The relationship between a mainstream school and a private provider...

Our town is well served by a range of primary schools, our intermediate, two secondary's and recently (having just achieved full registration with the Ministry of Education, a private school. You may have read the article in last Thursday (August 23) Weekender titled "Special school achieves registration" that detailed some of the facts around how they operate. Our school has always supported the work that Gaye Vartiainen and her team have strived to provide for a range of learners needs. Both Gaye and I, alongside our respective staff teams, have a passion for doing everything we can to make learning relevant and appropriate for the children in our care on any given day. There's an old saying that "it takes a village to raise a child" and it is in that spirit that we openly sign the agreement to support the parental choice of a child attending one day or more as part of the programme that ADDI offer.

 However, both places of learning operate under different conditions. To compare one against the other is not what this is about. ADDI charge fees and provide small, specialist learning groups. Waipahihi is an exceptional, mainstream, public primary school that provides an enriching and connected curriculum with a dedicated team of teachers. One cannot be compared to the other, however, both can be seen as a compliment to each other. It is in this spirit that we as a school are committed to continuing to build our working relationship with ADDI in the future. It is in this spirit that, if you as a parent are making a choice to include ADDI as part of the way you want to meet the learning needs of your child, we invite you to make sure that this is done in communication with your child's teachers. Together, we want the best for all our learners. Together, we can work together to compliment what each environment can provide.