2021 Term 1 Week 1 Newsletter

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

From the Principal mmmmmmm

Welcome back everyone- students, parents and extended whanau, to 2021. What an exciting year we have ahead of us with new journeys of learning. That is our theme for the year. Thank you to all the families who attended first day interviews on Tuesday. It is a great way to form those oh so important relationships between school and home. Our classes are as below. You will notice a slight change in what levels are in what classrooms:

Room 2 Mrs Bartlett-Year 1

Room 3 Mrs McCracken- Year 2

Room 4/5 Mrs Forno-Watson & Miss Shields-Year 7 & 8

Room 6 Miss McGuinness- Year 5 & 6

Room 7 Mrs Sibtsen- Year 3 & 4

We are currently taking stock of our Chromebooks and i Pads in the school, and will be ordering more as part of our focus on Digital learning this year. We certainly learnt a lot about that during 2020! We will be continuing with embedding our problem solving maths approach and of course our vision and values. The parent information portal SEESAW that every class is using is up and running for the year, and we will be introducing you to HERO over the next few months, where you will be able to access your child’s progress and achievement data at the touch of a button. Miss Cara Shields is continuing as the teacher for Room 5 when Kirsten is released for DP duties. She is a very experienced teacher and we are lucky to have her as part of our teaching team. Mr Chris Rhodes is continuing as our CRT ( classroom release teacher ) this year. Each teacher is entitled to have 2 days release per term as a Ministry directive. Chris will be running his exciting programme teaching Japanese, Te Reo Maori, Te Ao Maori, Enviro studies, and other activities, including using our special bush area gifted to the school . Chris is also a member of our BOT so he is multi talented and can multi task (wow!)

You will notice that we are starting off smaller than we were last year. This means smaller classes which is a bonus for your children. It also means that we will do a lot more trips and events as a whole school. However our numbers will grow again throughout the year. Due to the numbers we wish to advise that the bus times will be quicker this year due to less pickups, so make sure your children are at the bus stops nice and early.

The school environment is looking spectacular! It has been cleaned over the holidays inside and out, and parts have been repainted. Our pool is FINALLY full again so swimming will take place this term. Our special garden is beautiful and our vege gardens are producing well, as are the chickens! We are in the process of having a shed purpose built to house our compost and gardening tools, as well as chicken feed and bee keeping gear. Thanks to Arran Barnes who is designing and building this for us.

We have a number of exciting opportunities for interaction with the Tomarata community in the next few weeks. Just this month we have tennis lessons; new parents morning tea 10 Feb; whole school beach trip 11 Feb; whole school assemblies on the 12 & 26 Feb; school photos 18/19 Feb; Whanau Fun Nite 22 Feb; school swimming sports 23 Feb and the Rodney Rural Schools swimming sports on the 26 Feb. Whew- a busy month and more to come!

Thank you to all of you who attended first day interviews on Tuesday. It was a great success with 80% of our school whanau attending. Lots of happy settled kids as a result today.

With the new COVID concerns we have had recently I urge you to remember to use the AP when you visit school. We will continue to reinforce safe practices with hand sanitizing; eating at tables and sending home unwell children.

The school has a karakia that all the staff and children will be learning and starting each day with. Our karakia is a whakatauki which supports our vision and values. It is as follows so that you can learn it at home:

Kei Tomarata kura, ka poipoia nga tauira, nga kaiako me nga whanau e te kura kia puawai ai.

Ia ra, ia ra, whaia te iti kahurangi e matou.

Haumi e hui e taiki e.

Our journey at Tomarata School encourages students, teachers and families alike to grow.

Everyday we strive to do our best.

I look forward to seeing you all.

Cherylene