News from the Principal - Week 5
Kia ora te whānau
Kia ora koutou
We continue to have lots of exciting happenings and learning opportunities for our tamariki and for you! It was great to welcome our new students and Miss Blokland at our Mihi Whakatau on Monday morning before the Gold Awards Learning celebration. Congratulations to Ms Gold and the Junior Choirs for entertaining us with their great action song!
Today Brett McGregor, ex-NZ Masterchef, is in our school as a part of the MoE Lunches in School programme with Compass. Today he is cooking up a storm for the Kākano and Kehakai students to enjoy eating to help them learn about nutrition and healthy eating - red beans today!
Parent Meeting about Traffic next Monday at 2.30pm
The Christchurch City Council Community Travel Planners and Advisors are visiting Whītau School next Monday afternoon to share with us all about upcoming transport projects happening around our school, including the upgrading of the pedestrian crossing on Woodham Road. They really want to hear from our community about our current concerns and issues, so they can be considered and hopefully resolved. Certainly, the congestion in Rowcliffe Crescent is an ongoing concern for our school community that we need to talk with them about.
They will be meeting with Senior Students at 1.45 pm and we invite whānau to come along to the School Hall to meet with the CCC team at 2.30pm.
Friendly Reminders
- Winter Clothing - Every student has a black Kids Can jacket and they need to bring it to school daily, please. All students require a compulsory red top - a sweatshirt and/or a polar fleece to wear to school daily in Winter. If the temperature is under 10 degrees at playtime or lunchtime, only children with a red top and their black kids can jacket will be able to play outside
- New Ngarimu and Holland Street Alleyway Internal Gates - The Ministry of Education have installed internal gates to both alleyways to keep our students safe on the school grounds. Please note that the gates are high and younger children may not be able to manage them without an adult.
- Naming School Tops and Shoes - Please help the school to help you by naming your children's school tops and school shoes so we can return them when they are lost or misplaced.
CCC Annual School Travel Survey
The Christchurch City Council annual School Travel Survey is now live! This 5-10 minute survey will improve understanding of school travel patterns across Christchurch. This will help with improving safety, especially for those using active transport. The survey is open to all school communities (students, parents/caregivers and one staff member per school), until 5.00pm Wednesday 31 May 2023. There are 10 $50 supermarket vouchers up for grabs.
The survey can be found here.
Thanks for getting involved!
Ngā mihi, Ashley Beaton and George Booty
Community Travel Advisors, Travel Demand Management
Please support making the 2023 Census a success
Close to 4.5 million people have participated in the 2023 Census to date, and there are a few weeks only until it closes on 30 June 2023. Everyone who stayed in New Zealand overnight on Census Day, 7 March 2023, is required by law to complete a census form. That includes people staying in New Zealand on a temporary basis, and children and babies.
As you will be aware, census data is used by government, councils, community organisations, iwi, and businesses to make important decisions that affect us all. Census data informs the funding and location of services like schools, hospitals, public transport, and infrastructure like roads. Any community that doesn’t count all its people will always be disadvantaged in population-based decisions. If you have any questions, please get in touch by emailing census.communications@stats.govt.nz or call me directly.
Thank you in advance for your support to ensure we make the 2023 Census a success for the benefit of the whole country for years to come.
Ngā mihi, Tracy Dillimore
Census Communications Manager | Kaiwhakahaere – Whakawhitinga Kōrero
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa . Tel: 021 028 99711
Kind regards everyone!
Nga mihi nui
Sandra Dentice
Principal | Tumuaki
sandra@whitau.school.nz
