Nau mai, haere mai ki te tau hou!
Welcome to the new year! The year has started so well with a great first week and an amazing camp for the seniors.
Where is Miss Mapley?
She has gone to join Mr Halkett on the Poupou Reo o Tahu programme for the term. This is the full immersion Māori language programme that I went on in term three last year. Only 20 teachers/principals are chosen yearly for this course and a high level of Māori language fluency is the main criteria. She was on the waitlist and a teacher pulled out. Luckily Charlotte Morgan and Sarah Quinlan, both amazing teachers, were available to cover at short notice. Please be patient as all of our new teachers find their feet. Seesaw may take a little longer to get started in some rooms also.
We thank Charlotte and Sarah for this, and we also thank Amanda Correia and Pam Grant for covering Room 5 for the term. Poor Mr Halkett will miss the first days of his oldest child starting St Annes!
Meet the Teacher / Learning Conferences / Class performances – Save the date Wednesday 3 March! (Wet Weather date Wednesday 10 March)
The plan so far:
4.30pm-5.30pm – open classes. Pop in and look around and have a chat with teachers. As half of the classes have short term teachers in there, we thought we would postpone learning conferences and have a drop in day.
5.30pm-6.30pm – Classroom performances on the Whare Tapere (staged area).
Food – we are in the process of sorting suitable vendors for food so you can have dinner here. More information to come.
Jackets
We had a mad rush for jackets this morning. Unfortunately, we don’t have many jackets at the moment. Now might be a good time to hunt out the old ones and see how they are. As these are donated by a charity we do our best to recycle/ reuse where we can so you may not always be offered brand new ones. We will let you know when our stocks are replenished with missing sizes.
Camp
Year 7 and 8 students were treated to an amazing camp at Living Springs last week. It was a great experience for all and we hope you will look at our photos on our school Facebook page. A big thank you to Jasmine and Paul, our parent helpers and to Miss Garbes for the organisation!
New crossing
Please ONLY use the lights to the east, the lights to the west or the temporary crossing outside the school/church to cross children. Do not allow children to cross in other places. Please also be careful to avoid the yellow lines so road patrol students can see and are safe.
I also propose a ‘no u-turn area’ mentality outside of the school. For the safety of our students! We have a slower road, more space on the footpath, more available crossings than ever. Now we need safe adult drivers. If a ‘u-turn’ is performed in front of on-coming traffic, where will other cars swerve to avoid them? Yes, towards the footpath, towards our children. If your friends are doing it, please have a quiet word about other possible solutions to their rush. We thank you for putting safety before anything else.
No Fees Scheme
We continue with the Government No Fees Scheme this year which means that there will be no curriculum-related costs to parents – with the exception of overnight camps. This year’s Rm 7 camp costs have been advised and payment requested as soon as possible, please. Thank you to those who have already paid last year or this year.
Uniform, stationery and optional after school sports (basketball and touch) are payable by families as usual. We heavily subsidise the cost of the after school sport in order to give the opportunity for all students to participate. Parent/family commitment and involvement will be needed to make these opportunities available and successful.
HOUSEKEEPING REMINDERS
Uniform – During Term 1, the summer uniform needs to be worn. Brimmed sunhats must be worn outdoors during Terms 1 and 4. It is advised to apply sunblock before coming to school each day, no matter what the weather is like.
PE Uniform – Years 5-8 will wear PE uniform to school on all sporting activity days (teachers will advise which days) Tops can be purchased from the office for $35. Please purchase plain black shorts from a shop of your choosing. (no visible colour or logo thanks). Sports shoes will be needed for these days also. Optional school sports caps are available at the office for $15 to be worn for sport but are not to replace the brimmed hat for break times. It is recommended that sunscreen is used on the neck and ears if using the sports hat for sport.
Contact details/Permissions – If you have had any change in student details information such as an address, phone number, email, caregiver details, circumstances, permissions etc. it is important that you advise the office in writing immediately so that our records are corrected, particularly phone numbers so that we can contact parents/caregivers urgently if required.