Tēnā koutou, e te whānau o Long Bay College. 

We have been experiencing a really encouraging start to Term 3, with students and staff attendances up considerably, which augers well for the teaching and learning experiences and outcomes here at our kura. The decision to roster home each of our year levels in Week 2 was made with great consideration and has proven to be a very useful circuit breaker for us.

Term 3 has seen us adopt a ‘back to basics’ approach with a clear focus on teaching, learning, and behaviours at the college. The unintended consequences of having so many staff and students absent and absent so regularly, the reliance on a significant number of relief teachers at our school daily, and the anxiety and uncertainty for our staff and students has meant a restart on our expectation was identified as necessary. I am delighted to say that postponing some of our strategic initiatives for this year has given our staff more time to focus on what is really important now and that tackling phones, uniforms, earphones, punctuality, classroom tikanga, and encouraging pro-social behaviours has had a profound effect on the feel of the school. I thank all of our parent caregiver/community who have supported us in this. More information on this will follow shortly.

I would like to congratulate all of our students and staff who were involved in delivering our school production “All Shook Up”, it was quite simply outstanding. Best wishes also go to our ākonga competing nationally in next week’s Tournament Week.

Ngā mihi nui

CJ Healey