Newsletter – 4 May 2020 – Pakuranga Heights School

Dear Parents

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey. The teams have taken on board your suggestions as well as being delighted with the high number of positive and affirming comments. The responses show that the majority of respondents are happy with the present format, quantity and level of work. We appreciate that for some they may be finding it too easy or too hard please keep working with your child’s teacher to ensure they are working at their correct level. There has been some feedback regarding Year 3 students and the difficulty using chrome books. This has been a problem due to chrome books introduced at Year 3 so the students were not as familiar with this learning tool as we would have liked.

I was listening to an expert last week who when asked about schools readiness said that most businesses would take years to prepare to go online, schools had two days. We have been delighted with feedback such as ‘Have been super impressed with how this was rolled out and implemented in such a short time frame’ and ‘Fabulous system and I can see that a lot of time and effort has gone into this. Thank you for this, much better than other schools I have heard of and I am so grateful.’

Thank you for your continued support both with your feedback and support at home completing tasks, motivating and helping your child avoid distractions or at least limit them. I will send a notice later this week once we have clarity and detail from the Ministry of Education around the Covid-19 Level 2 Health and Safety Guidelines.

Repondents

Senior School Families	Middle School Families	Junior School Families
31	42	50

What level of engagement are you expecting for your child?

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
To complete all set tasks and engage with all teacher online connect times	35.48%	28.57 %	34.00 %
To complete most set tasks and engage with most teacher online connect times	54.84 %	45.24 %	48.00 %
To complete some set tasks and engage with some teacher online connect times	6.45 %	16.67 %	16.00 %
To connect occasionally as it suits our family as we have other learning priorities and challenges at present	3.23 %	7.14 %	00.00 %
Other	00.00 %	2.38 %	2.00 %

What has been your favourite part of online learning?

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Live zoom with teachers	54.84 %	30.95 %	12.24%
Teacher videos	3.23 %	7.14 %	34.69%
Class learning activities	32.26 %	42.86 %	42.86%
Other	9.68 %	19.05 %	10.20%
Summary of responses (these are generally individual responses)
Seniors	Learning made fun, being at home
Middles	Writing, Zoom and videos, family time, general knowledge, Google classroom, working together
Juniors	Growing in independence, routines, maths, Apps and teacher contact, family time together.

What have you found hardest with online learning?

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Live zoom with teachers	6.45 %	7.50 %	00.00 %
Teacher videos	3.23 %	2.50 %	4.26 %
Class learning activities	16.13 %	22.50 %	6.38 %
Other	74.19 %	67.50 %	89.36 %
Summary of responses (these are generally individual responses)
Seniors	Short attention span, computer issues, amount of work and difficulty, balance home and work, sibling distraction, lots of positive comments
Middles	Reading, chrome book, digital versus pen and paper, time, balance home and work, distractions, staying focused, working alone, delay in teacher response and motivation
Juniors	Concentration, sharing device, finding time to assist, juggling family life, quantity of work, siblings distracting, ESOL challenges, technology, writing, time to assist, motivation,

Student Wellbeing

In general, how happy have you been feeling since online learning began?

Senior School

Middle School

Junior School

Average out

of 100 %

66 %

69 %

79 %

In general how worried or anxious have you been in the past week?

Senior School

Middle School

Junior School

Average out

of 50 %

26 %

27 %

25 %

How happy are you with the amount of sleep you are currently getting?

Senior School

Middle School

Junior School

Average out

of 100 %

76 %

84 %

89 %

How happy are you with your current amount of exercise?

Senior School

Middle School

Junior School

Average out

of 100 %

68 %

79 %

80 %

Other comments

Summary of responses (these are generally individual responses)
Seniors	Distractions, missing friends, excess screen time, Boredom at home, too much work, love everything, miss teacher, family time great.
Middles	Great online tools, outside versus inside balance, Frustration with difficult tasks, parents also working at home, hard to focus, distractions, several positive comments
Juniors	Missing friends and teachers, child enjoyment and teacher dedication, struggling with active child, frustrated with some tasks, good balance work and play, bored by themselves.

Learning Material

Please comment on the online learning material as well as the activities your child has received. The amount of learning activities provided have been…

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Not enough	3.23 %	2.38 %	4.00 %
Just right	83.87 %	78.57 %	86.00 %
Too much	12.90 %	19.05 %	10.00 %

The level of challenge for my child has been..

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Not enough	6.45 %	2.38 %	6.00 %
Just right	74.19 %	83.33 %	90.00 %
Too much	19.35 %	14.29 %	4.00 %

The balance of online and offline learning activities have been..

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Too much offline	6.45 %	4.76 %	00.00 %
Just right	70.97 %	85.71 %	98.00 %
Too much online	22.58 %	9.52 %	2.00 %

The format of the distance learning has been…

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Too complex	12. 90 %	11.90 %	6.25 %
Just right	87.10 %	88.10 %	93.75 %

Contact with the teacher

The communication I have had from my child’s teacher has been…

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Not enough	9.68 %	2.44 %	6.12 %
Just right	90.32 %	97.56 %	93.88 %
Too much	00.00 %	00.00 %	00.00 %

The online connection via Zoom or Meet between my child and his/her teacher has been…

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Not enough	12.90 %	41.46 %	30.43 %
Just right	87.10 %	56.10 %	69.57 %
Too much	00.00 %	2.44 %	00.00 %

Information and communication from your child’s teacher

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Not enough	6.45 %	9.76 %	00.00 %
Just right	93.55 %	90.24 %	100.00 %
Information overload	00.00 %	00.00 %	00.00 %

The information and communication from school has been…

	Senior School	Middle School	Junior School
Not enough	3.23 %	2.38 %	4.08 %
Just right	96.77 %	97.62 %	89.80 %
Information overload	00.00 %	00.00 %	6.12 %

Any other suggestions

Summary of responses (these are individual responses)
Seniors	Some printed material, maths explanations in detail, more Zoom meetings, whole class Zoom, numerous really positive and grateful statements around teacher input, tasks and dedication.
Middles	Not whole class Zoom, tasks too hard, a number of very positive and grateful statements around teacher input, tasks and dedication, workload balance versus family time, paper copies needed, typing by children slow, balance and distractions.
Juniors	Printable version as alternative, rewards for students, courier awards to students, more contact via Zoom, make kids more accountable, time management getting better, smaller Zoom group, engagement and sibling distraction hard, plenty of positive comments about teacher dedication and quality of work.