Newsletter Term 2 Week 8

NEWSLETTER

TERM 2 WEEK 8 2024

Kia ora koutou,

First of all, I have news!

Claire Dunlop is leaving us! Some of you may know her husband is with RNZAF (Ohakea) and they have recently sprung a rather big shift and lifestyle change onto Claire and Phillip. He is beginning a new position in Adelaide in July! So Claire will be leaving us at the end of this term. The tamariki in her class have just found out today and her position is currently advertised on Education Gazette. So it’s all go! When we know who the new teacher will be we will let you know but in the meantime, we wish Claire and Phillip all the very best for their new adventure!

I feel as if many weeks have passed since our last newsletter – there always seems to be so much happening I honestly don’t know how our wonderful teachers keep up!

Last week Tokomanawa and Tuarongo headed to Whanganui.  Students and staff came back buzzing!

The whole school Footsteps programme is another source of excitement as Max and his team keep our tamariki literally on their toes with a range of physical activities involving technology and PE.

On Tuesday we had a group of students participating at Pae Tamariki in Papaioia at the Regent Theatre and we are super excited about the Cultural Festival involving students in Kapahaka and a Samoan Siva performance as well! 

For more information about the cultural festival please see the poster below. 

Re: Attendance – to those I have caught up with, thank you for making a big effort to support us. From the calls I have made so far it is clear that a few days here and there adding up to absences of 20% or more have been a shock to most whānau. We all need to keep trying to do our best. 

At this time, teachers are busy writing mid-year reports. Keep an eye out for these, they’ll go out on Monday 1st July.

And finally, reiterating the note further down in the email – a huge thank you to those who were able to give us their time (and energy) to support our Sunday Working Bee. We were so happy with what we managed to get done and the school is looking fabulous! 

Ngā manaakitanga

Kim Gordon – Tumuaki

Every morning we get together as a whole school. We do some breathing exercises followed by this blessing. This is a way to support our tamariki and staff to prepare themselves for the day ahead. Your children will be able to teach you this as a part of your Te Reo Māori learning journey.  

Springvale Garden Centre Whanganui

donated strawberries for us to plant. We can’t wait to enjoy the spoils of this kind donation. 

SUBSCRIBE TO APP GROUPS 

Di has refreshed this and named each group with 2024 so you know it’s relevant and up to date. You will all need to join the groups specific to your tamariki.

This has important notices for either the whole school or specific groups eg: Bus Students, Sports, Cultural, Hubs, etc that you can join according to what your child’s involved in.

Many notices or reminders go out via the APP so it is an important tool for parents to be aware of what is due eg: permission slips and dates for events offsite, transport required etc. This is also an efficient way to provide absence notices.

In many cases, parental permission may be given via the app as well.

UNIFORM EXPECTATIONS

Our uniform and the way we wear it is connected to our PRIDE values. Taking PRIDE in our kura and our appearance as well as acknowledging the necessity to be sunsafe sits behind our decision to introduce a Bulls School Bucket Hat as a part of our regulation uniform. This has been an expectation since the beginning of 2023. Hats are available online or in-store for $20 and they come in 2 different sizes. Once you have yours PLEASE clearly name/label it. Matching 175 potae to 175 heads is much simpler when they are clearly named.