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Principal's Kōrero
We are now half way through the term and we have lots to get through before the end is upon us.
Firstly thank you to all the parents who have supported our school so far this year. The children are still getting sick a lot this winter and it has been helpful when you have kept them home or come to collect them to ensure they are able to recover quickly and return to school as soon as possible.
Our attendance rates are still very low and there are many reasons for this. We want every child to be coming to school as often as possible because missed days at school add up over time which has a huge impact on your child's ability to achieve their best outcomes academically and socially.
Our staff have also been quite sick this last while and with very few relievers available this has been tricky to navigate and avoid splitting classes. Gone are the days where our children always had just one teacher throughout the year. Teachers are entitled to non contact time every term and this is scheduled to happen throughout the year. We work hard on employing regular people to cover this to ensure consistency for our students but we don't always have this luxury as teaching is not a desirable job for many and we have less people every year who make themselves available. Please know we are doing our best to provide regular staff for our students to have consistent people in their classrooms throughout the year.
Cyber safety
We have had some recent events to do with keeping children safe online that have come to our attention and it has prompted me to consider offering parents a series of information days/evenings to help you understand the extreme nature of the safety concerns our students and children currently face in the age of digital devices. Whilst you might think this is not a big problem, it is much bigger than you think. Our children are hugely at risk and it's the simplest of things that parents can do to help keep their children safe is to learn what risks there are and how we can minimise these.
Please keep an eye out for details of information that we will be sharing with you over the coming term to find out more about this. It really is a massive problem globally and it starts with you as parents to learn and understand the risks and how easy it is for our kids to be unsafe.
Exciting Property Update...
We have been very fortunate to receive a donation that will enable our school to build an extension to our existing junior playground area. We have developed a plan of what to include, asked some of the children about the options and paid the deposit to get this started sometime in term four (weather dependent of course). The plan is to have this completed by the end of the year so keep an eye out for when work is about to start. I have included a picture of the design in this article for you to see what it will look like when done. We are so grateful for this very large anonymous donation and very honoured to be gifted it for our students and community alike.
Toys and collectable cards from home
Please do not let your children bring these items to school. They are causing arguments and behaviour problems for some children. If we need to continue taking these off students, the cards will be put in the rubbish. We have problems when these items are damaged or stolen so to help us avoid issues, please talk to your child about keeping them at home. Thank you.
Parking and pick ups/drop offs.
As you are aware, we have had to change where you can park to pick up and drop off your children. Please DO NOT park in the disbaled areas unless you have a permit.
DO NOT park in the bus bay - the bus company gets very irritable with us when this happens if the buses cannot access the safety area. This is particularly important before school as the buses drop children off at three different times during the morning. Your child will be ok to walk an extra 5 - 10 metres to access the school grounds.
This is all about the safety of our children. Talking with your child about where you are likely to park each day to pick them up will help so they know which exit to look for you at the end of the day.
Also do not let your child cross the road unless they are using the allocated pedestrian crossing areas. We have had a couple of near misses on Whittaker Street recently and we do not want to have a casualty anytime soon. It happens so quickly so please keep an eye out when you are in your cars and leaving our school area.
Enrolment Scheme and Zoning
A short time ago we sent out information to inform you we are moving to an enrolment scheme which means we will be within a zone to accept new enrolments. This comes into effect at the start of next term. We have emailed special survey to help us determine how many out of zone placements we might need to have for future enrolments particularly for younger siblings of currently enrolled students and our Rūmaki as this is a special programme within our school enrolment scheme. It is vital you fill in this short survey when you receive it so we have the best and most up to date information. It is in the form of a Google Form Survey and will have very short answers to be added. It is also available further down this newsletter if you have not received it in your emails already.
If you have moved or changed phone numbers, please let the office know as soon as possible. It is vital we have the most up to date information in the event of an emergency.
Curriculum updates
I'm sure you might have heard on the news about the new Maths/Pāngarau and English/ Te Reo Rangatira wāhanga ako curriculum updates. As a kura we have already identified key areas of learning that we needed to focus on to lift student achievement long before these were mentioned in the media. We put in place three years ago now an initiative to include a Structured Literacy approach with support of a specialist teacher to work in the school two days a week supporting staff and students a like. This was highly successful and we then extended this approach to employ a specialist teacher at the start of this year to work on Maths as an initiative to lift achievement and teacher pedagogy. We are continuously working to improve the outcomes of our students and really need your help when it comes to ensuring your child attends school as often as possible so they reap the benefits of these initiatives long term. We as a school have invested a lot of money into these initiatives because we want the best outcomes for our students and weren't prepared to wait for external support to do this. The Board of Trustees carefully look at all the achievement data when it is presented and determine each year where funding is needed in order to have the best outcomes for our students.
As the new curriculum are being finalised, teachers will need time to work through these documents to firstly understand the content and then learn how to use this in the classroom. These are very detailed documents and our teachers will be working very hard to ensure we are as up to date as possible despite all the end of year pressures that come with the job. I'm asking for your support at this time and know that we have a very dedicated team of professionals who work tirelessly to do their job at a very high standard,
Thank you all once again for your ongoing support and help to make our kura the amazing place that it is.
