Newsletter Wednesday 08th May 2024

Ngaere School

School Newsletter

Living & Learning with RESPECT

Term 2 Week 2

Wednesday 8 May 2024

Welcome – Nau mai haere mai

It was great to see our children outside this morning with Wednesday fitness.

A huge thank you to everyone who sent along a can for Friday’s mufti day. We had a great selection of ‘people food’ which will be sent along to both the Eltham and Stratford foodbanks, as well as tins of cat food for donating to TAPT.

We had a wide range of community heroes represented too; nurses, vets, farmers, teachers, policemen, mums and dads.

In week 9 we are planning an Art Expo, ‘Painting our Community’ with classes looking at well known portrait artists for inspiration to create their own pieces for display. We will be combining this with our Whanau Day and Puanga celebration. The Art Expo will be open for 3 days (Mon 24- Wed 26 June) and Puanga lunch on Wednesday 26th. More details will come out later in the term.

This ‘Where’s Wally’ character was spotted hiding out the front of the school on our mufti day last week.

Our school is currently involved in a review by the Education Review Office. The process differs from that which we have been involved with in the past. The focus is more on working with the school in an ongoing way over the next three years, rather than as a one off event. We have a dedicated ERO review officer or evaluation partner who is working in partnership with the school to support us over that time in a collaborative way, with a focus on future improvements for student achievement and outcomes.

There is much coming out of the Minister of Education’s office at the moment and we are taking time to work through the changes that the current Government have already, or are about to implement. We have in place the ‘No cellphone’ policy with very little change and have looked to streamline and ensure we have ‘one hour of reading, writing and mathematics a day’ across the school. This has required small tweaks to how teachers plan to ensure the links to these learning areas are explicit but we are reasonably confident we are meeting this legislated requirement.

There are also some new guidelines around student absences with a target of 70% of all students regularly attending school. This is something we monitor already and fully appreciate parents notifying the office if their child is absent. We also appreciate children being kept home when unwell. More information can be found on the Ministry of Education website: https://www.education.govt.nz/school/managing-and-supporting-students/managing-student-attendance/

It is a good time to check that your child’s jumper or jacket is named as with the cooler mornings and sunny days many children take off their top layer and sometimes forget to pick it up again. We have a good supply of polar fleeces and jackets in stock.

Room 1& 2 Community Heroes

Starting Friday 10th May

You may still order week by week with order and payment needing to be received by 9am on the Thursday.

Mia is enjoying her work as a Rotokare Ambassador and was recently presented with a certificate from Penelope who is leaving the Rotokare team. Mia is learning a lot and always keen to share and bring back ideas to her classmates and teacher.

CANTERBURY GEAR

Orders and Money are due by Friday 10th May.

Order forms are available from the school office.

Friday 17th May: Pink Shirt Mufti Day

We ask each person who chooses to wear mufti to bring $2 which will be forwarded to support the BullyFree NZ cause.

It isn’t uncommon to hear someone say something insensitive or mean to someone else. Although these comments or actions are not okay, bullying has some specific features that make it much more serious and harmful.

Bullying is deliberate – harming another person intentionally.
Bullying involves a misuse of power in a relationship.
Bullying is usually not a one-off – it is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time.
Bullying involves behaviour that can cause harm it is not a normal part of growing up

There will be no assembly this Friday.

On Friday we have a performance by ‘Strike’, a musical percussion group currently touring our area. The cost of this show will be picked up by the school board.

PTA NEWS

Congratulations and a very warm welcome to Chelsea Kerr who has taken on the role of the Ngaere School PTA Chairperson.

Thank you Chelsea.

PTA FIREWOOD RAFFLE

The PTA are raffling a load of firewood for a fundraiser. The load will be approximately 5 cube of a Pine/Mac mix and will be delivered within Taranaki.

Tickets for this raffle will be out this Friday. Each family will be given a book of 5 to sell at $5 each. The raffle will be drawn on Thursday 27th June 2024.