Kia ora koutou... this week we discuss the Tsunami alerts from last week, update and ask for help around moving around our community while travelling to and from school, and share our plans for the Teacher Only Day tomorrow.

Tsunami Alerts... We were all OK...

Last week I attended a Ministry of Education workshop around emergency preparedness. This covered all the 'learning' from events over the past 10 years. As part of this, the discussion around Tsunamis informed us how the alert system would work and the MoE guidelines around this. The irony in this was that fast forward to Friday morning and all the systems were given a huge shake-out. The great news was, the MoE system worked!

As one of the two schools on a hill in the Christchurch region, we certainly had no need to be concerned. However, we did have students out at camp in Woodend. We had been co-ordinating with the camp management and Civil Defense from early in the morning and our systems around how this was managed worked extremely well. The level of detail in our planning and managing the H&S for our students who are off-site allowed us to make timely decisions and the staff and parents on this camp were awesome in ensuring our students were supported and mostly unaware of what was happening.

One of the discussion points around this event was the potential for parents and whānau not being able to make it to school immediately. We want to re-assure you, that should this happen, your child will be safe and sound and we will look after them until you or your whānau can make it to school to pick them up (as we have always done). It is also a timely reminder to check who you have listed in your emergency contacts and who could pick up your child in case of this happening. 

Next week, we will send home a summary of the details you already have on our management system. These emergency contacts will be listed on this. If there are no changes, you do not need to return this form, but if there are any corrections/additions, please send it back to Carolyn in the Office. We also ask you check and update all contact details if these have changed.

Moving Around Our Community...

It seems that we have more students arriving at school under their own steam. This is fantastic! However, along with this comes the safety and awareness of students as they use footpaths and share the roads with other community members. As part of this, we have a few observations and suggestions we need your help with:

1. We highly recommend students riding scooters wear helmets and use the footpath.
2. One of the great parts of living on a hill is of course the downhill ride (and for some the uphill ride). The excitement of speed is certainly part of this. However, we ask that all students follow the road rules and manage this speed with the fact they are also sharing the roads with our community. A moment of inattention from either could end with a serious tragedy. 
3. We are also tightening the etiquette when arriving at school on scooters or bikes. We are asking students not to ride on our grounds as they arrive or exit. This is a safety issue for all our school community and keeps us all safe.
4. Crossing roads and using the footpaths also have their perils. We are asking whānau to check the route their children are taking to and from school and where they are crossing the road. It is also timely to discuss general safety as below you can see a 'play' item that with a small slip could result in a serious event. There are quite a few short-cuts and hidden tracks around the hill and these are great to take students off footpaths or road edges, which helps keep students safe. However, please check-in with your child about their travel route and maybe even take a walk with them and discuss the possible hazards to avoid.

As part of this, we have some new initiatives soon to be initiated. Our 'You're A PARKING Star' and our Walk or Wheel Weekly events will be coming to a place near you in the near future.

Our Teacher Only Day Tomorrow...

Tomorrow we have the first term-time Teacher Only Day for 2021. You may or may not be aware, we have our International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (that's a mouthful!) Evaluation on the 17th - 19th May. This involves a review of our delivery of this programme, and our progress since they last visited. As part of this, our staff will be collaborating in preparation and for this. This day builds on the days we held prior to school starting this year and the professional learning meetings we hold after school each week.

The evaluation visit is 'remote', meaning the review partners will be outside of NZ somewhere. As part of the evaluation visit, they review our implementation of the framework, our teaching and learning, speak to students about their learning, speak to our Board of Trustees, parents and whānau and spend time in classrooms.

As part of this, we also submit videos and documentation to support the evaluation. One of the videos is to capture the unique nature of our Te Kura O Paeraki | Mt Pleasant MAGIC. This is something we get a lot of comments about. The warmth and friendliness of our students, staff, parents and whānau and the great 'vibe' when you walk in our gates. So the mission on Monday 22nd March is to capture this. As part of this, we will be filming throughout the day to capture the footage we can use along with the already gathered evidence of what makes our school so great. If you are on-site, don't be surprised or shy. Carry on your business... who knows you may be a star in our own MAGIC production.

We hope our students enjoy their long weekend.

Kia pai tō rā whakatā. Hei te Rāhina, na

Chris Nord