excited about 2023, and it's so lovely to have everyone back and keen for the year ahead. We look forward to working with you over the year to support your child’s learning and success at school. 

Ngaa mihi,

Nyree Olliver

Principal