22 July 2022
Kia ora ngā whānau o Maihiihi - Greetings to all our Maihiihi Families,
Warm Winter greetings to everyone. I hope you are all keeping well and warm as we head into the heart of winter. As you are gearing up to hit your busy season on the farms we are gearing up to return to school for the start of Term 3. Teachers have been beavering away preparing this terms learning experiences and the builders have been flat out getting as much done as they can while there are no students at school! The expected time-frame for building completion should be within the next 2-3 weeks - we wait with fingers crossed x
IMPORTANT DATES: We have a lot of activities planned for this term and I have attached this document to this message as well as posting this on our school facebook page (see attached). Print it off and stick it on the fridge for easy reference. Things sometimes change so also keep an eye on our school FB page also.
Here are a few notices to keep you up to date with what's happening:
MASKS: New Zealand has remained at the orange setting and no new requirements have been mandated for schools. COVID-19 and its variants still remain an “active force” in our community however. This coupled with winter illnesses, means that we are all needing to manage our health appropriately - whether that be through mask wearing, testing, self-isolation, correct hand hygiene and coughing & sneezing etiquette, rest and fluid, seeing a GP and/ or contacting Healthline. Our current comprehensive health and safety measures remain in place during this time. Recent recommendations from the MOE strongly advise mask-wearing from Year 4 and up, and after discussion with our BOT, we have decided to continue with our 'personal choice' advice. You know what is best for your child and we will respect that decision. We do have plenty of child and adult masks at school and if you would like your child to wear one we will encourage that as much as practicable in the classrooms.
STUDENTS WHO ARE SICK/ SYMPTOMATIC: Keep them home. Test them. See your GP. If in doubt give the office a call. Don't forget to give us a call or use school loop / class dojo to record an absence.
QUIZ NIGHT FUNDRAISER: This was a HUGE success for our school. Thanks again to the team who organised this. The final figures are yet to be tallied but we can confidently say we raised close to $18,000.00!!!! That is massive. Thanks so much to our wonderful community for their support.
WHITTAKERS CHOCOLATE FUNDRAISER: Just a reminder that all money must be returned to school by Friday 29th July please. We also have 10 boxes left so if you want another one let Julz in the office know. This has been a great fundraiser for our school and we thank you so much for your support. Each child/family that sells a box goes into the draw to win a Fit Bit (2 up for grabs) - the more boxes you sell the more times your name goes into the draw. All money raised will go towards our Senior Camp & Adventure Week costs.
Year 7-8 SENIOR CAMP AND Rms 2 & 3 ADVENTURE WEEK COSTS: Teachers have sent home letters with an indication of the total cost of attending these activities. I would encourage you to start making payments towards these costs instead of a large sum closer to the time to make it more manageable. At the beginning of Term 4 we will be able to give you a final costing for these activities once we have deducted all the fundraising monies. Please do not ask teachers before then as we we won't know until the final fundraiser has been tallied.
FUNDRAISING COMING UP: Special lunches, Oils & Spices, Oxford Pies, Sausage Sizzle BBQs at special events, Milo & Bikkies morning teas and possibly a disco. More info to come.
FONTERRA BREAKFAST CLUB: This will be starting once our Kapai Kitchen learning space is completed by hopefully Week 3. Breakfast will be on offer to any child who wants it. It would be great if we could get a couple of parents on hand to help run this in the mornings leaving staff available to prepare for the day. Let the office know if you can help out. Thanks Fonterra and Sanitarium!
Enjoy this amazing weather although I see a cold snap and more rain are coming! Until next week,
Hei kona, Vanessa.