Dear Parents, Carers and Friends of Whītau School. Kia ora koutou katoa! Talofa lava! Mālō e lelei! Greetings everyone.

Term 4 is racing by and it has been an extremely busy term so far for students, staff and families. Thank you all so much for your ongoing support of our various school activities. With only three weeks left of school there is so much still to action and to celebrate. This week we are interviewing and appointing an additional classroom teacher as we will be opening Room 7 at the beginning of the year to accomodate our growing roll.

Get Firewise - The Junior School classes have really enjoyed their learning in the 'Get Firewise' programme . The absolute highlight this week has been the visit and display by the firemen with their fire engine! The programme is a series of lessons designed to be taught by the class teacher to five and six year olds to give them the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours to keep them safe around fire. Get Firewise is focused on ensuring children

• Understand that fire can be dangerous

• Know how to prevent fires from starting

• Know how to get themselves out of a burning building quickly and safely to a meeting place

School Kapahaka Performance - On Sunday our School Kapahaka Group will perform in the Tuhonu Kapahaka Festival in the Christchurch Town Hall. I wish the children and Miss Blackler all the very best for a wonderful performance. They have been so dedicated and been practising so hard every day for their performance.,

NZ Curriculum Changes - While teachers are busy completing their student end of year reports and assessments, we are also having to focus on learning about the new English and Mathematics curriculums schools are required to implement from the beginning of 2025. Our school is already well on our journey to implementing Structured Literacy and we have been also highly focused on improving our teaching of Maths over the last three years as well. We have opted into the Numicon Mathematics programme for the Ministry of Education to provide us, as it is a very practical 'hands on' teaching programme and will provide lots of Maths apparatus to be used by the students during their Maths lessons. I firmly believe Whītau School is well prepared for the compulsory NZ Curriculum changes in 2025.

Friendly Reminders

• No scooters in the carparks before school - if you are parking in the school car parks before 8.30am please do not allow your children to ride their scooters around the carpark as it is very dangerous. Several concerned parents have reported this unsafe, concerning behaviour to me this week. PLEASE WALK SCOOTERS IN THE SCHOOL GROUNDS.

• Zero Tolerance - a friendly reminder and assurance to all that we have zero tolerance for any form of verbal or physical abuse in the school grounds. Students who choose to hit, kick, punch or swear at another student in the classroom or in the playground will receive serious consequences for their actions.

• 2025 Term Dates - these have been shared in this newsletter. Please note that we will have ONE day for student learning conferences before classes begin.

Ngā mihi nui

Sandra Dentice

Principal | Tumuaki

sandra@whitau.school.nz