Mauri Ora e te whānau.
Firstly thank you to all the parents who have supported our school so far this year. The children are still getting sick a lot this winter and it has been helpful when you have kept them home or come to collect them to ensure they are able to recover quickly and return to school as soon as possible.
Our attendance rates are still very low and there are many reasons for this. We want every child to be coming to school as often as possible because missed days at school add up over time which has a huge impact on your child's ability to achieve their best outcomes academically and socially.
Our staff have also been quite sick this last while and with very few relievers available this has been tricky to navigate and avoid splitting classes. Gone are the days where our children always had just one teacher throughout the year. Teachers are entitled to non contact time every term and this is scheduled to happen throughout the year. We work hard on employing regular people to cover this to ensure consistency for our students but we don't always have this luxury as teaching is not a desirable job for many and we have less people every year who make themselves available. Please know we are doing our best to provide regular staff for our students to have consistent people in their classrooms throughout the year.
Cyber safety
We have had some recent events to do with keeping children safe online that have come to our attention and it has prompted me to consider offering parents a series of information days/evenings to help you understand the extreme nature of the safety concerns our students and children currently face in the age of digital devices. Whilst you might think this is not a big problem, it is much bigger than you think. Our children are hugely at risk and it's the simplest of things that parents can do to help keep their children safe is to learn what risks there are and how we can minimise these.
Please keep an eye out for details of information that we will be sharing with you over the coming term to find out more about this. It really is a massive problem globally and it starts with you as parents to learn and understand the risks and how easy it is for our kids to be unsafe.
Exciting Property Update...
We have been very fortunate to receive a donation that will enable our school to build an extension to our existing junior playground area. We have developed a plan of what to include, asked some of the children about the options and paid the deposit to get this started sometime in term four (weather dependent of course). The plan is to have this completed by the end of the year so keep an eye out for when work is about to start. I have included a picture of the design in this article for you to see what it will look like when done. We are so grateful for this very large anonymous donation and very honoured to be gifted it for our students and community alike.
Toys and collectable cards from home
Please do not let your children bring these items to school. They are causing arguments and behaviour problems for some children. If we need to continue taking these off students, the cards will be put in the rubbish. We have problems when these items are damaged or stolen so to help us avoid issues, please talk to your child about keeping them at home. Thank you.
Parking and pick ups/drop offs.
As you are aware, we have had to change where you can park to pick up and drop off your children. Please DO NOT park in the disbaled areas unless you have a permit.
DO NOT park in the bus bay - the bus company gets very irritable with us when this happens if the buses cannot access the safety area. This is particularly important before school as the buses drop children off at three different times during the morning. Your child will be ok to walk an extra 5 - 10 metres to access the school grounds.
This is all about the safety of our children. Talking with your child about where you are likely to park each day to pick them up will help so they know which exit to look for you at the end of the day.
Also do not let your child cross the road unless they are using the allocated pedestrian crossing areas. We have had a couple of near misses on Whittaker Street recently and we do not want to have a casualty anytime soon. It happens so quickly so please keep an eye out when you are in your cars and leaving our school area.
Enrolment Scheme and Zoning
A short time ago we sent out information to inform you we are moving to an enrolment scheme which means we will be within a zone to accept new enrolments. This comes into effect at the start of next term. We have emailed special survey to help us determine how many out of zone placements we might need to have for future enrolments particularly for younger siblings of currently enrolled students and our Rūmaki as this is a special programme within our school enrolment scheme. It is vital you fill in this short survey when you receive it so we have the best and most up to date information. It is in the form of a Google Form Survey and will have very short answers to be added. It is also available further down this newsletter if you have not received it in your emails already.
If you have moved or changed phone numbers, please let the office know as soon as possible. It is vital we have the most up to date information in the event of an emergency.
Curriculum updates
I'm sure you might have heard on the news about the new Maths/Pāngarau and English/ Te Reo Rangatira wāhanga ako curriculum updates. As a kura we have already identified key areas of learning that we needed to focus on to lift student achievement long before these were mentioned in the media. We put in place three years ago now an initiative to include a Structured Literacy approach with support of a specialist teacher to work in the school two days a week supporting staff and students a like. This was highly successful and we then extended this approach to employ a specialist teacher at the start of this year to work on Maths as an initiative to lift achievement and teacher pedagogy. We are continuously working to improve the outcomes of our students and really need your help when it comes to ensuring your child attends school as often as possible so they reap the benefits of these initiatives long term. We as a school have invested a lot of money into these initiatives because we want the best outcomes for our students and weren't prepared to wait for external support to do this. The Board of Trustees carefully look at all the achievement data when it is presented and determine each year where funding is needed in order to have the best outcomes for our students.
As the new curriculum are being finalised, teachers will need time to work through these documents to firstly understand the content and then learn how to use this in the classroom. These are very detailed documents and our teachers will be working very hard to ensure we are as up to date as possible despite all the end of year pressures that come with the job. I'm asking for your support at this time and know that we have a very dedicated team of professionals who work tirelessly to do their job at a very high standard,
Thank you all once again for your ongoing support and help to make our kura the amazing place that it is.
Mauri Ora e te whānau.
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