Welcome to Term 4 ! A special welcome to all our new students and their families. We are having a powhiri next Wednesday 23rd October at 9.10am in the school hall to welcome all new staff, students and their families.

We have opened 2 new classes with Nichole Stratton and Libby Staden-Lea as their teachers and Janice Tomlinson as their learning assistant .

Thank you parents for:

• Following the drop off bay requests in the morning. It is a pleasure to come out and welcome children to school.

• Refraining from naming teachers in your placement requests and understanding this is impossible to accommodate in our community of learners.

• Attending the community meetings on Wednesday about classes. What a tremendous turnout and range of questions. It is fantastic to hear the differing viewpoints, and see people considering viewpoints, weighing it all up and making brave decisions on whether to opt into these classes or not. From a practical viewpoint the reality is the children do not get too fussed about things, they hear the bell go, they run to their class and get on with their learning. Every class is already different and we have different learning environments (some single cell teaching, some which are semi collaborative, and some that are very collaborative). We also have teachers who advocate different learning styles and programmes due to the exposure of professional learning opportunities over the years. We are just providing some more options and choices with a little more focussed lens and style.

• In terms of what are we going to do if there are too little or too many children interested. We will make decisions based on the information in front of us and hope as always you will understand we think of many factors relating to our school community, when placing children. We would much rather afford you the opportunity to have voice and choice, than not. We realise we can not please all people all of the time, and that sometimes things swing your way, and at other times they don’t.

The Little Things

• Our aim in term 4 is always to finish the year well. We talk about working hard and keeping standards high to the very end, and earning a great holiday. Can we please ask that you work with us to take care of the following things :

• UNIFORM - All black shoes or sandals, and sunhats after Labour weekend

• TIME - Have the children here at 8.50am in the morning, and if you need to pick up children during the day, please pick them up at break times

• CROSSING - Please be a role model and use the crossing when walking with your children to or from school

• “Baggage” shows - The Healing Through Arts Trust is presenting a show to our school called “Baggage”, on November 7. The show looks at manaakitanga, respect, empathy, kindness and teamwork. We have heard great things about the show and there will be three presentations at school at Year 1/ 2, Year 3/ 4 and Year 5/ 6 levels. More information next week.

• e-Learning Meeting  - On November 7th at 7:00pm  in the school staffroom.  We are inviting current Year 2 parents and any other interested parents to an information evening around e-Learning and devices at our school.

What a great first week!  Thanks everyone. 

Kevin