Kia ora toku St Albans whānau,

What an amazing way to start the year with 'Getting Connected Meetings' which are designed for teachers to connect with whānau and students start to build those essential relationships that support learning and success at school. Giving time and space to these ensures they remain a priority for St Albans School as we see RELATIONSHIPS as a key component of what makes us great, collectively.

One of our goals as a kura is to improve in the area of Whānau Engagement and we have many initiatives and ideas this year for you to be involved in - watch this space.

One idea is 'Coffee with the Principal' twice per term where we will discuss how the school operates, responds and navigates to complex areas such as Friendships and the Playground, Anxiety (in children), Behaviour, and we will look to our community for other areas that we could unpack, explain and enhance for them. A Google form will be coming out so you can have your say, so we can plan and for those who cannot make a face-to-face meeting, we will have a digital version for you to watch.

We will use our NEW website (coming soon) to place these videos so it becomes a hub of information for new and established whānau and community members.

The students are rearing to go and get into another year of learning. This year our conceptual curriculum is centred around; "Let's Celebrate". This will focus on past and present, linking to the mahi we are doing with our Cultural Narrative, Localised Curriculum, 150th Jubilee and all our wonderful purākau/stories which will link to the New Zealand Histories curriculum.

Our staff spent the day at Tuahiwi Marae on Friday being immersed in the local stories, tikanga practices for both Marae and Pōwhiri, and lifting our confidence and knowledge with Mihi, waiata, and Te Reo. It was a very special day where everyone was engaged as a collective from St Albans School with the goal of lifting our capabilities, giving us direction for our own practices at school and for the Cultural Narrative work we will be embarking on this year.

As we begin to unpack and make connections we will invite our community along on the journey so that everyone is able to see themselves within this important grounding document. We don't just accept our diversity at St Albans, we celebrate it!

Our core subjects are an essential foundation for opening the rest of the curriculum so the focus for us is on Structured Literacy which will see changes in the way students are taught, what comes home for reading and/or practicing and will begin with St Albans building a "Gold Star Spelling Programme" at every level. We are being guided by external experts and consultants from iDeaL, which will create a consistent research informed literacy approach across our school.

Those whānau who have had their children in Year 1-2 last year will be up to speed especially if you attended one of the Pīwakawaka or Pūkeko interactive Structured Literacy Hui last year where the kaiako explained the evidence and research and ran interactive lessons.

For all others we will be holding a Structured Literacy Hui in Term Two or Three so that we can show you the benefits first hand. In the meantime it is important to remember that your child’s teacher and our school are on a learning journey. This transition will take dedicated time and specific resourcing.

Structured Literacy is an evidence-based approach that is grounded in the Science of Reading. As a school, we have partnered with Learning Matters and will be accessing the iDeaL platform to ensure our teachers are well supported with this transition and the approach becomes embedded and sustainable across our school.

We have attached a letter with LINKS for more information about this approach and look forward to making a difference for ALL our learners in the Literacy space. We have used a Google Form below so that our ESOL Whānau can translate.

We look forward to the many ways we will connect during Term One, the sunshine that the summer term brings (don't forget togs/towels and hats) and the new initiatives to ensure we are engaging our whānau and families.

Ngā mihi nui,

Andrea Harnett

Tumuaki - St Albans School