Panui - Term 3, Week 2, 2023
Our website has had a face lift! All going well we look forward to housing our newsletters on here from here on in.
The last week has been a real juggle for us at school as staff and children alike have been hit by the winter nasties. If we all work together to help stop the spread of illness, then we can ensure that attendance, wellbeing and learning across the school remains high. A couple of important reminders from Whatu Ora to help stop the spread:
- If a child has been unwell with a respiratory illness other than COVID-19, they can return to school 24 hours after they have significantly improved and are behaving/eating normally. If they still have a runny nose or dry cough without any other symptoms such as a fever, vomiting or diarrhoea, then they are unlikely to be infectious and can be considered well enough to attend their early learning service/education facility.
- Following vomiting or diarrhoea, a child must be symptom free for 48 hours before they can return.
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone for completing and returning the whanau voice forms. I was stoked with the number that we received (so far close to 150). The feedback has been really affirming for our school and will be vital in helping us to set our direction moving forward. From here we are going to collate the responses and identify key themes that emerge. I hope to share this with you in our next school newsletter.
Sarah
Our learning...
Our communication focus has kicked off across the school. The key skills we are working on developing with our ākonga this term are speaking respectfully, listening to others, asking questions, seeking help, and communicating using body language. Keep talking to your children about how to be good communicators at home to help reinforce this learning.
We are continuing to work on subtraction in maths for the next two weeks. At the end of this unit all children will complete an assessment and their subtraction goals on their progressions will be updated.
In writing our school wide focus is expansion. This is new learning for us all and teachers will be working with our school writing coaches next Tuesday to develop their kete, supporting them to teach this skill effectively to children. Expansion is explained below:
Expansion is a skill that starts as early as Year 2. We will be working with our Year 2 writers to take 1 idea and expand it over 2-3 sentences. This skill slowly progresses through the year levels up to Year 6 where children take 3 key ideas and expand those ideas over 3 sentences to create 3 paragraphs!
And lastly our unit learning this term is focussed on the ARTS! Creativity and communication are in action already so watch this space (and maybe pack an old oversized t-shirt / art shirt into your child's bag to keep their uniform safe this term!)
School photos
School photos are ready to view and order online - you should have received an email from PhotoLife with an access code to view the photos. Each child has a code, and there is another code for sibling photos. Please check your spam folder for the email.
- If you have not received an email from Photolife - please let me know and I can email the access code to you. Please contact me by email at office@tawhiti.school.nz
- If you have a query about the photos e.g. no individual photo showing - please contact PhotoLife directly by phone 0800 50 10 40 or email enquiries@photolife.co.nz
PLEASE NOTE: You must order the photos by Sunday 6th August to receive free delivery to school.
Important Dates
- Week 3 Thursday Kauri and Kahikatea - safe boating course (more details to come!)
- Week 3 Friday Totara and Pohutukawa - safe boating course
So much happening in the sports space...
1. We have new basketball hoops and these are a real HIT! A huge thank you to Sheri and her team for making this happen.
2. Our swimming lessons in Stratford are underway. These are amazing - our children are in small groups and are receiving some top quality swimming instruction. We are super lucky!
3. All our teams played out of their skins at the recent Winter Sports Tournament. Our football and rugby teams both came away with the WIN! Way to go Tawhiti. More importantly though we were really impressed by the attitudes and sportsmanship of our children - I think our constant reminders (aka nagging) about sportsmanship is slowly paying off! 😉. Photos of this event can be found here.
4. Elective sports for our seniors have kicked off. Our senior students had their first session last week. It was great to see them out, active, and involved in crossfit, squash, orienteering, gymnastics, and golf croquet!
5. Netball uniforms are now due back. Please return these to the school office.
6. We are collecting YUMMY stickers to get some free sports equipment. So please save these and send them to Sheri at school (just on a piece of paper or in a snaplock bag is fine!). We want to collect as many as we can before Friday 15th September.