New Year, New Principal, New School...

Kia Ora, Namaste, Nin Hao, Sat Sri Akal, Choum Reap Sor, Sawubona, Talofa Lava, Kia Orana, Bonjour & Hello

What the haps highlights:

So my first official week as a Principal has now come to an end!  And what a week it has been. I started at Hobsonville Point Primary School on Tuesday where Daniel Birch and his amazing leadership team welcomed me into their school and have provided us a home base for the next two terms.  It has been fascinating for me to see how much they have grown and I am looking forward to learning more from Dan, Lisa, Kristen and Megan- particularly around how their pedagogy and curriculum have evolved since I last spent time with them in 2014. I am especially grateful to have Dan as an interim mentor, as he is the only other full primary principal who has opened a new PPP school in Auckland, not to mention that he is a future focused innovative leader!

I have also spent time framing our budget for the foundation year, aligning it with our Teaching and Learning grant, the administration grant and the library grant as well using budgets from other new schools, the KiwiPark model and others as a guide- budgets are definitely new learning for me.  I also met with Michael Harrison from Aurcon and Alan Curtis, our Board Chair regarding the joinery that is planned for the design in the build of the school. It was great to have this opportunity to review some drawings of the school and get a better sense for the layout. 

Other key points of business have included reviewing the Torque IP agreement (they are our Technology Infrastructure Consultants and Project Manager) and advertising our proposed zone in the local papers: NorWest News and the Kumeu Courier.  Sam Wells from Huapai District School, who is our EBoT Secretary, has been an absolute marvel in this.  I have also submitted a request with a rationale to the Ministry for us to be able to appoint a Specialist teacher to start in term 4. Fingers crossed.Lastly, I have rejigged our Establishment Project Action Plan into a format that suits me.



Key Learning:
Some key areas of operational and professional learning this week has involved spending time with Koral Doidge from Ormiston Primary School to set up and navigate Novopay and Xero along with some self-directed learning using their online modules and video guides.

I spent a day setting up our Microsoft 365 platform with Crispin Lockwood- Microsoft Learning Delivery Specialist (and also my husband!) to ensure we can support teaching and learning approaches within both the Google and Office digital landscapes.  I am excited to learn more about how other schools are using MS365 in schools as this is not my area of speciality, being a Google Innovator myself:)

I also reviewed a lot of documents that the wonderful and generous NZ school principals have shared in the NZ Principals Facebook shared google folder and investigated which professional organisations to join.

A wonderful aspect of my new role is that I am not alone.  Mel Bland, the vibrant and amazing principal of the other Auckland PPP school- Te Uho O Te Nikau Primary and I are committed to a collaborative approach in our new school, new principal journey.  Mel and I are also networking with Tony Grey and Gen Fuller who are started new schools in 2019 as well.  Mel and I will share the same First Time Principal Mentor, Brian Gower who I meet next week.  I am hopeful that the new program, facilitated by Evaluation Associates and led by Diane Manners, will be of the high caliber that the National Aspiring Principal's Programme was (led by Micheal King, Cognition Education, as part of Te Toi Tupu) where I was lucky enough to be mentored by Lionel Mickell in 2015.

What's coming up:

• arrange an ESL login and subscribe to APPA, WAPA and NZPF
• meet with Megan to review budget
• Flat Bush Schools PL Day
• Meet with Brian Gower re FTPP
• Book flights to Christchurch for school visits with Mel