8th May 2025

Kia ora e te whānau,

Our term has had a settled start with children and staff ready to be back at school learning. Our term 2 concept is Sustainability with a science, social science and health focus.

The senior classes will be learning ukulele this term with a music specialist.

Taonga Pūoro

Last Friday Bob Bickerton gave a Taonga Pūoro presentation to Year 3-6 children. We were all fascinated by the history, stories and sounds of these traditional instruments. If you are interested, you can learn more on his website and listen to the instruments being played. https://www.bickerton.co.nz/

Professional Growth Cycle

Teachers and principals are required to have a professional growth cycle (appraisal process) to ensure we continue to develop and grow as educators. We have goals, critical friends to work along side us and we participate in professional learning with the Ministry of Education, within our school, with other schools and attend conferences/seminars with experts.

As part of the principal’s growth cycle, we wanted to gather some children’s voice. Mrs Matheson interviewed 25% of the children making sure to get children from every class and ensuring a diverse range of children participated. The children were asked questions around safety, learning, engagement, cultural safety and enjoyment. We will share a couple of questions and the response with you in the next few newsletters as the children have provided really helpful information and ideas.

Safety

What makes you feel safe at school?
 fences and gates
 there are lots of teachers to help
 the teachers help us when we are hurt
 the big kids look after me
 at lunchtime the big kids play with us
 my friends make me feel safe
 the fence makes us safe, so no baddies can get us
 we know what to do if there is an emergency, like if a bad person came, we know we have a safe classroom to go to and lock the door.
 there are so many grown-ups at this school
 the wellbeing room is a safe place we can go
 there is a sick bay to go to and Mrs Jan makes us feel safe again
 we have a plan if there is a fire, we all know to go to the field
 the teachers solve problems to make us safe
 WBR is a safe place
 breakfast club is a safe place to go when you are feeling scared in the morning
 gates and fence to keep us away from the road
 there are lots of adults and rules and rooms to be safe
 having good teachers
 good friends to look after me
 wellbeing room
 friends
 gates and fences
 the teachers make it safe
 the school is small, so we know everyone, there are no strangers

Learning

What is something new you have learned at school recently that made you
proud?
 I’ve learned how to be kinder
 I can write really good now
 I can write my name now
 how to be kind
 swimming better
 I’ve learned about identity, we get to draw about our identity
 I am so good at reading books now
 I am so proud of my writing
 I am better at reading now
 how to draw a self portrait
 I’ve learned to do new things in Maths like my take aways
 knowing all my heart words
 using exciting words in writings
 better at writing
 we’ve learned about culture lately
 identity
 Māori words
 sign language
 writing extension group
 character descriptions
 learned to play Chess

Reporting to Whānau

As we begin writing midyear reports the Ministry of Education is releasing new guidelines about this. We are working through these guidelines as a staff and will keep you informed. We are already meeting most of the guidelines however there may be some small changes to reports.