Kia ora, winter is certainly on its way. This has been the wettest week for a very long time. I hope you are keeping warm and dry as you read the exciting activities students have been involved in over the last couple of weeks.

Pink Shirt Day

On Friday 17th May, our school got behind Pink Shirt Day. The purpose of Pink Shirt Day is to raise the awareness of bullying - especially within schools. I'd like to acknowledge Jakob Grueber from Room 5 for emailing Mr Richmond (Deputy Principal) with the idea of supporting the day. The main picture above is Jakob and there are a few more photos below. Well done, Jakob!

Hobbies/Interests/Sport

I had the pleasure of watching 6 ākonga (students) play for Ōtautahi two Saturday's ago at South Hagley Park. They are all in Te Tahu Rua Reo (our bilingual class). It was great to see the boys and their whānau enjoying the game. It was played in good spirits and the boys performed well. See a picture below of the boys and myself after the game. I hope to pop along to some midweek school basketball games in the near future.

Watching the boys reminded me of the importance of ākonga participating in hobbies, sports and activities outside of school. They provide opportunities to interact with others, keep fit, learn new skills, develop one's ability in a certain discipline which could provide opportunities in the future.

Sickness

There has been a high number of ākonga and kaimahi (staff) sick over the last couple of weeks. If your child is unwell it is probably best to keep them at home so they can get better without passing it on to others as well. Also, please call the office explaining the reason for your child's absence. Thank you for your ongoing support with this.

Learning Conferences

A friendly reminder we have our learning conferences next week on Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th May. If you haven't booked a time please go to HERO and find a time that suits. School will finish at 12:40pm on the Wednesday once students have eaten their lunch. This will allow for a 1pm start. Thursday will have a normal finish time of 2:45pm.

We changed the format of our learning conferences last year and received positive feedback. The first 15 minutes involves your child showing you around their learning base and sharing their work with you. Students will have a template to guide them through this. Afterwards, you will meet with your child's teacher to discuss their personal and academic progress for 15 minutes.

When you book your time, the time you select is when you will arrive at school and look around the learning base for 15 minutes with your child before meeting with the teacher. Meetings with the teacher will happen inside a breakout space. 

Term 2 Important Dates

Wednesday 29th May - Learning Conferences - school finishes at 12:40pm.

Thursday 30th May - Learning Conferences - normal finish time.

Friday 31st May - Teacher Only Day (School closed)

Monday 3rd June - King's Birthday (School closed)

Monday 17th June - Board Meeting

Thursday 20th June - Open Night

Friday 28th June - Matariki (School closed)

Friday 5th July - Term ​2 ends

Please contact me if you would like to discuss anything. You can email me at principal@sis.school.nz

Ngā mihi nui

Brett Cooper

Tumuaki/Principal