Term 2, 2020
Kia ora e te whānau,
A lot has happened since our last Board Brief in Term One. After such a long period of uncertainty and challenges during the lockdown it is great to see our School back to ‘normal’ with the kids playing freely and enjoying being back at school with their friends and our staff. There are still a lot of challenges ahead of us all as we work through the economic impacts of Covid and we hope that your family and whānau are well.
Return to School Reflections: Last week at our Board of Trustees meeting the school reported to us on the transition of students back to on-site learning and their reflections during distance learning. It was clear from this report that our children had a wide range of learning opportunities made available to them with a large majority of children getting involved. Over 95% of students and parents made use of the available digital platforms provided by the school and, most importantly, our children have relayed many positive memories of their time at home with their families.
Lockdown was a very stressful time for some families juggling work commitments, distance learning and processing all the potential impacts on our families, including wellbeing and financial. The Board would like to extend a huge thank you to all parents and whānau for the amazing job you did supporting the distance learning programme and getting your families through this time. We would also like to thank our school staff for all the support they provided to our families.
School Donations: The Board decided to delay sending this year’s request for school donations. The request was ready to go out just before lock-down and it was decided to wait and give parents a chance to understand their own ‘post lockdown’ positions before adding any other pressure.
The government funds schools for all the basic education costs, however, as a decile 10 school our funding is less than lower decile schools on the presumption that communities with higher incomes will have the means to fund any additional resources themselves. This is why donations at Sumner School are so important. This year School Donations are even more important because our other funding streams such as; PTA fundraising and International Students, have been negatively impacted by the lockdown.
A lot has happened since our last Board Brief in Term One. After such a long period of uncertainty and challenges during the lockdown it is great to see our School back to ‘normal’ with the kids playing freely and enjoying being back at school with their friends and our staff. There are still a lot of challenges ahead of us all as we work through the economic impacts of Covid and we hope that your family and whānau are well.
Return to School Reflections: Last week at our Board of Trustees meeting the school reported to us on the transition of students back to on-site learning and their reflections during distance learning. It was clear from this report that our children had a wide range of learning opportunities made available to them with a large majority of children getting involved. Over 95% of students and parents made use of the available digital platforms provided by the school and, most importantly, our children have relayed many positive memories of their time at home with their families.
Lockdown was a very stressful time for some families juggling work commitments, distance learning and processing all the potential impacts on our families, including wellbeing and financial. The Board would like to extend a huge thank you to all parents and whānau for the amazing job you did supporting the distance learning programme and getting your families through this time. We would also like to thank our school staff for all the support they provided to our families.
School Donations: The Board decided to delay sending this year’s request for school donations. The request was ready to go out just before lock-down and it was decided to wait and give parents a chance to understand their own ‘post lockdown’ positions before adding any other pressure.
The government funds schools for all the basic education costs, however, as a decile 10 school our funding is less than lower decile schools on the presumption that communities with higher incomes will have the means to fund any additional resources themselves. This is why donations at Sumner School are so important. This year School Donations are even more important because our other funding streams such as; PTA fundraising and International Students, have been negatively impacted by the lockdown.
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As a Board we are dedicated to supporting the school with one of the most important resources possible - people! This year we have already appointed a teacher above and beyond our Ministry of Education allocation to enable us to maintain smaller class sizes for our children and at the start of Term 3 the Board will appoint a teacher into Rapanui to begin our New Entrants Room 3 Nest. We also employ our five amazing Learning Support Workers to support teaching and learning programmes across the school. Put plain and simply, without your support through the payment of your donations these appointments wouldn't happen.
A huge thank you to all of you who paid your donations last year. With your support we were able to achieve the following (see infographic). At the end of last year the Board made the decision that we needed to increase the amount we were requesting from parents for donations. There has been no change to the school donation since 2013. Over this time the cost of providing learning opportunities has grown and so has the amounts needed to employ additional staff. With this in mind we have increased the school donation from $175 to $195 per student. The Board understands that this year may now look very different financially for some of our families. Therefore, those impacted may want to consider paying the school donation by instalments each term, or by paying a lesser amount. A reminder also that all donations to the school are tax deductible. Financial statements are being sent home in school bags from today so please look out for them. |
School Reports – Hero:
As you will have seen in the update letter sent last week, Sumner School is moving to a new system for tracking student progress and achievement. For parents this will be where you can view your child’s report throughout the year. It will give parents the normal periodic snapshot but also enable you to easily view progress as your children move through the school from year 0 to year 8. The first report comments will be sent out via Hero during the last week of this term. Keep your eyes peeled for information soon about how to log into Hero for the first time.
Education Review Office (ERO):
The team from ERO completed their on-site review just before lockdown occurred and are now in the process of finalising their report. This will be available to all parents via our website later this term.
Ngā mihi nui
Sumner School Board of Trustees
As you will have seen in the update letter sent last week, Sumner School is moving to a new system for tracking student progress and achievement. For parents this will be where you can view your child’s report throughout the year. It will give parents the normal periodic snapshot but also enable you to easily view progress as your children move through the school from year 0 to year 8. The first report comments will be sent out via Hero during the last week of this term. Keep your eyes peeled for information soon about how to log into Hero for the first time.
Education Review Office (ERO):
The team from ERO completed their on-site review just before lockdown occurred and are now in the process of finalising their report. This will be available to all parents via our website later this term.
Ngā mihi nui
Sumner School Board of Trustees
