A Big Start!

Nearly all families made the time to attend whanau hui in week one or two and we had record numbers at our mihi whakatau on Wednesday.

E mihi nui ki a koutou katoa Whaea Tania, Mātua Sonny rātou ko Kim, whaanau whanui o te Kura Pokapū o Whakatu!

We welcomed fifty new students and their families, new staff and all of our Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB), who now sit under our kura mantle. They, with their service Manager Lyn Evans, provide expert support to teachers, ākonga and families across Nelson, Waimea and Golden Bay, and we are honoured to have them in our team. Watch out for some introductions in the next few newsletters.

We know children do well when…

Our partnership is strong and parents and teachers understand education as shared responsibility.

This means that, just like teachers are expected to teach all children well in school, parents need to take care that their children come to school ready to learn.

I know you will all be working hard to get back to good sleep habits, morning routines, not to mention organising lunch boxes, swimming togs, drink bottles stationery etc at the moment!

Our teachers have spent many days during January planning and building expertise around literacy, trauma, water safety and building whanaungatanga through Māori kemu/games.

The importance of being on time and being at school each day continues to be important.

The government is talking a lot at the moment about attendance rates.

Their expectation is that children are at school at least 95% of the time. That means less than ten days absence in a year.

There will be more stringent checks around attendance than may have occurred recently.

If a child is away a week each term, that equals a complete year they will have missed throughout their 10+ years of schooling…so you can see the impact.

In our school we also know that we have multiple children and family members with little or no immunity - so being safe by keeping any illness away from school is equally important. Please let the school know if your child is unwell.

One of the things we all hold dear is building and strengthening ourselves as a community that can celebrate and support one another.

We will have an opportunity to meet new people and catch up with old friends at the upcoming school picnic.

We hope to see you all there.

Ngā manaakitanga

Pip