Kia ora e te whanau

As we embark on a new school year, we extend a warm welcome back to all of our families. We hope that this past summer holiday was filled with love, laughter, and meaningful moments spent with loved ones. As a Catholic school, our mission is to provide a holistic education that is rooted in faith and centred on the teachings of Jesus Christ. We are dedicated to nurturing the spiritual, academic, and personal growth of each and every student, and we are honoured to partner with you in this important journey. As we begin this new school year, let us remember that we are all called to be witnesses of God's love and compassion in the world. May we work together in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, building a community that is characterized by kindness, respect, and compassion.

It is important that I let you know that the PPTA teachers’ union has sanctioned a strike on teachers taking on relief teaching periods for term one in all state and state integrated secondary schools across the country. For the last three years of the pandemic, it has been the extra unpaid labour of our teachers giving up their important non-contact time to teach their colleagues classes when they have been away, that has kept our school up and running most days.

We have endeavoured to hire more external relief teachers but they are in short supply and often work across many schools. We will also be limiting activities, events and professional learning and development that would cause more staff to be out and needing their classes covered. Worst case scenario is that when we have more than a couple of teachers away each day, we will have to roster year levels home in term one. This will be a last resort when all other avenues have been exhausted. Sometimes we do not know which staff are going to be absent until the morning as people call in sick. We will be taking the situation day by day but this will mean that if we do need to roster a year level or year levels home this will be notified to you that morning at approximately 7.15am via Facebook and the school App.

Please ensure you have your notifications on. We will always provide supervision for students who must come to school, but it will be supervision, not teaching that takes place that day.

We do not want to strike but the government has given us no choice. We are striking for education, and we hope you will support us, despite the inconveniences it will cause. We are striking because we are concerned that the pay for teachers and the funding for schools is not enough to provide quality education. The value of teachers pay has fallen significantly and this has caused a crisis in recruitment and retention. More teachers and school leaders than ever are leaving their jobs and the government cannot recruit enough teachers to replace them. Funding for schools has not kept in line with rising costs and this means:

- Many schools face difficulties in finding the teachers they need.

- Students with special needs are not getting the support they need.

- Schools are spending less on important equipment and resources.

- Schools are cutting back on extra curricula opportunities.

We are asking you to please:

- Support our strike action and our campaign to boost funding for our schools.

- Talk to our teachers positively and tell them they are doing a great job.

- Contact your local MP’s office and tell them that you support PPTA members taking strike action.

Tara Quinney,

Principal

We look forward to welcoming all our students back to school on Tuesday, 7th February.