Project Inquiry Celebration

The children and teachers were delighted last Friday with the huge turnout of Mums, Dads and other family members who came into school to share in their Project Inquiry learning. The children proudly showed their parents all sort of things they had been wondering about, what they had found out and the new skills they had learnt along the way.

Some of the children in Matai taught their parent how to make a crystal.

Nikau children talked to their visitors about the games that children played in the olden days and then asked them to join in with these games, teaching them how to play.

In Pohutukawa the children delighted their visitors with a chicken song and dance and encouraged Mums and Dads to learn it and do the actions with them.

In Kowhai there were mats for dog and cat food to colour in and the children in Karaka had some very zany records they were trying to set. Some of these involved putting cones on your head and leap- frogging the length of the field!

Rimu have been developing their skills in coding and were showing their visitors how they could set up coding that would make the Robotics equipment, Dot and Dash, move around the classroom, following their coded instructions. It looked lots of fun and was something that most parents hadn’t much experience of.

New Deputy Principal

We are very pleased to announce that Jacquie Coombs will start in the role of Deputy Principal from 10 June, this term. Our congratulation go to Jacquie. Having someone who knows the community and school so well after 20 odd years here, who is passionate about our children’s learning and already a valued teacher of best practice is a real gift. Jacquie is an active  member of our staff and supports our school as PTA president. She already holds some leadership roles in school and will add to these as Ako Iti syndicate leader and will deputise for and support myself as one of the schools leadership team.

From Term 3 Jacquie will move through to the Pohutukawa and take up duties as the NE class teacher. We will now be advertising to find a very special, new teacher with best practice for our Matai class. The expectation is they will start in this role either the beginning of Term 3 or Term 4.  

SCHOOL CLOSED WEDNESDAY 29 MAY

As you may have heard in the news media, primary and secondary school teachers, through their unions, have voted to stop work on Wednesday 29 May. Our school has been advised by the Primary Teachers Union (NZEI Te Riu Roa) that the principal and all teachers at our school will stop work for a full day - without pay -on Wednesday 29 May as part of their national day of industrial action. This is over continued claims for review of their collective agreement with the government.

The members of our Board of Trustees have carefully considered all options and realise that the school cannot ensure adequate supervision and safety of the children, or provide learning opportunities on this day. For these reasons, the Board has determined that it is not feasible for the school to be open on this day, and the school will be closed for instruction and supervision on Wednesday 29 May. No buses will run this day. However, school and buses will resume as normal the following day.

We are aware this may be a huge inconvenience to many families, and we hope that giving two weeks’ notice of the school closure allows parents and caregivers time to make alternative arrangements for the care of children.

The members of the school’s Board of Trustees unanimously support the principal and teachers in taking this action, and understand that such action is not taken lightly. We hope that through the mediation process, NZEI negotiating on behalf of teachers and principals will reach agreement and no further industrial action will be necessary.

We thank you for your understanding.

Please contact Tre if you have any queries relating to this matter.