August Newsletter
It’s hard to believe that it is already August! . ‘Time flies when you are having fun.’
We are having lots of fun at school and have already started Term 3 with a flurry of activity. Our theme for this term is ‘Our World’ which fits nicely with the Tokyo Olympics. The children have started to learn about the many events of the Olympics and we have watched some in school time. Many of the athletes have inspiring stories of having a dream as a child and fulfilling that dream with encouragement from those in their lives.
Te Reo Maori
We will also be learning Te Reo Maori through the Virtual Learning Network. We do this over ‘Zoom’ once a week in an online classroom. We were lucky enough to win some funding through REAP to do this for 15 weeks. The children will follow up their online learning with in-class activities. I am looking forward to watching how the children respond to this way of working as there is a long list of the curriculum we can tap into through the virtual classroom.
STEM Learning
Rangitaiki School won professional development funding to do some STEM learning. STEM is an anagram for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
This is facilitated by Gavin Mclean from Napier. Gavin comes to school once a fortnight and spends a couple of hours with the children working on teaching the language and competencies around STEM activities. Our first session saw the children collaborating to create a boat that would hold a lot of bolts. We also did a fun activity using a grid and simple instructions to find a path. This activity will teach the start of ‘computational thinking’ (thinking like a computer) and after many lessons, the children will start to design computer programs themselves.
Report Evening
You would have all received your child/ children’s reports at the end of Term 2. I would like to invite you and your child/children to a report evening at school on the 17th of August at 6pm. This report evening will be a social evening and the children will be able to talk about their learning and show you what they have been doing. I will be there to explain what we have planned for your children and answer any questions. I also hope to have Ros Thompson come along and talk to parents about the new readers that the MOE has put out. ( these books are based on a phonetical way of reading and teaching). Ros is a literacy specialist teacher and can give some tips on using these books at home when reading with your children.
John Parsons
I hope some of you are able to get to one of the schools to see John Parsons talk on cyber safety this week. You may join in with any of the student sessions or the parent sessions. It is so worthwhile. You would be amazed at the level of internet-related situations that children get themselves into and parents are always the last to find out.
Cross Country
We have our school cross country coming up on the 12th of August at 1 pm. We use the bike track and the field for this event. Yrs 1 and 2 run once around the bike track and field and yrs 3 -8 run twice around both. The interschool competition for yrs 4 up is on the 1st of September at Spa Park. Come and support the students if you are free.
Quiz Night
I hope you have your team ready for the Quiz night. Hayley Gribbon (Our board Chair) has done an amazing job with her team of playgroup and school mums to get this ready. It’s going to be a great night with fabulous prizes. The funding from this will go towards getting a safe outdoor play area set up for our playgroup tamariki. 
Conference
I am away for three days at the NZPF Conference with 700 other colleagues from around the country. I hope to come back energized and invigorated. Rose Patterson will be relieving for me.
Andrea Haycock
Principal
