Principal’s Column—Whakataki o Tumuaki He waka eke noa—We’re all in this waka together

Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome back everyone! We are all

back, refereshed and ready for an exciting term ahead. I hope you had a wonderful holiday with some quality time together.

This newsletter contains lots about our learning this

term, it’s lining up to be a cracker of a science term. It’s

also a great time to make the most of outside learning opportunities.

While we still have a term to go, my focus at this time shifts to next year. Included in this newsletter are the big changes as far as staff goes. We’ve gone back to our Guiding Principles to look at the most important areas to focus on. I’ve met with our property advisors to begin planning the next buildings. 2016 funding is in and ready to be allocated. Buses are being evaluated and (hopefully) modified. And more… It’s an awesome time planning for the opportunities ahead.

We held a ShakeOut drill this morning, helping the children know what to do in an earthquake—I think they enjoyed it!

Above is a sample of our new logos and look for school, designed to capture our new pathways for learning from our kākano (seeds) to our rākau (trees). Hope you like it.

Mā te wā—Until next time. Matt Stockton

Welcome new children and families! This week we have welcomed Sara, Hannah and Harley into Te Kākano and Kael into Room 1. Welcome to our big family! Altogether we now have 207 children.

Our powhiri will be held on Friday 6th November at 1.30pm. We hope you can join us to welcome our new families.

Ag Day Just one more sleep until Ag Day! We are really looking forward to seeing the collection of farm animals, chickens and pets. There’s lots to see and do all around the school so we hope you can all come and join us.

A letter went home this week with final details. It’s really important that we think carefully about the welfare of the animals. That is why we ask that animals are not brought to school until 9.30am. All pets will need to be collected at 12pm so they are not over-stressed. If you can’t collect the pet please don’t send them in. Thanks.

Burgers and CalciYum are available on the day but need to be pre-ordered first thing for non AgDay participants.

This term’s learning The junior children are learning that they are all scientists.

They are learning to wonder about how things might change or do something amazing if we do something to change them. They’ll be trying all sorts of exciting experiments to make their own discoveries. Their big ideas are based around curiosity, investigating, being a scientist, recording and communicating, and relating science concepts to their own experiences.

The seniors are focused on food science. They are exploring the context of food preparation and cooking for learners to explore examples of changes in their everyday lives. Learners are learning to classify materials as solids, liquids or gases according top their observable properties. They also learn to identify reversible and non-reversible changes in substances, They will use appropriate scientific vocabulary to describe and explain their observations.

Our health and PE focus is on gymnastics, fitness circuits, athletics and fundamental skills. Our whole school athletics day is just a few weeks away so we’re working hard already

There are many events and activities already planned and more to come. See the calendar here or online. Our term will end with our now-famous whole school trip to the beach!

Many apologies but we forgot about class newsletters this week! They will be coming home next Thursday instead...

Staff changes Nicole Glover left us at the end of last term, having successfully scored her dream job supporting special needs children with the Ministry of Education. We wish her the very best in this new role.

Amy Hanna has changed roles at school. She is working in Room 5 on Fridays (taking over from Nicole) and is supporting us with teacher release in other classrooms at other times.

Emma Sercombe is working full-time in Te Kākano this term alongside Tray Whiu and Amy Lake, having successfully completed her University studies.

Jolene Clifford will be leaving us in three weeks. The whole family are moving up North of Whangarei, living in tents while Forrest builds their house!

Looking forward to 2016:

We have advertised for FOUR new teachers for next year. We have received over 50 application so far and held a well attended open day, so are confident of adding quality new teachers to our school family.

Sian Casserly will be leaving us for an exciting new position at little Whakamarama School in the Bay of Plenty.

Amy Hanna and Kate Dermer will be working together, job sharing—a great partnership.

Mary Overton will be changing to a support, teacher release and tutoring role, working as a core part of the junior team.

Hillary Paalvast will be working in Te Kakano next year alongside Amy Lake and another to be confirmed teacher.

Finally Matt is away for Term 3 having secured a sabbatical for a combination of study and family visiting in the UK. The school will be in capable hands with Laurel serving as Principal.

We are really looking forward to our future team and the experience, commitment and passion they bring.

Car parking and buses Thanks to everyone for keeping up your amazing parking and driving habits around school, you have made the children much much safer. We hope you find the lines useful in finding a parking space. Thanks to Tim and Roy who put out and collect the cones every day—great job boys! We’ll be training children as crossing leaders soon.

We’ve made big changes to the bus service. There are now two bus runs every afternoon to cater for the 40+ children now using the service. Next week I am meeting with GoBus and the

Ministry bus provider to try and get our bus service extended to further areas. I’ll keep you posted. If you were sent a form to claim your conveyance allowance, please send them into school asap so I can get them claimed. Thanks!

Uniforms and sun hats Can I please ask you all to ensure all children are in full uniform every day. It makes us look awesome. All children must be in uniform for next week’s school photos. Thanks.

In term 4 all children must wear a bucket style sunhat when outside. School hats are available from Direct Group Uniforms. Children without hats will need to stay in the designated shade area at break times.

The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of introducing hoodies so these will be available for the 2016 year. Both hoodies and polar fleece can be worn. Fleeces will be available as a special order item.

Property update There has been a big shift in government policy for new classrooms with a return to modular off-site built learning spaces. Though modern and extendable to create quality collaborative learning spaces, they are no longer designable. The end result is that we are now having to completely rethink our site design and current use of buildings. The two new classrooms next year will most likely now be a separate block somewhere. Grrrrr...

School Newsletter 15th October 2015—Tekau ma rima o Whiringa-a-nuku

October—Whiringa-a-nuku

16th Agricultural Day

19th Gymnastics and fitness circuits with Richard

21st School photos day

20th BoT meeting, 6pm

23rd Group Day @ Ngahinapouri

26th Labour Day—School closed

30th Inter-school tabloid sports @ Te Uku (Juniors)

November—Whiringa-ā-rangi

2nd - 6th Enviroweek

4th Gymnastics and athletics with Richard

6th School pōwhiri

18th School athletics day

23rd BoT meeting, 6pm

26th WFPSA Y7/8 athletics @ Porritt Stadium

27th Inter-school athletics (age 8+)

30th DC3 flight week (day TBC)

December—Hakihea

14th BoT meeting, 6pm

15th Prizegiving celebrations

16th Reports go home

17th Whatawhata hit the beach day

18th Term 4 and 2015 year ends

Upcoming events

To Grow, To Achieve, To Care Our mini scientists in action!