FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK
Haere Mai Haere mai!!
Welcome back to everyone!! What a wonderful day we had yesterday!! I don’t think I have ever experienced so many children so happy to be back in school, to see their friends, their teachers, and be in a routine!! We all had an amazing day settling into new routines, that include lots of hands sanitising, hand washing and social distancing (sometimes this is hard for a group of 290 children with teachers and support staff). It is not the easiest thing to do, but we all did really well not touching each other and getting into each other’s space.
Please help us at school by talking about this at home each day and encouraging your children to understand this and respect the need.
Each class has been set up to help the children work in COVID-19 Level 2 restrictions, the teachers have ensured everyone has room to sit at their tables, they have separated tables, and if they are younger ensured the mat is still able to be used by sitting further apart.
Each class has its own hand sanitiser and when the teacher meets the children in the morning they sanitise their hands and begin the day in this way. You can, of course, bring your own hand sanitiser.
Drinking Water – Please ensure your child has a named water bottle as the fountains are not in use as they are a communal facility.
THIS WEEK
Programmes are all in place, we are continuing with many features of distance learning, especially with the Year 5 – 8 students and these students are enjoying the increased self-management. Please be aware we all need time to settle back, we are all different. Some students will have no problem and will slot back easily while others will need support and time. We are not “catching” up, we are continuing our journey in learning in 2020. Please also remember the whole of the country is in the same boat.
The juniors will be bringing readers home again and we will also be continuing with many of the skills they learned over the last few weeks. Top of which is being creative. Welcome to our 8 new children in our New Entrant room, they are – Tristan Krull, Bastian Brown, Alfie Keane, Datsun Kockott, Emma Waldrom, Kora Cooper, Lily Fincham and Poppy Mexted. We welcome all new children and their families to Wainui School. It is very different starting at this time than it ever has been.
Welcome to Alyssa Linton in Year 6 from Auckland who moved up to Wainui with her Dad and to Georgina Horne in Year 7 from Scotland. We are thrilled to have you both join us. Some of you reading the newsletter will remember the Horne family from a few years ago, yes, Georgina’s dad has returned from Scotland with Georgina and her Mum to the family farm.
FOWS MEETING – Wednesday 20th May – 7.00pm – Please see the attached link to click on to attend – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
We welcome you to join this group as we will need everyone to help when we can start fundraising. We appreciate that life is a lot harder for many at the moment. The school is without the usual fundraisers we had planned for this year and the International students not coming, we have had to think outside the square, please join the FOWS if you have any good ideas or just want to help.
School Donations – We still would like all new people and all those at Wainui School now to contribute their School Donation. This can be done through online banking or on KINDO. It is $200 per child for the year or $50.00 a term. If you have more than two children, we do not ask for any more than two children to be donated for. We thank everyone who has contributed, it makes a massive difference to what we can do!
FINALLY
Pick Up and Drop Off – Thank you for being so patient at drop off, especially at pick up. We will continue to try our split level pick up. The top roundabout area is for families with Surname A – L and the bottom car park is for families with the surname M – Z. Please do not get out of your car and come into school if you can help it, otherwise we will need to take your name to track and trace.
The Bus List – This needs to be accurate for us to move everyone faster than on our first day. Changes must be made by 1.00 pm at the latest as the lists are going to go to the classes and the teachers will help the children get organised to know if there are any changes to the list and who is on what bus. All students need a raincoat in their bags in case it rains at pick up. We can’t all fit under the bus shelter.
Business Advertisement – Please contact me if we can help your business at this time. I am happy to run promotions in our weekly newsletter and put you on our school website all free at this time!! We want to help you as well at school so just let me know!!
BATCH 10 Hand Sanitiser – We are a family business based in Puhoi with strong links to the education and health industry in New Zealand. Over the Lockdown period we used our business links to produce Hand Sanitiser to the WHO recipe for pharmacies and health providers throughout New Zealand. Over the last week, we have received several requests from schools to supply them. Accordingly, on the website www.nzhandsanitiser.
Ka kite ano,
Gillian Bray
