Newsletter Term 2 Week 8

Bulls School

School Newsletter

Positivity-Respect-Integrity-Determination-Excellence

2022 Term 2 Week 8

Bus students will be supervised, however, lunches have been canceled so please bring your own.

Kia ora koutou,
Mānawatia a Matariki, or even more specific to our region, Mānawatia a Puanga. The stars of Matariki signify new beginnings, time for reflection, time for sharing kai, and a time for planning. We are so excited to be able to share our Kapahaka performance with our whānau this evening at Te Matapihi. For so long opportunities like this have been postponed or canceled which makes this an extra special time for us all. We hope to see you there. We know it’s a tricky time with winter chills and lurgies floating about so we promise to keep it short and fabulous – so everyone can be home again before it gets too late.

Huge thank you to the 64 families who have completed the Hybrid Learning survey I sent out recently. I am going to extend the time frame and resend it to those who haven’t yet responded. In order to plan a programme that best meets the needs of our whānau we need to hear from you. No question or comment goes unseen and once we collate the information we will begin to plan how we move forward. This is not a ‘new way of doing things’ and it definitely isn’t a move away from face-to-face teaching. What has become clear to us over the past two years is that the way we plan needs to be ready to move to an online space quickly. Even now we have whānau asking for ‘homework’ or ‘home learning’ because their children are at home in a recovering state and could be continuing with their learning. Having a plan that means this happens in a way that keeps every child connected to the classroom programme will support ongoing learning. This is our goal.

With regards to absences, the Ministry of Education is gathering the data to find out what is happening with attendance across the country. I am making contact with whānau where the attendance of children sits below 70%. Missing 30% of school equates to 3 weeks out of every term or 12 weeks out of every school year. A school year is generally 40 weeks long. If this becomes a trend it could impact on your child’s primary school years to the tune of 96 weeks of missed schooling. These are sobering statistics and we need a clear and consistent approach to improving attendance across the school. In the conversations I have been having, parents have been quite shocked to learn how the days add up. Part of our plan to create a hybrid learning model would mean this wouldn’t necessarily equate to lost learning time.

Tomorrow your child will come home with their mid-year report and next week there is the opportunity to you to meet with one of your child’s teachers to discuss the report and alongside your child set some goals for the remainder of the year. Engaging with whānau in this way has always been important to us. Showing your tamariki that we are invested in them and their learning is a win/win situation. We look forward to welcoming you into the classroom spaces.

Noho ora mai, Kim Gordon – Tumuaki.

We are farewelling Katie Gilbert this term. She is returning to Auckland and we are very sad to see her go. Katie, you have been such an asset to our kura and we wish you and your whānau all the best. We will be welcoming Sarah Bush to our staff for the rest of the year. She is an experienced teacher who lives locally and is excited about being a part of our whānau. Welcome to our waka Sarah.

Huge Thank You to our Board of Trustees & Four Regions Trust!

They have been successful in gaining a grant from the Four Regions Trust to contribute towards the cost of the school purchasing a Defibrillator which will be available for our community to access.

As a school we have between 20 – 250 people on site between 8.30am-5pm weekdays. We have a swimming pool which increases the chances of requiring a resuscitation aid, we are situated on a busy main highway and have had accidents outside of our school where a resuscitation unit could have been useful.

The reality of ‘being prepared’ is that it has the potential to save a life and if we never need to do that – then we will count ourselves lucky.

Schools are often seen as hubs of the community and being able to give back in this way is something the Board of Trustees deemed important. The staff has full-day First Aid Training every 2 years and they are comforted by the support of the Board to have a defibrillator on site.

This week our KIND KID is: Miguel

POU TĀHŪ

We are looking forward to seeing you at our Home School Partnership Hui next week – if you haven’t yet made a time teachers will be contacting you to try and work out a suitable time. We are also very excited about sharing our new Seesaw reporting with you as this is the first year we have tried this. You will receive a copy of their report on Thursday via Seesaw and also a hard copy. We would love to have feedback from you on what you like about this new format and if you have any suggestions for anything else you would like to see on them.

KAPA HAKA

Reminder we have our Matariki Concert at Te Matapihi on Wednesday at 5:30pm. It will be short but sweet, our tamariki have been working really hard we would appreciate all your support so bring down friends and whānau. A huge thank you to Papa Doug, Whaea Di, Miss Hall and Whaea Hine for all their hard work in getting us ready for Matariki and Pae Tamariki.

NGĀ KĀKANO

In Ngā Kākano we have been busy learning about Matariki. Did you know that Matariki is a special occasion in the New Zealand calendar that marks the start of the Māori New Year? We know that Matariki is a star cluster and have had lots of korero about the names and meaning behind each of the stars. We have also learned the Matariki Macarena which is a fun way to learn the star names! Ask your tamariki to give you a demonstration, we are sure you won’t be able to resist dancing along with them!

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Lunch in School

The Ministry provides free healthy lunches daily, you will need to provide morning tea and a water bottle for your child. Please let the office know of any dietary requirements, alternatively, you can opt-out of the Lunch Scheme by contacting the office and then provide your own healthy lunch.

SEND HEADLICE PACKING!

If you find head lice or eggs – you need to treat them. Repeat the treatment: 7–10 days later for chemical treatments and every day for wet combing if you can manage it, but at least every 2 to 3 days.

For more information, talk to your pharmacist, doctor or nurse.

If you have any second-hand uniform you would like to donate we would greatly appreciate it.

Please drop off at the office. Thank you.