Picnic and Parent Interviews

Our annual Aotea Lagoon Picnic as today. The weather was perfect and so were the children. We all had such a wonderful time.

It was great seeing younger students with their older buddies in whanau groups

Thank you to family members who also joined us at the lagoon.

We are having parent/teacher meetings on March 3^rd and 4^th. School will finish at 2pm on these days, and interviews will start at 2.15pm. Each appointment is 15 minutes. Appointments to see the teachers can be made via a website, www.schoolinterviews.co.nz .

The log-in code is DGVTQ. To book:                

·         enter your name

·         enter your email  address

·         select the number of children you are booking for

·         Enter the children’s name/s and select their class, then their teacher.

·         Select the interview times you want.

We would really like all our parents to come to this meeting.

Today you received a letter including:

·         A sheet showing how we expect your child to be tracking against National Standards based on their progress in 2013. For Year 1 children you will receive a sheet showing the standard required at the end of one year at school.

·         You will also be given a sheet of all your contact details which we would like you to check before the interview.

·         A Goal Setting page to fill in with your child, if he/she is in Years 2 – 8. There are Help Notes included to assist with doing this.

Parent Teacher Interviews Term 1 2014

We are having parent/teacher meetings on March 3^rd and 4^th. School will finish at 2pm on these days, and interviews will start at 2.15pm. Each appointment is 15 minutes. Appointments to see the teachers will be done via a website.  It is a simple, accurate system. www.schoolinterviews.co.nz . Children in Years 5-8 are welcome to attend.

The log-in code is DGVTQ. To book:                               

·         enter your name

·         enter your email  address

·         select the number of children you are booking for

·         Enter the children’s name/s and select their class, then their teacher.

·         Select the interview times you want.

You will be sent an email confirming your booking details. You will control your bookings and can make them to suit you, though like any system the earlier you book the more likely you will get what you want.  Changing or cancelling your booking can be done at any time. The booking website will close at noon on Monday 3^rd . If you are not able to make a booking online please phone the school office.

We would really like all our parents to come to this meeting.

Prior to the meeting you will receive:

·         A sheet showing how we expect your child to be tracking against National Standards based on their progress in 2013.

·         You will also be given a sheet of all your contact details which we would like you to check before the interview.

What do we need from you?

·         Complete a goal setting sheet that will be sent home next week and bring this to the interview.

·         We would like to know how your child is settling into school this year

·         We would like to know about how your child learns best and what their strengths and weaknesses are

·         We would like to know about your child’s personality and how we can work best with them at school. 

First Powhiri for 2014

Today we welcomed our new children, their siblings and families to our school with a whole school powhiri. This is an important tradition at our school.

Senior students take on leadership roles of giving the karanga to welcome the manuhiri into the hall, leading the waiata and giving speeches. All children participate in the powhiri and contribute through singing and listening.

Many families have never experienced a powhiri before. Some feel nervous beforehand but overwhelmingly people really appreciate being welcomed in this way. I like that our children feel comfortable with this process so that when they attend a powhiri later on in education or at work, or in a personal context, they can feel confident that they know what to do.

If you have never been to one of our powhiri they will be held on the third Wednesday of each term in 2014.  You would be most welcome.

Artsplash

Dear Parents/Caregivers

We are really celebrating the Arts at Papakowhai School this term. We are participating in the Artsplash festival and we have our own home grown Art Exhibition at the end of term.

On Wednesday next week we have our drama group performing at the State Opera House. They are doing a parody of High School Musical and it looks really cool.

The following week our choir and wearable arts group will be presenting at the Michael Fowler Centre. This promises to be a wonderful evening. I have had a sneak peek at some of the costumes and they really do look WOW!

The next night we have our dance group performing at the Michael Fowler Centre. This dance has been choreographed and organised by some of our senior students.

We also have a selection of our visual art being exhibited in the Renouf Foyer of the Michael Fowler Centre from September 9 -13. I am very proud of all of the performance groups and wish them well for their participation in the Artsplash festival.

If you are not able to attend the festival you won’t miss out because our own art exhibition is running in our school hall from September 24- 25. Our performance groups will also be presenting some of their work at the exhibition.

So that we can keep the cost of entry to a gold coin donation for our art exhibition, I am looking for a sponsor or sponsors for the event. At the exhibition we will have a colour A5 programme and we are looking to cover the back of it with sponsors’ messages or advertisements. We want to divide the A5 page into 8 sections and sell them for $100 each. If you don’t want to be named you are welcome to make an anonymous donation. The $800 raised will cover the cost of hiring screens (which we are getting from 3 different sources) for the event. If you would like to purchase one or more of these sections please contact me.

Thank you for your on-going support for the school and your children’s learning. It has been great to see over 90% of parents attending interviews.

Kind regards

Mark Smith

PRINCIPAL

Consultation

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Community Consultation Survey

The Board of Trustees is undertaking its annual community consultation. We want to receive feedback and ideas to inform our planning for 2014.

