He mihi mahana kia koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all.

Welcome to our second group of New Entrants who joined us in Rooms 9-12 on Monday. Whenever I have popped in they seem very settled, very "Somerfield Kids".

New Parents Morning tea is Wednesday 24 March for whānau of any new students to Somerfield this term. Please join us in the staffroom at 9am.

As you can imagine there is a real buzz in the air as our tamariki look forward to the disco on Friday night. Many thanks to our PTA for their organisation and a special thank you to Sanchia Paterson and Daniel Caigou, our resident DJ's!

Best wishes to our swimming team who compete at the Zone swimming sports tomorrow. We have 23 in our team this year. Well done!

Also on Friday we have a large contingent of teaching staff visiting the Tuahiwi Marae as part of their professional development. Marae protocol is part of our Place Based Learning and our teachers also need to know these protocols.

This week we seem to have been dealing with a number of student safety issues beyond the school. If your child is not walking, biking or scootering home then they need to be picked up from the school. Once again it has come to my notice that many children are being asked to meet their parents in the park. Please be there before the bell as some issues have developed at the park that can compromise our tamariki's safety.

The weather is now starting to turn, before you know it the heat pumps will be on and our tamariki will be wearing more layers. This is the perfect environment for head lice, those with long hair need to tie it up. This does make it harder for head lice. Please be vigilant and check hair regularly and treat. One of the best ways, without the fancy products, is to put conditioner in the hair and use a head lice comb to get rid of eggs. Lice seem to affect all whānau's lives at one time or another and they love clean hair!  If everyone did their bit we can keep the little critters out of our tamariki's hair.

I have put the school uniform policy in today's newsletter. We have a lot of clothing which is not part of the uniform creeping in. Please follow the policy. As it gets colder some of our girls like to wear tights, these must be red, white or our blue as must polypropylene worn under the polo shirts.  Thank you for your help with this.

Reminders

• Please update your contact details if they have changed since the beginning of the year. We are still trying to track down missing children and sometimes can't, mainly due to incorrect contacts.
  
• Phone or etap absences before 8:30am
• Thursday 1 April is Teachers Only Day - SCHOOL  IS CLOSED
• Easter is Friday 2 April - Tuesday 6 April. Children return to school on Wednesday 7 April