Dear Parents/Caregivers
One of the
things that I really like about Papakowhai School is the sense of community
that we enjoy together. This is evident in the way that our older pupils look
after our younger pupils. There was a real buzz at 10:30 yesterday as children
got into whanau groups in preparation for the picnic on Thursday.
It was great
to see our new Year 8 leaders stepping up to explain how the day will work and
organising children so that everyone has a buddy for the day. This is a very
special feature of a full primary school.
The weather is
looking great for our picnic tomorrow and I hope that you can join us even if
it is just for 30 minutes down at the lagoon.
Classes for
2013 are working well and I have been around rooms looking at children’s work
and seeing classes in action. Teachers have spent the last several weeks
establishing class norms and ways of working together and these are being well
established. I look forward to you being able to meet this year’s teacher at
our interviews next week. Why don’t you
also check out our new classrooms while you are here? I will also be in my
office both evenings and parents are welcome to pop in and talk with me or make
an appointment if you would like to.
Another way
that shows that our community is working together for the best of our children
is with the wonderful volunteer help we receive. In the past week we have had
people put their hand up for netball, Maths support, special needs support,
spelling testing, camp helpers and parent helping in classrooms.
We really
value this support. If you would like to help but don’t know what the needs are
I would love to talk with you.
We are also
building community in an online environment because we know that the majority
of our parents cannot come to school between 9 and 3pm. All classes have a
class blog and we have been appreciating the comments that you have been
posting. You may have noticed that there are also 3 new blogs called, Reading,
Writing and Maths. These blogs have been posted to give you ideas about how you
can support your child at home. Teachers will explain this further at the
interviews next week.
Swimming has
been a good example of community and school working together. The participation
level has been brilliant. Todd Morton and his team from Easy Swim have done a
great job with the children and we have seen many Totara children improve from
being able to swim less than 40 metres to more than 200! Currently we have our
new entrant children swimming for 2 weeks. Working in a concentrated 2 week
block seems to be working well for children’s confidence and progress. In the
week starting 11th of March it will be Mrs Trlin, Mrs Dacre and Miss
Simpkins classes’ turn in the pool. The week starting the 25th of
March it will be Miss Koorey and Mrs Smith/Mrs Lewis’ class turn.
I hope you are
enjoying this golden weather.
Kind regards
Mark Smith
PRINCIPAL
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