Welcome to Term 2

Welcome back parents, caregivers, whānau and students to term 2. This is another busy term at our school and here I want to let you know some of the activities planned for the term.

By the time you read this the junior camp at Lonesdale Park has wrapped up and the children have headed home with lots of new stories, experiences and friendships.

Junior camp was again a real success thanks to the hard work of our teaching team, Xani, Monique and Mel in the kitchen and all the generous parent helpers. The opportunity for our children to be together, learning to collaborate, in a live-in environment plus experience confidence building in the outdoors continues to be an important part of the junior programme.

Shortly we will be sending out invitations to an upcoming series of parent/whānau meetings. We plan to run two events, one at school and one at the local marae. These hui have been planned as opportunities to fully involve you in our positive behaviour for learning programme introduced in 2019, our new online Linc-ED reporting initiative and student achievement updates. Food will be provided and we hope you see this as an important opportunity to contribute to the school going forward.

Order forms for Sport shirts have been sent home and we have a large number of orders already received back. We are looking forward to seeing our students looking sharp on the sports fields.

The whole school will be attending a performance by the NZ Ballet Company, Tutus on Tour at The Centre. This is a performance designed for student groups and comes with a big recommendation. Before that a group of dancers will visit the school for a series of lessons to Rooms 4 and 5. Thanks to Mrs Ross for her enthusiasm that made this unique opportunity available to our children.

Continuing with the dance theme Room 5 students will spend their Friday sports and cultural block in term 2 learning dancing at the local Hip Hop dance studio in Kerikeri.

School hui in term 2 will run every two weeks beginning Thursday 9th May in Room 5. After that it will normally run on a Wednesday. These opportunities to celebrate student learning s a school are open to parents and we welcome you to stay and enjoy from around 9am for 30 minutes.

Constable Rob Drummond will this term be running the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme offered nationally by the NZ Police. For detailed information on the possible content in Rob's sessions you can look at this website.

Cross Country season is once again here and this year we will be running a school cross country and preparing keen runners towards the regional event at Takou Bay, to be held in week 8. More information will come out soon. We have also been encouraged to get feedback about a school athletics day. We have decided to add this to the calendar in term 4.

Matariki begins in week 7 in 2019. As well as many learning opportunities for our children we look forward to a range of celebrations including the annual hangi towards the end of term. Our kapa haka group along with school leaders will be invited to a Marae stay during the Matariki celebration period.

During the term students will benefit with a visit from NZ author Adele Broadbent. Her website provides more information on her work.

The gardening club continues do great work with the ongoing support of community volunteers John and Liz. Salad buckets are now ready for sale again and a discount is available for those who return their bucket from last time. The produce looks amazing so look out for your opportunity to purchase vegetables and salads coming soon.

Parents can expect to receive a single page report this term on their children's progress. This report will supplement the learning progress we are reporting online through the Linc-ED programme. We will continue to gauge your feedback on reporting to ensure we are giving you what you need to assess and monitor your child's progress. This term will will also report broadly on achievement for our school and let you know how we are tracking students now that national standards are no longer relevant.

Thanks again for your ongoing support for our school and helping us to provide a happy, caring and stimulating environment for your children to learn. Early in term 3 we host an evaluation team from the International Baccalaureate organisation. They will visit to assess our performance as a school delivering their Primary Years Programme. Jenna Grant has been working tirelessly to help us prepare for this visit and we are excited for the opportunity to showcase the great work of our whole team. There will be an opportunity for parents to be involved in the visit and we will be in touch soon with more information.

Mauri Ora

Ko ã tãtou tamariki ngã rangatira mo ãpõpõ

Mã te tiaki, mã te ropiropi ka puta te oranga ki a tatou katoa.

“Our children are the leaders of the future. By caring for them and fostering their learning, we assure future life for all”