Welcome to the new school year!

Tēnā koutou katoa. Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou.

Haere mai and a very warm welcome to the new school year. I trust you had a safe and relaxing holiday with your families. It was fantastic to have all of our students arrive this morning and see them quickly settle to life back at school after the last few weeks of uncertainty. I would particularly like to welcome all of the new students and families who have started at Halswell School today.

We have a number of new teachers joining our team this year. Welcome to Olivia McFarlane in Ōrongomai, Will Pritt and Connie Palmer in Ōtāwhito and welcome back to Ben Qauqau in Ōtūmatua. We are also delighted to have Tracey Mora join us as our new Associate Principal.  

These teachers bring a broad range of skills and passions and I know that they will make a fantastic contribution to our kura. 

We have also had some changes to our administration team following a restructure at the end of last year. As a result of the restructure, we now have a fabulous team of three working in the Office. Rebecca Lock has joined us as our new Finance Officer. Caty Boberg has changed from her previous role as one of our caretakers and now is working at reception. Last but certainly not least, Heather Burnby has transitioned from the Office Manager to a new Principal's PA role. 

Due to Caty's move into the admin team, we are currently seeking a part-time caretaker/gardener for 25-30 hours per week, term time only. If this position interests you, please visit the vacancies page on our school website or refer to the part-time caretaker advert in this newsletter. 

This afternoon you will have received a newsletter from your child(ren)’s Learning Centre Team Leader. It will contain a lot of important information to help get the school year off to a great start. I have also included a few reminders and requests below:

Covid-19 Red Setting

Last Thursday you received a Hero notification outlining some changes to the way our school will be operating under the Red setting in the Covid Protection Framework (Traffic light System). If you missed this information for any reason, you can locate it on the Covid-19 page on our school website. We will continue to keep this information updated as the situation develops.

In summary, our school will be operating a three-phase approach under the Red setting. We will move to a different phase in response to an increased prevalence of cases in our region and community. The rationale for this is to try and create as normal of an environment as possible for our children for as long as possible. Additional health and safety procedures will be introduced if/when there is an increase in community transmission.

Communication

The partnership between home and school is a vitally important one. If you have any questions or concerns about your child(ren)’s progress, your first port of call is always to contact your child’s teacher. Under the current Red setting, please contact the teacher initially via email or by phoning the Office. If you feel that your concern needs further attention, a meeting will be arranged with the relevant Team Leader and beyond this a member of the Senior Management Team (Principal and Associate Principals).

School Uniform

Please ensure that your child comes to school in the correct uniform. Samples of the uniform are available for viewing at the Office. Additional information about the uniform requirements can be found by visiting the Argyle website.

Sun Safety

In Terms 1 and 4, every child is expected to wear a red bucket hat, which is part of our uniform. These are available for purchase from the Office. The wearing of sunblock is also encouraged while playing outside, particularly during break times. Sunblock is around the school but it’s also a good idea for your child to bring sunblock along to school with them. Roll-on sunblocks are often a good option as they are much easier for younger children to apply themselves.

Scooter and Bike Stands

We very much encourage our students to walk and wheel to school each day if possible. Please note that if your child bikes or scooters to school, they need to enter and exit via the main gate closest to Kennedys Bush Road. We recommend that all bikes and scooters are securely locked each day to avoid them going missing (whether this is intentional or through mistaken identity). We would also appreciate you reinforcing the importance of children walking their scooters and bikes in and out of school gates to avoid colliding with pedestrians.

What Can You Do At Home?

Halswell School has developed a number of resources to help parents support their children’s learning at home. The “Learning at Home” pages on our school website give more advice and links to worthwhile home learning activities.

Finally, I would like to wish your whānau all the best for what I’m sure will be a very exciting year ahead.

Ngā mihi nui

Stuart Cameron

Principal