Kia ora e te whānau, welcome to the start of a new school year. I hope that you have had a relaxing and enjoyable break with your families. We are delighted to have you all back and have many exciting things planned. We are also looking forward to hearing what the children got up to in the holidays.

If you are a new family to our school and have children starting today, I would like to extend to you a very warm welcome. I know you are going to love our school. 

I would also like to welcome Anita Ward and John McNaughton, our new Year 4/5 and Year 7/8 teachers, and Leanne Dunnage, a new Learning Assistant to our staff. We are delighted you have chosen our school to work in.

I look forward to catching up with you through the term. 

Have a great week.

Ngā mihi nui.

Darryn Ward

School Theme for Term 1

Our theme for Term 1 is CONNECT 4. We have identified 4 areas that we want to build strong connections with. These are:

• Me, my class, and my whānau
• Our hub
• Our school
• Our community

Watch out for a new Connect 4 game to appear in our playground thanks to Amy Louise Lake and her partner Chris Horn whose company has sponsored the making of this for us. We can't wait to be able to use this.

Meet the Teacher evening

We have a Meet The Teacher evening planned for Thursday 8th February.  We will have 2 time slots where parents can come and visit the classrooms, meet the teachers and hear important information. Each team will provide information in their newsletters as to how the event will work for them.

The time slots are:

• Year 0-3 3:15 start
• Year 4-8 5pm start

We appreciate that some parents may need to see more than 1 teacher in the time slot available. Please keep an eye out for information from the teachers and teams that will help you plan and decide on who to go to and when.

Family Picnic

On Thursday 15th February we are going to hold a family picnic in the evening starting at 5pm and finishing at 7pm. This will be an informal event where families can come together, mix and mingle, meet new families and just have fun.

We will be running some games that children and parents can join in with. We may also look to open the pool. Bring your picnic basket, a blanket and tea for your family, and come and join with the rest of the Fernside community. The focus for this event is simply....let's get to know each other, build connections and have fun.

Gaga Dodgeball Arena

Last year while our Year 5 and 6 students were away at camp, they had the opportunity to play in the Waipara Camp's Gaga Dodgeball Arena. I believe this was a popular place to play.

I am delighted to let our community know that we now have our very own Gaga Dodgeball Arena in the senior end of the school.

Thanks to the extremely generous sponsorship of Philippe McMurdo, Adrian and Amber Louttit and Emmanual and Jennie Raika, we now have a fantastic addition to our playground.

No doubt this is going to be a popular place for our Year 4-8 children to play so we will be rostering year groups, classes and teams on at different times to use the arena. We are going to mix this up so that as many people as possible get to enjoy it. 

You are welcome to use this in the weekends.

TeachNZ Primary Principal's Sabbatical

I have been awarded a TeachNZ Study Award - Primary Principals sabbatical for Term 2 of this year. I will be away for all of Term 2. Mr Andrew Spencer will be the Acting Principal while I am on leave.

I will be using the sabbatical to complete some study in an area of interest. My project is called Engage, Excite and Ignite. (Engage the learners, Excite them about the learning, Ignite a flame for further learning). It is focused on the Year 8 age group and in particular their last 2 terms at a primary school.

My focus will be to find out what are some of the most effective programmes and practices that schools are using in New Zealand to keep their Year 8 students engaged, excited and ignited. 

I would like to thank the Fernside School BoT for their support in allowing me to apply for this Sabbatical. 

Parent / Teacher Partnership Interviews

The first of our Parent / Teacher partnership interviews are being held on Tuesday 27th February and Thursday 29th February. 

The school will be closing early on the 27th (12:30). Our interviews will start at 1pm on this day. On the 29th February they will start at 3:15.

We will provide more information about these interviews in future newsletters.

Fernside School Triathlon 2024

The Fernside triathlon is back, lock in Sunday 17th March in your calendars. This is a really enjoyable day, held at the school grounds, where the main aim is to have fun. All participants get a certificate and goodies, the students in the top three places receive a medal and a prize. There are some excellent spot prizes up for grabs and a sausage sizzle/hot drinks throughout the day as well as a lolly scramble. 

Students can participate individually or as a team in the various age groups or open/family categories. More info about the categories is provided on the info sheet. Pre-school siblings, high school siblings, parents, teachers and any family relative can also take part. Last year our youngest competitor was 3 and oldest was 70 and they both had a blast! 

The event begins with a short sprint to the bike transition area, followed by a bike around the field or track area depending on age, short sprint down to the pool- (where any stroke/style is fine and kick-boards can be used to complete the width or length) followed by a run around the field. The pool is now heated which is fantastic for this event.

Please look out for an entry form and information form that provides more information. Hard copies of these forms will go home with students and these forms are also attached electronically within this newsletter. There will be spares at the office too. 

The entry form needs to be filled out and placed in the collection bin in the office with the entry fee by Wed the 13th of March. For an individual entry its $5 and for a team entry its $15 ($5 per child).

