KERRY'S THOUGHTS

I have loved being at the gate in the ata and ahiahi having a korero with whānau about my retirement news. YES, it is retirement and not me going to another school. I have been at this school since 1994 and I have just about loved every moment. It's hard to think that it is that long but when I talk to some of the students I taught in my first year and they have their own families, it makes sense. I have always been connected to our BAY community as I live here and have grown up here and brought my own children up in this community. SO being the Principal of this beautiful school was a pleasure. I have been very lucky to work with some really positive effective teachers and have grown myself from learning from them. I have worked with amazing productive and effective Boards. Louise Carter, Shelley Cheyne, and Sarah Campbell, and I thank them for the work they did collaboratively with me. I have worked with a lot of our whānau over the years on the Board and Home and School and each one of these people has made a huge contribution to this school.

I will be here until the end of the year and then will hand over to the new Principal who you can be assured will be stunning as our Board is very effective and they will make sure they are very careful in their selection.

I have had lovely comments from all the students I have taught over the years and that fills my heart, I have also loved the chats with you at the gate. So from me, I thank you for being happy for me and my decision.

Health Consultation
Thank you for all the responses as this helps our staff plan for the future and really appreciated your honest feedback.  At some time, we will send you out what we have decided to do from this survey and how we will teach our health and physical education program.

Maori Language Week
Across our school in times where we can not all mix together our tamariki and Kaiako really celebrated this week.  This is what I sent to them all on Friday.

I want to thank the Titahi Bay Staff for everything that you have done this week in your own way to celebrate our beautiful Maori Language.  As I walked around the school I would stop and smile to myself and feel so blessed that we have a Team of us who are committed to nurturing the Official Language of Aotearoa.

We had many things planned this week that we had to postpone or cancel although this is disappointing I am so grateful for the adaptations of your programs to make this week extra special for our tamariki. I am committed to ensuring that a school hangi will take place in our school at Level 1 so that our tamariki still get to experience this kaupapa.

Standing at the front of our school because of Alert Level 2 became the highlight of my week. In the ata and the ahiahi we have greeted our whānau and our tamariki in Maori in a variety of ways and the response has been so warmly received and set the scene for the day.

To the Māori Team, we thank you for your Kotahitanga, your Manaakitanga, and your Whakarangatiratanga of us - Helping us all to achieve, encouraging us to try new kupu in our classes and Mahi Wahi, supporting us with resources and sharing with us your aroha for Te Ao Māori (and of course your tino reka Kai!)

This journey for us does not stop today, I know we will go from strength to strength learning together.

Ehara tāku toa i te toa tākitahi Engari, he toa tākitini

We have a new class set up for our New Entrants who start at the end of Term 3 and Term 4. Room 20 is back up and running again and the teacher is Christine MacDonald and we are very lucky to have an experienced and effective classroom teacher working with our very young KURA kids.

School Lunches
We have been in lots of talks regarding the school lunches and what works for our tamariki.  We have managed to get SUBWAY for two days a week next year and the other three days will be with Kāpura, this will ensure that our lunches are exactly what our tamariki like to eat.

Year 6 final term at school
Every year at this time many of our year 6 tamariki struggle with their emotions of leaving school, going to different Intermediates, unsure about what is next and leaving the school they have been at since 5 years old. We talk with them at school about all of these things and also encourage you to do the same at home over the holidays. Our year 6’s are going to Titahi Bay Intermediate, HIBS, Tawa Intermediate and Raroa at this stage and I am sure there will others join this list before the end of term. It is a very short term coming up and I just want you to remember behind some tearful moments will be our KURA kids just coming to terms with saying goodbye to a friend who will go to another school and also some of our KURA kids are upset because they haven’t got into their school of choice. What I do know after all this time at TBS is they do settle down next year and it will be okay and they will make new friends.

Reading Recovery
At the moment we are sharing staff from two other schools as we were unable to find a Reading Recovery teacher for our school. So I want to say a big thanks to the Wellington Seven Day Adventist school for Jolene working here and also St Pius School for Helen. This will make a difference for some KURA kids who need a little more support.  Next year Sharon Thompson will be our Reading Recovery teacher and she will bring a wealth of knowledge to this area.

Professionally Registered Teachers
These are teachers who are in their first two years of teaching and at our school, we have Michelle Cobeldick, Tayla Radovanovich and Natalie Hillier and they have all met the criteria for full registration.  This is very exciting for them and a lot of hard work has gone on in our school with our KURA kids to get to this point and we are all very proud of them.

We have three Trainees in our school at the moment from Victoria University.  In room 12 with Jacinta Kelleher we have Khaylen Huriwai, in room 13 with Grace Mulvihill we have Taylor Tuffery and in R14 with Charlotte Ell we have Tracey Mills.  The opportunity to host and work with trainees has always been a Titahi Bay thing, we love working alongside new teachers and helping them grow their knowledge of what schools are all about and also being the positive role models that we are in this school with how we talk with our KURA kids.

Ballots are still not happening at school and the Board and I have worked hard to ensure our roll doesn't get too big. We will end the year with about 425 and that is a really nice number. We also as a school and Board want to ensure that all our schools in the BAY have a nice number on their rolls.

School Show
I would personally like to thank the following people for all the mahi they did for our school show.

Nadia Collins - Choreographing and teaching Room 9 and 11
Natalie Hillier - Choreographing and teaching Room 7 and 17
Ruth Sushames - making costumes and helping Ebony with so much of the preparation work
Rachel Liddle - making costumes
Chantelle Fernie - making costumes
Christine Macilquham - making costumes
Terry Crawford, Murray Patterson, and Del Gardner for the band
Chaedyn Ngaroi for our performance group

I also want to thank our staff and KURA kids for all the mahi they did. The big star is Ebony who put the whole show together and worked really hard in what is a funny time when you cannot have an audience.  Ebony thank you from all of the staff and KURA kids at Titahi Bay School.

The administration upgrade and refurbishment starts on the last day of Term 3 and will continue all through the holidays. The entire administration area will be painted, carpeted, new lino laid.  In the staffroom, a wall will be taken out and we will have a new kitchen.  It is 21 years since work has been done in this area so we are very excited. On the last day of school, we will be using the hall as our staffroom.  We look forward to showing you the new staffroom in our first newsletter next term.

The last teacher only day is wrapped around Labour weekend so Friday the 22nd October is the teacher only day and Monday the 25th October is Labour day so a public holiday. Put these dates in your diary.  The last day of the year is Monday the 13th of December, it will be Christmas before we know it.