Kia ora koutou

A special welcome to the following students who have joined the Cotswold Learning Community the start of Term 1 2018:-

• Luke Abercrombie
  
• Sabbath Carr
  
• Lucius Carr
  
• Ezekiel Celino
  
• Hayley Cotter
  
• Lennox Cotter
  
• Willow Cotter
  
• Sammie De Lautour
  
• Louis De Lautour
  
• Oli Durney
  
• Michaela Fortune
  
• Kayla Geddis-Rushton
  
• Jayden Geddis-Rushton
  
• Tama Geddis-Rushton
  
• Emmett Gillespie
  
• Connor Hayward
  
• Kian Holland-Adamson
  
• Oliver Keown
  
• Indi McMullan
  
• Henry Mills
  
• Kassidy Morrison
  
• Ryan O'Callahan
  
• Nathaniel Phillip
  
• Rohaan Reddy
  
• Blake Schubert
  
• Olivia Sheppard
  
• William Ututaonga
  
• Austin Ward
  
• Oliver Williams
  
• Ivan Wu
  
• Travis Yeo
  

Welcome to the following new staff members that join our staff team this year:

• Sam Baines – Teacher Room 20
  
• Phillipa Matthews – Teacher Room 5
  
• Sarah Scollard – Learning Support Team
  

Congratulations to Rebecca and Cameron Anderson on the birth of their son Isaac Anderson on Thursday 25th January, 2018.

Thank you to Paula Fleming-Connell who has been the driving force behind getting a bike track, bikes and bike storage area for our school. The bike track was constructed during the school holiday period and will be in full use from this week. If you are using the bike track outside school hours we do request that you stick to the bike track and allow the grass that has been replanted along the edge of the bike track a chance to grow. We will celebrate the opening of our bike track when we have full access to our playing field.

We have assembled a number of bikes but would love a parent or grandparent to assist us in assembling the remainder. This would be a relatively simple task and we would appreciate any assistance. We would also love to have someone volunteer to assist us in maintaining our bike fleet. This would involve checking tyre pressure, brakes and general maintenance. We would anticipate this could be weekly or fortnightly depending on wear and tear. If you are able to help please contact the School Office.

During the school holiday period our playing field was hoed up, irrigation installed and new grass sown. Thank you to all owner-occupiers of neighboring properties who tolerated machinery and dust over several days while this work was carried out. The grass is growing well with the first cut planned for this week we hope that children will be able to be back on our playing field during Week 3.

A huge thank you to all children and parents who provided a Christmas gift to place under our Christmas tree towards the end of Term 4, 2017. Special thanks to the staff and children from the Cotswold Pre-school & Nursery who made a special trip to Cotswold School with their gifts. All gifts were presented to the Salvation Army and Christchurch City Mission. 

Next week we are providing an opportunity for all parents to attend a “Meet the Teacher” meeting with their child’s class teacher. Our “Meet the Teacher” meetings aim to provide parents with information regarding:

• Class Routines and Expectations
• Class Programme
• Home Learning
• Contact Details
  

The “Meet the Teacher” meetings will be held on Thursday 8th February, 2018 and I encourage all parents to attend these meetings, to view their child’s classroom, look at resources, their child’s books etc, and to ask any questions.

The Government has announced that National Standards will be removed from 2018. Instead the Government has asked schools to focus on the progress and achievement of all children across the wider New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.

The Government has stated that this change will better acknowledge the different ways and pace at which children learn, and support teachers to provide more learning opportunities based on what children already know and can do. The new focus will strengthen educational partnerships between parents, schools and kura.

Cotswold School will continue to report to parents twice a year, on their child’s progress and achievement, especially in the foundational learning areas of maths, reading, and writing but we will no longer be required to use National Standards for this reporting. We will work with schools within the Tōtaranui Community of Learning to develop a common approach to assessing and reporting children’s progress and achievement so that this information can be used to better target learning needs as our children move along the learning pathway from home to pre-school, pre-school to primary school, primary school to intermediate education and on to secondary education.

Ngā mihi Nui 

STEPHEN HARRISON
Principal