Together We Grow – Ka Tupu Kotāhi ai Tātou- Week 6 

Mid-Year Reporting 2025 – Important Information for Whānau

We would like to take this opportunity to inform our parent and whānau community that mid-year reporting at Ōtaika Valley School in 2025 will look a little different from previous years.

As a staff, we take the assessment and reporting of student progress very seriously. Our goal is always to provide accurate and meaningful feedback about your child’s learning. However, we wish to acknowledge a significant challenge this year — the Ministry of Education has not yet released formal assessment tools to support the implementation of the new English and Mathematics curricula. These tools are currently being refined and we have been assured they will be available for use later in the year, in time for end-of-year reporting.

So, what will mid-year reporting look like at OVS?

Mid-year reporting will continue to be a combination of:

• Real-time reporting through Hero
  
• Hero learning posts with an ‘overall teacher judgement ‘of progress based on the new curriculum
  

However, due to the lack of validated assessment tools, teachers will not be including detailed individual subject achievement comments or specific goal setting at this time. Instead, we will place a stronger emphasis on our Parent/Teacher Interviews to provide more detailed insights into your child’s learning and next steps.

It is essential that all whānau attend these interviews to ensure a clear understanding of your child’s progress.

• Bookings open: Week 9 of Term 2
• Parent/Teacher Interviews: Week 2 of Term 3

Will my child’s achievement level change under the new curriculum?

It’s possible. The new curriculum introduces more challenging expectations at earlier year levels. While raising national expectations is a positive move, it also creates some complexities. In 2025, students are being assessed against new year-level content without having had the full foundation of prior years’ learning under the new curriculum.

This means a child who was previously reported as “At Expected Level” under the old curriculum may now appear “Below Expectation” — not because of a lack of progress, but because:

1. The academic expectations at each year level have increased
   
2. Students have not had the full sequence of new curriculum learning in prior years
   

We hope this helps explain why some achievement judgements may look different this year and provides context for the changes in our reporting format.

At Ōtaika Valley School, we remain committed to ensuring our reporting remains transparent, accurate, and supportive of your child’s learning journey. We look forward to returning to a more stable and complete reporting cycle by the end of the year.

Matariki Community Event – Wednesday 11th of June

Yes, it’s that fabulous time of year again. We would like to extend a warm invite to our community to help us celebrate Matariki next week in our special OVS way. 

The evening timetable for this event commences at 5:30pm and will consist of:

• Karakia
• Mihi/welcome
• Tāwhirimātea Trail (Lantern Trail)
• Matariki performances by students at our fire pit
• Community Kai

Please bring:

• a shared kai finger food plate with your own simple cutlery and plate to eat from
• a blanket
• warm clothes
• folding chair or tarp

We look forward to seeing you all there. 

(Postponement date: Tuesday 17th)

Star Spot – Student Learning @ OVS

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Student Work Spot!