He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all.

Although we are very much in the throws of the second wave of this year's COVID pandemic as well as the flu and other respiratory conditions, we are trying to carry on as much as possible with events and activities we had planned. All be it with safety precautions!

The first of these are the Whānau Reconnecting Learning Conferences on the 1st and 2nd of August. In most cases these are via zoom.  You will be in the waiting room until the teacher has completed the previous conference and lets you in.

School closes 2:30pm on those days. If you cannot pick up your child until the usual time of 2:55pm, please email your child's  teacher and they will be supervised in the library and sent home at the normal time.

For information about what is covered in the conference please refer to the information sent home at the end of the term.

We have already sent home a couple of invoices for school donations and many thanks to those who have already paid. The school is reliant on these donations as they pay for swimming, some class trips and keeping our technology up to date (extremely important as we are now sending devices home to support those isolating). Unfortunately, if we don't have them paid then class trips will be restricted or won't happen and we won't be able to ensure our technology is current.

With swimming coming up for Waka Tētē and Kōpapa in the last two weeks of the term we would appreciate payment of donations if you can.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank those who have donated extra to support whānau.

We are fortunate that one of our main schoolwide units, Aotearoa NZ Histories, is funded by PTA. These are important units. They were our Place Based Learning units but have been updated in light of the new Aotearoa NZ Histories which is part of the social sciences curriculum. Some of our classes will begin their units this term and others in Term 4. You will be notified by the class teacher as each unit involves a trip.

This term we will be undertaking our Sexuality Education Consultation with you prior to the teaching of these units later in the year.

With COVID and the amount of illnesses we have decided to do things differently. You will be sent a video informing you about the learning at each level and then we will host a zoom Q&A. I will keep you posted as to when this happens.

As I said there is still a lot happening. Please see the separate article with events and keep an eye on the calendar as we are still to add a few activities.

Lastly, I have been at this school a long time and in all my years at Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo we have been well served by Boards of Trustees who are child-centric and on the Board for the tamariki, not their own agendas. With the elections coming up I'd like to ask you to consider standing if you feel you can offer time, energy and support to the tamariki and staff at Somerfield. It is important to know what you can and can't do. See this link if you would like information. The nominations close at 12 noon on 5 August. Less than a week away.