Pānui (News)

Today your child should come home with their mid year report. We hope you find these reports informative as our teachers spent a lot of time crafting them for you. It is a new format and I have tried to explain the reasoning here. Next term we plan to have another round of learning conferences where you can meet with your child’s teacher to discuss the content further and set some goals. Don’t feel like you need to wait until then to meet with your child’s teacher though as effective learning needs an effective partnership.

We’ve been hit pretty hard by the winter illnesses with up to 30% of our tamariki away over the past weeks. Unfortunately our lovely Julie has been out with Covid this week and a few staff members have been ravaged by this flu going around. Our relief teacher pool is empty meaning some of your kids might not have their usual class routine on some days. Thanks to those of you who are letting us know when your child is sick. Remember this is really easy to report via the Skool Loop App in the Absentee tab.

Isn’t this weather a welcomed return? Look at the beautiful blue sky that our Ki O Rahi team had today for their tournament this morning! They had a fab morning playing against 11 other schools in the annual tournament run by Kelly Sports. Let’s hope it keeps this up over the Matariki long weekend which starts now.

I have to give a huge thanks to all the people who supported our Marae visits this week. What a fantastic two days we shared there together! I know the weather wasn’t ideal, but we made the most of being together. As I mentioned on Monday night, I was a really proud tumuaki to have the turn out we did to support our Matariki Celebration. There was a beautiful article published on Stuff about our time also. 

I don’t know about you, but isn’t it funny how when you have a short week, you make up for it by squeezing a full week of mahi into it? Thanks again for your support in allowing us to visit some amazing schools on Tuesday. The teachers came back buzzing with the things they saw and some changes as you may have heard, where implemented the very next day!

Hoping this finds you all alive and well this week marking the halfway point of the term. I am really excited to take the teachers on a bit of ‘roady’ on Tuesday as we are visiting 3 local schools to see the cool things they are doing. Thanks for your support in finding alternative arrangements for your children so that we can do this.

What a fantastic day we had yesterday for our school Cross Country and Fun Run. So much wairua (resilience) was on display and I was really proud of everyone’s involvement! The vibe, the community support and the whānau involvement further showcased our school value of whanaungatanga.

Wow what a change in weather since the last time I wrote to you all. We have been hit with plenty of rain out here meaning that our kids haven’t always been able to get outside during break times. But they breed them tough in the country right? So as I have communicated to you, we encourage ‘Rainy Day Play’ as long as kids have a change of clothes and a waterproof jacket, so they aren’t in wet clothes for the rest of the day. 

Gosh what a beautiful week weather wise we have had up here. It’s like Turitea has its own little eco-climate! Perfect weather for our training for Cross Country coming up in Week 4. The kids train Monday, Wednesday and Friday and it is great to see them pushing themselves and improving their fitness.

Hoping this finds you all doing very well. This is your final friendly reminder that school closes at 12.30pm this coming Wednesday 11th May for our Learning Conferences. We are looking forward to having you back on site as they are a great way to reconnect with your child’s kaiako and set some goals/outcomes for the rest of the term.