Kia ora Whānau,

We continue to manage the wave of Omicron in our school and we are grateful for the many whānau who have followed the guidelines in an effort to keep us all safe. We have now had 64% of our students affected by Isolation and/or Covid-19 and 40% of our staff. Our term has been disrupted as you can well imagine. Our theme for the next two weeks is gratitude – At this point of the term we are grateful for:

· The support of parents keeping unwell children home to help stop the spread of the virus.

· The teaching staff who have covered classes whenever asked.

· The Admin team who have taken on so many roles to help keep our school running smoothly.

· The support of external agencies who have supplied us with Masks and RAT Tests for our school community.

· All the students who have recovered from Covid or finished Isolation and rejoined their classes so positively.

· The gratitude our parents and community show us when Home Learning is delivered to their homes.

We still have current cases in our school and will probably continue to do so for at least another couple of weeks. By then we will almost be heading in to the Holidays and a well deserved rest.

As I reflect on the past few weeks I think about how fortunate I am to have such great support from the School Board, The Ministry of Education, my Colleagues and my family and friends. I think about all the plans I had for developing our learning programmes and how I have had to put some of these on hold until we have finished riding the wave. I have been aware of the need to support a wide range of people in many different circumstances and to meet needs as best I can.

In these challenging times can you find things to be grateful for?

Ngā mihi nui

Sue Jury

Over the term we have been trialling a new learning model for the Rata Hub. It has been a great opportunity for us to trial this model as new enrolments have been delayed due to Omicron and numbers have been limited due to Covid and Isolation.

We realise we are in our third year of this Covid Pandemic and have taken time to think about the impact of the disruptions over time. We now know students in Year 3 have not yet had a full year at school- our foundation students have also had their learning disrupted at preschools and kindergartens. We realised that there was a need for us to meet learners where they are at and develop skills with them in order to progress successfully.

Early on in the term we had individual classes operating. We now have made a decision to merge these individual classes into our Junior Learning Hub. There are currently 33 children in the Rata Area. These children now interact and learn as one Hub Group. They have 3 teachers and a Learning Support Worker supporting them in their learning (Miss Braid, Miss Gasparini, Mrs Burger and Ms Le’afa). They have three spaces in which to learn and discover- Rata Toru, Rata Rua and the outdoor classroom. Teachers have been able to teach individuals, small groups and students who need extra support. It truly is a reflection of a Christ Centred learning community. They are currently planning an overview of how their learning will develop further as we move into implementing our School Wide Structured Literacy Programme along with their vital curriculum learning in Maths.

As new students join the hub they will take part in some welcoming activities and be assigned a Hub Buddy and a teacher who will support them to integrate into their Hub Experience.

I have seen some amazing learning happening in the Hub over the last couple of weeks and am really looking forward to seeing it grow and flourish in the next few weeks.

Take a look at some of the great things happening in the Hub:

Term One - Wednesday 2 February- Thursday 14 April

Term Two- Monday 2 May- Friday 8 July

Term Three- Monday 25 July- Friday 30 September

Term Four- Monday 17 October- Thursday 15 December