Dear Freyberg Whānau,

Over the course of the past two years, the ongoing disruptions caused by the global pandemic have highlighted our need to develop a method by which we are able to share learning information with whānau with more frequency and detail than a twice yearly written report and an annual student-led conference. During this time, we have been working on plans to help increase our home-school links and we are excited to announce the upcoming launch of our new online reporting system, Hero.

Hero is an app which allows us to customise our online environment to enable teachers, students, and families to view and share content anytime, anywhere, on any device. The software is secure, easy to use and brings together all of our school related information in one place.

With Hero, you will be have the ability to:

- read and comment on posts relating to your child's learning in literacy and numeracy;
- view your child's academic progress and next learning steps in literacy and numeracy;
- read school notices;
- respond to school notices such as surveys and trip permission requests;
- view school term dates;
- view a school calendar of events;
- notify the school if your child is absent or late;
- navigate to other school-related webpages.

Learning posts combined with curriculum information and goal setting will form an online report, which is designed to build year-on-year so that over time you will have access to written posts, images, videos, work samples, and helpful resources all in one place.

As Hero is a tracking and assessment tool that is used to capture student academic achievement in the core curriculum areas of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, we will still continue to use Seesaw as a communication tool and a way to share work across those curriculum areas not covered by Hero such as Science, PE and Technology. Seesaw will also remain in use as a teaching tool with interactive learning activities being shared both at school and in the event of any future circumstances that require us to re-adapt to distance learning. 

We do realise that we have many different ways of communicating with our community and our aim is to make it as streamlined as possible. For this reason we will no longer be using the school app from the beginning of Term Two. All official information will now come through Hero, Seesaw, or email. We know this may seem like a lot of different avenues but we also know that the more places we put information, the more likely it is to be seen!

Hero will be up and running on the first day of Term Two. We will send more information out about how to access Hero next week.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support and if you have questions or concerns please contact us at admin@freyberg.school.nz.
 

Noho ora mai - stay safe,
Maria Dopheide
Principal
Freyberg Community School