Mā te huruhuru ka rere te manu. Adorn this bird with feathers that enable it to fly.
“The true test of character is.....how we behave when we don’t know what to do.”
Over the past weeks we have been focusing on displaying aroha for others. Each class has had a jar, for every act of kindness a marble has been placed in this jar. These marbles have then been combined by placing them in our big jar.
Now the jar is full, we will move onto our next focus. This focus will be manaakitanga, displaying respect and caring for others. This virtue is so important, respect is something that is lacking in our society today and desperately needs to be modelled for our children. It also links beautifully with kindness and goes hand and hand.
This is something you can talk about at home, and something you can directly model for your child.
Just as we have done for our last focus, we will work together to fill the jar.
Love and kindness received, love and kindness given.
If you are new to our school and wondering about the concept of Good Citizens, I have included a description below. It is amazing to reflect back on how we were, and how we are now. I love our school.
Kaurihohore Good Citizens
The Good Citizen project was begun in 2006 in response to a lack of leadership and role models amongst children in our school. We had a lot of children making poor choices, particularly boys. Research showed that to promote leadership the children who may be consistently well behaved and perhaps go 'unnoticed' a lot of the time needed to be promoted to positions of leadership and be given a more visual presence in the school.
In conjunction with other strategies we saw this project have huge benefits for our children and children became much more aware of the effect their actions had on others.
Good Citizens continue to have a big role to play in our school. Good Citizens are selected based on the fact that they consistently help others and display empathy, without need for reward. They show the ability to be role models for others and a willingness to carry out extra responsibilities in their own time if required. Good citizens also display excellent manners and a high level of respect for others. Being selected as a Good Citizen is a huge acknowledgement and not given lightly, it is always given for a genuine reason and not one that is shared around to all children unless well deserved. This means that some children may get it more than once in acknowledgement of their consistent citizenship.
Teachers do not take their decision lightly when choosing their two representatives and if for any reason the child lets themselves down during this time, the award may be taken away from them.
Parents can be assured that if a child is selected as Good Citizen that they have truly earnt it.
At the end of the term all Good Citizens are awarded with a certificate in recognition of their efforts. One child is voted by the children as the overall citizen for their class and then the school votes on these finalists to find the Good Citizen of the term.
At the end of year the whole school again votes out of the four finalists to find our Good Citizen of the Year. This is a very coveted prize.
This coming Thursday (1st March) is our Whanau afternoon. The school will be open from 3.20pm- 6.30pm and all teachers will be available in their classrooms to speak with you. This afternoon replaces parent interviews. We urge you to come along between these times at some stage to meet your child's teacher and talk about how they are settling in and ask any questions you would like to ask. Turn up at a time that suits you, and stay as long as you like.
Members of the BOT will be sizzling some sausages in the courtyard area and would appreciate your ideas on the Health curriculum and how we can ensure success for Mãori learners. Please take the time to talk to them and fill in the surveys they will have on hand. We appreciate your input greatly. (please note the newsletter said they would be in the library, but that was incorrect.) These surveys will also be available in classrooms if you do not have an opportunity to meet with a member of the BOT.
The targets we have set for our school in 2018 will be on display in every classroom so you know what we are aiming for this year.
You are welcome to wander through all classrooms and to join in on the games on offer. Netball, golf and soccer will have activities on site.
The coffee girl will also be on site, so bring along some money if you would like a coffee or hot chocolate.
As always if you need to speak to your child's teacher more formally, please take the time to email them and set up a time that suits you both. We are happy to catch up with you at any stage and want to keep the lines of communication open.
Although the title of this post sounds frivolous, the intention behind it is certainly not.
For many years now we have been doing our part as a school to reduce waste. One way this can easily be done is considering what goes in your child's lunch box.
We encourage a rubbish free lunch box, the beauty of this is that by default, lunch boxes often become healthier.
Even better, this approach to reducing lunch box waste often makes the making of lunches cheaper for you.
We encourage you to buy in bulk and use small reusable containers to give a portion to your child each day. This can be done easily with crackers, chippies, yogurt etc. We encourage you to look for alternatives to muesli bars, that contribute to a huge amount of lunch box rubbish and to walk past products like Le-snack crackers that are simply more packaging than product!
Sandwiches do not need gladwrap, nor for that matter does anything else if you invest in a lunchbox container with compartments.
We want to instill in children positive attitudes to be reducing rubbish, not because it is nice, but because it is an absolute necessity to protect our planet and environment.
We believe with a little bit of effort now, you can help your child establish lifelong habits, that will benefit everyone.
We have what we call 'zero heroes' each week we total up the amount of children in each class who have zero waste in their lunch box. This is then turned into a percent, and the class with the highest percentage of zero heroes wins each week. At the end of the year, the class with the most wins, receives the zero waste shield at prize giving. Last year this award went to Room 10.
You can help your child's class to win, by supporting your child to make good, rubbish free choices in their lunch box.
This week the winner was Room 8. Our school total was 84%.
We urge you to support this value, it is a huge part of our school and who we are.
We start back 2018 on Wednesday the 7th of February. In your child's report there would have been information about stationery. I have always found it really easy to order from Office Max, the best bit is that the school also benefits from your purchase. You can order online once you know your child's class and specify a delivery date. The order will arrive to your door in time for school, all ready to go. It couldn't be easier. Best bit...you miss those back to school crowds. Website here Parents of new entrant children can purchase their pack from the office. If your child started school last year and is returning to Room 1 and 2 there is no need to purchase any more stationery.
Our beach trip is the 21st of February, please put this date in your diary because we will need your help to get there and assist with supervision. Permission slips will come home in that first week and will need to be returned quickly as there will be a short turn around for our organisation.
At this stage our parent information evening (which replaces the classic parent interview) will be held on the 1st of March. Basically this evening will be a time to catch up informally with your child's teacher, talk about how they have settled and share with us anything you want us to know and ask any questions you need to ask. There will be no interview time as such, but teachers will be available between 3.10pm - 6.30pm in their classrooms. All rooms will be open, so you can wander through, and meet other teachers. We plan to have a sausage sizzle going and the BOT will be in the library, or just outside the library cooking the BBQ so you can talk to them about any questions, ideas or queries you have. They will also have some specific things they would like to know from you. We are hoping this will make this process a lot more useful for you and more of an opportunity to get together as a community. Of course if you have something important that you need to discuss with your child's teacher you are welcome to make an appointment for anytime that suits both of you at any stage in the year. The school office will be open from the 30th of January for anyone needing any back to school assistance.
