| Thursday 7th April | Term 1 Week 10  |
**Final Newsletter of Term One | Due to staff absences at school, this will be our final newsletter of the term. You can look forward to normal service being resumed at the start of next term.**
Kia ora e te whānau,
Throughout the week, students have been enjoying visits to Te Maiharoa Pou with their teachers and Mātua Karatī. You’ll find an article later in this newsletter sharing some recent experiences. I have the pleasure of joining Room 5 and Miss McAuley tomorrow.
Also on Friday, we send a fabulous troupe of actors to Geraldine High School to perform two excerpts from Shakespeare plays. I’m sending them well wishes for their performance, but know they will do very well after viewing their performance on Tuesday when it was performed for the M4 class. I’m looking forward to hearing stories of their trip next week. You can view a video of their performance for M4 later in this newsletter.
As you know, we’re hoping to go ahead with the Southern Area Schools’ Tournament at the start of next term. If you are able to accommodate some students during their stay in Twizel from the 18th-20th May, please complete our short survey here.
Earlier this week, most students in Years 1-12 received a letter to take home explaining their Mathletics programme and seeking a donation towards the cost of the programme for the year. Please look out for the letter in your child’s bag!
Next week marks the end of a very challenging Term 1. This has certainly been one of the most challenging of my career. With approximately 20% of our school roll with covid at present, or recently recovered, I’d like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of our teachers and support staff in keeping the school ticking along. Our staff plan to have four short assemblies (to keep within distancing and gathering expectations) at the end of term. The intention is to acknowledge our fabulous students with striving awards. Although we cannot yet invite parents to attend, I hope it won’t be long before we can begin to celebrate things together again.
An additional note; this will be the last newsletter for the term. We are experiencing staff shortages which will mean we’re re-deploying support staff to other essential tasks next week in order to keep the school operational. When we get there - have a lovely holiday break!
He waka eke noa,
Kate Staniford
Tumuaki | Principal
Sports Captain, James McDonald has news on the upcoming Southern Area School Tournament, plus the junior class trips to Lake Ōhau.
Ākonga from Room 13 have been creating their very own visual pepeha.
M2 ākonga have continued their learning about Active Citizenship. This week they learned about Fridtjof Nansen who began his career as a scientist and polar explorer.
Renee Rowland from The Twizel Bookshop was on hand last week to present Twizel Area School with a donation of $150 worth of books, courtesy of Exisle Publishing in Dunedin.
This week we started the junior school field trips to Te Maiharoa pou. This is a taonga of the region and one that represents more than we think.
Twizel students will again take part in the Aoraki Sheilah Winn Festival kindly hosted by Geraldine High School. The festival is to be held on Friday 8 April.
Once again, we have an abundance of unnamed Lost Property left at school that needs to be collected. This includes a multitude of sweaters, shirts, and even shoes & hats!
Room 8 students have been exploring the Life Cycle of a Butterfly, Frogs, and Chickens.
Plunket Education in Schools is, once again, offering their online Babysitting Course available for teenagers all over Aotearoa and designed to give high school students the knowledge and skills to babysit children of all ages.
Struggling a bit at the moment? This is a 10 week programme centred on the health, wellbeing, and resilience-building of learners from Year 8 - 11.
Sport Twizel has created a short survey so they can collect data about community use of the Twizel Area School sports field.
If your child hasn't registered for netball yet, time is running out! All the information you need for the upcoming netball season is here, including registration, teams, and costs.
Read here for information regarding 2022 Junior Miniball registration, including dates and contact info.
Are able to host students from the other Southern Area Schools during the tournament period? Here is a quick survey to establish the number of students you'll be able to billet - your support is greatly appreciated!
Have you downloaded our new school app yet? The SchoolBridge app works seamlessly with Twizel Area School’s web portal, using the same username/password already in use, with greater functionality and increased user-friendliness than the current KAMAR app.
The aim of the Home Learning section is to group all the relevant information and support that students, parents and whānau may need. You will find teacher contact details and student learning packs, along with links for resources and support for wellbeing, among other things.
With the start of another sports season just around the corner, it’s a great time for parents to equip themselves with the skills and knowledge that will provide their child (and themselves) with a positive experience this winter.
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