From The Principal's Desk

9th July 2021

Dear parents, whanau and caregivers,

It is hard to believe that we are half way through the year. (I do believe I start a lot of my newsletters this way!) Time certainly does fly.

We have packed a lot of activities into this term, making the most of the weather where we can and also making the most of our environment. 

As we are half way through the year, I would like to draw your attention to our Annual plan. This indicates the initiatives that we have on the go for this year to further develop our three target areas, those being: 

1. We care, connect and communicate with respect to each other, our community, our environment (by knowing ourselves). 
2. We are confident learners who take risks, are responsible, resilient and strive for personal best. 
3. We think and learn creatively with curiosity and innovation. 

You will see that one of the initiatives is to consult with you, our community again (as we did in 2017) at the end of this year to see if these goals are still applicable and realistic.

We have a celebration wall in the foyer and I would like to thank our wonderful community for their support, not only of the school but of others in these times. I went back to my old school Panama Road (which is a decile 1a) with Gemma and Lachlan and Mrs Wymer, to deliver all the fantastic shoes and coats that you donate. They were really blown away with the type of shoes and jackets we gave them. Panama Road has a full time counsellor and she is delivering them to families that she knows will certainly appreciate them in this weather.

Please look at the Board if you get a change to see all the events you have supported over this term and the money that you have raised. I do hope that the care-a-thon principles are still being upheld in your family. I know the children really enjoyed the bake sale and thank you to those that identified the ingredients. We still promote no nuts (the eating kind) in our school. 

Thanks also to the large number of junior parents who supported the Structured Literacy Practice workshop. The teachers have embraced this and I thank them for coping with change and  developing their knowledge of literacy acquisition further in order to help our children be the best they can. This has also been a big investment for the school time and money wise.  Our goal is build a firm foundation in our  junior school and fill any of the gaps as children progress through the school. The teachers have already seen some fantastic results.  The feedback from the parents has been great too as to what they can do at home.

It is with sadness that we say goodbye to two of our teachers at the end of this term. Mrs Julia Hillier has been with us for 7 years and is moving onto another local school and we wish her all the best for her future. Mrs Anne Newman has been with us for 27 years in our office, ensuring all our accounts get paid and we wish her all the best as she spends more time with family. We hope they both keep in touch.

I know that many of the parents who attended the Kathryn Burkett session on 'raising resilient children' got a lot out of it, as we did at our Teacher only Day. She also spoke to 100 plus Principals and senior staff last Friday at our HPPA day conference at the Picton Center. I do encourage you to view her Ted talks and videos she has a lot of great stuff to say about our children and how we can help them and this is all backed by brain research.

We mentioned that we have four more Teacher only Days to utilise by the middle of next year.  I’d like to give you the ‘heads-up’ that the next one is likely to be Monday 23 August. We have tried to tag it to a weekend to make it easier for you. We know that Term 4 gets really busy. This is the 5th week into next term and will definitely confirm in the first week of the holidays.

One of the initiatives we are looking at this year is our branding and the meaning of the Seahorse. I would like to share with you the writing (after research) of  Hamish, who is in  year 2. 

SEAHORSE REPORT

Written by: Hamish

Have you every seen a fry?  Frys are baby seahorses.  Did you know that the male seahorses give birth to the frys?  Seahorse are really rare.  Some seahorses are transparent and are not often spotted in photos or aquariums.  They can even change colour to hide from predators like sharks.  They have snouts that suck up fish like vacuum cleaners.  They are very poor swimmers and don’t swim on their side.  Most of the frys don’t survive to grow enough to make an adult seahorse.  Seahorses are nearly extinct because of human activity.  They don’t have any scales even though they are fish.  Did you know they don’t have a stomach so they have to eat all day and night and never ever stop! 

They’re one of the most interesting creatures

Amazing talent in our school – watch out for those seahorses!

I wish you and your family a safe and happy break and look forward to more learning together in term 3

Ngā mihi nui

Colleen Margison

Principal

Learning to Navigate our Changing World

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