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Principal's Message
Lisa Smith
From the Principal’s Desk -
Tēnā koutou katoa,
Spring has sprung! The blossoms on the trees at the back of the school are magnificent at this time of year, and it's lovely having that tiny bit more daylight at the end of the day too.
As this is the last newsletter of the term, I want to make special mention here of the staff who have so beautifully welcomed me into the team over the last 9 weeks. I am so grateful for all the sharing of Maihiihi wisdoms, the willingness to pick up extra tasks as needed, and the patience shown while I have learned 'the ways'! This is a special and talented staff team. I am grateful.
A heartfelt thanks too to Ms Christine Mills who stepped into our Room 3 class at very short notice. Ms Christine has done a fabulous job maintaining engaging routines for the ākonga. With teaching staff, particularly relievers, being very hard to find, we truly were fortunate to have Christine's skills over the last seven weeks.
It is te wiki o te reo Māori (Māori language week). The theme for Te Wiki 2024 is ‘Ake ake ake – A Forever Language’. This generation of ākonga (learners) are so fortunate to have everyday opportunities to expand their bank of known vocabulary and practice their pronunciation as they build their identity as New Zealanders. I hope you take the time this week to speak with your child/ren about what they're learning and celebrate with us the progress being made to ensure te reo Māori is a forever language.
Staffing update - with Board support, we have made two new additions to the staff team. We welcomed Charlotte Beavis into a new Teacher Aide position last week. Charlotte has been such a neat addition to the team, working alongside the Room 3 and 4 classes as a support for all in their learning.
With an eye on our growing junior class, we have also employed an additional teacher to ensure the needs of all learners are met. Andrea Pye will join us from the beginning of term 4. She is an experienced teacher, who comes to us with a wealth of experience teaching and leading in the Early Childhood sector. She will work alongside Mrs Albert through term 4. We are also in the process of recruiting a teacher for Room 3. Mrs Crotty has extended her leave through to the end of term 4. I will update parents, caregivers, and whānau as soon as this appointment has been made. Watch this space!
Property has been another hot topic over the last couple of weeks. We have a number of maintenance tasks being completed or booked to be completed. We also recently had a playground auditor assess our playgrounds. This assessment highlighted a number of issues. We closed the playground for two days to allow for the essential work to be completed, and we are now working steadily to remediate the items of very low risk.
Earlier in the year the Board and the Ministry of Education also signed off our next funding for property upgrade. We are in the early stages of scoping this work which will focus on the office, staffroom, principal office, and photocopier room spaces. If you have thoughts about how these spaces may be improved, please do get in touch. I will keep you updated as this work progresses.
Lastly today, I want to highlight the work our staff team have been doing in relation to our own wellbeing. Thanks to those of you who responded to my email regarding the use of instant messaging tools on Facebook, Dojo, and Skoolloop. It is so lovely to hear feedback from you that affirms the need for teachers to have down time. You may also have seen in the news this week that the Ministry of Education have now identified access to relief teachers as a real issue. This has unfortunately been an issue that has been growing over many years, and it has hit crisis point. Across the Otorohanga region, and across the country, schools are struggling to get teachers to provide relief when teachers are sick. We are no exception. Both the staff and Board teams have been discussing plans for addressing this in order to ensure our teaching staff have access to their leave as and when they need it to care for themselves and their whānau. I will be sending a separate message to parents and caregivers about this in the next few days.
As always, don't hesitate to get in touch or drop in to see me if you have thoughts to share or questions to ask. You are most welcome.
Ngā mihi,
Lisa
Tēnā koutou katoa,
Spring has sprung! The blossoms on the trees at the back of the school are magnificent at this time of year, and it's lovely having that tiny bit more daylight at the end of the day too.
As this is the last newsletter of the term, I want to make special mention here of the staff who have so beautifully welcomed me into the team over the last 9 weeks. I am so grateful for all the sharing of Maihiihi wisdoms, the willingness to pick up extra tasks as needed, and the patience shown while I have learned 'the ways'! This is a special and talented staff team. I am grateful.
A heartfelt thanks too to Ms Christine Mills who stepped into our Room 3 class at very short notice. Ms Christine has done a fabulous job maintaining engaging routines for the ākonga. With teaching staff, particularly relievers, being very hard to find, we truly were fortunate to have Christine's skills over the last seven weeks.
It is te wiki o te reo Māori (Māori language week). The theme for Te Wiki 2024 is ‘Ake ake ake – A Forever Language’. This generation of ākonga (learners) are so fortunate to have everyday opportunities to expand their bank of known vocabulary and practice their pronunciation as they build their identity as New Zealanders. I hope you take the time this week to speak with your child/ren about what they're learning and celebrate with us the progress being made to ensure te reo Māori is a forever language.
Staffing update - with Board support, we have made two new additions to the staff team. We welcomed Charlotte Beavis into a new Teacher Aide position last week. Charlotte has been such a neat addition to the team, working alongside the Room 3 and 4 classes as a support for all in their learning.
With an eye on our growing junior class, we have also employed an additional teacher to ensure the needs of all learners are met. Andrea Pye will join us from the beginning of term 4. She is an experienced teacher, who comes to us with a wealth of experience teaching and leading in the Early Childhood sector. She will work alongside Mrs Albert through term 4. We are also in the process of recruiting a teacher for Room 3. Mrs Crotty has extended her leave through to the end of term 4. I will update parents, caregivers, and whānau as soon as this appointment has been made. Watch this space!
Property has been another hot topic over the last couple of weeks. We have a number of maintenance tasks being completed or booked to be completed. We also recently had a playground auditor assess our playgrounds. This assessment highlighted a number of issues. We closed the playground for two days to allow for the essential work to be completed, and we are now working steadily to remediate the items of very low risk.
Earlier in the year the Board and the Ministry of Education also signed off our next funding for property upgrade. We are in the early stages of scoping this work which will focus on the office, staffroom, principal office, and photocopier room spaces. If you have thoughts about how these spaces may be improved, please do get in touch. I will keep you updated as this work progresses.
Lastly today, I want to highlight the work our staff team have been doing in relation to our own wellbeing. Thanks to those of you who responded to my email regarding the use of instant messaging tools on Facebook, Dojo, and Skoolloop. It is so lovely to hear feedback from you that affirms the need for teachers to have down time. You may also have seen in the news this week that the Ministry of Education have now identified access to relief teachers as a real issue. This has unfortunately been an issue that has been growing over many years, and it has hit crisis point. Across the Otorohanga region, and across the country, schools are struggling to get teachers to provide relief when teachers are sick. We are no exception. Both the staff and Board teams have been discussing plans for addressing this in order to ensure our teaching staff have access to their leave as and when they need it to care for themselves and their whānau. I will be sending a separate message to parents and caregivers about this in the next few days.
As always, don't hesitate to get in touch or drop in to see me if you have thoughts to share or questions to ask. You are most welcome.
Ngā mihi,
Lisa
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