From The Principal's Desk

Dear parents and caregivers

Welcome Back to 2020!

We hope that you have all had a wonderful break with family and friends and you have had a great start to the New Year. It certainly has been all go here for us at the start of term. Our new build was just finished in time for the start of school and I must admit that the feedback that we have had this week has been wonderful. The children have been fantastic and the teachers have commented how responsible they have been looking after the space and each other.

We have three new teachers in our new block. Due to Auckland house prices Mrs Morris-Adams and Miss Dougherty moved to Hamilton and Cambridge respectively, and Mrs Reid has decided to continue working on their food trucks. We have Miss Susan Hall, Mrs Gemma Drummond teaching with Mrs Aimee Scott upstairs. Miss Terina Jacobs joined her partner in Sydney at the end of last year, we welcome Miss Christina Davis (rm 20) and of course we are delighted to have Kate Baverstock (rm 6) teaching with us this year, as last year she was training and working as a teacher aide. In the current climate of teacher availability, we are blessed to have the experience, keenness and professionalism of these teachers.

We know we are a great community and we want to be constantly supporting each other to be the best we can . The fences of the new build have been removed and I would like to commend the students and staff for their resilience, and the respect and responsibility they showed over this building development, we have all been navigating our changing world.

Our world is changing with the advent of the Novel coronavirus and I would like to thank our community for their co-operation and support during this time. We have followed the guidelines given by the Ministry of Education informed by the Ministry of Health. We want all our children and staff to be safe and appreciate the care and consideration you are giving to this. We also appreciate the support of April Fang and other members of our community who have ensured that the details and instructions have been put onto WeChat for our Chinese community. It is important that as adults we model our school values of responsibility, respect and resilience, as our children do take our cues from us. Attached is the latest flier that endorses the aspects that we have been promoting.

I would like to thank our teachers, learning assistants, office staff and Mr Costello for a great start to the new year. Everything has started smoothly and I know that they have worked hard with planning and organisation to ensure that this happens.

We welcome the new families that have joined our Mellons Bay family and soon will be learning all about the Mellons Bay Way. If you or any of our families have concerns or questions, the first port of call is your child's teacher, unless the office staff can help you. Sam, on reception, Helen and Mel (on Monday and Tuesday) will be only too willing to answer any administration questions they can.

The first part of this term we are focusing on learning how to learn, setting up routines and getting to know each other as learners and as people; our interests and strengths. We are building learner relationships and the relationships we build with you as families and whanau is crucial to the learning of your child/ren. We will be focusing on how we navigate our changing world as the new children start or as your child begins a new learning year level at school. We will also be focusing on our Mellons Bay Way and what it means to us, how we can ensure we are trying to the uphold all the aspects on our matrix and that we are doing right thing, at the right time and in the right place.

We had a great Teacher only Day on Friday, so thank you again for your support with this. Over the next three years we have been given 8 days to use as teacher only days inside the school year. We had two Teacher only Days on Thurs and Friday 30th, 31st January and the additional day on Friday enabled us all; teachers, learning assistants, management and some of the office staff, and our property manager (Mr Costello) to complete first aid training based on school scenarios. This will set up up well for the year, the camps ahead, as well as prepare us for duty and any outdoor education incidents.

It has been wonderful to see the children's smiling faces back at school, we look forward to the learning ahead and meeting you at Meet the Teacher next week on Tuesday 18th February. We will also have a parent teacher sharing on Thursday of our week 9 which will be April 2nd, where you can find out how your child has settled into school/class life and their learning and also give you an opportunity for you to share insights and interests of your child.

Ngā Mihi

Colleen Margison

Principal 

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