We NEED help on the day with marshalling the course, transition areas, writing numbers on the children etc. Please if you can help on the day- tick this box on the entry form, it was so great to get help last year. Many hands make it light work even if its just for a couple of the races.

Sponsorship is greatly appreciated as this event is run by volunteers. If anyone is able to provide a small prize for the day (i.e vouchers, drink bottles, hats etc) please let me know, your name/business will be mentioned on the day as well as being on a whiteboard for all to see. 

For any more information feel free to contact Amy Frampton 0274619975.

Building update - Junior block

We are very much looking forward to getting back into the junior classrooms. The builders are aiming for a completion date of the end of February. There is certainly lots going on in the space and it is all starting to take shape.

While we wait for the block to be finished, our NE and Year 1 children will be working in the library which is a great space for them to be able to use.

School Pool

It has been a busy season so far for the school pool with most days during the break seeing a good number of families coming down to use it. 

There are a couple of points that we would like to remind our pool users of:

• The centre shed is out of bounds. Please do not go in to help yourself to pool equipment. We have discovered today that a number of items that we were wanting to use today for swimming assessments have gone missing.
• This morning we needed to sweep the boys sheds and scrape the walls because of the large amount of toilet paper that had been thrown at the wall and on the floors. I would respectfully ask that all users of the pool please check the changing sheds when you leave and report back any issues. Our class teachers will also do a check after each of their sessions.

We are extremely lucky to have this resource. I would like to thank all of those families who have been on pool duty through the break. Your help has allowed us to keep the pool looking awesome.

Finally, there are still a few pool keys left at $100 ($20 cash bond). If you would like one please come and see Sandi in the office.

Basketball In North Canterbury

There are some amazing opportunities for young and enthusiastic basketball players to develop and learn new skills. 

Fernside School enters school teams in the Friday night and miniball competitions. Please contact your classroom teacher for more information. 

Parents and past students are needed to please assist with managing and coaching our teams. Please let Annabel know if you are interested.

You will find more information about Basketball in North Canterbury in the attached document at the bottom. 

Have a Go Netball

We are offering a free session to try netball to see if they would like to play for 2024.

Can you please advertise our on your Social Media or in your Newsletters?

All info is on our website: www.ncnc.org.nz/haveago

Busy Bumbles After School Care

Happy new year to you all! I hope you have been enjoying some wonderful summer days with your family and have managed to fit in some relaxing time around all the fun!

We have been planning another exciting and fun-filled programme for your children to enjoy in Term 1, which is open for bookings at the following link:

https://enrolmy.com/busy-bumbles/book-now/470-Te-Matauru---Term-1-2024---Before-and-After-School-Care

Please remember that Permanent Recurring/Regular rates are for bookings of the same time and day each week, all term. These bookings must be made by week 2 of the term.
Casual rates are for bookings that are made after week 2 of the term or for one off bookings, i.e. not the same days and times each week. Essentially, Casual rates are for any extra bookings that are added on top of your normal permanent bookings for the term.

For help with bookings, please email accounts@busybumbles.co.nz or call us at the office – 03 347 3031.

When making your booking, please take a few minutes to ensure that all information saved within Enrolmy is up to date and correct for your family. This includes your child’s information, as well as all details for yourself and any other adults that may be included within your account. In particular, please ensure your child’s School name and Room along with Authorised Pick-Up details are current, and any relevant Allergies/Medical information is provided in full. If there is anything that you feel should be discussed further, please email us or approach the venue staff directly.

Further details about our Before and After School programme, along with lots of other useful information, can be found on our website:

https://www.busybumbles.co.nz/

We can’t wait to see all those smiling faces back for more fun with Busy Bumbles!

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Carly Napier

Operations Manager

Important dates for your diary

Friday 2nd February - Year 8 @ Te Maturu for Technology (repeats each Friday)

Tuesday 6th February - Waitangi Day

Thursday 8th February  -House Colour day / lunch together

Thursday 8th February  - Meet the teacher (Y0-3, 3:15 and Year 4-8, 5pm)

Thursday 15th February - Family Picnic 5pm on the field

Wednesday 21st February - School swimming sports (Y5-8)

Saturday 24th February  - Have a Go Netball

Tuesday 27th February - Partnership Interviews (school closes 12:30 - start at 1)

Thursday 29th February -Partnership Interviews (start at 3:15)

Sunday 3rd March - PTA Golf Ball drop

Tuesday 5th March - BOT meeting

Sunday 17th March - PTA Triathlon

Wednesday 20th March. -Firewise (Kātote)

Wednesday 27th March -Canterbury Swim Champs

Friday 29th March -Easter Friday

Monday 1st April. -Easter Monday

Tuesday 2nd April -Easter Tuesday

Thursday 4th April  - NE morning tea

Tuesday 9th April -BOT meeting

Previous Notices

Celebrating success in assembly

Our fortnightly assemblies continue to be a way of celebrating and sharing the many different activities that our students are involved in throughout the term. If your child has success in any event, or has had a great time in an event and you have some photos that you would like to share, please send these to me at principal@fernside.school.nz