Term 3 Week 2

Term 3 Week 2 Newsletter

Principal’s Message….

It’s been a great first couple of weeks here in the principal’s chair, and a great privilege to get to know all the children and the staff better and now I’m starting to get to know quite a few parents as well. I also wrote my first principal’s report for the Board recently and I’m looking forward to my first meeting with them on Monday of next week. They do a fantastic job and it’s great to see some strong candidates putting their name forward for the election coming up. 

The principal’s report to the Board of Trustees is a fantastic document. It is focused on some key fundamentals for the school, in fact the ‘must dos’ for the Ministry in terms of compliance and making sure we have a healthy and safe environment for the kids and staff. It also covers achievement, and it’s great to work at a school where achievement is defined so broadly. Sure we know we have to have a special focus on literacy and numeracy (sometimes called the keys that unlock the curriculum). But the New Zealand curriculum is so much broader than that and we’re already focused on that. The planting day last week is a good example. Days out like that engage children in ecology, sustainability, history, and politics even. Learning through doing is most definitely a strength of Pirinoa School. 

There are a couple of Health initiatives to highlight at the moment. One is focused on educating the Yr 7-8s and their whānau on the risks of vaping. We’ll be taking the kids up to Martinborough School (18th August) to join their seniors and some other local schools to learn more about this from Life Ed educators. There is also a parent webinar (Monday 22nd August 7pm) on the same topic. We’ll publish the Zoom link when we get it.

Also just a plug for the Greater Pirinoa Medical Clinic that is in full swing over in the Community Hall (while their permanent home is being built) on Thursdays. This clinic is available to you for any health needs (including mental health) you, your child, or another family member may have. If they can’t sort it out, they can refer you to someone who can. Corina Ngatai and her team are fantastic and are keen to serve this community. Bookings through the Featherston Medical Centre. Between Nat and myself, we will also be meeting regularly with Corina so we can best support Pirinoa students. If you would like us to seek help for your child please don’t hesitate to contact myself, Jess or Nat.

Room 1 News

Once upon a time there was three bears and they lived in the woods.

Goldilocks went in the woods.

She went in the home, she ate all of the porridge.

Then dad bear said “who has been sitting on my chair”.

Then baby bear said “who has been sitting on my chair it’s broken”.

They went up stairs…… dad bear said “who’s been sleeping on my bed”.

Then mum bear said “who’s been sleeping on my bed”.

Then baby bear said “who’s been sleeping on my bed, she is still on the bed”.

By Ghia Harris

Room 2 News

Room 3 News

Room 3 is enjoying settling back into class. This term we have some new toys in our classroom which we are loving! We’re working hard on our writing and re-establishing our maths programme after a term off last term. This fortnight, we started our new reading programme; Masters of the Universe, where we take a real-world problem and work through finding a solution for it. While some of these solutions are super creative, there are some great ideas coming through. We are hopeful for a more settled term in our classroom.

BOT NEWS

BEING ON THE BOARD

In case you missed it…nominations for the board have now closed!  

Wednesday was a pretty stressful day for many schools around the country, as boards did the final push to drum up interest within their communities.  

In the struggle to get nominations, a massive shout out goes to those awesome and busy people who put forward their names.

Here’s your new board:

Tania Macdonald, Marcus Edge, Aaron Donges, Luke Tipoki, Treena Fitness, Nat Lagah (staff representative) and Jane Gibbens (Minute secretary).

I acknowledge & appreciate the board members who are standing down.  Thank you for your endless effort & support.    

The old board has their last meeting this Monday.  I’ll be touching base with the new board, so they hit the ground running for their first meeting on 19 September.  And so a new chapter begins….