Newsletter Week 9 Term 2 / Pānui Wiki 9 Wāhaka 2

Kai aku haumi, kai aku hoa, tēnā noa rā koutou katoa,

Mānawatia a Matariki! I hope you enjoyed the long weekend. We had a great time leading up to it (see below) and we are still in the period of reflecting and focusing on the year ahead. You can see on the picture of my window that we followed a star a day leading up to Matariki (note: the words and pictures are done from the inside so it wouldn’t get smudged, so I wrote the words the other direction – usually I can write a little neater than that!). Check out below or Facebook for our action photos and videos.

New Students
These children started today at St Anne’s. We hope they have a great time learning here!
Yesha Delao (Room 6)
Erina Christie-Nafoi (Room 1)
Rose Vili (Room 1)

Staff
It has been two more weeks and we aren’t through the tough stage yet. We have a quarter of our students absent due to sickness and similar for our teachers.
Our thoughts and prayers are especially with Miss Barnes and Mr Halkett who have been hit with an array of illnesses this term and last, and both now have covid to top it off. Repeated from last newsletter: Please help us look after our teachers! Keep children home when unwell, remind them about hygiene, and encourage masks (proper ones). I think we all know masks reduce the spread of illness if worn well, we are just a little over wearing them. But, needs must. Masks are available from school if you don’t have any. Whilst it is not compulsory if you don’t want to have to take time off work because we have had to move to online learning, perhaps encourage it with your child. No one likes wearing a mask, but let’s help our teachers (and each other) stay well over the next few weeks leading up to the holidays!

Covid update
After very little covid (lots of weeks with none) at the school, here are the numbers for you from Thursday through today.
Room 1 – 2
Room 2 – 1
Room 3 – 1 + teacher
Room 4 – 0
Room 5 – teacher only
Room 6 – 1
Room 7 – 2

Children changing classes for the second half of the year!
Due to our roll reaching capacity over the rest of the year and lack of space to fit another room at present, we will need to move children through to allow Room 1 entrants class to remain at a reasonable size. This means a number of children will be moved through from the room they are in, to the room one number higher. If this affects your child, you will be told in the next few weeks (before the holidays). This will affect all rooms except Room 7. We have done this every year since as far as we can remember except last year.

Reports
Students who are years 4-8 will receive their mid-year reports next week on Thursday 7 July. All other students should be receiving reports on six-monthly anniversaries still. If you think you have missed one, please contact your child’s teacher.

Learning Conferences
Students who are years 4-8 will have learning conferences (parent/teacher interviews) during week 1 next term. We missed our beginning of the year goal-setting meetings due to covid. All other students should be continuing learning conferences on receiving the six-monthly anniversary reports. If you think you have missed one, please contact your child’s teacher for a catch up.

Absences
Too many children are absent without explanation or notification. It is a requirement for absences to be advised and we are required to follow up on all unexplained absences. If a valid explanation is not obtained we mark as truant. This is taking so much more time than usual in the morning. Nothing can be done in the morning until the process is complete. A few years ago, it was done by 9.05 am. Sometimes now we are still calling parents at 10 am. It is crazy! Please message us via the Skool Loop app (this won’t work if you have ‘no data’). Otherwise, call 03 3843073 and push 1. Before 9 am is best.
Unless you can advise the expected number of days of absence you will need to send a notification daily.

Matariki
We had an amazing few weeks. Celebrating a star a day, we learnt about traditions and Māori culture. Some of the enjoyable activities:
-Stream walk and talk.
-Temperature predicting competition.
-Bird and tree spotting.
-Goal setting.
-Sharing a photo of a loved one.
-Rotations-each doing a meaningful rotation.
-Learning Hui led by Miss Garbes.
-Sharing of cultural stories (well done to the five who shared with the school!).
-Dance – This was done in the shape of a star and in colours representing each star. See our Facebook Page for some of the dance (It has been fully recorded by Sport Canterbury).

Thank yous
Miss Garbes – Her organisation of our Matariki activities was amazing! Kā mihi nunui ki a koe!
Miss Barnes – Although unwell in the lead-up, she started early and helped us prepare the dance and somehow found the energy on the day to lead it numerous times through! Nei te mihi ki a koe!