Kia Ora Koutou Katoa, Talofa Lava, Malo e Lelei, Ni Hao, Anyoung Haseyo, Konichi Wa, Gruetzi, Guten Tag, Bonjour, Ola, Hello. 

Students arrived with huge smiles, bags bulging with stationery, stories to tell and eager to start another year of learning. It was wonderful yesterday to walk through classes and see old friendships being rekindled, brand new friendships just beginning and students so keen to catch up with last years teacher and to say hello and enjoy their teacher for 2018.

A huge thank you to the teaching staff who have worked hard at school over the last few weeks to plan exciting learning opportunities for students and to create wonderful classroom environments that are bright and welcoming. 

A warm Tauriko welcome to all those new students and families that have joined us this year - moving from other areas of Tauranga, other parts of the country or a range of other countries around the globe. A very special welcome to our New Entrant students, who had their very first EVER day at school. What a special day for you! We are thrilled to have all our new students and families join us at Tauriko school and I know our students, teachers and our school community will support you to settle in to your new Tauriko whanau,

Strong trusting relationships are an important piece of the learning jigsaw, enabling our students to feel safe, cared for and supported as they are brave when taking on new learning challenges, setting new goals and striving to grow as learners and positive, confident young people. At Tauriko School we believe that it takes "a village to raise a child". Students, teachers, parents, extended whanau, friends and community members are all involved in enabling our children to achieve success in learning and to grow as young people who know who they are. Once again this year, we will see this in action in so many ways.

School Charter review:

In the first half of this year, staff and the Board of Trustees will invite the community to join us to review our strategic goals in the Charter in order that they are enhanced or changed to reflect the needs of the future direction of the school. I really encourage you to be part of this opportunity. In my experience over my 14 years of being a Principal, the greater the community voice, the more robust our strategic direction is. I am passionate about our school and it's pride in it's traditions, its focus on developing students who have a strong identity and leadership skills,  its future focussed curriculum and  global direction and I know that you are too. This allows our children to be prepared for the world they live in currently and that they will be the leaders of in the future. Being involved in setting goals for our school together - staff, Board and community -  is vital work.

We are 100 years old this year!

In the later part of the year our school will celebrate it's centenary. Being 100 years old is a huge achievement and the Board will be looking for past and present community members to support them in setting a date for and helping us plan this celebration. Further information will come out about this soon.

Our native trees:

A grove of native trees at the front of the school have been felled in preparation for a new driveway, parking area and road frontage to be developed. The decision was not made lightly by the Board, as no one likes to see native trees removed. However, the safety issue that continues to grow at the front of our school is a very real concern. The Board first priority in regards to this issue is the safety of its students, their parents and indeed community members as they drive past our school at busy pick up and drop off times.

We are striving to use holiday periods as much as possible to complete this project over time. This will hopefully alleviate, as much as possible, disruption to our students and their families during term time. This holidays, this initial phase of our project was completed. Rimu and Totara wood has been milled and some will be kept to use by the school in the future as an art installation/carving. A huge thank you to Tauriko Sawmill, who are storing this wood for us until this happens. We really appreciate them supporting the school as part of the Tauriko community. 

School costs at this time of the year:

The beginning of the school year brings with it huge costs eg stationery, activity fees, the school donation, school bags, sports fees, school sports uniform etc.  I would not like to think of anyone worried about this. Please come into the school office and we can help you prioritise this or organise small on-going payments to cover this over time. We are here to help as much as we can.

The school donation is just that, a donation. The new Government has said it will pay a fee of $140 for each child to schools who do not charge a donation. At the moment we have had no correspondence from the Ministry of Education in relation to this and if we do I will let you know as soon as possible. 

I wish you all the very best for the 2018 school year and I am thrilled to be working alongside you to achieve the very best education for our children.

Suzanne