Welcome back to everyone, and welcome to all who are new to our school. We hope your summer vacation was both meaningful, refreshing, and rejuvenating for both you and your family. 
 

Here at Aina Haina Elementary School, our goal is that this will be a year of building meaningful connections with everyone through our school’s continued focus on creating nurturing, supportive, and empowering research-based learning environments.  Equity and empathy continue to be the lenses through which we endeavor to view each student, as we learn their stories and find ways to connect with each of them. We continually work to maximize our students’ academic success by promoting positive behaviours through early interventions and empowering our students through the building of coping and resiliency strategies. We are continuing to implement the Mind Up Social and Emotional Learning curriculum with our students to address our students’ very important social and emotional learning needs.
 
As one of the very few public elementary schools here in the State of Hawaii to be an authorized International Baccalaureate (IB) World School offering the Primary Years Programme (PYP), our mind-set is to follow the IB educational philosophy of inquiry-based learning and international-mindedness. Each grade level continues the implementation and teaching of six thematic transdisciplinary units, which incorporate deep inquiry-based learning strategies that challenge our students to develop higher order thinking skills.  Each grade level does a tremendous job in facilitating our students’ learning within these units.  These units help to build and to develop skills in our students that will ultimately lead to their participation in the culminating activity of the IB PYP, which is the Grade 5 IB Exhibition Project. Our school staff works continually to improve the implementation of the programme at our school.
 

In accordance with our school vision, providing a well-rounded education for our students continues to be a priority for our school as well.  Students engage in learning at our school by expressing themselves through co-curricular programs, such as, physical education, art, computer science/technology, and drama.  The latest brain research shows that this holistic approach to teaching our students greatly enhances their learning.  We thank our wonderful PTA Board and all the members of School Community Council for their collaborative partnership through their support of our school vison and mission.  Their collective efforts continue to make a huge difference in the learning of our students.

 
Best wishes to all on an empowering and eventful 2022-2023 school year! 
 
Warmest Regards,
 
Brendan Burns, Principal