Term 4 Week 1 2020

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Families
Kia ora, kia orana, talofa, malo e lelei, fakaalofa atu, hello and greetings

From the Principal

Welcome back to Term 4. How fast has that happened? Daylight saving has kicked in so longer hours of sunshine are very welcome. We have 10 weeks left of this crazy 2020 school year, and hopefully they will be the best ones. Now that we are at Level 1 we can enjoy assemblies and gatherings again, which have been sorely missed! You will still need to sign in at the office if you are visiting for any specific reason other than dropping off children. We are also planning on resuming visits to our nature classroom again.

You will probably have noticed that despite assurances the pool changing rooms, and court resurfacing have not been completed over the holiday break. It is extremely frustrating, but out of my control. Once everything is completed we are planning on a grand opening family picnic tea so watch this space.

A new addition to Tomarata School is our fantastic pizza oven, and pergola for food preparation. The funds for this came from our Fireworks Night last year. Huge thanks to Dave Olsen, Jason Kerrisk and Chris Rhodes who toiled away last week building the pergola and constructing the oven. It will be “christened” this Friday at Show Day.Chris, Renee Wade and some Room 7 students will be making and cooking Hawaiian pizzas for sale at $10 each. Yummmmmeeeee! All funds raised will go towards the Senior Camp. Cash only so please bring some to buy these gourmet pizzas. In the future this area will be used on parent evenings, and for students to cook in as part of our curriculum activities.

Speaking of Show Day, the Helping Hands still have spots to fill at the sausage sizzle. If you can spare half an hour to assist it would be greatly appreciated. Our Guy Fawkes Extravaganza is fast approaching too, so help for there would be fantastic. Thanks to the families who have offered to put our signage up, and to my hubby for his truck driving skills on the night. Tickets will be on sale very soon, at a reduced price so look out for them.

A gentle reminder to please turn on your SEESAW notifications. I know that many of you turned them off over COVID. There are going to be a lot of notices coming out over the next few days for different events and activities, so please turn it on so that you don’t miss anything.

We have had a Go Fund Me page operating for our Beehive Project at school. This is another part of our Environmental Sustainability programme. We plan in the future that students will be able to collect, process, bottle and sell honey. They will learn a lot about Science and the Living World along the way. We have had some pretty amazing donations towards this project so have lots of thank yous to give out. SOOOO- thanks to: the awesome Chris Rhodes again who actually was a beekeeper in a past life; Beetopia in Matakana who donated 2 adult bee-suits, gloves, a smoker and a hive tool; Rob Gibson, a manager at Wharehine’s ,who donated $500 towards the bee project; Ecrotek (a bee company) who donated 4 student bee-suits and gloves ;and lastly Richard Kidd at Marshwood Apiaries in Kaiwaka for being so supportive with our programme. Their head beekeeper is Finn Tischik who is an ex -Tomarata School pupil, and the son of our wonderful teacher aide Jo Tischik. Without all of your help we could not make our school vision come alive. We really appreciate you.

Calendar Art. The children’s artwork is displayed in classroom’s for you to view on Showday. Order forms will sent home today and to be returned by the 23rd October.

Our PB4L focus this week is on reviewing class expectations and treaties, and to go over our GROW Values and what they mean. Do you know what each letter stands for, and what they look, sound and feel like in action? Ask your children. I bet they do!

Lastly I would like to welcome back Mrs Brendda Salt, who has returned after being away with a badly broken wrist. We are glad to see you back. A HUGE thank you to Mrs Ingrid McCracken who did an absolutely superb job taking care of Room 3 while Mrs Salt was recuperating. We really appreciated your great teaching skills Mrs McCracken. We also welcome Ms Renee Wade who is teaching in Room 7 for the remainder of the year in Mrs Ashe’s absence. We hope you enjoy your time with us. Finally we say a big hello to Breena McCarthy who is a student teacher in Room 2 with Mrs Sibtsen. I am sure you will learn lots in your time with us and we wish you well in your future career. Well, that’s it from me until next week. Stay safe everyone.