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

Welcome back to the home of the SMART Somerfield Kid. I hope you and your whānau managed to catch some lovely summer weather and managed to avoid the rain other areas have experienced. Our thoughts are with those affected in other parts of the country at this time.

I've enjoyed catching up with many of you over the last couple of weeks and during today's Getting Connected Conferences. If you couldn't make a time to meet with your child's teachers for Thursday or Friday this week please ring them for an appointment at a time suitable for you both. This meeting is to get to know you child, catch up with them and the whānau and set some goals.

Welcome back to all our staff. A special welcome to our new staff Simon Ward in Space 1, Sioned Rees in Space 2 and Susan Hawkins who is helping in Space 1 and 1a this year.

Congratulations to Latiesha Egan in Space 10 and her partner Hayden who became engaged just before Christmas. It was nice to be able to celebrate with Latiesha at the start of the year.

Every year we have a theme that guides our work and this year it is, "Sustainability is not something to learn, but something we live."

We are working with the Enviro school team throughout the year on this theme and will improve some of our own practices within school but also get our older tamariki to look beyond.

We have a number of new children starting, 18 New Entrants and quite a few who have moved from overseas and various parts of the country. I have assured them that we have a great community and they will get a warm Somerfield welcome.

Once again I'll remind you that a lot of our communication is through our APP, this means it is current and with our country in turmoil with natural disasters and the vigilance still needed  with COVID, then the APP's takes increasing importance.

I'll send regular updates through the APP and email, but if you miss these the newsletter and the website will keep you informed. As you can imagine our focus is to get our tamariki back to school, settled and learning.

Our teachers are parents, partners, daughters and sons and are entitled to a life beyond school. They work very hard for our tamariki and deserve a rest in the evening. If you communicate with a teacher after 6pm or before 8am DO NOT expect a response between those hours. There are times this might vary but in general please respect their family time.

COVID

Please inform us via the APP if your child or a family member has COVID. If your child has COVID they must stand down for 7 days. if a member of the family has COVID please let us know and your child/ children please wear a mask.

We will continue to push hygiene and use ventilation as a tool and if you wish your child wears a mask then send them along but we do have some. A reminder that if you child is unwell they MUST NOT come to school. If they are away for longer than 3 days let the class teacher know and we will let them access the online learning.

Attendance

Each year I have a focus on attendance. It is very important your child attends school. This year the government is pulling out all stops to focus schools and whānau on attendance and its importance. The last three years have been disruptive and has impacted on student achievement across the motu. Many of you have heard from me as I check on your child's attendance.I am legally required to do this. If our tamariki are at school we can teach them and they learn. There is a huge amount of research on this topic. Your job is to keep us informed. The worst thing in the world is losing a child. or not knowing where they are. You MUST contact us by 8:30am and tell us if your child is not attending that day. It can take a long time to track down children if we haven't been informed.

If you have difficulty getting your child to school talk to the class teacher in the first instance. They will inform Nicky or myself if a solution cannot be found.

Use the APP or text giving the child's name, space and reason. If you or your child they are having a COVID test let us know then let us know the results of the test. Reasons are a requirement. The MoE collects attendance data each term.

Concerns

If you have any concerns during the year please contact the classroom teacher in the first instance. This process works in most instances. They will seek guidance and support from the leadership team if solutions cannot be found.

Please check out our policies if you are unsure about processes. There is a link on our website.

Before and After School

We love that our tamairki want to come to school but they are unable to come in the gates before 8:30am so please help them time their arrival so they get here between 8:30 - 8:45am. This gives them time to unpack and start the day.

After school a clearing bell is rung at 3:10pm and only children who are supervised by whānau can stay on after this time. Those still not picked up will need to come to the office to be supervised.

Our teachers are very busy with meetings or professional development after school. They will not be doing any supervision other than Road Patrol.

School Year

Each year the Ministry of Education sets the number of days schools need to be open and the broad parameters in which these dates must fall between. We have consulted with the cluster on these days in the past and for 2023. In general we finish later in the year than some other schools as this is what our parents have said they wanted. This year we will end between 18 - 20 December. At this stage I can't give you a definitive date until the cluster has consulted as the Ministry of Education has just allocated two days to schools to carry out professional development on the new curriculum. I will put up the new end date by mid February.

Classes begin on Tuesday, 7 February and on Wednesday 8 February is our Mihi Whakatau for all new tamariki and their whānau.

We have a great year planned for our SMART Somerfield Kids under this theme and shortly you will see our other goals when we publish our Community Report in the next few weeks.