PĀNUI | NEWSLETTER 07 FEBRUARY 2020

Welcome Back To School 2020

It was awesome to greet our students back to school on Monday for another year and a real credit to them all for how quickly they've settled in.

Given the dry summer we've had, I'm sure many of you will have had an enjoyable break, relaxed with family and friends, enjoyed a good book or two and are recharged for another year.

At school we've appointed three new staff members, Laura Green (Hillary) from Wellington who has moved back up to Auckland having taught in both Auckland and the UK, Marena Campbell (Taylor) who comes to us from Papakura Central School, and Dayra Delgado (Te Kanawa) who comes to us from Columbia and who has taught in Columbia, USA and Melbourne. We welcome all three of them and are excited to have their experience in our school.

As a staff, we are all looking forward to making your child's year one filled with engaging learning opportunities across the full breadth of our curriculum. In the next month the teachers will be making contact with you to learn more about your child, the best ways to correspond with you and to discuss with you your ambitions for this year's learning for your child.

Reminder that school is closed Thursday 6 February for Waitangi Day and on Friday 7 February for a Teacher Only Day. Should you be in the school on Friday to use the pool or playground, please respect the teachers are working and will appreciate not being disturbed.

School Donations & BYOD

As the board voted to opt into the government's school donation scheme, we will not be sending home invoices this year for donations or other fees. We are yet to hear what Rosehill Intermediate will be charging parents of Year 7&8 students for Technology and will communicate this to parents once we know.

The school will still be charging bus fees as these sit outside the school donation scheme.

As we are in the school donation scheme, we are no longer a BYOD school. If your child has a chromebook they are welcome to bring it to school for use in the classroom but this is not a requirement. In not being a BYOD school, there is now no longer a reason for students to have their mobile phone on them during the school day. Accordingly, all students bringing their phone to school must hand it into the front office for safe keeping until the end of the day.

Uniform Shop

The uniform shop will be open on Friday 14th February at 8:15am.

At the moment we only have X-Small hats in stock, all other sizes are on order and should be in soon.

Old Style Uniform Sale

These will be on sale on Friday 14th February from 8:15 am. Get in while stocks last. Polo's, sports shirts and some shorts (some large sizes still available). These are new with the tags attached, we will be selling all for $5.00 each.

Second hand uniforms $2.00 each.

Please remember there is no Eftpos or cheques, you can pay cash or order through our online KINDO shop.

Back to School Reminders

School Assembly Our whole school assembly will now be on Thursday afternoon from 1.45pm to 2.30pm on even weeks and the calendar has been updated with the new dates. The change has come about through reflecting on how we can optimise learning for our students. As the Year 7&8's go to Tech on a Thursday, we have decided to shift assembly to Thursdays rather than having two disrupted learning days.

School Hours The school starts at 8:45 a.m. Please aim to have your child at school by 8:30 a.m. so they can get organised so they are present and ready for the start of the school day.

Buses Should your child not be taking the bus home, please either communicate this to your child's teacher(s) before school, by contacting the school office before 2:00 p.m., or via the Schoolzine app. We take every care to ensure the right students are on the right bus at the end of the day. As the bus lists are printed at 2:00 p.m., changes after this time make checking the student onto the bus problematic.

If there are changes to how your child/ren travel home can you please update this with the school office.

Named Clothing Please help us get your child's uniform, hat, togs and towel back to them. Clothing that is named will be returned to the student as it is found. Any unnamed clothing is harder to return. Students need to be responsible for their clothing.

Swimming With the heat we are experiencing we are endeavouring to ensure all students get a swim each day to cool off and refresh themselves. Swimming is part of the NZ Curriculum just as reading, writing and maths is. Just as you wouldn't want your child to miss out on one of those core learning areas, you shouldn't allow them to miss out on learning the life-long skill of swimming. You never know when they may need it in an emergency and with New Zealand's drowning statistics it makes perfect sense to have your child learn how to swim.

Sun Smart All students must wear a hat when they are outside during Terms 1&4. Any student not wearing a hat will be required to stay in a shaded area.

Water Only Other than the milk provided free by Fonterra, Te Hihi is a water only school.

Contact with Teachers We value your role as parents in educating your your child. If you need to contact your child's teacher, please contact them via email using their class name, e.g. taylor@tehihi.school.nz . Your child's teacher(s) will respond when they have time; more often than not this will be outside the hours of 8:45 to 2:45. Therefore, if your need to contact the teachers urgently, please phone the school on 09-292-7706.

Sending our Aroha to Australian Primary Schools

The Auckland Primary Principals' Association has called on schools to show their support to our Australian schools who have been affected by the bush fires over summer. With Valentines Day coming up on Friday 14 Feb (subtle reminder to my fellow males) APPA has chosen this day to Send our Aroha to Australian Primary Schools.

At Te Hihi, we'll be having a Yellow and Green Mufti Day next Friday, 14 February. Students wearing mufti, must bring a gold coin donation.