With an increasing roll Team Te Ohanga has started this term with a fourth teacher. Chanelle Wootton, who was meant to be returning to the Te Ohanga team, has requested extended leave due to personal family circumstances. This has been granted and therefore Ian McCabe has stepped in to fill the ensuing vacancy in Team Te Ohanga for the rest of this year. We welcome Ian to into this teaching roll and look forward to working alongside him.
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Displayed below, and coming home today in hard copy, is an overview of how our Seesaw Reporting process is being rolled out to you. The key dates to note are:

Thursday 28 July - Seesaw information booklet sent home

• Monday 1 August - your child's personal QR code letter sent home
• Monday 1 August - 3.30-4.30pm - First Seesaw information and setup meeting for Parents - starting in hall and then moving into team spaces.
• Wednesday 3 August -  5.30-6.30pm - Second Seesaw information and setup meeting for Parents - starting in hall and then moving into team spaces.
• Thursday 4 August - Online bookings open for Mid Year Seesaw based learning conferences

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The mid year Learning Conferences run over multiple days from Monday 8 August to Friday 19 August.

Please take the time to browse over the information coming home today (and linked below) and we'll see you next week at one of the parent sessions.
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Below is our developing vision from our initial consultation and development with staff, board, FOS and Whanau Hui. The foundation of our vision is centred around our Kaitiaki (guardian)  'Tia' who stands at the front entrance to our school with the 'Diploma of Life' in his hand (for more about the story of Tia click here). Tia stands as a reminder to us all that we are all working together, whether we're a student learner or a teaching team supporting the learning,  in this journey of "Learning for Life". Together this is represented by the statement "Working Together as One - Mahi Tahi Tatou".

Our why (the centre) is supported by the key principles of our practice - the how this looks in our school, and then by the outer circle, what these principles look like in practice across our teaching teams.

Early next term I'll be sharing and discussing this overview of our vision with those same groups (staff, board, FOS and Whanau Hui) again and will also have some opportunity during the 'parent - teacher' learning conference sessions in Weeks 3 & 4 for you catch up with me about this development. It's exciting to breath some new life into the vision of our school as it centres and drives everything we do. I look forward to catching up with you at one of those opportunities early in the new term.

Last week I attended the first Ministry of Education session on the proposed directions for change around the way our education system is funded. At the moment our school is funded the following way:

• the school submits its roll data from 1 July and from that the Ministry calculates our funding for the next year - with a prediction on how many five year olds are going to turn up!
• they also take into consideration the decile of our school (we're a '7' our of 10 - with 10 being the highest and least funded).
• this is then turned into a base funding amount and the roll numbers predicted are used to calculate staffing (ie teachers) and classroom space (if you're out of zone we don't get square metres for your child!)

The Education Minister wants to scrap the decile system (which is based on census information, taking into account income, property values etc from a cross section of our community) and attempt to target the funding in a more flexible way. The problem with trying to improve a funding system without looking at all the other elements that influence a schools make up is hard not to be skeptical about. School zones - which are put in place to control roll growth - create a decile / real estate bubble in their own right. The agencies that support our school, along with us, have a strong understanding of the learning and resource need across our community but they want to develop a new 'formula' from the centre that attempts to target that.

Anyway we're at the start of (apparently) a process that they want to have developed and refined before the next census in 2020 (which is when they recalculate the deciles again). Have a browse of the seven proposed directions for change but take note that these are being proposed with no funding increase, that is the size of the funding pie does not change! Note number seven and ask yourself where the money is going to come from for the increased private school funding?

Over the next term this is another thing that I'll aim to discuss with the different groups across our school so when the real consultation with the Ministry begins I can truely represent the feeling of our community.

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.

