29 March 2021

Newsletter Articles

Principals supporting Principals… Principals supporting Principles!

Kia Ora,

It was great to see and catch up with so many of you at the Retreat. A link to Mark’s slides can be found under the ‘Learning Lab’ section.

Happy week 9 and I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Nga Mihi
Chrissy Wakeman
Orini Combined School

A message from Marcus

Kia Ora Koutou

Thanks everyone for their support of our Retreat last week. It was a great couple of days and I thought Mark’s messages on change leadership were really useful. I left with great tools to initiate change rather than just theory around it. In a climate of constant change, I think Mark’s strategies are very timely. Feedback relating to the Ministry workshops was also very positive. There were a number of changes we need to be aware of and on top of. ERO apologized sincerely. Our presenter had an unexpected issue come up and had to take leave at short notice. Phil Cowie asked me to pass on his sincere apologies. A big thank you to Sandra and the Exec team for organizing and running a great event.

On Friday Hamish, Drew and I went to the NZFP Moot in Wellington. A major issue that was identified in all regions was special education support, for both learning and behaviour. Associate Minister Tinetti advised us that over one billion dollars had been put into special education in the last 3 years. When asked she was unable to tell us where it had gone.

I can report that Andrew Jones (Melbourne University) will be in Hamilton on Friday 14th of May for one day only. Andy will present some work he has done on systems change with a wellbeing focus. He says it is the most effective school improvement tool he has seen in 20 years. WPA will run an extra Connection day to host Andy. Details will be the WPA website in the next week or so. Andy always presents interesting thinking and I encourage everyone to lock this date for Principals and Leadership teams.

We also have our partnership day with Sport Waikato on the 24th of June. The programme is being finalized now and there is an interesting range of speakers. If possible I encourage you to bring your leadership team because part of the conversation will be about rethinking Health & PE in our schools.

I hope everyone has a restful Easter break and has an opportunity to recharge their batteries.

Nga mihi

Marcus Freke
WPA President

WPA AGM

WPA Dates

Learning Lab

A note from Hamilton City Council

Hamilton City Council Sister Cities – Schools relationships

Hamilton City Council is seeking interest from Hamilton schools interested in engaging with our Sister Cities in Japan and China.

Sister cities are relationships between pairs of councils and their communities. Their aim is to foster cross-cultural understanding and build long and enduring partnerships.

Hamilton City Council holds relationships with the local governments of Wuxi and Chengdu in China, and Saitama in Japan.

These cities are interested in developing relationships with schools in Hamilton for virtual interaction between students. These relationships would be led by the schools and supported by each Council through their establishment.

Specifically, we have interest from Wuxi – China, to undertake some virtual engagement with a primary or intermediate school on topics such as an introduction about each city, school life in New Zealand and China, and each country’s Covid-19 response.

Please contact Amy Trigg at amy.trigg@hcc.govt.nz , or 07 838 6792 for further information.

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