This week I want to briefly highlight the varied approaches that our school uses to connect with our parent community and what we are working at to improve these lines of communication.  This is an ongoing process and something that we take seriously. Please browse the list below and let me know if you have any ideas to improve some of the systems we have.

Some ongoing examples are:

• School wide newsletter - delivered to the email address that you provide to the office every week. This contains my updates, class news from around the school and community notices to help keep you informed about what is going on.
• Team newsletters - relevant to the class your child/s are in. Our teams communicate every one or two weeks to keep you up-to-date with what is going on in their learning environment.
• Team Assemblies - these are held every week or two and are a chance for our different teams to connect across the learning groups that make them up. These are also a chance to celebrate some of the learning that has been going on with you.
• Facebook - the school facebook wall is a place where learning highlights and upcoming  events are shared with you  - both from school staff and our Friends of the School group.
• School App - this is another place that we are trying to use to make it easier to access information about upcoming events - both school wide and at the relevant team level that your child/ren are in - straight to the app on your smartphone. The use of this is a developing habit for our team leaders so please keep an eye out for those notifications!
• Community Calendar - This is connected on both the website and through the school app. Relevant events from the staff calendar are copied across to again keep you informed about important upcoming dates.

Some meeting examples are:

• Board meetings - The Governance group for our school generally meet around the start of each month. Our new board held a 'transition hui' last night with our exiting board members. It was a great way to give respect to the work and effort of the board members that were finishing after three or more years on the board, and to the hopes and aspirations of the new board members. The first full board meeting of the new board will be held in Week 1 of Term 3.
• Friends of the School Meetings - These too are held at the start of every month and are a great way to be involved in the life of the school. This group is about strengthening community connection as well as working at raising funds for our school. Their most recent initiative is the Quiz night on Friday 24 June which should be a blast! Keep an eye out in the newsletter and on the calendar for when the next meeting is being held.
• Whanau Hui - The next meeting of this group is next week on Thursday June 30 @ 5.30pm. These meetings are generally held twice a term and are an informal opportunity to get together over some kai and discuss a range of topics that people are interested in. This is an opportunity for all our whanau!
• School and Team Information Evenings - These are held at different points throughout the term and can be either school wide, team specific, or, a combination of both. One recent example was the evening we held earlier this term on the changes to our teaching and learning structure across the school which involved an overall introduction and then presentations and discussion with all teaching teams. The second example, from this week, is the New Entrant new parent evening where the teaching team present and discuss the philosophy and framework of how learning is introduced and supported for our new learners and their families. 

One of the highlights from the conference last week was the consistent theme about the importance of developing a shared understanding and ownership of the learning culture that makes our place unique. There is no other school that has the people in it that we do. Our children, our teachers, our whānau all combine together to create the learning culture is embodied everyday in what we do together at this thing called school.

So much of what we do is trying hard to engage, enrich, challenge and respect each and every learner and family - and yet we are human - and so some of that effort and intent from all of us (whether teacher or parent or child) can be misrepresented and misinterpreted. The very nature of life complicates this as the traditional (what we know or remember school to be) interacts and collides with the now (what we want or inspire to create or be as school). The picture below examples this in a school culture sense:

The tug of war that goes on within a vibrant school community and learning culture environment is nicely exampled by the tug of war! For all of us who face change and challenge in our everyday life the atmosphere and intent of school is working together with you to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for our children to not only cope, but to thrive and adapt in the age we live in and the future we face.

My job as Principal is not only to manage the day to day running of the school but to lead the development of a vibrant teaching and learning culture that is based on an enriching, engaging wide curriculum that encourages our tamariki to be resilient, respectful, courageous and creative in ways that compliment the uniqueness that is their own. (Needless to say I think that I came back from conference inspired...)

Keep an eye out for the separate email coming home to you where I would love your feedback on the developing learning vision that we have been co-constructing over the past six months with our staff and our different parent groups. With your support we can continue to grow this together!

For the last three days I have been fortunate enough to be able to attend the Learning Environment Conference in Melbourne. This event was unique as it specifically aimed at bringing architects, designers and educationalists (all of whom have a different perspective) together to consider this thing we call school and how the design and space we have interacts and influences both 'school' and the 'learning' that is happens within that environment.