Newsletter 1, Term 1 Wk 2 2022

18 Padnell Crescent Newlands Wellington 6037

Newsletter 1, Term 1 Week 2

Wednesday 09 February 2022

Reminders

  • As we are trying to minimise the risk of Covid-19 Drop spreading in our school, we ask that you drop off and pick up your child/ren outside the school gate.  If you don’t need to come in, please STAY OUTSIDE the GATE.  Thank you.
  • Wide-brimmed sunhats are compulsory in term 1

Last week we had a wonderful start to the term. Our 122 students arrived back from their holiday break bursting with enthusiasm about seeing their friends, teachers and starting their learning for 2022. Likewise, our staff were equally excited to see them.

Thank you for the huge turnout that we experienced on our Meet the Teacher interview day on Monday. The connections made have definitely set a positive scene for the year ahead. My huge thanks to the classroom teaching team who worked a 7-hour day to undertake this task as, well as undertaking home visits to some families during the week. Your dedication to our community is outstanding.

We welcome all of our new families to our school. With faces hidden under masks, and no class picnic gatherings, it is difficult to make connections.  However, if you notice a new face, please say ‘hi’ and introduce yourselves to these families.

We welcome Liz Martindale to our teaching team this year. Liz is our Hau Class teacher (Yr 3-4).

Covid-19

Thank you for your amazing support with reading and putting into practice the new measures in place this year with the emergence of Omicron. Our staff are also making adjustments as to how they group and teach their students, as well as making themselves understood under a mask. We are thankful that our children are incredibly resilient and flexible – they remind us that we can adapt, we can continue to live our lives in relatively the same way as usual and we can still connect with each other. We appreciate those parents and caregivers remaining outside the school gates for drop-offs/pick-ups. A reminder that all those aged 12 years and older coming onsite must wear a mask.

We will continue to keep you informed throughout the term ahead. Our Covid Response team (see the school website for Covid-19 Bulletins), is wading through daily pages of documentation from the MOE and other official sources. We meet to discuss these and then send key information to our parents, but in a more succinct version. We are very aware of the importance of getting the balance right between too much/too little information and keeping you informed in a timely manner, but not overwhelmed. It is our intention to make the best decisions that we can for our school and to try to remain open as long as we can. Just expect that changes may occur very rapidly. Please ensure that you refer to the Covid-19 bulletins as they roll out. Bulletin #3 (published yesterday, 08/02/22), outlines the steps that we intend to follow to help us manage learning (onsite or at home), if/when Covid-19 affects our community. Please stay in touch with Jan Otene, our principal, if you need any support.

Localised Curriculum @ Rewa Rewa School

The results of the November 2021 survey to our parent community (see attached), gave us a clear message that our parents want to know more about the curriculum topics that their children are being taught. With this in mind, we are introducing initiatives that we hope that you will find useful.

School Newsletter where curriculum will have its own section in our 3-weekly newsletters. This may include topics such as assessment data and national priorities, such as a change in emphasis from ‘achievement’ to ‘progress’ in school reporting, as well as community survey results etc.

Class Newsletters which will sent by your child’s teacher/s at least twice per term to keep you informed about the curriculum topics that each class will be undertaking. Parents who are experts in an area being taught, such as marine biology or cultural dance are welcome to let us know they’re available as a source we can tap into. If you know of outside experts or places that we could visit, please tell us about these.

Curriculum chat groups will take place either online (ZOOM sessions) or in person at hui held at school, depending on the Covid-19 environment at the time. A range of topics such as Learning through Play, English Language learners, local Maori curriculum and Wellbeing have already been earmarked for the year ahead.

Book into your diary now: Monday 21 February 6 pm – Learning through Play (LTP).

This session will be facilitated by Sarah Aiono, CEO of Longworth Education. She will be talking about why LTP is an important programme for us to continue to offer our students. LTP also supports our Active Learner Skills focus where we aim to develop lifelong learning skills in our students. This is the 3rd year that our school has undertaken professional development in LTP. This year our yr 1 – 4 classes will be undertaking LTP at a shared time and yr 5 – 6 will begin their Passion Projects, through an LTP lens.

