Tēnā koutou katoa
Ngā mihi nui, kia koutou katoa - Warm greetings to you all.
Congratulations to our Pasifika group who performed so well last weeked at the Pasifika in the Bay festival in Katikati. Thank you to our amazing TPS parent Sovaia, Whaea Kylie and Mrs Arnesen who coached the team. Also thank you to Jess Watts who attended that event and supported the students. Photos below 😀
Our staff had an awesome day of learning last week for our Teacher Only Day; we worked with Dr Helen Walls learning more about the effective teaching of writing. Teachers are already implementing ideas, see below some of the wonderful writing achieved this week. Writing instruction will be a major learning focus for our staff next year.
Thank you to the parents who contributed to our 2024 Parent Survey, we received responses from 198 families (53% of our school families).
The following is a summary of responses to our annual questions:
- 94% Agree or Strongly Agree that they feel comfortable and welcomed at Tauranga Primary School
- 87% Agree or Strongly Agree that Tauranga Primary School provides a high-quality education for their children. 11% Neither Agree or Disagree
- 86% Agree or Strongly Agree that they feel well informed about their child’s progress and achievement
- 91% Agree or Strongly Agree that Tauranga Primary School provides a safe and nurturing environment for children
- 74% Agree or Strongly Agree that Tauranga Primary School deals with inappropriate behaviour in an effective and fair manner (NB: this result is after we removed responses from parents who responded with "we have had no experience with this" (25% of respondents). A further 19% neither agreed or disagreed with the statement
- 80% Agree or Strongly Agree that their culture and the culture of others is valued and recognised in the school community. 16% selected the neither agree or disagree
Some feedback of note:
- 91% of our parents were happy with our current Health Statement, so this will remain in place as our school policy. Some comments were made regarding the "Understanding Me" unit, in particular how gender identity is explained. We absolutely take this feedback onboard and give as much information to parents as we can prior to each lesson and offer an option to withdraw a child if requested. Also, we wish to clarify that we do not teach about gender identity or puberty to 5 year olds, this content is covered in the senior school only
- 67% of the respondents were female and 62% of the responses were from NZ European, 15% Asian and 7% NZ Māori (our school roll is currently 46% NZ European, 27% Asian, 17% Māori)
- We are looking further into how students are interacting with each other, particularly on the senior field at break times. A couple of respondents mentioned behaviour issues between students, which we want to know more about. This year we have invested in more structured lunchtime activities being offered with adult assistance. These include staff led games and employing Kelly Sports (Anish) to lead games (coaching resilience and fairplay) at lunchtimes. As a school we have very few behavioural issues reported at break times, so we are curious to understand if there are behaviours going on that teachers are unaware of so we can follow up on these
- A couple of parents mentioned extension opportunities, this is something we are looking to grow in 2025
- One person mentioned disappointment about the Year 1 students not being in the production. The year 1 students will be putting on their own mini show at school later in the term
- There were many positive comments about our school culture and the community feel of the school
- There were many positive comments regarding the teaching programmes and teaching staff
- As the survey is anonymous, we have no way to follow up directly with people. If you have a particular concern please talk to your child's class teacher or the Team Leader (contact details are further on in the newsletter).
Overall the BOT (board of trustees) are happy with the levels of support for our school procedures, and teaching practice.
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A very warm welcome to students who have recently started at TPS: Kristin Pillay and Paramveer Kaur. It is great to have you and your whānau joining our TPS team.
Hei kōnei rā
Fiona Hawes
Principal
principal@tauranga.school.nz
