Tena Koutou Katoa Talofa Lava Kamusta Malo el lelei Mauri Hello Everyone
The beginning of the term is flying as we are already busy with “back to normal” events. The children are excited about competing in inter-school sports again and our recent orienteering results were very pleasing. We were delighted to hold our first full school assembly, for some time, in the hall. It was lovely to gather the children together again. Once again children can attend Friday Masses at the Church in their teams.
This week we have had several educators back in the school supporting our teaching and learning programmes. We have had both our DMIC/Inquiry Maths and HAL/Healthy Active Learning facilitators working alongside our teachers in class and leading staff meetings. We also have had facilitators from Cognition working with the school on literacy PLD. Tomorrow, several of our teachers are attending a PD/Professional Development Day about the introduction of our new NZ Religious Education curriculum. It will be exciting to see how this has been modified to meet the needs of our young Catholics today. We are also looking at Social Sciences/Aotearoa NZ Histories’ new curriculum so our teachers have lots of learning happening for themselves at this time.
Next Friday will be our Teacher Only Day (postponed from Term 1 due to Covid). An advisor from the Catholic Education Office will be taking us through an RE paper to further teacher knowledge supporting the catholic nature of our school. Each year, teachers in Catholic schools are expected to complete 12 hours of professional development supporting our personal growth and guidance when teaching our Catholic faith. I can assure you that this year we will easily meet this commitment.
You may have seen that I promoted sponsorship of student attendance dues through the parish bulletin. We were delighted to have some responses to that, which will now lessen the financial burden of a few of our school families who have faced financial hardship through these Covid years. We are so grateful to have such a supportive parish community. We also would like to wish Fr Robert a speedy recovery after his recent illness and look forward to seeing him back at school. Father usually visits us each week.
We welcomed parents back at school for some of our meetings after school hours. Thank you to those parents who attended Pasifika and Ako 2 camp meetings. We continue to ask adults not to enter classrooms during the school day when students are present.
Next week is Bully-Free NZ week and so we will be having a “pink” mufti day for our children on Wednesday. We will send out a reminder next week. Please read the community notice below reminding us to “Beat the Bugs” this winter. We recognise that we will need to be extra vigilant as we prepare for winter illnesses alongside Covid 19. Mask wearing, ventilation and good hygiene continue to be promoted in our school.
Wishing you and your family a lovely autumn weekend. Enjoy this weather while it lasts.
Stay safe and God bless.
Ngā mihi nui
Ursula Hall
Principal – Tumuaki
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