Kia ora e te Whānau

I hope you have all managed to keep well despite the winter illnesses around at the moment. You will be aware that media have recently been focussed on masks in schools following the Government's statements around continuation of the Orange Covid setting. While masks for children and staff are being provided to schools by the Ministry of Education there is no mandate for their use. The MOE recommends that children and staff wear masks and we will be recommending that advice also. I have ordered additional masks, including children's masks and these will be available here at school. Winter illnesses have consistently been seeing 20 to 40 children away each day, with the tummy bug also doing the rounds. As always please keep unwell children away from school.

Check out the articles this week from Kōwhai about their Ferrymead trip, Mānawatia Matariki and mindfulness in school. Some great photographs of the learning from these experiences.

This weeks Online Safety topic introduces the Netsafe Parent Toolkit and associated resources and advice for parents for how to support your children to become responsible and safe digital citizens. It includes really valuable tips and advice and highlights the critical role parents have in setting their children up for success in the digital world they live in.

Please find out more about where we are at with our work with the Education Review Office and their new evaluation approach. I have uploaded the Board Assurance report and the Lyttelton Primary Profile Report for your information.

The school's  Annual report for 2021 is also available for parents to view and contains the audited financial statements, audit report and analysis of variance reports.

Teachers are completing written reporting comments for mathematics and literacy with these being reviewed over the term break and published at the end of week 1, term 3. Whānau conferences are scheduled for week 3 to discuss and share student progress, achievements and next steps.

Next Tuesday and Wednesday we have 108 children from Aupaki schools (24 from Lyttelton) attending the Aupaki Tech Fest being held at Sumner School. This is a two day learning conference where our combined schools share teaching expertise enabling children to explore a workshop of interest in detail over the two days. Topics include, robotics and coding, minecraft education, vector art, designing, coding and making video games, movie making, and much more. Thank you to Emily and Nikeisha for your work as our tech fest facilitators from Lyttelton.

The end of term 2 is next Friday 8 July and term 3 begins on Monday 25 July.

Kia pai tō mutunga wiki.

Brendan