Principal’s Message….
Hi everybody, this principal’s message is rather important, with quite a bit to get through so put the kettle on!
Behaviour
Lately we have had some examples of some rather negative behaviour in the playground and during class time. So we are focusing our efforts at the moment on making sure Pirinoa School is a safe and happy place for our students to come to every day. We’ve got a few things on the go to achieve this.
Firstly, with the students, we are emphasizing and clarifying what our expectations are for behaviour. This all comes back of course to our school ‘lighthouse’ values of Trust, Confidence, Being Considerate, Having a Positive Attitude and being Problem Solvers. As part of this we are creating a list of school expectations that link to our values. This is a new element in our toolkit. A draft version of this is attached at the end of the newsletter.
Then we are being more consistent in applying our Behaviour Plan. It lays out the processes for children when they make a mistake and behave inappropriately. This plan is also attached below.
And lastly we are working harder to implement specific behaviour supports for children who have caused harm either to others or to something in the school e.g. intentional damage to property. These plans are based on the idea of high levels of empathy (from the adults) combined with high expectations (for the children) for behaviour and for restoring relationships and fixing up e.g. damage to property.
If you have questions about this current focus please drop in and have a chat or email me on principal@pirinoa.school.nz
Matariki
Our next marae visit will be on the 29th of June and will be focused on celebrating Matariki. Matariki is a great time to gather together to reflect on the past and think about hopes for the future. It has a significance for environmental protection but also gardening and kai.
Feel free to join us on the day. We will have a programme of Matariki themed activities for the kids and ourselves. There will be more information and a chance to sign up closer to the time. If there is an activity you think would add to the day, let me know.
New families
As is hinted in Rm One’s piece below, the junior class is growing rapidly. We have a few kids doing visits and one new entrant who has started officially (Te Arepa). Meanwhile we welcome Koda in Rm 2 and Sophie in Rm 3. I’ll get some photos of our new students soon so you can put names to faces!
Working Bees
We had an impromptu working bee on the weekend to get some of the school ready for painting (fingers crossed this will begin in July holidays). It was a great morning but it became pretty obvious to us that there are some pretty serious maintenance issues at the moment. Rotten window sills, blocked stormwater drains, blocked guttering, overgrown trees, guttering running the wrong way, etc etc. That’s on top of people slipping and sliding on the mosy, muddy turf last week. Nothing we can’t handle but we all agreed we’ll need to have more regular working bees.
So I have decided to hold two working bees per term for the rest of this year and potentially into early next year until we’ve got on top of a few things. This will be combined with some smart use of our funds to pay professionals to get onto some items.
The working bees will be on the Sunday before a Board meeting. This is partly just to keep them in my mind. If a Board meeting changes, the working bee date will stay the same.
This means the dates for the working bees for 2023 will be Sundays the 18th June, July 30th, Sept 10th, Oct 29th, Dec 3rd. The working bees will run from 8:45am – 12pm. In the week before each working bee I’ll send info about the focus and get some commitments from you so we know who is comng.
My commitment is to be at every single one and I am asking that every family comes along to at least one between now and Christmas. If Sundays don’t work for you, no worries we can set up an impromptu working bee at a time that suits. I don’t want to lay it on too thick but literally many hands will make light work and believe me there is plenty to do. Ultimately let’s all pitch in to give these beautiful tamariki the very best and safest environment for their learning and their play. If you feel that building maintenance or landscaping is not your thing, never fear, there are always other jobs to do including making snacks for the workers!
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