Newsletter 4, Term 1 2020 Holiday Break

Newsletter 4, Term 1 Holiday Break – 08 April 2020

It’s 6.30 am and as I listen to the silence on the road outside I’m contemplating Day 12 of the nation’s lockdown and thinking how lucky we are to live in NZ. Usually at this time of day I would be stuck in standstill traffic on State Highway 2, (naughtily) scribbling notes down as ideas pop into my head for the day ahead and anxious to get to school to put them into action. Instead, here I sit in bed, wondering how my students, their families and my school team are doing in these strangest of times.

Yesterday, as part of my preparation for our Board of Trustees’ ZOOM meeting this week (yes, Big Brother has reminded us that if we don’t meet within a 3 month period we’ll risk breaking the law!), I completed a report about our very successful Community Consultation evening that was held a few weeks ago. We had a great turnout and all parents were super-engaged as they shared what they felt was important for their children to learn at Rewa Rewa School. This information is going to be used to help us to develop a more localised curriculum for our school.

Little did we know then, just how dramatically our lives and routines would all change just 2 weeks later! I will share the full report with you after our Board has read it, but I can’t resist giving you a sneak preview. Collating your ideas, it soon became clear that they could be grouped into specific themes – values, competencies, skills & knowledge, community and environment.

Note: The orange ideas were before listening to our educational experts and the green ideas were ones that parents added as they listened.

Out of curiosity, I wondered whether these ideas would have any relevance to the new Level 4 situation that we now find ourselves in. If we had these skills and attributes, would they enable us to more successfully negotiate these times of incredible change? The 10 most popular ideas that our parents agreed on were…

1. Show respect, empathy, understanding and be grateful
2. Be resourceful, self-managing, be motivated and driven, determined to succeed
3. Use the skills of collaboration, communication and socialisation
4. Develop life skills, including budgeting, emergency/survival, personal wellbeing and keeping ourselves safe
5. Be creative, innovative and lateral thinking
6. Have the ability to argue points of view/justify/problem-solve/use logic/challenge constructively/engage in healthy debate
7. Have confidence, have a voice
8. Be resilient, it’s okay to make mistakes, be adaptive risk-takers, try new things
9. Enjoy learning, know the basics well for reading/writing/maths/computer & technology skills, cyber safety skills
10. Participate and engage, be caring citizens, enjoy outdoor activities

I think we were ahead of our time! I challenge you to put this list on your fridge during the Lockdown and try to tick something off each day. These practical actions will surely go a long way towards helping us to be more resourceful, resilient and to come out the other side stronger!

Just a note – our teaching team has been working hard in the background to launch an interactive, online learning programme on 15 April, for those students and their families who wish to participate. Watch for more news about this over the coming week – go to our website on the COVID-19 UPDATES tab for all updates during this time. (Bother – tried not to use that word in this newsletter!). If you are unable to access wifi or devices, but would like to, please email me urgently. No promises, but the Ministry is offering to help those most in need.

In the meantime, thank you for your kind words – emails are arriving in my Inbox to say how much our families are appreciating gestures such as board members ringing them, offers of help, the sharing of great activities for kids and connections being made through our closed school Facebook page.

If you – or someone you know of in our school family – can offer support or needs support, please email me on principal@rewarewa.school.nz so that we can find a way to be there for each other. We are aware that some families may soon encounter financial hardship, with some businesses closing over the next few months – please don’t suffer alone in silence. Our school community will do its best to help you through this and in a compassionate way, so that people can remain anonymous, if they so choose. At the end of the day, our joint Sense of Belonging and Wellbeing is everything!

Speaking of which, time to get out of bed and put on my gym gear – Les Mills Balance routine on TV 1 here I come, followed by a compassionate visit to Mum and Dad and maybe a game of Scrabble – such fun when dementia is added into the mix- the new words can be crazy!

Kia kaha – stay strong – together WE CAN do this and WE WILL be better people for it.

Our aroha and love to you all

Jan Otene (Principal)      Mark Williams (Board Chair)