Newsletter: Week 7, Term 1, 2020 Do not reply to this email please compose a new email to: [email protected] What's On: Tuesdays RSS Garden Army, 1:30 – 2:55pm, School Garden Wednesdays Pita Pit 17 March Year 7 and 8 Triathlon, Raumati South School 2 April Interschool Swimming Sports 9 April End of Term 1, 3:00pm finish _________________________________________________________________________ Principal's Message Dear Whānau, Kia ora koutou, What a fabulous two weeks in regards to living our vision of Using our hearts, heads and hands to grow courageous learners. There were so many events and learning opportunities that matched our vision it was brilliant. Swimming Carnival On Monday 9 March we had our swimming carnival at Waikanae Pool and the children loved this, especially the House participation. The children enjoyed a range of races, free time and house activities. William Pike Challenge On Wednesday 11 March we had the launch of the William Pike Challenge which all our year 7 and 8 children will be participating in. This challenge is a year long programme that encourages students to think about leadership and step out of their comfort zone to achieve new things. William Pike flew down from Auckland to speak to the community and students and his message was inspirational. It was great to have our mayor attend and speak to our children and support the programme as well. House Groups On Friday 13 March we had our House groups meet in the afternoon to play cooperative games and have a house chant competition. The idea of the House groups is to create better connections between students across the school. As the groups are made up of students from year 0 - 8 this provides the opportunities for our children to get to know each other better as well as the children to get to know different teachers across the school. Funding Approved for Rebuilding Rooms 5-10 The Board of Trustees and management team have been consulting with the Ministry of Education in recent months to secure extra property funding to rebuild outdated classrooms. We are extremely pleased to announce that the Ministry has provided $1.7m in supplementary property funding for rooms 5 - 10 to be rebuilt. We are in the very early stages of planning this project but are excited to be able to provide learning spaces that will support our teachers to deliver the curriculum in the flavour of our new vision. Further updates will be shared as they come to hand. Assemblies and whole school gatherings For the rest of the term the school will not be having whole school assemblies or whole school gatherings. This is a precautionary measure we are taking based on advice from the Ministry of Education. The planned pool launch will also be postponed to a later date in the year. COVID-19 Many of you will be aware that some of the cases of COVID-19 confirmed in New Zealand have had links to four school communities. I appreciate this could be unsettling for some of you so wanted to provide you with an update. It was very reassuring to read the information from the Auckland Regional Public Health Service that the children in these families are not showing any symptoms of COVID-19 and are doing well. Because the children continue to not show any symptoms, they were not infectious when they were at school and the Ministry of Health is confident there is no risk for the students and staff in those schools. You will also be interested to know that research published by the World Health Organisation notes that children and young people under 18 account for only 2.4% of all reported cases of COVID-19. This means we are unlikely to see widespread cases in schools and early learning services in New Zealand. The Ministry of Health’s current advice is that with continued vigilance, the chance of widespread community outbreak is expected to remain low. So we all have a role here to minimise the spread of COVID-19. Our school staff and leadership remain well prepared for the possibility there might be a case in our community. If that were to occur we are confident we can put our plans in place and know we will be supported by regional health authorities and the Ministry of Education. I am sure you are all keen to do what you can to prevent risk of infection. The best preventative steps are: wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and dry thoroughly avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands avoid sharing anything that has come in contact with saliva, whether in your living or social environments stay home when you are sick and seek medical attention cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the rubbish get adequate sleep and eat well-balanced meals to ensure a healthy immune system. Our school values continue to play an important part in all our activities. A reminder they are Respect, Empathy, Attitude and Life Long Learner (REAL). It is so important we continue to care for and support all members of our wonderful school community, especially those who may be impacted by COVID-19 in some way. If you want to know more about COVID-19 please make sure that any reading you are doing is from a reliable source. The Ministry of Health is the best source of information for New Zealand and they update this information regularly - https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus A reminder that anyone who is ill should not be attending school. The COVID-19 symptoms are a fever, coughing and difficulty breathing. If anyone has these symptoms and has recently been to a country or area of concern, or have been in close contact with someone confirmed with COVID-19, please encourage them to contact Healthline (for free) on 0800 358 5453 (or +64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or their doctor immediately. Ngā mihi Martin Hett Principal [email protected] _________________________________________________________________________ Traffic on Matai Road When dropping children off at school, please be courteous to our neighbours by not blocking their driveways. _________________________________________________________________________ Alice Anderson – Shave for a Cure Alice Anderson in year 7 has signed up for the Leukaemia and Blood Cancer fundraiser ‘Shave For A Cure’ and is touting for donations for this cause. She will be collecting sponsors up until the 2nd of May, but may bring the close-off date in nearer as the campaign progresses. So far she has accumulated an outstanding amount of just over $1000. The aim is to have her hair cut off and her head shaved at school by a ‘celebrity’. Alice is also donating her locks to the ladies who weave the wigs for cancer patients who have lost their hair through chemotherapy. The link for Alice’s donation page is: https://shaveforacure.everydayhero.com/nz/alice-the- moose-s-page Way to go Alice! _________________________________________________________________________ Hero Survey In Term 4 2019 our school introduced HERO as our student management system. This system is used by our staff to gather data, report to parents, track attendance and various other tasks. The major reason for its implementation was to reduce workload for our staff in regards to the tasks mentioned. Going forward it will also allow our learners to interact and share their learning with their whānau. To date, it has been a very effective student management system for our staff. A further function of the HERO software is that it allows us to communicate with our school community. We have released this function to our community knowing that it is in its infancy. To help us further with HERO's ability to communicate with our community, we would be grateful if you could complete the below survey by Friday 20th March. A link to the survey is here: https://forms.gle/zEmiP8iUc37uP7Yx9 _________________________________________________________________________ School pool Mural Our new swimming pool mural is in progress. Looking great - thanks Gavin Mouldey. _________________________________________________________________________ PTA The AGM for the PTA was held on Tuesday 3rd March, 2020. At the AGM the following officers were elected: Chairperson: Natasha Rakovics, Treasurer: Peter McCulloch, Communications: Annette Connolly. Meesha Jones has stepped down from the Secretary position. Meesha we thank you for work in the role over the last year. The Secretary position remains open. It is not an onerous position, mainly requiring the taking of minutes at the monthly meeting and the email distribution of them to the PTA members. If this is something you feel you would have time for, please get in touch with [email protected]. We said goodbye and thank you to outgoing Chairperson Rob Klaassen who stepped down to be able to take on a seat on the Board of Trustees. Rob, whilst we will miss you on the committee, we are sure the board will benefit greatly from your input. Also stepping down from the committee, are Selina Holley and Megan Rowe. Selina worked tirelessly on the sponsorship and signage with the Gala team, helping to organise the last two years of the Gala Raffles. Megan who has been pivotal on the committee for a number of years was involved in conceiving the Coasters event which fundraised for our amazing school Bike Track and, more recently, was part of the committee who put together the ‘Our Village Kitchen’ School Cookbook. A huge thanks to both of you for your amazing work. We welcome new committee member Stephanie Presto, thank you for coming along and joining, it is fantastic to have your support.