For those who would like to know more about LTP, and would like the opportunity to ask your own questions, we’ll be sending out invites to the LTP ZOOM session very soon.

BOARD NEWS

2022 Teacher Only Days

Our two Teacher Only Days in 2022 will be Thursday 14 April, attached to the Term 1 holidays at Easter and Friday 03 June, attached to Queen’s Birthday weekend.  Please mark these in your calendar now, as school will be closed on these days.

SchoolDocs Policies

Our school policies on areas such as governance, teaching and learning, behaviour and health and safety can be found on our SchoolDocs website. Please email office@rewarewa.school.nz for login details. All of our policies are reviewed online over a 3-yearly cycle and each term parents are welcome to join with the school board in submitting an online review of policies scheduled for review.

At the start of the year a useful doc to share with our community is the Complaints Procedure policy (see below). This flowchart shows you the best way to proceed with a complaint if, after first talking to the person involved, your issue has not been resolved.

Charter & Strategic Plan 2022 – 2024 / End of Year Whole School Data (2021)

Every year the board is required to send to the Ministry of Education (MOE) their updated Strategic plan and 2021 Data & Variance Goals/2022 Variance Goals. Once these have been sent, we then publish the key points from these documents on our website. At the end of 2021 our school-wide achievement yr 1 – 6 in the key literacy and maths areas were:

Please note where lower numbers of students are apparent, the % is not as meaningful.

Teachers use this information to inform their teaching practice and goals for the following year. The board also looks at ways that they can support teaching and learning through resourcing, funding and professional development.

Goal 2 of our Strategic Plan is about investing in building the capabilities of our team. For the year ahead, key professional development for our teaching team will include: Wellbeing (The Resilience Programme), Learning through Play, DMIC maths, Assessment: PACT, Localised Māori curriculum through Kura Ahurea and Better Start Literacy for junior students.

Board Elections

Board elections will take place in September 2022. It is important that we have strong community representation to govern our school well. Please watch for invitations to two community events in term 2 which will offer opportunity for you to learn more about what this role entails.

Board presiding member: Mark Williams with Naomi Godfrey, Angela Schleif and Ambresh Kapoor, Jan Otene (Principal) and Charlotte Hills (Staff Rep)

Hauora Parent Group

Two years ago we began a Parent Hauora (Wellbeing) Group as a way of helping families in our school community who found themselves in need of support. Any parent/caregiver can volunteer to be placed on this list and at times throughout the year may be contacted to ask if they can help. Sometimes this has been groceries or petrol/supermarket vouchers, at other times help with transporting a child to school etc. 

Most of the time, the recipient of the support is kept anonymous.  Lauren Hewitt, is the parent coordinator of this group who contacts volunteers and organises goods, which Jan Otene (Principal), or Charlotte Hills (DP) deliver to recipients. 

This year, with Covid-19, some families may need to quickly self-isolate and with a number of families new to the area, we are adding an additional method of support – Click & Collect helpers. 

If your family has been directed to isolate and it is not possible to organise delivery of an online grocery order, please contact Lauren (lozhew@gmail.com or text if more urgent to 02040151721), and she will try to organise a volunteer to collect your online Click & Collect order for contactless delivery to your door.

If you would like to be added to our list of volunteers or need assistance please contact Lauren by email on lozhew@gmail.com or text if more urgent to 02040151721

Thank you for your ongoing support.

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2022 Term Dates

Term 1

Wed 02 February – Thursday 14 April

Mon 07 February – Waitangi Day Statutory Holiday Observed, School Closed

Thu 14 April—Teacher Only Day, School Closed

Fri 15 April—Good Friday, School Closed

Term 2

Monday 02 May – Friday 08 July

Fri 03 June—Teacher Only Day, School Closed

Mon 06 June—Queen’s Birthday, School Closed

Fri 24 June—Matariki, School Closed

Term 3

Monday 25 July – Friday 30 September

Term 4

Monday 17 October – Thursday 15 December (School closes at 1pm)

Mon 24 October—Labour Day, School Closed

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Community Consultation Dec 2021.pdf