Dear Parents / Caregivers / Community members
Our local schools are used to cooperating with each other, but we have taken that a step further.  We have formalised cooperation into a more collaborative relationship, with a focus on supporting all children and young people in our community to achieve their full potential.  This follows a great deal of discussion by the local school Boards and Principals over the last 12 months.  This has resulted in the formation of the Kaipātiki Community of Learning which was approved by the Ministry of Education on 7th March 2017.

It includes:

• Bayview School
• Bayview kindergarten
• Glenfield Primary
• Glenfield Kindergarten
• Glenfield Intermediate
• Glenfield College
• Manuka Primary School
• Marlborough Primary School
• Marlborough Kindergarten
• Target Road School
• Wairau Valley Special School
• Windy Ridge School

 

Communities of Learning are part of a government initiative to strengthen collaboration between the various education providers along the learning pathway of students.  Research has identified that when schools and teachers collaborate and share expertise, the support for and transition of students through the education system improves.

Each of our schools remains self-governing, but this initiative resources teachers across all schools to work together on meeting the specific achievement challenges within their community, drawing on each other’s skills, knowledge and experience.

Mark Whitford, Principal of Glenfield Intermediate School, has been appointed by the appointments panel (representatives from the nine boards) as the initial lead principal of Kaipātiki for the first two years. This Community of Learning is a powerful educational research and development network, focused on meeting local learning needs.  As lead principal, he is tasked with setting up the systems and processes to develop collaboration between the schools.  There are many outstanding education practitioners in our community, and the sharing of the professional expertise across the nearly 3000 young learners in our local area enriches the whole community.

The first event was the inaugural Kaipātiki Community of Learning Conference Day which was held at Glenfield College on the 31st January 2017.  This involved a superb day of professional learning for all 250 staff from the learning community schools and ECE centres.  This was the start of our learning journey with Cognition Education Consultants who are working in all our schools and kindergartens over the next three years.

As more details and plans are finalised, we will ensure that the parents/caregivers/community members are informed via school newsletter.  This will take place at the end of each term, where there will be a Kaipātiki Community of Learning update in each school newsletter.

If you have any questions, your first point of contact is the principal of the school where your child attends.