Nga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa – warm greetings to everyone

Design Thinking:

On Monday members of the Board of Trustees joined us in a design thinking session around innovative learning environments. The creative thinking that came out of the session was impressive. We were thinking about how we can create a learning environment that will meet the needs of our students for their future. Thank you to all those who participated.

Student Voice:

Today Patricia Purdie (principal at Rerewhakaaitu School and COL leader) spent the first block in room 1 collecting student voice around writing. The class were asked ‘What is easy about writing?’, ‘What is hard about writing?’, What do you like about writing?’, What don’t you like about writing?’, ‘How does my teacher help me with my writing?’, How do my parents/whanau help me with my writing?’, ‘How can the principal help me with my writing?’.

Patricia will take the feedback from all of the students in the COL (Community of Learning) and use it to guide our direction in 2018. I am looking forward to working with the principals, staff and students from Mihi, Rerewhaakaitu, Broadlands and the College next year on our combined achievement challenges. As you may have guessed, one of these is writing!

Camp:

Camp planning is on track for the year 3 and 4 students. The format of this camp may be quite different to what this community is used to. Parent helpers have been vetted and selected. If you have not been chosen, we are sorry but we cannot take everyone. Please DO NOT just turn up at camp. It is disruptive to the programme and difficult for teachers to manage. One of the objectives for camp is for children to build independence. They find this difficult and unsettling when parents are coming and going. The teachers have planned a specific programme which I’m sure the students will find exciting. Thank you for respecting the school’s rules and policies around parent help.

Thank you morning tea:

On the 5th of December at 10:30am we are planning on having a thank you morning tea for parents who have helped us throughout the year. This is by invitation, however I am aware that often these things end up at the bottom of your child’s bag and don’t get delivered! If you have helped us out this year by being involved in the whanau group, on the treemendous committee (not just turning up on the day), coming on a camp or trip, being a parent helper in class, or taking a sporting team, please come along to our thank you morning tea. We would like to show you our appreciation!

Star of the week:

Ka Rawe te mahi to Priya who did an excellent quality job of her character profile of Geronomo Stilton. Room 2 have displayed their character profiles in the hall and the library for you to read.

Sports:

Athletics

We had a great day at cluster athletics yesterday. The children tried very hard and did very well. I was impressed with the positive sporting attitude throughout the day. I will congratulate with results when I know them.

Calendar:

Bake Sale:

In Rooms 5 an d 6 as part of our Money Smart inquiry learning this term we have been looking at how we can use money to help others. As part of this learning we would like to make a donation to the K Mart Giving Tree project. We will be having a bake sale to raise money to do this on Thursday the 30th November at morning tea (and lunch time if there are leftovers!) Please support us by bringing in baking to sell or money to purchase 🙂

Back to School Stationery Orders:

We will be going with OfficeMax My School again this year. Stationery lists will be online December.

Found Property:

We have a big pile of found property at school. If you can’t find it at home it might be here, come down and check the big pile of clothing at any time. All named clothing will be returned to the students, all unnamed clothing will be cleared at the end of term.

Nãku i runga i aku mihi ki a koe – Yours with thanks

Richelle McDonald

and our team –Jill, Phil, Susannah, Esther, Rachel, Julie, Maureen, Heather, Tina, Mary, Kim, Ross & Nikki.