Issue 19: Week 9, Term 2 2024

Principal's Message - Karere a te Tumuaki

Kia ora Karaka friends and whānau - or should I say Bula!

Last week Mr Dyer and I were lucky enough to attend the GROWTH Culture Leadership Conference over in beautiful Fiji. The reason we were able to attend is that every Principal in NZ was awarded a one off grant from the MoE as part of the recent Principal contract negotiations in 2023 & 2024. The guidelines for the use of this grant are really tight (especially since the funds are not owned or managed by the school but by the MoE) so I chose to use it for my external Principal Appraisal Process, as well as attend the conference in Fiji - and thankfully, the Board were supportive of Mr Dyer attending too so that we were able to share our learning and experiences, as well as keep each other accountable for bringing this learning home and putting our insights into action back at school.
Throughout the week, we had three days of workshops and speakers, including Dr David Mulford (Enhancing our Leadership and Coaching Techniques), Julia Grace (The Importance of Wellbeing for Sustained Leadership and Looking after the Wellbeing of those in our Schools), Aaron More (Keys to Effective Leadership - Without Burnout), and one of my favourite sessions was with Bex Rose (Innovation in Education Using Artificial Intelligence). We have lots of exciting things, including some practical tools, to be able to share with our teachers and students.
But the best day of all, was the full day we spent at Sabeto District School in Nadi. We literally transformed this school by painting the entire exterior ourselves from a faded yellow to a brilliant blue, all in the hot sun, and all the while talking and connecting with the 243 students inside. It truly was a humbling and heartwarming experience. The students have little in the way of material possessions, and their classrooms are primitive in comparison to ours, yet they are so happy and love coming to school every single day. And boy - can they sing!

I want to thank the Board for allowing Mr Dyer and myself to be away for the week. I also want to thank the teachers, and especially the Team Leaders and Office Staff, for doing an amazing job holding down the fort back at school - we have an amazing team here at Karaka.

I welcome the chance to share my experiences with anyone who would like to come and chat about the conference, no doubt Mr Dyer would too. I hope you enjoy these short clips that will give you a glimpse into our experience:

Sabeto District School - 19th June 2024
GROWTH Culture - School of Transformation 2024

For now, vinaka vakalevu and enjoy the rest of your week. 

Auckland Rugby Champs

Congratulations to the winners of the Under 45kg team who won the Under 45kg 15 a-side team tournament where they played Kowhai Intermediate in 3 very close games.

• Game 1 won 7-5
• Game 2 draw
• Game 3 draw

They played in good spirits and were outstanding role models for both our school, ECCS and Counties.

Congratulations to Daniel P, Tom P, Kieran D, Charlie T, Cooper R, Tua S and Max N - outstanding effort!

Celebrating Learning and Achievement

Market Day

PTA News

Welcome one and all!

The Karaka School PTA wishes to invite you to our meeting tonight!  Held in the staffroom at 7pm TONIGHT - Wednesday 27th June!

All welcome!  

Notes from the Office

• Attendance - please remember to notify the office via Hero or the Website or Email (Teacher and office please) or the dedicated phone line if your child is going to be absent or late or arriving late due to an appointment.  
  
• Fees and Donations - as the term is nearing an end, it is a timely time to have a look on Kindo and make sure you have paid your school fees - e.g. bus fees, Mathletics, Education Perfect, Class Consumables, technology fees, trips/camps (these are all paid for by the school so we would be grateful if these could be paid). As for donations, they are gratefully appreciated - these help with the on-going costs of running the school.

Updates from the Wider Community