It has been an exciting and busy start to Term 4 with the use of scooters, skateboards and skates during breaks being well received by our learners. Wow, we could certainly do with some more hard courts though (please support GROW).

On Monday in our termly mihi whakatau we welcomed seventeen new children, Mrs James in Te Kete Kākano and five new workers from Mana Ake - Stronger for Tomorrow. Mana Ake is a government initiative which was rolled out in ChCh in Term 2. We are excited that Selwyn schools will now receive some much needed pastoral support for our children who are experiencing challenges with their health and well-being. We are lucky that our BoT has been funding Tim from the Methodist Mission for the past three terms. We now look forward to working with our new team.

The teachers have all planned very full and busy programmes for Term 4. We are now also busy preparing our school organisation for 2019, and planning whanau groups and teachers.  A lot of time and effort goes into this work. As a parent I know we are all interested in who our child's teacher is going to be the following year. One of the many positives of collaborative spaces is that children benefit from the expertise of more than one teacher and build relationships with a range of adults in a school setting. If you wish to share your child's placement needs please email your points to either Ben Galletly or Amanda Clarkson - specific requests for certain teachers will not be accepted, and in fact there may be some change of levels for teachers. 

Finally, from next week the children will be participating in road safety sessions with Constable Rick.  I ask that you have another safety conversation with your child about travelling to and from school safely, what does that mean? Sharing the pavement if you are scootering, watching sneaky driveways, travelling together. It is also really helpful if you let your child's teacher know if someone different is collecting your child from school. Big thanks to some of our parents who checked on the safety of some of our learners on the way home from school this week - I  love the fact that our community is so invested in the welfare of our learners! It takes a village to raise a child. 

Have a lovely long labour weekend

Sylvia