January 2020 Newsletter

Welcome to Term 1 2020

Well, those 6 weeks sure went by fast. I am sure you all had a wonderful Xmas, New Year and holiday time. My family went to Tauranga for a few days of sun and beach time. I have been playing the “granny” role looking after my three grandchildren which is always fun but tiring. Whisky has been finding it particularly hot so we bought him a little pool to play in. He loves it and puts his toys in and out constantly.

The days have been HOT HOT HOT! so the building of the sunshade area has been going ahead a great pace. At the end of this week we could have a roof on the area. I am getting excited and have talked to the builders about hanging a tire in it for the kids to play on… or a hammock for the tired teachers and staff!

We start back on Monday the 3rd of February. Life Education Trust will be here with Harold the Giraffe for the day. If you know of any pre-schoolers in the area make sure you let them know to pop down and meet Harold.

Staff for 2020

This year we have Jessica Devonport back with us as my Principal release teacher. Jessica has taught here a lot over the past years. She also teaches juniors at Taupo Primary School and will be teaching here every Friday and occasionally on Thursdays if I have meetings. Mrs. Devonport has two young children of her own, Oscar and Pippa. Cooking and art are amongst the many interests Jess has. On Fridays, she will concentrate on Te Reo Maori as well as cooking and art.

We are also very lucky to have a ministry funded Teacher Aide. Lucy McBeth (Trey’s mum) will be in school all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is a new initiative from the ministry to ensure there are always two adults on site for safety. I am so excited to have Lucy join us as she is going to run the playgroup on a Tuesday from 9.30am. -11.30am. Lucy will also assist me in working with the children 1:1 with reading, writing, and maths.

Lorraine Fawkner our fabulous, hard-working office manager, has changed her days back to Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Fry day Fridays and Lunches.

We will still be having our fish n chips , hot dog n chips or burger n chips for $6 every Friday starting from Friday the 14th of February.

Please make sure your children have a balanced lunchbox. We often see that lunchboxes with too much food and most of it ends up going back home. What we suggest is, a healthy snack for brain food ( fruit, piece of cheese, raisins etc.) Some chips or biscuits or fruit for morning tea, a sandwich, yoghurt, boiled eggs or raw vegetables for lunch with another piece of fruit. We do have a drinking fountain but I recommend all the children bring a drink bottle. I have put a small fridge in the hallway for the students to put their lunchboxes and drink bottles in.

Calendar Items.

I will send home a separate calendar with what’s happening this month on it but here is a few dates to keep you in the loop.

3rd Feb – Term One starts 8.30am

3rd Feb- Life Education Trust at school.

6th Feb- No school (Waitangi Day)

16th March- 27th March – Swimming lessons AC Baths.

9th April- Last Day Term One.

10th April- Good Friday.

27th April- ANZAC Day No School.

28th April – Term 2 starts.

Stationary

At Rangitaiki School we like to fill our textbooks before buying new ones. If your child has pages left in their books from last year you won’t need to purchase any straight away. We will invoice you for items such as glue sticks, pencils, tissue paper and a ream of photocopy paper. New Students to Rangitaiki School will need to purchase a stationary pack from the office. Notices will be sent home in the first few days.

Charter

The Board of Trustees for Rangitaiki School has almost completed our Charter for 2020. We have 4 strategic aims going forward. The four headings are 1) Teaching and Learning 2) Future-focused education 3) Health and Wellbeing and 4)Property. I will send home the draft Charter to get your feedback on the path of Rangitaiki School.

We want to change the virtues to values and I need your help on what those values should be or should we have a combination of values and virtues at Rangitaiki School. For a few years, we have had the virtues of Friendliness, Flexibility, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility. A good way to do this is to think about what kind of what we value as important characteristics for our children to have when they leave Rangitaiki School. Two that I think are important are ‘critical thinking’ and ‘creativity’ What do you think?

Local Curriculum

Rangitaiki School has been designing our own local curriculum. This is a curriculum teaching guide that is for our unique area. After tossing around some ideas the Board has decided to use our logo ( above) and our wonderful motto ‘ He iwitahi e mahi ana’ (one group working together). We have used the four terms and areas in our logo to focus our learning on four key focus topics. Term 1- Me (my learning, my goals, who am I, my rules and expectations, etc) Term 2 – My Community ( My part in the community, my area, who is in my community, local history) Term 3- My world( geography, cultures, animals, history, global issues, languages.) Term 4 – My Future ( future-focused technology, inquiry, and design, assessments, new goals,). If you have any ideas or feedback we would love to hear from you.

Remember that we are only a phone call, text or email away and my door is always open.