Kia ora Koutou,

Thank you to everyone for helping with the water crisis!! We are fortunate we have enough to keep running the school and the pool for our summer lessons.

Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education are updating all schools frrequently.  The latest update was Monday 17th February.  There are no confirmed cases in New Zealand currently, therefore the messaging from the Ministry of Health about being alert continues to be important. It is natural that people will think about how to keep themselves safe, should the situation escalate.

You can support this by encouraging and reinforcing with children/students and families the principles of hygiene and cough etiquette (regularly wash hands with soap, covering mouth and nose when sneezing and staying home if you are sick). Please visit the website for further information.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

Kapa Haka – Began in the senior school with all year 5 – 8’s being involved . We welcome back Whaea Leanne Wade with her expertise in guiding us and getting us each year to performance level. We encourage all senior students to be a part of the kapa haka as it ties in to our Te Reo programme and our commitment to this area of the curriculum. Mr Irvine, myself and Whaea Leanne will be looking at how we can have a junior kapahaka as well and will be meeting to discuss this next week.

Routines – These are being set up in class to ensure all procedures are in place. There is a lot of information on the website to help with knowing what happens when and what is going on.  We have already updated a lot of the information for this year.

Class Swimming – All children must wear a cap.  I applaud the Kiwi team as everyone has a cap –  fantastic!!

Clothes –  These need to be named.  This year we do not have a lost property box and we will only keep lost unnamed clothes for a short while and then they will be disposed of as it becomes too big to manage.

Before School and After School Routines

• School Start time is 8.55am – Please endeavour to get your child to school before this time. Children do not like being late.  If you are late or not coming, please let the office know in an email or text before 9.00 am as this would save the staff a lot of time if they don’t have to call missing children.
• End of the Day – Bell goes at 2.55pm.  If you have a change in your after school organisation, please let the office know before 2.00pm. We do understand at times there will be an emergency change of plan and we will always let your child know if something changes.
• We are vigilant in the care and safety of your children and will always follow up any call or unknown absence.

Bus Safety –  Tieing into the routines for the year, we thank Auckland Transport for providing the initiative and funding to enable us to practice bus safety and set good routines in this area. Your child, with Julie Crooks from Auckland Transport and Constable Bryan went over expected behaviours for using the bus.

THIS WEEK 

BOT (Board of Trustees Meeting) – We will be communicating the strategic goals for this year, the budget goals and related information, and beginning the policy and procedure review for the year. Board meetings are this term on Monday nights (once a month, see the calander as they are public meetings).  Please feel free to attend and listen. Please be aware only the actual trustees have speaking rights.

Finance –  The Board of Trustees have approved the budget for 2020.  It does include continuation of asking all parents for the contribution donation of $200 per child.  A full letter will explain this next week.  Please contribute online via Kindo or at the office.  Thank you to everyone who already have done this.

Back to School Night – Wednesday 19th February – 5.30pm start –  Come and start off the year by meeting your child’s teacher. Come and hear about sports teams and what happens and could happen for 2020. Come and hear about the FOWS group.

5.00 – 6.00pm – Classrooms open to “View and Meet and Greet” (children to introduce their parent / caregiver to the teachers).

5.30pm onwards BBQ – All those without actual classes man BBQ – One sausage free per person – including you!!.  Ice blocks and coffee for sale also.

6.00pm – All staff, FOWS and BOT to meet on the top deck to give small introductions to the school.

7.00pm – Finish – Thank you all for coming along

Whole School assembly –  Takahe team to lead the first one. We will be introducing our wonderful new certificates to reward children demonstrating our values.

FOR YOUR CALENDAR

• 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
• Monday 9th March – BOT Meeting – 6.30pm
• Tuesday 10th March – Senior Swimming Sports at Waitoki School – From 9.00am – See you all there if you can make it
• Friday 20th March – Kiwi Team Assembly – 9.15am
• Friday 3rd April – Tui Team Assembly – 9.15am
• Thursday 9th April – Last Day of Term 1
• Friday 10th April – Good Friday – Public Holiday
• Tuesday 28th April – First day of Term 2
• Wednesday 27th – Friday 29th May – Year 5 / 6 Camp Carey – Henderson Valley.

OTHER

Munchbox – Unfortunately this is unavailable at present but we will still be offering sushi on a Thursday.  This can be ordered through Kindo.

Garden to Table – This week on Wednesday, the Garden to Table will begin for Tui and Takahe Team. The Garden to Table programme aims to build skills for life through highly practical hands on classes, not only teaching growing and cooking skills but also building awareness of individual and collective responsibility for the environment, healthy eating and community connectedness. It is an opportunity to allow children to get their hands dirty and learn how to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, seasonal food.  As well as learning gardening and kitchen skills, students in Year 5,6, 7 and 8 will experience and learn through the New Zealand Key Competencies which are; Thinking, Managing Self, Relating to Others, Participating and Contributing and Using Language, Symbols, and Texts.

We would love to have parent or grandparent (or other family members) volunteering to help with this programme. We also would be very happy to accept any donations to help run this programme. Donations could include- gardening gloves, gumboots, mulch, soil, seedlings. we would also love donations of food items to help in the kitchen, especially extra fruit or vegetables you may have at this time of year.

If you are unsure of the suitability of any items or you would like to volunteer to help please email Leanne Stevenson- [email protected]

 

Bee group – Please see the following photos

COMMUNITY