In this Principal’s Piece: Read-A-Thon about to start, Skylight Trust - counselling support and resilience workshop, Wheels Day, COVID update for today, Last Steeple Rock for the Term, Holiday Programme still has some places.

Read-A-Thon

Next week your child/ren will bring home a Read-A-Thon booklet. Please take a few minutes to look at this with your child, select appropriate goals and consider how they can generate sponsorship or donations.

Under the present COVID restrictions, this will be the largest FoSS fundraising opportunity for the year. All funds raised will go towards replacing our data projectors as they stop working. We are unable to purchase parts for these. The original units were purchased from previous FoSS fundraising efforts.

Visit our LIbrary Blog Page for great ideas.
Two key links are:

Books and reading page 
National Library article about creating a reading culture at home

A massive thank you to Angeline Harrington for your leadership of this event and Monique Hamon for the fantastic art work.

SkyLight Trust

I have included below the communication I sent out yesterday regarding a new initiative to provide more support for our children.

We also have an opportunity for children to be part of a half day resilience workshop, with Skylight Trust on Tuesday April 26th. Read below for more information.

Wheels Day

we are delighted to be able to hold the Wheels Day tomorrow. All students, on any type of wheeled contraption, will need to wear a helmet. Please remind your children that they are not to share their ‘wheeled device’ with anyone else - that is when most accidents occur!

SKYLIGHT RESILIENCE WORKSHOP

Skylight, in conjunction with the Motu Kairangi Kahui Ako, will be delivering a half day Resilience Workshop at Miramar North School for Years 3 to 6 children, on Tuesday 26th April from 9am till 1pm. They will provide some morning tea. There will be no cost to you as parents.

Covid 19 Protocols

1. All children need to follow hygiene protocols
2. All children in years 4-6 will need to be masked
3. Covid protocols restrict parents from being present in the classrooms.

The workshop will be conducted by counsellors and tackle topics such as leadership, collaboration, resilience, talking about tough situations, etc. It will be delivered in a fun setting via games, group activities, etc. The workshop will also address any anxiety issues with children returning to school.

Please note: There are only 20-25 spaces for enrolment from our Kāhui Ako so first in first served.

Please use this Google form Skylight Resilience Workshop to indicate your interest in your child attending. We will then confirm your attendance. This information will be kept in confidence and only shared with the Care Team and Skylight Trust. Once confirmed, you will be sent more specific information about room numbers, pick up and drop off and general protocols.

Counselling Support Pilot Project

Primary schools in the Motu Kairangi Kāhui Ako, which at present do not have counselling support, are commencing a pilot student counselling service with Skylight Trust. This is possible because of funding the Kāhui Ako has been able to secure.

WELLBEING

Our objective is to provide support for as many families/students as possible within our schools. The idea of mauri (life force) is central to counselling, to protect and enhance the mana and wellbeing of children and their whānau.

Counsellors will play an important role in supporting learner wellbeing. They will work closely with schools and whānau, wherever possible, to get the right support in place at the right time.

HOW WILL COUNSELLING WORK IN OUR SCHOOL?

Our school has designed our counselling services to best meet the needs of our learners.

We have developed a referral process that requires parental consent and the possibility for parents, in some situations, to make direct referral requests to Skylight Trust. We expect most referrals will come from the school.

We have developed a care team that will review anonymised applications to ensure we support both families in the greatest need and ensure all schools have access to this resource. This is made up of two local Principals and one Skylight Trust manager.

WHAT CAN I EXPECT

We want you to be involved, as much as possible, so we can work together to get the best support for your child.

Our school counsellor service will:

· Be safe, honest, and trustworthy

· Listen carefully, be respectful and value your culture, language and identify

· Provide this service in safe spaces at school or in the Skylight Trust office

· Take action if you or your child is in danger

You will have an opportunity to meet the counsellor and discuss how this support can work for your child. This can be online or face to face.

We will uphold you and your child’s rights to privacy and keep all information safe.

Who do I contact for more information?

In the first instance, you might like to discuss counselling with our school Principal, John Western.

or

call Skylight on 0800 299 100

Email: clinicalcoordinator@skylight.org.nz

“Mou, moku, mo nga tangata katoa”

“For you, for me and for all people”

COVID Update for Thursday, 7th April

We continue to see the slightly elevated number of cases. With some children returning to school and new cases.

As of 2pm today, April 7th, we have 16 cases in the following classes:

• twelve positive student cases. We presently have student cases in:
  • Year 7&8 - Rm’s 12 and 13
  • Year 5&6 - Rm 15 and 17
  • Year 3&4 - Rm’s 1 and 3
  • Year 2 - Rm 5
  • Year 1 - Rm 9

• two positive staff cases
• two staff isolating
• fourteen students are isolating as household contacts.

Our holiday Programme still has some places. 

For more information and to make a booking visit here.

This will be the last Steeple Rock for the Term.

Thank you for all your assistance and support over the Term. Considering everything, I feel we have been able to continue with school as close to normal as possible. Wearing masks has become a lot more ’normal’ for us all. The staff have worked incredibly hard this Term and while everyone is very tired and the term has felt extra long, I hope it has been successful for you.  We had a very high percentage attendance at this weeks 3 Way Conferences, thank you for making this a priority.