Newsletter 1, Term 1 Wk 2 2021

Kia ora and welcome back to the new school year. If the last few days are any indication of how things are going to proceed at Rewa Rewa School in 2021, then the rest of the school year is looking great! Last week we welcomed back 105 very excited students who, from Day 1, have all settled into their new whanau groups with ease.

Thank you for the many thoughtful offers of help that we have had from families who are able to support others. We have been able to distribute donated stationery packs and sunhats to others within our community, who have really appreciated your kindness.

Our next school newsletters for Term 1 will be published in Week 6 (Wednesday 10 March) and Week 9 (Wednesday 31 March).

Important Dates 

The start of the year is a busy time for families. So, we thought we’d give you a heads-up on dates to place into your diary. These include:

Week 3, Wednesday 17 February

5.30 pm Pōwhiri, followed by Meet the Teacher at 6 pm

School pōwhiri to welcome our new families followed by our Meet the Teacher, including Education Outside the Classroom Week (EOTC) information. We need all students to be at school by 5.15 pm please.

Week 4, Saturday 27 February 2-5 pm

Our first Community Swimming Pool Open Day.  A flier with details will be coming home soon and published on our website.

Week 5, Wednesday 3 March and Thursday 4 March evenings

Parent/Teacher/Student 3-Way Conferences.

Week 8, Tuesday 23 – 26 March

EOTC week for all students, including Yr 5 & 6 camp at Forest Lakes.

Teacher Only Days (TOD)

The Ministry of Education has instructed schools to undertake 8 TOD over a three-year period and to give their communities at least 1 term’s notice that school will not be open on these days.

This year our two TOD are:

DIMC Maths on Friday 4 June (attached to Queens Birthday Weekend) and Learning though Play on Monday 26 July (attached to the term 2 holidays). Our teaching staff will undertake additional professional development workshops during term holidays to minimise disruption for our parents who work.

Introducing the Rewa Rewa School Team

Our 5 classroom teachers are:

Yr 4 – 6 in Ahi (fire) – Charlotte Hills (DP) and Frances Reilly

Yr 1 – 3 in Wai (water) Avi Jayasekara (Junior Team Leader), Helen Pine, Guadalupe Salinas

We welcome 3 new staff to our team: Michelle Thwaites (ORS teacher); George Goodwin (ASC Supervisor) and Laura Smith (Teacher Aide).

In your recent whanau newsletters, you will have read about the meaning behind our new whanau group names. We thank our school kaumatua and Māori community for their input at the end of last year.  If you would like to see the trees that the classes have been named after, they are on the grass outside the Office window.

Communication Between Home & School

Effective, timely communication is always the best way to keep home and school relationships open and friendly. Daily face-to-face chats with your child’s teacher are a great way of clarifying information, but if you need a bit longer, please just ask for a time to meet with your child’s teacher.

For bigger issues, particularly if they involve a 3^rd party, it is always important to find out both sides of the story, rather than making assumptions. We ask that you contact your child’s teacher in a timely matter if you have an issue that needs to be discussed. At no time should you approach other people’s children when there is a problem to be resolved.

We sometimes find the word “bullying” being used when under further investigation, the behaviours are not that of a bully. Our students are coached throughout the year on how to recognise bullying and what to do if they feel that they are being treated in a disrespectful way. It is a basic expectation that all those within our community will use our R.I.D.E. values at all times in interactions with each other. 

R.I.D.E. Values

Last year our students, teachers and community worked together to update the wording on our R.I.D.E. values posters. One of the great developments of this is that the wording has been put into ‘child speak’, so that our values can be easily understood by students and adults alike. Look out for these visuals in our classrooms and walkway.

School Policies

Each term school policies are reviewed by our community. This term they include:

• Home Learning
• Finance and Property Management

To review these, please email office@rewarewa.school.nz for login details. Our school policies are always available to refer to on www.schooldocs.co.nz

ASC

At Rewa Rewa School we run an OSCAR-approved ASC programme from 3 – 6 pm.  All bookings need to be made through our school office, especially casual bookings. We ask that parents collect their children by 6 pm.

There are 2 ASC policies to be reviewed in Term 1 and paper copies of these will be sent home for review and return:

• Staff
• Staff Code of Behaviour

Sunhats and Sunscreen

Last week we had quite a few students without sunhats. Our rule is: no hat, no playing in the sun. We recommend that all students keep a clearly named sunhat at school throughout terms 1 & 4 so that they can play outside each day. We have sunscreen available for students to use, but we strongly advise that children arrive at school wearing their own sunscreen each day.

Community Swimming Days

It has long been our desire to open the school pool during the weekends to our school community. In partnership with Easyswim, we have finally found a way to make this happen. A flier will be coming out shortly with details about our first Saturday swim.

Welcomes & Farewells

We welcome Angelina, Kameron, Samuel & Terry and their families to our school.

We have also had a few families move out of Newlands over the January holidays and we farewell Ohunayo, Ohunidunnu and Uneeb.

Preparing for COVID Lockdown

For those families who did not have children at school during the 2020 Lockdown, this is a time that could be quite daunting if it was to be repeated this year. To ensure all of our families can access our online learning environment as easily as possible, it is VITAL that you complete our 2-minute online survey when it is emailed to you next week. This will enable our teachers to know who might need help with using our online platforms (Seesaw and Hapara), as well as which devices are available at home to support learning.