Kia ora whanau. We are fast approaching spring. Today is Daffodil Day and our Student council have been busy counting up your generous donations to go to Mid Canterbury Cancer Society. We are proud to have raised $745, which far exceeded our goal of $500!

Emergency Procedures Review: We successfully trialed our Lockdown procedures on Wednesday 21 August. We made a notification to all current students caregivers on Hero and put a post of our school Facebook page alerting caregivers to check their messages for important information. Thank you everyone for your cooperation with this process. We had a small amount of green notices returned asking for help to set up Hero notifications. If you are still not receiving updates via Hero app or website, please make contact with the office so that we can get urgent updates to you in the event of an emergency.

Staff Changes: We welcome Mrs Abbey Moore who is working alongside Mrs Grieve in Rm 2 to support our growing group of New Entrants. We also will be sadly saying farewell to some staff at the end of this year. Mrs Andrea Davies, our Special Needs Coordinator has decided to retire from Education and focus on her family. Miss Ashleigh Leonard has accepted a teaching position closer to where she lives and Miss Olivia George will head off on her big OE! We will start the process of advertising their replacements and we wish them all well and thank them for everything they've done for our tamariki and kura.

Life Education: Our children always enjoy when Harold visits our school. Each class has two lessons in Harold's classroom on a range of health and relationship topics. He even made a special appearance in assembly today!

Cultural Weeks: Thank you for supporting our recent language weeks. In the past term, we have celebrated Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga. We love how proud our children are of their cultures and we appreciate you sharing your language and customs with us.

Track pants back on the Uniform List: Our board had some requests to return to the royal blue track pants on to the uniform list. Our board has agreed so these can once again be purchased from The Warehouse or Tots to Teens.

Hampstead Friends & Whanau Coffee & Cake: We welcome any new or existing friends and whanau to join us for coffee and cake in the school library on Tuesday 3 September from 6.30pm. All welcome and children are welcome to play while the adults chat.

Reporting Term 3: On Friday 27 September, children will get a report comment on Hero that shares with caregivers learning progress in Term 3 in other curriculum areas. Our next Reading, Writing, Maths and General Comment report will be sent out at the end of Term 4.

Storage Shed Upgrade: Our storage sheds that sit beside our bike sheds at the Wellington St gates are getting an upgrade (demolition and rebuild). This work will begin in the next school holidays (30 September). Due to the asbestos management plan involved in the demolition, our school grounds will not be open to public access over the school holidays and there will be no access through these gates for the duration of the upgrade (likely all of Term 4).

Student of the Week: Brooklyn is our Room 11  super student! He is attentive, hardworking, super keen to achieve his best, and goes above and beyond to help others. Brooklyn treats everyone with respect and is a brilliant role model for our school values. His thoughtful questioning skills and responses to discussions show his in depth thinking on a variety of topics - he always has great enthusiasm for learning. He has an interesting sense of humour which everyone enjoys. Brooklyn always has a positive attitude and is a delight to teach and have in Room 11.

Upcoming Dates:

Life Education: 22 August - 2 September

Hampstead Friends & Whanau Coffee & Cake: 3 Sept, 6.30pm in the library

Daffodil Day: 30 August.

Year 5-6 Swim Week #2: 16-20 September

Board of Trustees Meeting: 18 September, 6pm in Puawai

Maori Language Week: 16-20 September

Ashburton Intermediate Open Night: 24 September, 7pm

Hakatere Festival: 19 September

End of Term 3: 27 September

Start of Term : 14 October

Nga mihi nui,

Claudine Campbell (Principal)