Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Kia ora, Hello, Talofa, Mālō e lelei, Bula, Hola, Fakaalofa atu, As Salam Alaykom, こんにちは, Hallo, Hoy, હ લ ો, Hē leu, Mauri, न म त, Ola , Chum reap suor, Kumusta, Nihao, Xin chào.

Aso Lua, lua sefulu ma le ono, o Me

Talofa lava, Kia ora koutou tē whanau

This week we celebrate Samoan Language week…. 'Tapena sou oso mo lau malaga'.

E fa'ataga ele aganu'u le Gagana ae gagana mai le Gagana e fa'atino le aganu'u!

'Language and culture work hand in hand'. This is a week where we acknowledge all of our Samoan learners and their families and celebrate their rich language and culture!

It is so nice to be sitting in my office, writing the newsletter as normal on a cold but sunny Christchurch day! Never have the simple routines of life felt so good after being able to welcome all learners back onsite!

School Life at Riccarton in Alert 2

It has been fantastic to be back at school since last Monday and to have all classes running well. Thank you all so much for complying so well with the health and safety requirements under alert level 2. The drop offs and pickups have been going really well and all of our learners are making a great effort with sticking to the required hygiene practices and hand washing.

We have noticed a couple of things, since being back at school, that we thought we would share with you.

As you would expect, our learners are enjoying the social aspects of school - the time to play and learn with their friends. It is pleasing to see how happy they are to be back.

In terms of school learning, there hasn’t been any obvious 'drop offs' in reading levels or writing as a result of having been away from school. This is due to learning being a developmental process and also the great work that so many of our families put in with either the 'at home learning', 'online learning' or from just getting to spend more time with your children than normal.

As we have had a disruption in our planned learning programmes this term, we are currently looking at the rest of the term (and year) as to what we keep in place, what changes and what goes. As such, we are trying to keep this term as free from extra events, assemblies and parent evenings as possible and will be looking at getting things back to a more normal programme from next term onwards. This term we will not be publishing any report comments on Hero, but will resume reporting from next term. So watch this space but our priority this term is to get learning programmes back up and running.

Farewells

At the end of Term 1 and during the lockdown period we have said farewell to a number of our staff.

Chris Archbold has retired after 25 fabulous years as our school librarian. Normally we would have had a farewell assembly and a community farewell by now, however, we look forward to these happening later this term. Chris has given outstanding service to us all at Riccarton Primary School. She has an absolute passion for reading and books and has passed this on to a large number of our learners over the years. She has been such a positive influence in supporting so many of our learners to become such successful adults. We have a library with over 4000 books, all hand picked by Chris, to ignite a passion in reading and literature amongst our learners. Chris has gone that 'extra mile' for a large number of our learners and many of them return for a catch up and a chat. Chris has also been a learning assistant and has helped numerous learners with both their reading and writing. We will miss Chris dearly. She has contributed so much to our school and has made a real difference to so many people's lives! Have a fantastic retirement!

Carolyn Luck, one of our learning assistants, took the opportunity to retire over the lockdown period. Carolyn has been an excellent learning assistant over the last four years at Riccarton, where she has predominantly worked in Team Pātītī. She was so well liked by the learners she supported, and they in particular, will miss her very much.

Aaron Taylor, who was teaching in Room 10 from the beginning of this year, resigned after experiencing a change in circumstances. We wish Aaron all the very best for his and his family's future. He was only with us for a very short time, but had become a well respected and liked member of staff.

New staff

We warmly welcome some new staff this term;

George Lecciones, who is teaching in Room 10, 

Patricia Martin, who has joined us as a Learning Assistant, and 

Melissa Harrison, who is our new librarian.

School Not Closed Tomorrow 

Our previously arranged Teacher-Only-Day is no longer going ahead tomorrow. School is therefore open tomorrow (Friday 29 May 2020) as normal.

School Closed - Monday 1 June - Queen's Birthday

School will be closed on Monday 1 June (next Monday) 2020 for the Queen's Birthday weekend holiday. We hope you enjoy the long weekend with your families.

Have a fantastic week and please encourage your children to be Respectful, Responsible, Real Learners!

Paul Irving

Principal.