Today each family has been given a booklet that contains:

• The current strategic plan.
• The 2013 achievement targets for the school
• The 2012 National Standards data for Papakowhai School and 2013 progress data.

We would like as many families as possible to complete the survey. You can do this by going to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N99S56B . If you are not able to complete this survey online please contact the Office and we will provide you with a paper copy.

Thank you for taking a small amount of your valuable time to help us plan for your child’s education.

Health Consultation

It is important that we consult with you about the health programmes we run at Papakowhai School. Do you know what is being taught? Are you happy with the content and the age it is delivered to?

We currently run a sexuality education programme in Year 7 and 8. Do you think this should be extended to Year 5 and 6? Have I got your attention yet?

We run a Keeping Ourselves Safe unit that includes preventing child abuse but we currently don’t run the Kia Kaha, prevention of bullying programme. Have we got that right?

The Life Ed programme speaks to our younger students about healthy eating and caring for our bodies. This extends to drug and alcohol education for our Year 7 and 8’s. Are you happy with this?

If these are issues that you would like to have input into, then please come to an evening I am hosting on August 21^st. We will have coffee and dessert and look at the content of the programmes we offer, and some of the ones we don’t. Make sure you have your say. RSVP to mark@papakowhai.school.nz by Friday 16^th August. The evening will start sharp at 7:30pm in the staffroom and finish by 9:30pm.

Kind regards

Mark Smith

PRINCIPAL

Kapo Kapo Festival

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Papakowhai School participated in the Kapo Kapo festival last week to celebrate Matariki. It was a great night. Here is some of the feedback we received.

The event was amazing and I was so proud of our school for all the hard work that was put in to make our performance one of the best. What a wonderful school that can all join together and put in so much work to achieve such high praise. It is a school that I am proud to be a part of. Finally I would like to say well done to all the children involved that put so much into the performance.  You could see that they were all 100 % committed and were giving it their all.

Just a quick note to say how wonderful it was to be a Papakowhai parent last night! The kids looked so polished and poised and performed so well given their short time together. It's been really cool for my daughter to have something she can connect to culturally and she's thoroughly enjoyed it.

I just wanted to say how fantastic the Kapa Haka group was last night. You would never know that Papakowhai hadn't had a group in 7 years. Well done. Wouldn't it be great if the rest of the school could see it at the end of term assembly? Well done again. I loved watching them. 

My granddaughter was one of the Papakowhai School children who really enjoyed the experience of performing last night. I think that they presented a very polished performance. For all of the children it is another of the memorable experiences of being part of a group, and learning new skills and building self-confidence. It is really appreciated!

Just wanted to say that I was so proud of the school tonight at the Kapo Kapo, what a great performance by our young ones. You would never have known that they hadn't performed together before, it was just fantastic. Thanks for all the work you put into making this happen, and please pass on my thanks to our tutors.

You can the photos of the evening at:

http://www.jackpenmanphotography.com/jacksp/generate_category_Final.cgi?sesid=dntsid_4231283KY1POPZLFg&catno=60051&crc=75944720 

The videos of the show are going up gradually – they take ages and have been loading since Saturday!

Ours will be uploaded soon to:

http://www.r2.co.nz/20130619/

Communication

In any organisation communication is very important. I know that in my role as the principal of a school even when I think I have done a good job of communicating, often more is still needed.

One of the areas that communication sometimes breaks down is about homework.  I wanted to clarify some points that have caused some misunderstandings.

Every child in the school has homework every week. If your child says they have none, or you don’t know what is expected, or the homework is not set at the correct level  (particularly in the case of Mathletics) please contact your child’s teacher. The best way to do this is by email. All of our teachers’ emails can be found on our website. Just click on the “Our People” tab. If you don’t get a reply within 24 hours feel free to copy me in and I will follow it up.

If your child does not return their completed homework, or does not complete all of their homework, or does not get the required signatures he or she will receive a letter from the teacher.

When your child receives a letter they are not kept in, they do not have to copy out any lines or part of the letter and they are not punished in any way. They are just given the letter to take home. The purpose of the letter is to communicate with you that the homework was not done, not handed in or not completed as per the class guidelines.

We want you to sign and return the letter to us so we know that you received it.  If your child did do their homework but they forgot to hand it in then just initial the letter to say it was received and send the book in the next day. If it comes as a surprise that your child didn't do their homework then this is an opportunity for you to talk with them and make them do it. If part of the homework was not done or signed you are welcome to give a reason for this. Your child will not be challenged about the reason given. If the level of homework is too hard or too easy for your child this is also an opportunity for you to communicate that back to your child’s teacher.

I wrote these letters because we found that there was a wide range of consequences across the school for not completing homework. We also wanted to clearly communicate with parents when homework wasn't being done so people stopped asking, “So why doesn't my child have any homework?” We also wanted to clearly communicate that we believe that setting and monitoring homework is the responsibility of the teacher and making sure that the completion of the homework is the responsibility of the child with an appropriate level of parental support and guidance.

These letters have upset some people. That is not my intention and if you would like to give me feedback on these letters you are more than welcome to.