Kia ora koutou,
Hopefully you all received my update email on Monday closely followed by another one on Tuesday. The truth of it is, children off school and returning to school is a bit of a revolving door at the moment. The greatest concern we have is around keeping the hubs staffed in order to ensure Health & Safety requirements can be met. Then we focus on doing our best to continue to deliver robust learning programmes.
This is the reality many schools across the country are facing and working hard to manage so let’s hope this wave soon becomes a tail and things reset to feeling a bit more ‘normal’ very soon!
BSSG – BULLS SCHOOL SUPPORT GROUP:
I am happy to report we have resurrected, like a Phoenix from the ashes, our Bulls School Support Group. Five fabulous people have put their hands up and that’s a great start. We plan to meet as a group this week and put a tentative plan together. It is likely we will look short-term for now, rather than long-term as a change to our present traffic light setting could make quite a difference to our options moving forward.
STUDY LEAVE:
Just the other day a student asked me where has Mrs Syme gone? Some of you will know she won a study award last year. Her study leave began in March. She is away for the remainder of the year studying at Te Wananga o Aotearoa. We are super proud of her and cannot wait to learn from her when she returns to us next year! Kerri Guard has stepped into an Acting Deputy Principal role but will continue to teach in the Year 7 & 8 class with 1 day a week release and Jen Weir has taken on additional responsibilities. In fact all teachers have stepped up in some way or other to fulfill roles while Megan is away – the level of dedication from our staff makes me grateful every day!
LOST PROPERTY:
This week we culled clothes from the lost property. There were over 15 sweatshirts that were either unnamed or had past pupils’ names in them. Please check that your child’s uniform is clearly named (in some cases the naming has washed out and cannot be read). This will help us get items back to their rightful owner in the future.
MUFTI DAY – EASTER RAFFLE:
This Friday is a mufti day for our tamariki. If they could bring along an item to help us make up enticing Easter Baskets for our raffles – we would be very grateful. I know this isn’t an easy time for many whānau, so please just do what you can. The same applies to selling tickets – this is a fundraiser, however, any profit goes straight back to our tamariki and so whatever the raffle makes, is all bonus dollars.
SENIOR CAMP:
Huge tautoko to Kerri & Nikita and the team of caregivers who helped make this happen. You provided our tamariki with outstanding learning opportunities connected to their in-class learning! I visited on the Bushy Park day and saw a manu I had never seen before, a Saddleback! It was such an awesome place and I highly recommend it!
Over the past few weeks I have received many kind emails or gestures ‘checking in’ on how we are going as a school. Just as I am grateful to our staff, I am also grateful to our whānau – for all you do to support your tamariki and us!
Noho ora mai, Kim Gordon, Tumuaki