If you didn't get a chance to watch this on Tuesday night then please take the time to click on the picture above and watch it on TV3Now (online). What ever we perceive school and learning to be it is important to take the time to consider the context that has framed this thing called school and learning and have some discussion around something that has a huge part to play in all our lives!
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On Monday night we had a great crowd of (approximately) 80 parents come along to our school hall to hear about what is changing with learning at our school. I began the evening by asking everyone to consider two questions:

• What does school look like?
• What does learning look like?

Our children need to know that success is not easy - but requires grit, perseverance and effort! As a team our staff stood as a group - then moved into teaching teams - then into the collaborative teaching teams - then into the different curriculum teams. This was done to demonstrate that the expectation we have for our children to collaborate and innovate together in their learning is the same expectation we have of ourselves as teachers in the way we collaborate together to make our learning programmes relevant, engaging and innovative for our children!

The different teaching teams then took groups of parents back to their own space and shared 'the coal face' experience. Thanks to all our parents who came out for that evening. We look forward to seeing you at the next evening we hold.

The first is on Monday 23 May @ 5.30pm and is a chance to hear an update on what is happening with the structure of teaching and learning across our school.

The second opportunity for contact is on Thursday night (May 26 again at 5.30) and is our Whānau Hui. This is a more informal gathering and is open to ALL parents, grandparents, caregivers of Waipahihi children to come along and share ideas, find out what's going on in our community, and meet other parents/grandparents who want to make a difference.  

Come along and bring a plate for shared kai!

As part of the lead in to our Parent Information evening that we are holding in a couple of weeks time I have posted this TEDx talk for you to watch and consider. In it Will Richardson (a leading thinker and writer about the intersection of social online learning networks and education) takes his knowledge of how to help kids develop into powerful learners and looks at how school has tried, and how it needs to reconsider, how to make that happen.

It's a great watch and is quite confronting in the way that he explains how we (as parents) know a system and structure of school that is not appropriate for the time we live in and the world that our children will end up 'working' in. The vast amount of knowledge, the ease of access to that knowledge with digital tools means that we have to balance the learning of knowledge with the ability to know how to apply and use that knowledge - ie to think!

As a school we are working together and developing learning programmes that challenge our children to manage themselves; to participate and contribute in the learning programme, to relate to others in both learning and social situations and to develop their thinking. A curriculum and learning programme centred on the key competencies, with a foundation of enriching learning contexts, is what brings reading, writing and maths to life.
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Below is a short two and a half minute clip that gives a good example of the fundamentals that support the development of self-directed learning within the context of the different age and stage of our learners. Have a look and think about what this might look like for your child.

​Dr. Peter Gray is an evolutionary psychologist that studies how people learn.

On Monday May 23 @ 5.30pm we're offering a parent evening for your to come and hear about the developments in our teaching and learning programmes. It's an important part of our development that we take multiple opportunities over time to share with you our school journey and the belief that underpins why we do what we do.  This includes the continued development of our collaborative teaching teams and the digital tools that are being integrated back into the learning programmes over Term 2.

The evening will start off in the hall all together for an introduction from me (Tim) and then we'll break into the different teams across the school where they'll share what each team (and the teaching teams within that) are up to. While I realise that many of us have children across different teams what you will hear in one team setting will have some overarching belief connections with the others. Bring your kids so you can both go to a different session as we'll have something organised for them. We aim over time to give continued opportunities for you to stay connected with the developments of our teaching teams.
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We now have a school app! We're aiming to make connection between home and school as easy and seamless as possible. The App lets you:

• Gives you the contact information for the school (address, email, phone, website links)
• Send an absence message (via a simple form to office email) instead of ringing
• Subscribe to the different teaching teams across the school to get push notifications about events straight to your phone
• See upcoming events
• Update your contact details
• Access the school website newsletter page
• See the school community calendar
• Submit a photo from a school event that you're at to the office
• Share the app with friends and family who want to be connected with our school
• Access the school facebook page
• Access my weekly blog post

To download and get into it the App Store Direct Links - 

APPLE Appstore

ANDROID Playstore