Partnerships with Parents Whanau and the Wider Community
Connecting with our Parent community :- Information sharing and building partnerships is about developing three-way genuine relationships that focus on learning and progress..
- Kohimarama use the platform School talk to report to parents in real time. This is open to parents to see how their students are going at any given time. We encourage whanau to connect with Schooltalk and have rich conversations around learning with their children and with the teacher of their child.
- At the beginning of the year we have a meet the teacher evening where community come on site to chat and get a feel for their child’s classroom set up and expectations
- Phone calls or face to face catch ups are made to connect with families and to check in on anything that the teacher may need to be aware of. This is about building a positive relationship based on open communication between the teacher and the families of the students in their class.
- There are also a variety of times when kaiako, whanau and ākonga can connect in a more formalised way to discuss the learning. These take place in terms two and four Learning conversations, where goal setting takes place, are in Terms 1 and 3 and then parents are sent updates to these goals throughout the year based on our schedule. These updates reflect the assessment triangle and include evidence of progress towards NZC expected levels. These could be in the form of work samples, photos, videos, teacher and student comments.
- The school communicates with the community through a weekly newsletter that goes out on Tuesdays and is also available on the website. There are also board and PTA newsletters that go out? Each team sends a newsletter that is particularly relevant the that team at the beginning and middle of each term.
- We welcome parents to come in and discuss with us any issues or concerns they may have. We also encourage parent involvement through our sporting teams and EOTC experiences. We value the support that our community gives to us.
Connecting with the wider community:
Events that support our connect with families and the community
- Greats and Grans day (grandparents visit school and see it in action)
- Blokes breakfast ( father’s day)
- Muffins with Mum ( mother’s day)
- School picnics
- School Assemblies where parents are invited to watch children perform and receive certificates
- Open mornings across the school
- Information evenings
Ways our Parent Community support us
- PTA events
- Road patrol supervision
- In class support - parent help, sharing expertise, support n the library, book club
- Walking School Bus
- Pizza and Sushi days
Connecting with the wider community:
- Fostering relationship with the Panmure Marae
- RTLB organisation cluster 8 and the Ministry support team
- Constable Gordon our local community constable visits every year to train our road patrollers and support us in delivering some of our health and safety programmes
- Working collaboratively with the schools within our Kahui Ako - St Thomas’s, Selwyn, Orakei and Stonefields
- SLT - meet with a variety of leaders across education through professional learning groups
- Professional education experts come into the school to support with professional development programmes
- Music experts who come in to teach instruments to students across the school
- Hall hire for community use for speech and drama, dance and fitness
Our Board seek community input through regular surveys and conversations with staff and parents