A time of danger, a time of opportunity. Lessons from lockdown.

Waters of Taiari (February 3, 2021)

Things you want to know about the year and term one (maybe …)

Dear whānau/parents and caregivers,

In this newsletter I want to outline our key intentions for learning and the school. As a staff we have already been back to school for at least a fortnight and are excited by the year. Our theme for the year is the ‘Waters of Taiari’, after our name. This means that we are planning excursions throughout the year for the whole school connected to this theme. One of the studies in term one may involve a seashore study.

Over the next two weeks our children will be reviewing our school rules and setting up classroom treaties. This is very important as we set the tone of the school for the year.

At the moment the weather is hot! … so please keep sending your children to school with togs and sunhats. All classes have been scheduled for daily swimming. We have swimming sports calendared for Friday the 5^th of March

We have a major whakatau coming up on Friday the 12^th of February. We are welcoming all our new families and are hosting senior members of the Waikato Ministry of Education. Please feel free to attend.

This year there will be trips and camps. We want parents to participate when they can. However, we need to have parents who are taking responsibilities to be legally police vetted. We mentioned this in the newsletter and are looking for parents to fill in the forms so that we can start this process. For this we will need two forms of identification: usually a driver’s license and passport. Police vetting happens every two years so some of you may already have been vetted. We are carrying out the vetting early so that we are organised for later in the year, especially for the very exciting Wellington trip our seniors are going on.

Please make sure if your child is in these classes that you start putting money aside. Mrs Saunders and Mrs Trenwith are already planning an exciting series of excursions and scheming as to how to make money with your support.

Last year we promised at our whānau meeting that we would try and take a look at reading. This term we will be working alongside the Resource teacher of Literacy Ange Nation to provide at least one workshop maybe more for the juniors. Next term there will be a workshop for the senior classes.

Converted Total Span shed which is yet to be named.

We are going to be collecting children’s books shortly for our converted bus shelter. Our bus shelter is going to house books for children that can be freely taken home. Parents will be able to see what books are available and take what they want. Students will be able to make their own choices as well. Our explicit intentions is to foster a love of books and reading. These books can be returned or kept. We would appreciate book contributions also.

Brendon Arnold's handiwork. (You need to check out the table in our foyer. It's a wonder!)

Later this term we have scheduled a BBQ – picnic for Fun Friday. Check out our new website for all the dates and mark them on your own calendars. Our new website is whizz-bang and you can see all sorts of things on it. Julie is uploading new photos regularly.

As part of our safety programmes, our girls are going to be learning self-defence. These skills are important for life and we want to make sure our girls can be confident in the way they manage their personal safety.

This term we are trying to build up a repertoire of songs. We will be holding singing assemblies where we can learn new songs and waiata. Hopefully we will learn a haka.

At present we are waiting … patiently … very patiently … for a part that is not working for our radio station. As soon as we have this we will be launching the latest radio station in Thames called ‘Moana Waves’.

We are also waiting for the Ministry of Education to do some work on our school. We thought it was happening over Christmas but now have been told it will happen in the April holidays. We are expecting drains done and a reconfiguration of part of our administration block. We are eventually hoping for much more than this but these changes will be a good start.

Did I mention the disco? Yes we are having one this term. I understand the two senior rooms will be organising it for their Wellington trip.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

David Brock

Principal