It has been fantastic to walk around the school in the last week and see our students and teachers so excited to start the year together. Thank you for your positive support and working with our teachers to make the start of the year a great one for our children. If there is anything we can be doing to help or support you and your child, please let us know.

There will be a Powhiri on Monday, February 15 at 9.15am for all new staff, students and their families to our school. This is a special occasion as we welcome people to our Whangaparaoa School community. Everyone is welcome to attend.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ???

We are always looking for ways to make our break times more engaging for students. We would like to offer mini golf, croquet, outdoor bowls and petanque. If you have any of this equipment (putters, lawn bowls or petanque/ croquet sets) at home and no longer use them, please let the office know and we will gleefully accept them.

LEARNING ASSISTANTS

For the last two and a half years our school has invested in a fabulous group of community members to help our students and teachers. They are called Learning Assistants. (LA's). Our LA's this year will work 12 hours with their assigned teachers and classes. Their job is to be like an apprentice teacher and support learning in the classroom. An LA works between two classes and they do receive onsite support to help them be effective in their job This year, our LAs will be employed for 25 weeks, starting in term 2. Applications will be called for later this term.

MUSIC TUITION, KAPAHAKA, HIBISCUS TUAKANA

Over the next two Fridays students will be invited to try out these options. Gloria, our Musiqhub tutor is offering free “HAVE A GO” sessions on musical instruments TOMORROW. All children are welcome to attend and see if this opportunity sparks an interest. Kapahaka and Hibiscus Tuakana tutors will invite interested students to join them next Friday, February 19. Students are able to go along and see if they enjoy the option. After two weeks they choose whether they would like to commit, or not.

MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS

This year we are thrilled once again to have Sophia Pedersen from the Northern School of Performing Arts working in our school 2.5 days a week, for the first three terms of the year. In term 1, she will work with the year 3/ 4 classes. In term 2 she will work with year 5/ 6 classes. In term 3 we are looking at setting up some extension options for students. Sophia will also continue to lead our senior and junior choirs.

COMMITMENT

Can I encourage talking to children about committing to an activity, and what that means. Too often when things get hard, or not what they like, or something better comes along our children want to quit. Commitment means dedicating yourself to something for a period of time and giving it your best effort until that time is up. It often means thinking of others so you don’t let them down. As parents we can help by making sure children are informed when they are asked to commit, committing to the activity with them and not missing it when something special comes up, and also working through the tough times with them. (not giving in). These are life lessons.