Kia ora koutou katoa. Welcome back to Term 3! I trust you all had a safe holiday, and the children had chance to recharge ready for this term of learning. We are hoping that this term is a “normal” term, one without the interruptions that dominated the previous terms this year. A special welcome to our new students and their families – welcome to our Milford School community!! The photo above is of our newest class, Room 18. A special welcome also to our new staff member, Miss Becky Taylor, who has joined us to teach the Room 18 class. Welcome Becky!!

Each year level has planned some fabulous units of inquiry, units that are engaging, challenging, significant, and relevant. In particular, this term the Year 6 students will hold their first Exhibition, a requirement of being an IBPYP school. This is a natural progression of learning where these students demonstrate their skills and understandings but engaging with a unit of work that they have a choice in. It will be a unit connected to a local or global issue that they are interested in – watch this space for more information as there will be an opportunity for parents to come in and see what the students have learned.

We are constantly reviewing what we do and the opportunities we offer our students. As you will be aware, this year we added a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) specialist teacher so that all our students have a session with her each week. We recognise the value of these subject areas for lifelong learning and wanted to ensure a designated time each week was devoted specifically to this, and taken by a teacher who is extremely passionate. We are keen for any parent feedback on this programme, so if you have any comment to make (perhaps something your child has relayed to you about STEM), I would love to hear it. You can email me at sue.cattell@milford.school.nz

It is great to see most of the students wearing correct uniform, please just a reminder that they need to wear sensible black school shoes. Jandals, slides, and boots are unsuitable for a school day where PE and fitness are an integral part (especially in the wet weather). Footwear must be plain black, with no colours on it. Can I also ask that you ensure your child has a suitable raincoat (any colour) with a hood please, and not just bring an umbrella. Umbrellas are often unsuitable in our windy weather.

The Board of Trustees have ratified the term dates for next year and you will find these on the website and in this newsletter. The children will start back at school on Thursday 4 February 2021.

We are very excited to be able to restart our whole school assemblies again! We hold these every second Friday from 2.15 – 2.45pm in the school hall. The first one for the term will be next Friday, 31 July, and will be led by the Year 3 team.

Ngā manaakitanga

Sue Cattell

Principal