Newsletter 1 Term 1, Week 2 2020

Newsletter 1 Term 1, Week 2 2020

Kia ora and welcome back to the new school year. We welcomed 13 new students and their families to our school on the first day last week and with the arrival of 3 more students this week, we now have 107 students at our school – our highest starting roll in 5 years, which we are thrilled about. Our families come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, which adds a huge richness to our community. It is up to each and every one of us to help build a connected and caring community, one that we can be proud of. One of the ways we can do this is to attend school events, such as our Mihi Whakatau last Friday, to welcome new staff and families.

Nga mihi

Jan Otene (Principal)

Welcoming new staff & students at the mihi whakatau

Community Events Term 1

To support your child as a learner, the following 3 school events are a MUST DO…

Meet the Teacher Evening

6pm, Wednesday 19 February

Our first community evening is next week. This is an opportunity to meet the Board of Trustees and teaching staff, as well other families. Please come along to find out how you can more successfully support your child at school. Look out for the flier coming home with further information.

3-Way Interviews + Scholastic Book Fair Week – Wednesday 04 and Thursday 05 March

This is your opportunity to share the hopes, dreams and aspirations that you have for your child, with his/her teacher. This is the first step towards building a home & school partnership, helping your child to thrive and feel successful at school. Bookings will go online Wednesday 19 February – check the website for booking details!  If you are unable to attend on these dates, please arrange an alternative meeting time with your child’s teacher.

Books can be purchased from the Scholastic Book Fair either for yourself or as a gift to our library. Additionally, each sale earns credits for our school to spend on new books for our library, enabling us to stock the latest ‘must have’ books for all children to enjoy. Thank you for your support.

Scholastic Book Club brochures were sent home last week and these are made available to families regularly throughout the year.  Thank you to Rochelle Dalziel and Daniella Ashdown for their organisation of this.

Current Scholastic Book Club Orders close Friday 21 February – order online now!

Parent Consultation –Leading the Way in Education 

6pm, Wednesday 11 March

Do you wonder about the changes in Education since you were a child or even how your child is now expected to learn? Then this is MUST attend, one-off opportunity to hear from key NZ facilitators that our school is working with to build a dynamic curriculum for your child. You will have the opportunity to share your ideas, ask questions and learn more about the future pathway we are putting in place to support your child to be successful. This is an RSVP event. More details coming soon!

Board of Trustees News

Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19)

It is extremely important that together we support others through this event. To those families who may have been affected in some way by this outbreak, we are thinking of you. We remind everyone that if you, or someone you have been in close contact with, have recently travelled from China, the Ministry of Health has mandated a 14 day quarantine period as from the date of return to NZ.

ERO Review Team

Next week (17 – 21 February) you may notice the ERO review team walking around our school. They will remain onsite for 4 days meeting with the Board, staff, students and parents. There have been many improvements since our last review 3 years ago, including our Modern Learning Environment, students being immersed into a Learning Culture where student agency and RIDE values are taught and a new, future-focused Charter and Strategic Plan. Our localised curriculum developments include Learning through Play and Concept Curriculum. Fundraising efforts and grant funding for items such as the Adventure Playground and playground markings have ensured that our external environment is also looking better with yearly improvements.

5YA / 10 Year Property Plan

Every 5 years Boards of Trustees receive a grant from the Ministry to improve school property. This is based on school roll size, as well as the percentage of building space legitimately being used for Ministry purposes. Hosting the RTLB cluster enables us to take maximum advantage of this. The Board is meeting with our property managers to create an improvement plan that meets both the Ministry’s guidelines and incorporates the school’s vision for future improvements.

 2019 EOY Data

Please visit our school website for the end of year data. Overall, the Board is very pleased with our achievement in reading, writing and maths. New goals have been set for target groups in 2020 and we expect that all of our students will make their expected progress in the year ahead.

Reporting to Parents

With National Standards now well and truly behind us, a new change that Year 1 – 2 parents will notice is that their child’s Mid-Year and End of Year written reports will be issued at the same time as the rest of the school, rather than on their anniversary dates. We are also investigating how to provide more ‘just-in-time’ reporting that enables parents to access information about their child’s progress and achievement throughout the year.

Teacher-Only Days

Each primary school in NZ is allowed to use 8 Teacher-Only Days (TOD) for professional development purposes. This year we have booked 2 days within term time – Term 1 Thursday 9 April (Topic: Learning through Play) and Term 2 Tuesday 28 April (Topic: DIMC maths). These dates are attached to the Term 1 holiday break to cause the least amount of inconvenience for families and to tie-in with other local schools’ TOD dates.

WHERO: Learning Through Play Environment

Welcome to windy Newlands! The new playhouse lasted approximately 48 hours before a concerned parent swiftly let us know that it was being tossed around in the gale force winds last week. We are problem-solvers and will find a way to fix the destruction!

The 3 parts of a playhouse – roof, verandah and hut

In the meantime, our junior students are loving their learning equipment and routines with their new teachers, Avi Jayasekara and Helen Pine. The team will be requesting equipment donations from our community via school newsletters – the first request is as follows:

We are wanting to build the Games and Puzzles area. If you have any educational, good -quality, unlicensed (eg. NOT Frozen, Spiderman, Star Wars etc.), complete games and puzzles that you would be happy to donate, please bring them to Avi and Helen in Whero. We are especially keen for items which reinforce  alphabet knowledge (sight/sound), sight word reading, number matching and counting, fractions etc.

Assemblies

Assemblies are held on alternate weeks beginning this week at 9.45-10.30am, Friday 14 February. Families are welcome to attend.

Sun Smartness

Remember to apply sunscreen before your child gets to school and always have a wide-brimmed hat.  Rewa Rewa sunhats with our school logo will be available for order again soon – $25 each.

We welcome the following students and their families to Rewa Rewa School: Nadil, Claudia, Freddie, Umme, Ruby, Isaac, Lucas, Andy, Naweeda, Corban, Zariya, Leo, Eva-Rose, Suvi, Malachii & Zion.