I have had the pleasure of spending some dedicated time in learning studios observing how our learners are interacting with each other and their teaching staff.

It is always lovely to see how proud our children are to talk about their learning and their achievements. I have had a number of children showing me their increasing skills in sign language, and their proficiency in maths, reading and writing. I have also been really impressed with the range of learning displays in studios showcasing all of the Arts and Problem Based Learning that we do.

This week we ran one of our termly Ako days which is an immersion Te Ao Māori day open to any learners. The thirty children who chose to take part participated in Te Reo Kori, weaving, story-telling and they also made pumpkin and kumara soup for whānau hui which was held that evening.

Later in the term we will celebrate all of our diverse cultures with a Cultural Celebration Day on Friday 18 September. This will be an opportunity for our children to wear any cultural dress proudly and to share any other languages that they know. We fully support the importance of children being confident in their first or home language and research shows that second language acquisition is much easier when this occurs. We were all so proud of Lincoln Mumuta who recently came first in the national Samoan speech competition. Malo lava Lincoln. Our current school population comprises of 53% NZ Euro, 13% Māori, 7% Other European, 5% Indian, 3% South African, 3% Chinese, 2% Samoan with our other learners coming from all over the globe! Our hope is that our children feel that their cultures are valued by our school community. 

Our school roll is growing with a large number of Y1 learners set to join us before the end of the year. Miss Mel Herron is moving with her whānau group from Te Kete Kākano to Te PuaWaitanga next week. Miss Sam Nichols will be opening a new whānau group in Te Kete Kākano. With the increased learners in Te PuaWaitanga we are in the process of moving the Busy Bumbles before and after school programme to the gym end of Te Ara Maia. There is more information in this newsletter about changes to our local school zones to avoid overcrowding. I urge you to have a look at this information.

Finally, tomorrow we have our much anticipated rainbow wonderland disco.Thanks to our GROW project leads Dena Greene and Linda Currie for co-ordinating all of the planning and preparation for this event - we are very grateful for your efforts. Thanks also to everyone who is supporting to make this event happen including our DJ [and parent] Mike Tait. The team have worked hard to ensure safety measures are in place with the disco and as you queue for the junior disco there will be a check in sheet so we can contact trace all adults who are attending. Seniors must be signed in and out for their disco. And finally it is a free rainbow mufti day tomorrow. If dressing in rainbow colours is likely to cause stress then free mufti is fine, too.

Ngā mihi

Sylvia