He mihi mahana kia koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all

Over the last three years the school has had one building project after another. We want to reclaim our school back from being a building site so have decided on a celebrate the completion of our redevelopment project. Lock this into your calendar - 20 November, 5-7pm. Take a break from cooking because we will have food trucks and a sausage sizzle but bring your picnic if you prefer. We will have entertainment by our kapahaka groups and choirs, games and of course our new playgrounds to play on! Come and help us celebrate.

Over my time at Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo we have been well served by our various PTAs. They have always been supportive of the school, energetically fundraising to give us the "icing on the cake" - the things our operations grant can't provide for. They have also helped with lost property, made discos really fun, manned the book fair and sizzled zillions of sausages, to name a few. They have been there for us post quake, fires and shootings and now hopefully post lockdown!

I highly commend our PTA. I am known around the traps for praising the energy and innovation of this important group to our school community. Next Wednesday is their AGM and we need some new committee members to guide the work. (See the ballot form in the PTA AGM section). This year we won't be undertaking all we had planned due to the impacts of COVID but we will still do some of it. Come to the AGM and get involved to support our tamariki!

Student engagement is carefully monitored by all NZ schools and the Ministry of Education. In this country children legally have to attend school. This is because tamariki who are at school learn! Evidence shows regular attendance is one of the main indicators to successful life outcomes - not just job opportunities but wellbeing outcomes.  As parents you have a legal obligation to ensure your child is at school. Currently we are carefully looking at individual student's patterns of attendance. I find it strange that a child would be sick every Monday or Friday (the most common) or every Thursday and Friday - the other common one. I also monitor consistent late arrivals as this also has a huge impact on wellbeing . Children missing the set up of the day can feel on the back foot for the whole day. Do not be offended if you are contacted because if your child has a consistent pattern of non attendance or lateness we will want to know why. We work with Oranga Tamariki, the health nurse  and the Attendance service to ensure children make it to school and to support whanau to get them here. So excuses as having a haircut, buying new shoes or a birthday present (yes, I truly hear these every year!) etc are not acceptable. Please do these outside of school time.

Next Friday is an important day for us. We get back together for the cross country (weather permitting) and for the SMART assembly. One of the first questions asked by tamariki on return was would we be having two SMART awards this term as we missed the SMART assembly due to lockdown in Term 1. This shows the importance of our SMART awards as an acknowledgement of those who uphold the SMARTS. The answer is yes. To see the criteria for all our awards go to somerfield.schooldocs.co.nz. User name: somerfield. Password: smart. Look at the policy - Recognising Student Achievement.

Next Friday we will also be sending home the school report in hard copy and digitally. A survey will be out the following week asking you if you want the report - hard copy, digitally or both. Also check our the Reporting to Parents section in this newsletter.

Due to COVID we have had some calendar changes. The school year now ends Thursday 17 December 12:30pm as we cancelled the Kahukura Teachers Only Day. The Term 4 Teachers Only Day, which is part of the teachers collective agreement, is now Friday 4 December as we have the Year 6's going on camp on the original date which was Monday 30 November.

Now that we are at Alert Level 1, children are to arrive AFTER 8:30am and off school grounds, unless with a parent, by 3:10pm. The arrival at school is problematic - we are not a babysitting agency so if you need before school care please organise.

Please ensure your child has the correct gear for this weather. They go outside if there is no rain to get some exercise and fresh air and need a JACKET. Please also have your child in their correct uniform. If they are wearing tights or polo vest they must be in school colours of RED, BLUE or WHITE - NOT STRIPES. Thank you with your help with these.

The summary to the Response to Alert Levels Survey is now on the website and in this newsletter.