Tēnā koutou katoa,
It is my pleasure to welcome everyone back for the 2021 school year. The sense of excitement on Tuesday as the children re-united with friends and teachers was wonderful to see. A warm welcome to all our new families and thank you for attending the Pōwhiri.
The pōwhiri (or pōhiri) is a welcoming ceremony where that hosts (tangata whenua) wish to formally welcome a group of visitors (manuhiri). Pōwhiri is a step by step process of removing the tapu of the visitors and making them one with the tangata whenua. So our new families are now part of our school community.
I am delighted at how quickly the children have settled into their classrooms. A huge thank you to our amazing teaching staff for all their hard work before school started.
Meet the Teacher
On Tuesday 9th and Thursday 11th February, we invite all our parents and students to 'Meet the Teacher'. These 10-minute meetings are an opportunity for your teacher to connect and understand your child and whānau. Your child will have "All About Me" task to share during this session. Please sign up using this link.
The Year 1 ‘Meet the Teacher’ from 4.00pm on Tuesday 9th is a slightly different
format where the teacher will hold a session with all parents to provide important
information about starting school.
I respectfully ask parents to arrive promptly at the classroom where your child is taught, and please be mindful of the timeframe.
The fields, courts and pool will be open so please bring a picnic and enjoy this event with our school community. The PTA will also be running a sausage sizzle on Tuesday so please make sure you bring some gold coins.
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Welcome to new staff
We start the year with a few changes in staffing. I would like to welcome Blake Semp (Y5/6), Georgia Reid (Y5/6), and Mike Chatfield, Deputy Principal. Kasha Klee, Celia Wakely, Maya Ishida, and Rachelle Watson are joining us again on a part-time basis and will be mainly releasing teachers. We are very lucky to have consistent relievers for our children.
Learning
Last week the teachers demonstrated one of our core values of Ako Tahi as the learned together during our teacher only days. The updated school values and learner profiles were launched with lots of innovative ideas on how we can share these with our children. This links nicely with our Hauora | Wellbeing concept for Term 1. The enduring understandings are:
Year 1/2 (Curriculum Level 1): Expressing and managing feelings clearly allows us to respect and cooperate in groups
Year 3/4 (Curriculum Level 2): People’s attitudes, values, and actions contribute to healthy physical and social environments.
Year 5/6 (Curriculum Level 3): Knowing our own feelings, beliefs and actions and those of other people contribute to their personal sense of self worth.
Refurbishment of the reception and office areas
I delighted to announce the refurbishment of the office spaces is now complete. It looks fantastic! Suzanne, Shelley, Allison and Sonya are over the moon with their new working space. I think you will find the reception area more inviting and functional.
The senior leadership team are now working together in an open office with meeting rooms that allow more flexibility in our busy school. A huge thank you to everyone who had to relocate and work in a variety of spaces around the school. I know the children will be pleased to have the library back in its full capacity. I appreciate the support from the community during Term 4 adapting to these changes.
Friday icecreams
A huge thank you to Mary Waddington and Helen Gleeson who has kindly offered to continue to sell icecreams on Friday. The key organiser, Jennifer Catton, is no longer a parent at the school and she did a great job of keeping this fundraising tradition alive. Helen and Mary would really love some more support from parents as after school child care and life commitments mean that they need more than 2 people. Every week or fortnightly would be fantastic. If you can help please contact me juliel@titirangi.school.nz. They would like to thank Gemma Ward who often helped last year.
Swimming Pool
I hope you have enjoyed the school swimming pool over the holidays. I hear from the pool attendants that there have been some very successful days with our families having great fun. We have a new pool attendant, Cath Davies, who started on Tuesday and will work during the weekdays from 3.00 pm-6.00 pm. A huge thank you to Cath for stepping in so quickly so we can keep the pool open. The pool will continue to be open at the weekends from 12.00 pm-6.00 pm.
There have been times when we have had to close the pool for a variety of reasons e.g. chemical levels, weather and accidents. I will try and notify you as soon as possible if it's closed. Please make sure that you are signed up to the SchoolApp as this is the easiest way to inform the community quickly of pool closures.
Concession cards can be purchased on Kindo, or from Shelley in the finance office.
We have a very exciting and busy term ahead for us all!
Ka kite anō au i a koutou
Julie Lynch
Principal