Principals News

Kia ora,
As we come to the end of a very tough Term 3, I would like to firstly thank our outstanding students who have shown a tremendous amount of resilience over the past 6 weeks. Teachers have said that students have consistently worked hard to complete their work even when motivation was sometimes low. I am very proud of you. 

Secondly, thank you to our amazing teachers; when we were planning for lockdown, we wanted to make sure the students experienced as close to a typical classroom programme as possible, which took a huge amount of time and effort to plan and resource. 

And lastly, our fantastic community, we have been inundated with positive emails about students experiences during lockdown that has made our job a lot easier. Thank you for being so supportive. 

Hopefully, under level 2, our staff are able to meet to start planning appropriate activities for students transition back to school as we realise in some cases this may not be easy. In the meantime, please make sure you have a restful holiday and try and relax for a few days.  

Fingers crossed that we can start the term on Monday 18 October without any further interruptions.

Alert Level 2 Procedure Planning

Under Alert Level 2, it is safe for all schools to open. Safe and sensible practice for hygiene and contact tracing will be the norm, and all students will be able to return, so long as they remain well.  The key principles for Alert Level 2 are to:

• Reduce the risk of someone getting infected in the first place

• Ensure we can identify and contact anyone who becomes infected

• Understand that Level 2 is not business as usual

Student-Led Conferences - date change

Student-led conferences will now take place on Tuesday 16th November from 1.00pm – 8.00pm and Wednesday 17th November from 1.00pm – 6.00pm. Please note that school will finish at 12.45pm on both of these days to accommodate the conferences. There are enough spaces for each student to have an individual 20 minute conference with their teacher. The conference bookings can be made via the School Interviews website, which will go live on Tuesday 2nd November.

Due to COVID 19, student-led conferences will look slightly different from what they did at the beginning of the year. 

How will the student-led conference be conducted? 
Student-led conferences involve the student, caregiver and teacher. The students are responsible for leading the conference and also taking responsibility for their learning by sharing the process with their parents. The conference will involve the students reflecting on their year, identifying successes and highlighting key areas against our school values (Proud, Active, Safe, Achiever). Current achievement data will also be shared, and students will discuss the goals they have set themselves for 2022.

Why have student-led conferences?  
For students, student-led conferences are an opportunity to:  

• Reflect on their learning journey, clarifying what they have been learning and assessing their progress
• Share their learning goals in Numeracy and Literacy
• Develop and extend their ability to talk about their learning  
• Deepen their relationship with their parents around their learning, to celebrate what has been learnt 

For parent’s student-led conferences are an opportunity to:  

• Actively and meaningfully support their child in their learning  
• Understand more fully what the child is learning, celebrating the progress that has been made
• Enjoy a rich, learning-oriented conversation with their child  
• Be aware of how much the child is taking responsibility for their learning

ICAS Date Changes

Due to COVID, we have to change the dates that ICAS will be sat. The new dates are as follows:

• Writing – Wednesday 20 October at 10.30am
• Science – Wednesday 27 October at 10.30 am
• Mathematics – Tuesday 2 November at 10.30am

Please note the students who missed the English test before lockdown will be approached individually with a time to sit the test.

Student Wellbeing Survey

Recently, we conducted an online survey to gather feedback about the wellbeing of our students during lockdown, so that we can check in and continue to provide support for them as needed.

Overall, the majority of our students are feeling happy and content most of the time, with some feeling bored or tired.  Most students felt like they were coping well with stress, however, this has been an ongoing priority area for us. To support this our counsellor has been doing sessions with each FLE focused on managing stress and emotions, and strategies to help manage these.  These sessions have been interactive with students being able to share and help each other to develop their capacity to manage and cope with stress.

The majority, 75% of students are feeling connected or very connected to their family and peers.  One of the key comments that students identified was that they missed the interactions with their friends and teacher at school and that it just wasn’t the same learning from home.  We are looking forward to supporting students to rebuild their connections with their peers and teacher when we return to school, and this will be our priority during Level 2.

Many students commented that during lockdown they have enjoyed spending more time with their families, working at their own pace and in their own room, connecting with their teacher and friends online, and having a structured timetable with a range of activities they can choose from.

Some of the challenges students have recognised are not being able to learn with their friends and ask them questions, internet/wifi issues, staying motivated, not getting distracted, and managing their workload.

We have been so impressed with our students’ engagement, resilience and positive approach to lockdown. 

Lockdown Learning

It has been fantastic to see the high level of engagement and creativity that our students have shown during lockdown. Based on our survey, most students still feel that they are making good progress in their learning, with the majority saying they are making very good to excellent progress, which is fantastic to hear.

We have continued our differentiated programme in Literacy and Maths, catering to students strengths and needs, as well as offering a range of extension and enrichment options such as Maths, Writing, and Performing Arts.  We have also had a number of fun events in classes, such a Crazy Hat Day, Pet Parades, Kahoot Quizzes and Baby Photo competitions, as well as celebrating our students with digital certificates for showing the Pasa Values being Proud, Active, Safe, Achievers during remote learning.

With our term’s Unit of Inquiry ‘How The World Works’ coming to an end, many students are busy researching and creating their summative task to show their understanding of force, energy and motion, how they change and how they are used for different purposes. It has been great fun exploring these concepts through different STEM activities, such as creating wind-powered cars and Rube Goldberg machines.

Our Specialist programme has enabled students to make soundtracks, further develop their baking and cooking skills, create beautiful nature mandalas and pop up buildings, as well as explore coding and digital design.  This week students could select which Specialist they attended, which they really enjoyed.

Thank you for supporting your child with their learning during the lockdown, we really appreciate it.

Burger Fuel deal for the Pasadena Community

Our good mates at BurgerFuel Pt Chev know that you’ve all been missing them, nearly as much as they’ve been missing you. To get us all through level 3, and the upcoming holidays, they’ve given us here at Pasadena access to a very special offer. Use the code 241ptchev online when ordering from them, and you’ll get 2 burgers for the price of 1, right up to we’re back at school October 18^th! The normal kind of conditions apply for this kind of offer, but please, keep it hush, this is just a Pt Chev thing and very special for us!

They do ask just one little favour, and that is simply due to trying to maintain social distancing etc, if you are ordering using the 2 for 1 codes, please do so outside of Fridays between 5 and 8pm!

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