Kia ora koutou parents, caregivers, whānau and students,
We hope you have had a positive week.
On Wednesday night we welcomed back our Tui and Kiwi Year 8 students, parents, and staff from their Totara Springs experience. They had a fantastic three days participating in indoor and outdoor activities that brought challenge, fun, laughter and lifelong memories.
Our Year 10 students have been front of mind as they have navigated this past week at home, learning online. We are looking forward to welcoming them back to school this Monday 28th March. We trust that they have enjoyed a change of space, pace, and had a productive week.
Thank you to all those parents who were able to attend our first parent Whanau Forum of the school year on Tuesday evening. We were delighted to see over 100 parents attend online via Zoom to learn more about our leadership team, student leaders, and what qualities make us unique as a Junior school model for our adolescent learners. A tremendous thank you to Lisa Lumsden who is staff leader of our Whanau forums this year. We now include a section called “Whanau Forum’ in our fortnightly e-newsletter to inform you, and provide more insight about AJHS.
This week the government has indicated that we are moving towards our post peak Omicron period, with some subtle changes to our guidelines. Staff and students continue to wear masks at school for the foreseeable future, but we look forward to taking masks off when we are outdoors. Wisdom and common sense must still prevail as we are not ‘out of the woods’ yet.
The silver lining of our pandemic has been our ability to adapt, show innovation and understanding for each other. Post Covid, as a school, we will continue to:
- Examine what is needed to support our students whose learning has been disrupted for up to two years
- Consider what our ‘new normal’ could look like for staff, students and parents
- Reflect and collaborate about the traditions, systems and routines that will be reinstated at green light phase
- Ask ourselves what we could change for the future as a consequence of our pandemic experience. What has worked well and what could we do better?
We look forward to doing this in partnership with you as we move through the year.
We wish Year 8 Ruru and Makomako students, staff and parents all the best for their Totara Springs experience this Monday – Wednesday. Thank you to our Year 8 Head of Learning, Shelley Brockelsby who has planned our Year 8 outdoor adventures.
Thank you for your on-going support. Have a restful weekend, and take care whānau.
Cushla Shepherd
Principal, Albany Junior High School
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