Principal's Page

Kia Ora Whānau. 

These are challenging times for us all - especially so for West Auckland right now.

We sincerely hope none of our families have been impacted or adversely affected by the flooding overnight. If you have and there is something I or we can do to help, please get in touch via text on 021779009 or email to macash@mac.com

We are a week into distance learning and we have seen lots of positive responses - some of the learning responses from children have been awesome to see.

We also had an awesome response from our parents with $747 raised for the Cancer Society via rooms 9 and 17 running a Daffodil Day online appeal. We sincerely thank you all for this - thanks Mrs Marshall for putting together the video to celebrate children's work and parental donations.

I write this next piece as a simple factual explanation. It is not meant as an excuse nor as a plea for sympathy, but simply as an effort to put parents into the full picture when it comes to online learning.

One of the big challenges for us is that a number of our staff have been in isolation Lockdown. A number are home with children and no child care - and having to cope with sick children and their own children’s learning, including NCEA. Others have sick relatives and have been allowed compassionate visits etc. Others have had to sit in lines for hours waiting for vaccinations and/or Covid19 testing.

My point is, our teachers are facing many of the same challenges our community are facing. They are trying to balance the demands of providing distance learning, being connected and available to parents and children, supporting their own children's learning, and running a household with the extra demands that come from having everyone at home all the time.

To the best of my knowledge, our school has a record of achievement, values and engagement second to none. This is down to one thing - our people.

I know schools that are putting an unbelievable amount of pressure and expectation on their staff. In the long term this leads to burn-out, illness, stress, and staff looking to go elsewhere. 

We put a huge amount of effort into finding the best possible person for any vacancy we have. We then do all we can to look after those we appoint. The response from staff has consistently been to go far above and beyond the 'rule book expectations' set by many schools. It has also been to choose to stay with us. Pretty much the only reason staff leave us is to have a baby, or if they move out of Auckland.

The benefits of a stable, happy staff are huge, so I will continue to do all I can to support and nurture them so they in turn will love and nurture your children.

In just seven days teachers uploaded 1,794 learning posts and these were accessed by 3,142 parent visits. This is an incredible level of engagement - huge kudos to all.

We are extremely fortunate to have all our children connected via Seesaw. This costs us around $8,000 a year, so a lot of schools choose not to sign up for this expense. That then means Zooms are their only avenue for connecting with their children at this time. 

All our staff are posting videos to Seesaw and many have organised Zooms too. For our juniors, we have gone with uploading self-pacing videos that children can access and work through at their own best time and pace.

A big challenge we are very aware of is that Zoom sessions lock families and their bandwidth and time into one slot - with no flexibility.

We know many families have both parents working online from home, and with older siblings also online with NCEA, the demand on bandwidth can be beyond capacity, and those parents need to be able to work to pay the bills.

Conclusion:

Please do not feel pressured to ensure your child is learning all day and every day. These are very challenging times and the best response we can have is to be understanding, patient and kind. Kind to yourself as well as others. It has become a mantra, but it is true. We will get through this. Our children will bounce back socially, emotionally and academically. 

Thank you for your understanding and support. I send our sincere best wishes, and our  care and concern for your wellbeing. And remember to let me know if I can help.