Tēnā koutou,

I can’t believe we’re halfway through the year already! I hope you enjoyed reading your child’s report with them yesterday. I know I’ve enjoyed reading about the progress and in particular the highlights that our children wrote about. Thank you to the teachers who spent countless hours writing them and proofreading them; you can blame me if there were any mistakes because I was responsible for the final proofread. We will be having our Whānau Learning Conversations (Parent/Teacher Interviews) in week 7 next term. If you’d like to speak with your child’s teacher prior to this, please don’t hesitate to book a time to catch up with them before or after school.

We have many things to celebrate about Term 2…

Mānawatia a Matariki

Matariki is a time for remembrance, celebrating the present and looking to the future.

• Honouring those we have lost since the last rising of Matariki.

• Gathering together to give thanks for what we have.

• Looking forward to the promise of a new year.

Over the past few weeks, students and teachers have enjoyed learning about Matariki and about ngā whetu o Matariki (The Stars of Matariki). Keep an eye out for some Seesaw notifications to celebrate the learning that has been happening. If you and your family would like to celebrate Matariki during the term break, check out this website for activities happening in the Waipa area - Matariki Events on in Waipā.

Science

Alongside our Matariki learning, our students have been learning lots of Science knowledge and skills within the Material World strand. I’ve enjoyed watching the excitement during their experiments and listening to their scientific explanations. Our Year 7/8 students have been very busy completing their projects for the Science Fair and we’ll all have an opportunity to view these early next term.

Literacy and Numeracy

We have had the privilege of working alongside Bruce Moody, who has been observing our teachers and providing feedback on ways to accelerate students' mathematics learning. Our Mathematics Data reflects the increased knowledge and understanding of our students. Personally, I have enjoyed working with a small group of students and eagerly anticipate expanding this approach to more students next term.

I’m sure many of you have been hearing about the debate or perhaps watched Patrick Gower a few weeks ago when he was talking about Structured Literacy versus the traditional methods of teaching literacy. We have been on our Structured Literacy journey for over three years, taking a deliberate approach to its introduction in the Junior School because we wanted our teachers to gain a deep understanding of what an effective structured literacy programme looks like before diving right in. For our senior students who are ‘at risk’ in literacy, we have implemented the program in small instructional groups led by Cate, one of our teacher aides. We take pride in the results our students are achieving and are excited to further extend this approach across all year levels in the future.

Staff, Student and Whānau Feedback

We have received the feedback from the Rongohia te Hau survey, and we are delighted by the positive responses and comments we have received. We value the comments expressing appreciation for everything you love about Hautapu, as well as the constructive feedback highlighting areas where we can make improvements. The leadership team and staff are committed to collaborating with Poutama Pounamu in order to develop an action plan that addresses these areas for further enhancement. We will actively seek additional support from you all during the development of this plan and will keep you informed about our progress along the way.

Benjamin, from Poutama Pounamu, emphasised that we should take great pride in the feedback we have received. It clearly demonstrates that our community values the relationships, care, and opportunities we offer to all our learners. It is remarkable to see such strong alignment in the feedback from our staff, students, and whānau groups. Below is a snapshot of the data; the rest of the graphs will be displayed in the office foyer next term.

Thank you for your ongoing support for our hard working, passionate staff. They go above and beyond and I am extremely grateful to be leading alongside them. I hope you all have a restful holiday and come back feeling refreshed and ready for another action packed term.

Ngā mihi nui

Tracey

Congratulations to our students who competed in the Junior Tough Guy and Gal event at Ngāruawāhia Youth Camp today. Great day for off road extreme running and fun in the mud. Thanks to whaanau for your support and encouragement of our students. Well done everyone!

Monday 17 July - First Day Term 3

Tuesday 18 July - Potukawa/Rata Class Camp (returning Thursday 20 Jul)

Thursday 3 August - BOT meeting

Wednesday 16 August - Kauri/Koromiko Class Camp (returning Friday 18 August)

Friday 25 August - Daffodil Dy

Monday 4 September - AIMS Games week

Friday 22 September - Last day Term 3, normal finish time

Multi award winning Master Builders Kit-Markin Homes will donate $5000 to Hautapu School when friends and family of the school choose them to build their new home or commercial building. New decks from the community will result in a $500 donation to the school. Contact Josh on 0279355435 or josh@kmh.co.nz