Yesterday Mrs Sam Schreuder organised Ako Day. Ako days are a day each term to celebrate our Māori heritage and whakapapa, this being said they are not in any way limited to our Māori learners and the day was open for any interested children across the school.

53 learners participated in Ako Day yesterday and were also supported by Miss Frances Dench and Miss Bec Lambert. One of the favourite activities of the day was working with one of our school Tāua, Whaea Lisa, who shared her artistic talents with our tamariki and staff. 

It has also been a busy week with the Year 5/6 team, Te Ara Whānui, beginning their trips to the ChCh Art Gallery and Canterbury Museum. To link with our school wide learning theme of Our Land, the children are painting landscapes at the Art Gallery. We look forward to seeing their finished products.

We also had a team of strong swimmers participate in the Zones Swimming Sports on Monday with lots of children qualifying for the Canterbury Champs. The sports team [Miss Bec Lambert, Miss Kendra Ward &  Mr Kyle Seckold] will share more information about this.

Since the beginning of the year, each team has hosted a wee event to show parents and whānau their studios and to support community connections and whānau engagement. We have not been able to do this much over the past three years because of Covid restrictions. Last week Te Ara Māia held their event and camp meeting at the same time. It was really well attended. Now all of our teams have hosted their welcome event for Term One. We have done this to replace the schoolwide meet the teacher event as we thought events in teams may be more meaningful. We would welcome your feedback:

https://forms.gle/Huj8EFeH5GdXYj3K7

This week the council have painted yellow lines along Dunns Crossing Rd from Granite Dr to Burnham School Rd. This is to improve safety conditions and visibility along this stretch of road. It will also increase the number of children walking, scootering and biking to school. To keep our children safe, please ensure the following things:

+ Please check cyclists and scooter users are wearing helmets when they leave in the morning

+ Please ensure your child is wearing their safety vest or has a really visible bag cover when leaving in the morning

+ Please ensure your child knows when it is safe to cross the road [juniors should be accompanied by an adult]

And for parents of senior children who may be biking unaccompanied, please remind them NOT to bike in the middle of the road as I have had some concerns shared from families on Bethany Rd about this happening. Please also remind your child that they must wear their helmet as again I have had some residents contact me to say children wearing our uniform are biking without helmets.

Finally, we understand the impacts of our teacher and principal strike today on your family. This is a serious last resort for our sector as we beg the Government to resource our schools to meet the ever growing needs in our schools. We need support to meet the range of serious behaviour needs, the neuro diverse needs and the well-being needs of our learners. The current waiting lists for support are not acceptable. In particular we are asking for

* smaller class sizes

* teacher aides in every whānau group

Our School Board are using some of the foundation set up money we have been prudent and careful with, to fund additional teachers and teacher aides in our school. This is not sustainable. If we used the annual operational funding we receive, we would have approximately half of the teacher aides we have. We are also seeking equity with conditions and resources available to secondary schools. A secondary school of a similar size to us would be entitled to approx eight more teachers! and more leadership support.

And yes, our beginning teachers could earn more money working in fast food outlet chains.

Thank you for your support.

Ngā mihi

Sylvia