Welcome back Johnny and Isabelle from Canada with George and his Mum Vanessa.

Kia ora Koutou,

There is one word on everyones mind at the moment “water” For some of you I know it is a real serious concern, for others like myself who are on tank water at home we are watching things far more carefully. At school we are are also taking measures to conserve water as we only have tank water. We are very fortunate this year as one of the property upgrades was to join the tanks under the hall to the tanks we have behind the school. This could not have been done at a better time!!  Mr Lee has calculated we have about 25 days of water in hand. We hope we can order water as I know many of you want as well. Congratulations everyone for bringing water bottles to help, this made a real difference on Friday to our water consumption.  Please keep providing a full water bottle if you can. The swimming pool is once again full and we will make a decision early this week if we continue to use it.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

Welcome Powhiri – A wonderful start to 2020!!  Special congratulations to Ben Partner, Tara Phillips and Serenity Harris Hatley for taking up the leadership of kapa haka, doing this so proudly and so well. We welcomed new families and our two new teachers Marinda van Dyk with her childrren Hanco, Limari and Marili    and Mr Keon Ng. If you were away and are new this term we will be welcoming a team from the review office on Monday 2nd March. We invite you to join the group to be officially welcomed to Wainui School.

Bus Safety Training – This is new for us, but a wonderful opportunity offered by Auckland Transport in conjunction with our community Constable Bryan Ward. Everyone is participating in this training as we do use buses to attend events and activities. Today all students were on the school bus with the bus driver and their teacher practising safe bus behaviour.

THIS WEEK 

ROUTINE, ROUTINE, ROUTINE –  All classes are this week establishing good routines, getting to know the expectations of the class, the team, the school and of course each other!

Junior teachers ask that you wait outside the classroom rather than enter before 2:55 pm. This enables the teachers to finish the programme with everyone together receiving the same messages.

Middle and Senior school children after school must either wait by the bus shelter for either you as parents to walk up and pick up or wait for you to drive around the roundabout and use the pick up zone. We ask that no student is to walk to the carparks /across the carparks to ensure everyone keeps safe.

Teams will be sending out a newsletter by the end of the week through email. Please ensure your email address is correct with the office. All programmes will be outlined here, important dates and information for you.

Routine is hard when it is hot, hard to sleep and go to bed earlier, but routines do help to get back into the daily attendance at school.

Attendance – Please ensure if you are going to be away you inform us before 9.00am to ensure everyone is accounted for.  The office will ring you if you haven’t.  Mel and Barb would ask you to save them the call. Thank you!!

Longer term absence – e.g a family holiday. The process is to inform myself and request leave.  I can then grant justified or unjustifed leave. It is a legal requirement for your child to attend school, the Ministry of Education tracks and monitors every child’s attendance in New Zealand.  For some children this is vital as to their whereabouts for safety reasons and their chance of making progress in their learning.

Year 7 & 8 Takahe Team EOTC Day – Beach Education day. All students in this area have received the information.  Please ensure you contact Mr Irvine if you have any questions.

Whole School Assembly – Our first one is Friday 21st February.  These are all about celebration, you are welcome to attend assemblies as we love as many parents as possible coming, although we do understand Friday morning can be difficult but these are all planned and you can put in your calander to enable you to reorganise your time.  Please come and join us!!

Emergency Contact and your number – Please ensure the office has the correct contact number to call you on and an alternative person if we can’t get you. This is vital in any emergency.

NEXT WEEK

Board of Trustees Meeting – Monday 17th February – The first Board Meeting for 2020. All meetings are public meetings so feel free to attend. If you wish to do so, please let the BOT secretary Mel Ludwig know if possible. The Board is putting together information concerning school donations and payments, this will come out after the Board meeting.

COMING UP FINALLY

Back to School Night – Wednesday 19th February – Come and meet this year’s teacher, meet us all and have an informal chat about the school and what we have planned and what is in store for 2020.  The theme for the year is “Our Changing World”  Come and find out where this may take us on our learning journey this year!!  See you all then.

I have included some wonderful photos of families arriving on the first day through this newsletter, students arriving, everyone happy and excited with the anticipation of what lies ahead!!

Ka kite ano,

Gillian Bray

James and Grace first to arrive , full of smiles!!!

Year 7 girls very happy to see each other on day one!

FOR YOUR CALENDAR

• Friday 14th February – Year 7 & 8 Beach Trip to Red Beach
• Monday 17th February – BOT Meeting – 6.30pm
• Wednesday 19th February – Meet the Teacher Evening – 5.00 – 7.00pm
• Friday 21st February – Takahe Team Assembly – 9.15am
• Wednesday 26th February – FOWS Meeting in the Staffroom – 7.00pm
• Friday 6th March – Pukeko Assembly – 9,15am
• Friday 20th March – Kiwi Team Assembly – 9.15am
• Friday 3rd April – Tui Team Assembly – 9.15am
• Thursday 9th April – Last Day of Term 1
• Wednesday 27th – Friday 29th May – Year 5 / 6 Camp Carey – Henderson Valley.

COMMUNITY