Message from the Principal

Tena koutou katoa, nga mihi nui kia koutou katoa.  Welcome to all parents, caregivers and community members.

Kawaha Point has a dedicated staff and Board of Trustees that really care about the students that are enrolled at our school. Our teaching staff are a wonderful mix of very experienced teachers and enthusiastic newcomers that combine to offer the very best of learning opportunities.  We have 3 Bilingual classes where students learn to read and write in English first and then in Te Reo Maori. We currently have 11 mainstream classes that give us enviable class sizes, particularly in the junior school. We have several Reading Recovery trained teachers on staff and this supports our new entrants with a great start to their education. Our curriculum focus is clearly on reading, writing and numeracy. We believe that knowing things is no longer good enough for our students and that students must now be able to understand enduring concepts. We also believe in teaching students ‘just in time’ when the knowledge or understanding is useful in a real context rather than ‘just in case’ as schools used to do when I went to school!  

We not only encourage parents and family members to be involved in the school and their child’s education, but really look forward to opportunities to discuss aspects of your child’s education. You are always welcome at Kawaha Point School to chat with teachers or drop in to the staffroom for a coffee. Our ‘Open Door Policy’ encourages parents to be involved at school whenever they like. We have developed our caring culture within the school and we believe that the word ‘fun’ should be an integral part of every child’s education. In fact, we believe this so strongly, that we have included this as part of our Annual Plan for the last 3 years! Our student achievement results show that, through quality teaching and learning, at the end of 2009 we had more than 80% of students achieving at or above expected levels in reading. At the end of 2010 this increased to 86% (National Norm 77%).   We hope you will enjoy your time with Kawaha Point School and we look forward to working with you.

Regards, Andrew Sinclair - Principal