Newsletter 7, Term 3 Wk 3 2022

We are excited about the many different things bubbling away in our school at the moment, including property improvements, the proposed top field bike and athletics track development, the mural being developed which will share our local ‘story’ and of course enrichment learning opportunities such as badminton, gymnastics, Mathswell and EPro8 for our students.

This term there will be 2 events for our parent community to attend. Please read the newsletter for details and put these into your calendar NOW.

Unfortunately, the only photos for this newsletter are of cars parked by thoughtless drivers, directly in front of our school patrol area.

Pedestrian Safety Check

A reminder – if your child crosses Stewart Drive, another parent has on two occasions in the last week seen children from our school running across the road in front of traffic AND not using the pedestrian crossing. Please have that important chat with your child ASAP! We have also shared this message with our students.

Covid-19

Although our Covid numbers at the moment are very low, most year 4+ students are wearing masks and most staff are also, when indoors near students. This will continue until Friday August 19. We are ventilating classrooms using MOE provided air purifiers and by keeping doors/windows open. Air quality is measured by CO2 monitors provided by the Ministry of Education. Our Covid-19 Risk Analysis Policy has been accepted by our community with no adjustments required, as no community feedback was received. Thank you for putting your trust in us whilst we continue to work hard to keep those in our community safe and well.

Curriculum Refresh

You may have heard through education media the phrase “Curriculum Refresh”. Our government has been undertaking the biggest review of Education since 2012. This will also involve the development of a framework which schools can use to design, write, and develop their own local curriculum. As part of this process it will be important that we consult with our community, especially our Māori whānau and mana whenua.

The Ministry of Education has started releasing information about how this will be rolled out in schools over the coming months. To date, principals were invited to the Maths refresh workshop last term with the next step being the upskilling of lead teachers and classroom practitioners. From what I have heard, the focus will be on quality teaching and learning, developing localised curriculum content and measuring student progress using progressions rather than curriculum levels/stages. As we find out more, we will bring our community on board.

Curriculum Hui #4 – Celebrating our Cultural Diversity and Connecting with Each Other

Thank you for the wonderful turnout at our last hui (The Resilience Project). We are hoping that by holding these curriculum hui evenings our parents will become more informed about what is being taught to their children and why. At this term’s hui we encourage our families for whom English is a second or other language to come together and meet each other, so that we can develop connections with each other.

At Rewa Rewa School our student population becomes more diverse each year. This is something we are incredibly proud of because we value the cultural richness that each of you bring to our school.

Currently our families come to us from all over the world, including…

American (2) British/Irish (4) Chilean (2) Chinese (8) Croatian (1) Egyptian (3) Filipino (3) Indian (18) Japanese (3) Maori (22) Nepalese (2) NZ European (49) Papua New Guinea (2) Samoan (8) South African (1) Sri Lankan (3) Turkish (1) Vietnamese (5)

We think 6pm, Thursday 25 August is the perfect time for those who would like to, to connect with others of your own or a different ethnicity and help us to explore how we can support and learn more about each other. A personal invitation with RSVP will be sent home to families this Friday. Free childcare will be available for school-aged children.

School Stationery

If your child’s stationery needs to be replenished during the year you will hear from their classroom teacher. Please let the Office know if we can support you with this.

How Not to Park at Rewa Rewa School

These are two recent examples of driver behaviour that we are trying to eliminate. If this was you, we ask that you please show consideration for the safety of others when around our school.

The driver of this silver Toyota Aqua NDC766 parked on yellow lines across the road patrol to drop off their child. Plenty of legal parks were available.

The driver of this white Toyota Corolla NRD875 turned and drove up onto the footpath at the school crossing, then parked on yellow lines to drop off their child.

School Board News

Our current school board will be holding their final board meeting next week, with only 1 of the team standing for re-election. Mark Williams, Angela Schleif and Ambresh Kapoor have been board members, for varying lengths of time over the last 9 years. We are very grateful to Mark Williams for his leadership role, as board chair, over the last 6 years and we thank these parents for their huge service to our school during this time. They have helped to oversee the development of the school pool, two new playground upgrades, 6 classroom upgrades, the RTLB host school agreement and assisted with two very successful ERO visits.

September Board Elections – Nominees

We are incredibly fortunate to have 8 parents who have put their names forward as nominees for election to our board. With 5 places to fill, it is very important that our parent community take an active interest in this election and vote by September 7. To help you to get to know the candidates, we have placed each nominee’s photo and blurb on the window outside the school office, so that you can read what they have to offer and make an informed decision. We wish each of the nominees well.

The nominees are: Kate Baker, Naomi Godfrey, Kate King, David Nowak, Tanya Radford, Jared Simons, Jane Willingale and Miranda Zander.

Community Consultation

We thank you for your engagement in the number of consultations sent home over the last few weeks requiring your input. Thank you to everyone who sent in their comments with regard to these – the Board and I very much appreciate hearing from you so that we can move forward with confidence, knowing that we have heard from our community on the following topics:

• Reporting to Parents – Mid-Year Review
• Risk Analysis – Covid-19
• Biennial Health & PE Community Consultation

Congratulations to Gabrielle Nowak who won the $30 grocery voucher for completing the 2022 Health Community Consultation survey!

Summaries will be presented to our board at the next meeting and will reported to our community following this.

Te Ao Māori Celebration

In week 9, Thursday 22 September we are inviting all families to attend a good old fashioned school concert – our first one in a LONG time! Last week all whānau should have received a flier about an evening where every child in the school will be singing or performing with their class and for some, the school’s kapa haka performance group also. We also hope that we will have our newest mural ready to officially unveil. Our kaumātua Todd Wano and Charlotte Hills (DP), have been working hard behind the scenes to create a mural which shares our school’s story within the Newlands/Paparangi area. The evening will begin with shared kai/food, as long as Covid-19 conditions permit this at the time.

We welcome Advaith & Sophie, along with their families to Rewa Rewa School.  We hope you enjoy learning with us!

Thursday 25 August                  6pm                     

Wednesday 7 September

Thursday 22 September           6pm

Friday 11 November

Curriculum Hui – Celebrating our Cultural Diversity and Connecting with Each Other

Voting Closes for Board Elections

Te Ao Māori Celebration (5pm shared food)

NIS Orientation Morning – pre-enrolled Y6s only

Term 3

Monday 25 July – Friday 30 September

Term 4

Monday 17 October – Thursday 15 December (School closes at 1pm)

Mon 24 October—Labour Day, School Closed