Thanks to the Board of Trustees for providing a pink ribbon breakfast fundraiser to the start of our week with some yummy posh porridge organised by Miss Katie Talbot, Miss Leigh Thrupp and Mrs Amanda Clarkson. It was good to support a cause which has, and currently affects people in our own school community. 

This term I am spending lots of time observing teaching and learning programmes and I have been really impressed with what I have observed to date. There are wonderful examples of children's learning across the walls and children are able to discuss their learning and next learning steps with me.  It gives me a good opportunity to consider the alignment of our programmes across the school, and to confirm what resources we need to complement our programmes. A large chunk of the BoT's expenditure goes into resourcing and this is mainly with people - additional teachers leading to smaller ratios, and more teaching assistants for which we are incredibly grateful for. The observations also form part of teacher appraisal and attestation.

Well done to all of our Year 5-8 learners who represented our school proudly at the zone basketball competition yesterday. We had four teams who all displayed our vision and kowhai rules brilliantly. I am also excited to announce that our Year 5/6 boys basketball team will be representing our zone at the Canterbury Champs.

Finally, BIG thanks to Dena Greene and GROW for running a Mother's Day afternoon tea tomorrow. Apologies I cannot make it as I will be at a Kahui Ako meeting but I look forward to hearing about it and seeing the pics.

Ngā mihi

Sylvia