Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 1

We have enjoyed welcoming everyone back to school this week. Unfortunately Hannah is unwell at the moment. We hope to have her back on board by Thursday. I will be in and out of the hub over the next four weeks. I will be teaching 50% of the time and will spend the rest of the time in the office as acting DP, while Sandy is away on a principal exchange in Australia. We are lucky to have Mel filling in for me. She is an experienced Year 7 & 8 teacher, with a multitude of skills and talents.

Cyber Safety:

Over the school holidays we were alerted to several Instagram pages that involved children from our hub. These pages had been set up anonymously and asked posters to request the owner give an honest opinion of what they thought of the poster. Accounts such as these have the potential to cause a lot of damage to the well-being of our children. One page started with warm fuzzy comments, but the 'honesty' promise led to some not so complimentary comments as well. Another page contained quite hurtful comments.  We had concerns on several levels, both for the person(s) who had set up the accounts and also for the many students who were asking for opinions of themselves. We have contacted the parents of the children we knew about who were involved directly. Due to the way the pages have been set up, we were not able to identify all of the children who posted. On Monday we had a very productive discussion about this at school, and will continue to revisit cyber-safety issues. It would be great to also have discussions at home to reinforce messages of safe on-line use.  One of our key messages is, if it is not something you would feel comfortable asking or saying to a person face to face, then don't say it on-line. Thanks for your support with keeping our tamariki safe on line.

Feedback:

We would like to gather some feedback from you on how this year is going for your child. We will use this information to continue to develop what we do in the Intermediate Hub. We would also like to use some of your comments at our Year 6 Open Evening which we will be holding in a couple of weeks time. Please click on this link to complete a brief feedback form.

Ski Trip:

Many thanks to everyone for filling in the ski info form. If you offered to loan ski clothing, please name this and sent it along to school in a named bag - preferably by the end of this week. We need to match gear to children who need it, next week.

Cantamath:

Your child will have brought home a sheet outlining the choices for their Cantamath project, on Monday. If you have yet to see this sheet, please check their bag. All children need to complete a project at home over the next three weeks. If they need inspiration, there is a slideshow with photos of past projects on google classroom, which they can access at home. If they need to discuss ideas, we encourage the children to talk with us before school, after school or at break times this week. We appreciate your encouragement from home, to make sure this project is completed well.

Speech Writing:

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will be running our story telling speech motivation and start discussing ideas. Thanks to those of you who have already talked about this at home. The children will have the choice of retelling a traditional story, telling a story from the point of view of a different character, creating a fractured fairytale or telling a story of their own. On Thursday we will look at exemplars, then writing will begin next week. The more talking about the story before the children write, the better. Thank you for supporting them with this.

Winter Tournament:

Jenny now has enough coaches / managers for all Year 7 & 8 winter sport teams. Many thanks to those who are helping out.  All children involved in the tournament need to come to school with sports uniform, drink bottle, substantial lunch, shin pads and mouth guards - as required, on Monday, July 30th. The tournament takes place in the morning, with the children back at school in the afternoon.

Learning Conferences:

A reminder that school finishes at 2pm on Tuesday and Thursday next week for learning conferences. If you have yet to book, please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz or click on this link and use the code z8vr4  In our hub, please allow 30 minutes for your conference. The children will share their learning with you and their home-group, maths and, possibly, reading teachers, will drop by to discuss progress and any questions you may have. This model has worked well for our older children since we started working collaboratively several years ago.

Soup and Cheese Roll Lunch:

Next Tuesday children can bring along $3 for a tomato soup and cheese roll lunch. We would love children to bring their own cups, but do have some disposable ones for those who need to use these. Funds will support future Intermediate Hub field trips.