Tēnā koutou e te Whānau

Our thoughts are with all schools, friends and families in the North Island who have been affected by Cyclone Gabrielle this week. This is likely to have a lasting impact on their communities. I'm sure you'll join me in wishing them all the best with their recovery efforts. 

Closer to home, we had a fantastic turnout of parents at our Welcome Back to School Picnic. This event proved to be an excellent opportunity for teachers and families to connect after the holidays and get the new school year off to a positive start. Thank you for supporting the PTA's sausage sizzle. This helped raise over $500, which will go towards this year's fundraising goals.

Next week, parents will have another opportunity to meet with T group teachers at the Learning Conference on Wednesday 22 (2.00-6.30 pm) and Thursday 23 (3.30-8.00 pm) February. If you haven't already booked a learning conference, please check your Hero account for instructions and/or refer to the Learning Conference article in this newsletter.

A reminder that normal classes will cease at 1.30 pm on Wednesday, 22 February to ensure that there are enough conference slots to accommodate all families. We would appreciate it if children could be collected at this time. If you are unable to do so, please add your details to the supervision list to enable your child(ren) to be supervised in the Learning Centre Blue rooms through to 3 o'clock. 

The New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI - the teachers union) are currently in collective agreement negotiations with the Ministry of Education. NZEI has called for paid union meetings for all teachers across the country. In Canterbury, these are taking place in the afternoon on Tuesday, 28 February and Thursday, 2 March. Attendance at these meetings is an entitlement under the current collective agreement. Given that we are already asking parents to collect children early at the earlier time of 1.30 pm for next Wednesday's Learning Conference, to minimise further disruption for families, we have split our teachers across both paid union meetings. This will mean that we will effectively have a skeleton crew of teachers and support staff supervising children from 12.30-3.00 pm on Tuesday, 28 February, and Thursday, 2 March. You are welcome to collect your children at 12.30 pm on either of these days if you wish to. 

Finally, Ahuriri and Huritini are hosting this week's full school assembly (9.15-10.00 am in the Stadium). Our Years 0-2 assemblies are always popular, so we look forward to seeing a big crowd there on Friday!

Nga mihi nui

Stuart Cameron

Principal