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Nga mihi nui kia koutou, 

Thank you to all those who attended our 1-1 device evening on Wednesday night.  We were thrilled with a turn out of close to 100 parents, and are grateful for the level of open discussion and healthy debate on the 1-1 device initiative.

Reflecting on the comments made both verbally and through the wall charts; it is clear that families support the end point outlined in our booklet two weeks ago (reinforced by our teaching staff on Wednesday night and back in October last year). The change this project represents is transformational in terms of teaching. Most parents also understand that the world our children are entering is very different to the world when we finished school, and that we have a collective responsibility to prepare them for this as best we can.

It is an exciting time, but there are also a range of concerns and issues that need to be addressed by the school and the community before we proceed to the next step.

A significant concern expressed was the lack of consultation through the decision making process to date.  The school acknowledges this concern as valid, and is keen to move forward by working with families to help us achieve our vision for e-learning and 1-1 devices.  To this end, we will be holding a series of consultation workshops early in Term 2 to outline our current thinking and seek more input from the wider community on some of the common questions raised.  

Based on feedback on Wednesday night, these workshops are likely to cover things like:
• Safety of devices in and out of school (including discussion on insurance considerations)
• Protecting our learners (including discussion regarding digital citizenship, email and cyber bullying)
• How this will look in classrooms, particularly in relation to core learning and how we will measure success (including discussion regarding non screen time, handwriting etc).  
• Look, touch and play: a hands on opportunity to use the Chromebooks.
In addition to these consultation workshops, we also intend to hold information sessions for interested parents around topics such as: using the Google Apps for Education suite at home and how parents can access and monitor their child’s work through the Hapara programme etc.  We are keen to hear of other topics you would like covered and will seek your input on this following the workshops.

We have heard the concerns many families have regarding the financial outlay required by families and, as indicated on Wednesday, are continuing to explore options in this area.  There were some great suggestions on the night about different approaches to this issue and these are all being evaluated.  We will also be canvassing those families directly affected by the Term 3 timeline to get a clear indication on their overall thoughts following Wednesday night’s discussion.

An interesting suggestion made towards the end of the evening, was that there may be families out there prepared to sponsor a device for the use of a student who may not otherwise be in a position to participate in the initiative due to financial constraints. We think this is an incredibly generous and thoughtful offer, and would like to explore this option further.  If you think this might be something you could do, or know of another member of the community or a business that may consider sponsoring a device, please let me know.

We’ve committed to sending out more information about the other options that were explored by the school and tech group (such as bringing any device, and school-owned devices), the pros and cons of each, and why the school ultimately came to the 1-to-1 recommendation. Look out for that in the coming weeks.

And lastly, I am very keen to discuss any other thoughts, questions or concerns any parent might have about this project directly. I’m happy to meet with any families at any time including over the school holidays; just drop me a note and we can arrange a time. Alternatively, feel free to email or ring with your thoughts, good or bad.

Once again, many thanks to those who came along and participated in the discussion.  The strong turnout and excellent discussion was testament to a very caring community and we see an exciting future ahead for learners at Maungaraki School and look forward to continuing this journey together.

Kind regards, 

Lisa Cavanagh
Maungaraki School