Newsletter

No bruising but three outstanding wins at the Golden Oldies tournament on Sunday. As the amber liquid flowed at the after match, there was lots of “The older I get the better I was,” to quote a phrase.

Well wearable arts is starting to take shape and the classrooms are full of interesting looking donations of stuff and there are also a large number of bemused parents asking the teachers, what do I need to do?
By now the design phase should be well in advance or over and the children will be constructing their piece of Art. I must have been out of my mind to agree to this. When Gill, Lyn and Glenda returned from Wellington last year we never knew just how big this would grow. Thanks to all the community who are getting in behind us and supporting the project. If you can’t get down here during the day to support your kids the best way is to show up on the night. We are finalising costs and we will have the ticket prices out soon. There will be limited numbers so as soon as they are available we will release them.
Lets all make this a night to remember.

On Monday staff gathered to examine the way we assess our children’s writing. It was interesting to se how much we all focus on just the surface features of a piece of writing like spelling and punctuation. These are both very important (I wish my teacher had spent a bit longer on me with them) but only a part of the writing package. We will be looking at the impact of the piece, the ideas and the use of sentences starters and endings. Over the next few months we will be reviewing our writing starting from the junior school right through. It was and will be a big task but one that was definitely needed.

I spoke to Linda and Pip this morning about teacher development, maybe not a riveting topic for all of you but it has lead me to re-think a number of things. With the new Board soon to be elected, and please don’t forget this Friday is the cut off, we need to be educating our staff as we educate our students. You don’t simply walk out of University and know everything! We want to make our teachers the best and that means a commitment from them to get better and for the school to provide opportunities to follow that path. If our children a the future then educating all the people guiding them to that future would seem to be important.

The weather is like ground hog day and I know that a few showers are on the wish list, I don’t mind as long as they are at night and they can be after Wearable Arts on the 18th of June.

The School Council is planning a “Wheels day” on a future date please keep a watch on the newsletter for more details.

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy playing taxi to all those children who need to attend events all the way across Canterbury. To all the Mums have a very restful day on Sunday. Put your feet up and get someone else to cook if you can.