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

Welcome to Term 4. I hope you managed some time with your children over the break.  As per usual we have a very busy term ahead so please keep an eye on the calendar.

Welcome to Kristika Burridge who joins us this term in Space 15 while Mrs Fahey is on leave.

The term started off with a bit of a bang with swimming. It is great to see our children happy in this medium. Watching them it does bring to mind that we can only do 10 lessons a year and for a country surrounded by water this is not nearly enough. We are so fortunate in Somerfield to have  Pioneer Pool close by and they regularly run lessons. If you want to invest in anything this year, teaching your kids to swim I believe would be an investment  priority!

Congratulations to Nicole Crow and her partner Hamish who were engaged in the holidays.

Congratulations to Hannah Nolan who used her initiative to raise funds for the kakapo. We have details of her work in Somerfield Kids Shine. It's great to see our tamariki using their initiative and skills for something other than themselves!

Teacher Only Day this term

As part of the Teachers Contract we have 8 extra Teacher Only Days to take over 3 years. This year we took one in March to do assessment but did Lockdown preparation. Last term we did music and this term we will be planning for 2021 and working with our Creatives expert for next year. Teacher Only Day this term- Friday 4 December. SCHOOL CLOSED.

Whanau Hui

We are aiming to have our whanau hui Tuesday 24 November 6pm.

Those involved will receive more information in the next few weeks.

Reminders

• We are at Alert Level 1 - this means you need to use your APP when at school, keep sick children at home. We are continuing with our hygiene measures.
• As per our Sunsmart Policy our tamariki are to have a brimmed, named hat for Terms 4 and 1.
  

• Children are not allowed in the school grounds before 8:30am so they need to time their leaving from home to arrive at school after 8:30 am and before 8:45am. This means they do not have to wait outside the gates and if they arrive before 8:45am they will be prepared for the day.

• After school all children must go home at 3:10pm unless with a parent.
• It would be absolutely wonderful to have NO complaints about parent parking behaviour after school from our neighbours this term. We goal set with our tamariki all the time-  This is a great goal for us as an adult community.
  

Disco - THE SHOW MUST GO ON and it will. See new date and arrangements elsewhere in the newsletter.

Placements next year

Planning is well underway for 2021. We have a number of staffing appointments to undertake and we are also now looking at the class placements for next year. Some classes may move through together, any changes in this situation are on staff suggestion and discussed with the parents or they are at parent request.

It is time consuming getting the student combinations right so if you wish to discuss your child's placement for 2021 please contact me NOT the classroom teacher, they will be consulted as part of my process. I'm happy to discuss student combinations but will not enter any discussion into staff requests. Please see me before Friday 30 October. After this date it will be too late.