Principal's Kōrero
Sunny West
Nau Mai, hoki mai ki tō tātau kura - Kihikihi. Welcome back to the second term of the school year.
We are excited to have the tamariki back at school and appreciate the efforts you are all putting in to ensure your child is regularly attending school.
We have a few things organised for this term but they could also mean a bit of disruption to our school site while upgrades happen. Teachers are continuing to collect data on student achievement throughout the term to help inform you of your child's progress this year. Mid Year reports will be sent out at the end of this term where progress will be reported to you.
Some exciting disruption is about to happen in the coming months, as we are expecting more work to be completed on our grounds and classroom upgrades. A brand new artificial turf will be installed replacing our netball ball court asphalt surface. This will provide an all weather play area for all to enjoy. There will be markings for netball and 4 square on this new surface. We are also upgrading our school security camera system and painting the exterior of the buildings when weather permits it to begin. The last project is likely to begin towards the end of the term or start of next term which is our junior class upgrades. All of these things will mean our school will be a busy place with extra fencing around reducing access to some areas of our school. We ask that you are patient with these changes to be complete.
Teacher Only Day - Friday 16 June please add this to your calendars.
The Te Awamutu Schools are hosting a combined teacher only day across the district (to reduce the disruption to families by having all different days) on Friday 16th June. This is also the same day as Field Days Friday which can often mean there is a lot of traffic on the roads that day. This teacher only day is a full day for staff to participate in professional development at the high school site. It will be a great chance for all schools in the area to be developing together all on the same day.
Teacher shortage. During the coming terms we normally experience a lot of sickness amongst staff. When our teachers are away this causes some concern as we do not have a large pool of relief teachers available as many of them are simply not available or working in education anymore. When we do not have a relief teacher available this means that we will need to split classes across the school to ensure we can provide each child with learning opportunities for the day. At worst case scenario we may be forced to close certain classes as having an excess of 30 children in the class is not an ideal situation and often leads to a number of behaviour issues. We will attempt to provide you with as much notice as possible in the event we have to close a class and this will be decide by the Board of Trustees. We know this can be disruptive and we ask that you are understanding if this has to occur. The reality of teacher shortages is becoming quite apparent.
Lost property. There is a very large pile of this growing in the office area. If your child is missing any item of clothing, please come to the office during school hours to have a look. If these items are not collected by the end of next week they will be redistributed across the school for items that do not have any names on them. Please NAME every item of uniform so we can return all items back to their owners should they get lost or misplaced.
Attendance - There has been a lot of media attention on children's attendance at school recently. We are currently seeing around 75-85% attendance at the moment which is very good all things considered. Please contact the school if your child is not going to be coming to school and provide a valid reason for this. We have a school target of 85% regular attendance for the term and hope that we meet this by the last week. Each class that has the highest attendance rate for the week receives an acknowledgment and the best class for the term will receive a special acknowledgment from me in the last week of term. Let's help our tamariki attend school regularly and smash our targets!
We have a few things organised for this term but they could also mean a bit of disruption to our school site while upgrades happen. Teachers are continuing to collect data on student achievement throughout the term to help inform you of your child's progress this year. Mid Year reports will be sent out at the end of this term where progress will be reported to you.
Some exciting disruption is about to happen in the coming months, as we are expecting more work to be completed on our grounds and classroom upgrades. A brand new artificial turf will be installed replacing our netball ball court asphalt surface. This will provide an all weather play area for all to enjoy. There will be markings for netball and 4 square on this new surface. We are also upgrading our school security camera system and painting the exterior of the buildings when weather permits it to begin. The last project is likely to begin towards the end of the term or start of next term which is our junior class upgrades. All of these things will mean our school will be a busy place with extra fencing around reducing access to some areas of our school. We ask that you are patient with these changes to be complete.
Teacher Only Day - Friday 16 June please add this to your calendars.
The Te Awamutu Schools are hosting a combined teacher only day across the district (to reduce the disruption to families by having all different days) on Friday 16th June. This is also the same day as Field Days Friday which can often mean there is a lot of traffic on the roads that day. This teacher only day is a full day for staff to participate in professional development at the high school site. It will be a great chance for all schools in the area to be developing together all on the same day.
Teacher shortage. During the coming terms we normally experience a lot of sickness amongst staff. When our teachers are away this causes some concern as we do not have a large pool of relief teachers available as many of them are simply not available or working in education anymore. When we do not have a relief teacher available this means that we will need to split classes across the school to ensure we can provide each child with learning opportunities for the day. At worst case scenario we may be forced to close certain classes as having an excess of 30 children in the class is not an ideal situation and often leads to a number of behaviour issues. We will attempt to provide you with as much notice as possible in the event we have to close a class and this will be decide by the Board of Trustees. We know this can be disruptive and we ask that you are understanding if this has to occur. The reality of teacher shortages is becoming quite apparent.
Lost property. There is a very large pile of this growing in the office area. If your child is missing any item of clothing, please come to the office during school hours to have a look. If these items are not collected by the end of next week they will be redistributed across the school for items that do not have any names on them. Please NAME every item of uniform so we can return all items back to their owners should they get lost or misplaced.
Attendance - There has been a lot of media attention on children's attendance at school recently. We are currently seeing around 75-85% attendance at the moment which is very good all things considered. Please contact the school if your child is not going to be coming to school and provide a valid reason for this. We have a school target of 85% regular attendance for the term and hope that we meet this by the last week. Each class that has the highest attendance rate for the week receives an acknowledgment and the best class for the term will receive a special acknowledgment from me in the last week of term. Let's help our tamariki attend school regularly and smash our targets!
