In 2021, stakeholders of Te Kauwhata Primary School took part in the Strategic Leadership for Principals Programme (SLPP) through Springboard Trust.
The BoT recognised that strategic leadership is a pivotal element for improved school performance, thus giving the opportunity of the principal to attend this PLD. For the principal, the ability to plan, manage and report as the fulcrum of your community ensures strong relationships and the right conditions for everyone to thrive.
A part of this professional learning, was that we needed to update our vision statement from:
‘Developing confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners’
to
’Successful Learners in an Engaging, iInclusive Environment’
The BoT and leadership team spent hours coming up with a new statement that they believed was aspirational and one that fits our school in 2021 and one that we will continue to pursue in the years to come. The recognised that this new statement will also be a key driver as the school looks to relocate in 2028 to the Lakeside development on Scott Road as they we want the new school to be a physical environment that is inclusive and engaging and one that promotes success for all students
Our new vision has the following three key words - successful, engaging and inclusive. These three words are the basis on which our strategic goals will be built over the next three years.
Our why?
Success
In 2019 we asked our community to give us their ideas and thoughts on what success looks like for our children. Out of that wealth of information was birthed the following statements:
Success means ‘Our students and community are engaged’
Success is when our ‘Wellbeing is looked after’
Success is when ‘We are Learning’
Success is when we ‘Grow as people’
Success is when our school ‘Promotes success for all’
As you can see this definition of success is holistic and doesn’t focus on the academic achievements of students. This definition of success still drives us and is one that we aspire to get to as a school community.
To meet the aspirations of all our learners having success at TKP our strategic goal is to
‘Deliver equitable outcomes for all students at Te Kauwhata Primary School’.
Engaging
As a school we recognise that one of the most important indicators of school are the relationships that are formed between student - teacher and teacher to whaanau/families. Without these relationships a child will struggle to learn and function in a school environment. Hence the reason why we have ‘engaging’ in our vision - we want our students to engage in their learning in the classroom and the wider school community. We want our students to develop quality relationships with their teachers and for teachers to connect with parents and whaanau.
We believe that we do this well but we can always do better therefore our second strategic goal is to -
‘Grow Engagement in the Classroom, the School and Wider Community’.
Inclusive
The final part of our vision statement focuses on creating an inclusive environment. As a school, we pride ourselves on our culture of CARE and how our staff and children care for students who struggle in their learning, have specific learning needs, and students who need that little bit of extra awhi and aroha to engage in the everyday classroom programme. While we believe this is a strong part of who we are as a school, we know that we aren’t perfect and we want to continue to create a learning environment that is culturally inclusive, engages all learners and delivers equitable outcomes for all students.
Therefore that last strategic goal for the next three years is to -
‘Strengthen our School Culture where Learning and Success is Celebrated’.
