Welcome to the 2019 school year everyone!
We start our school day or week with karakia. This is a new one we are learning and an appropriate way for me to start the first newsletter.
E te whānau (hui)
Whāia te mātauranga kia mārama
Kia whai take ngā mahi katoa
Tū maia, tū kaha
Aroha atu, aroha mai
Tātou i a tātou katoa.
For this family (gathering)
Seek knowledge for understanding
Have purpose in all that you do
Stand tall, be strong
Let us show respect
For each other.
We welcome Miss Jess McColl and Miss Emma Beech to our teaching team and are also welcoming a number of new children and families to our school community. On Thursday 7 February we have a mihi whakatau (Maori welcome) to officially welcome our new staff, whanau and tamariki. We encourage families who joined our school community since our last mihi whakatau to be part of this welcome. Those being welcomed are asked to gather by the flag pole in front of Room 5 if it is fine or to meet in Room 1 if it is wet at 9am. The ceremony will take place on the decking area or in the multi-purpose room depending on the weather.
We would also appreciate any existing families to be part of the school group to welcome the new people. We ask you to join us on the decking area if fine or in the multi-purpose room at 9am.
We encourage all our new families to attend and existing families to come and support this welcome.
We have a wonderful teaching team at Harewood, with committed and enthusiastic staff, working collaboratively within the three teams – Harakeke (R1-3). Matai (R5-7) and Kahikatea (R8&9). In Harakeke this year there will be more of a focus on our tamariki learning through play as it is a developmentally appropriate way of learning for our younger students. Parents of students in Room 1 last year will support me in confirming that learning this way supports the academic learning progress of the children as well as their social and emotional learning. The teams will be sharing more about how they will be working at Meet the Teams on Thursday 21 February.
Towards the end of last year our Board adopted some new policies – Community Social Media Guidelines, Code of Conduct for parents, caregivers and visitors and updated our Parent Involvement policy that includes a Volunteer Agreement that we are asking all parents and volunteers who wish to help out within the school or on trips to sign. This agreement will be part of our enrolment information and will only need to be signed once during your child’s time at school as it will be kept on record. As this is new we are asking all parents/caregivers who wish to be involved within our school to sign and return this form.
Our school policies are available for viewing online at http://harewood.schooldocs.co.nz User name: harewood, password: connected
Assembly times have changed in response to parent feedback. This year we are having assembly at 2.25pm Friday afternoon in Term 1 and 4, in Terms 2 and 3 they will be at 11.55am due to Year 5 & 6 winter sport commitment. Hopefully having two different times across the year will make it easier for parents to attend their child’s assembly at some point during the year.
Kapa haka time has changed this year and will be 9-10am on Wednesday mornings (fortnightly in T1).
Julie Greenwood