Issue 30: Week 10, Term 3 2024

Principal's Message - Karere a te Tumuaki

In the spirit of Chinese Language Week, Ni hao and welcome to the last newsletter edition for Term 3. With only few days to go until the holidays, it is a great chance to reflect on what has been an incredibly busy and exciting term. I am really proud of how our learners (and teachers) have continued to run engaging learning programmes off the back of Ag Day and I'm sure everyone is looking forward to a chance to refresh their batteries over the next two weeks.

First off this week, I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of some of our Senior students for refereeing the basketball games for a Special Olympics Basketball Tournament held at Bruce Pulman Park. The comments from the organisers as well as the teachers and support staff from the Special Schools that participated was really positive and made us feel really proud. This echoed the sentiments of Andy Napier who took the boys and supported them on the day. Thank you and ka pai to Cooper R, Jaxxson T and Carter C (although Carter is missing from the photo attached) - we think you're pretty amazing too.

I have couple of dates for 2025 that you can lock into your calendars now. The Ministry have mandated that all schools will use two Teacher Only Days in the first half of 2025 to engage with the refreshed Mathematics curriculum and the new 'Structured Approach' to Maths that we will be implementing. I can tell you that these have been scheduled for Friday March 21st (Week 8 of Term 1) and Friday May 30th (Friday before King's Birthday). We have also embarked on our 'Structured Literacy' journey over the past term, and this will continue for the rest of 2024 and into 2025. We have planned a Parent Curriculum Information Evening which will coincide with a 'Meet the Teacher' event early in 2025 to share our learning and the impact on and changes to class programmes. While the details are yet to be finalised, please lock in Tuesday the 4th of February on your calendars. 

In terms of learning programmes for the future, we are also currently in the stages of gathering staff and student voice as to the school wide learning themes for 2025/2026. In the Google Form attached, I have listed the themes from the last three years to give you an idea of what we have covered. We have also included the suggestions gathered from our current students and teachers for the next two year cycle. What we would love from you is any parent feedback about particular learning themes that you felt were really successful and we may want to revisit. We would also love to hear of any suggestions you may have for us to put into the mix as we plan ahead. We are also planning to have a Whole School Production in 2025 which will ensure a focus on The Arts as we realise this hasn't been covered as a major focus in recent years.

Please access the survey link to give your feedback here - https://forms.gle/eL5fNpyNWdLMj3Pv5

Lastly, I'll be posting the Beyond the Gate bulletin tomorrow so any last entries are welcome. Zaijian (goodbye) and have a safe and happy holiday break. 

Anna Powrie

Celebrating Learning and Achievement

Assembly Awards 20th September

Notes from the Office

Ag Day

Enviro Group News

We are being supported by Oke to build an outdoor classroom! 

Please support their fundraising efforts through one good kiwi this month as our school will benefit.
Click on the QR code on the poster to get online and support them supporting us for free! 

Regards,

Meagan 

PTA News

** SAVE THE DATE - NEXT SCHOOL DISCO 15TH NOVEMBER**

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