| Thursday 16th June 2022 | Term 2 Week 7  |
Kia ora e te whānau,
I hope everyone has been able to keep warm through the last week of weather! I’m glad we were able to open on the snowiest day despite the lack of school buses.
Thank you to the parents who have made bookings for the Parent Conferences. You still have time to make a booking by following the instructions later in this newsletter if you haven’t already done so. Please note that there are no classes on the Conference Day, students will be marked as ‘attending’ when they come with you to their conference. Students do not need to wear uniforms to attend their conferences. On the day of the conferences, we will have a Matariki Exhibition in the middle school foyer as well as cake and coffee available in the Foods Room. If you’re struggling with the app or Parent Portal, a drop-in clinic will be available at the front office for most of the day.
Your child may have told you this week that their WAKA Cards can now be seen online by parents through the SchoolBridge app and for students in Years 7-13 through the portal. The WAKA cards acknowledge the use of our school values in different settings across the school. The school values resulted from the community consultations last year and align carefully with the Key Competencies of the NZ Curriculum. You can look at the provisional descriptors for each value on the poster at the bottom of this newsletter (these are fairly dynamic at present, as we are still developing age-appropriate descriptors for each level).
The Board is seeking to consult the community on our uniform following the development of the NZ Human Rights School Uniform Guidelines. The survey is open to all Parents/Caregivers, Students and Staff. You can participate in the survey by following this link. The survey will close at 9 am on Monday, July 4th. Please ensure you have participated prior to the survey close.
We have two upcoming non-uniform days organised by students. The first is tomorrow, Friday, June 17th. This is a fundraiser for the National Area Schools’ Team trip to Whāngarei. Please bring a gold coin donation if you take the opportunity to participate. There will also be a sausage sizzle at lunchtime - thanks to the Bradbury family - a further gold coin donation would secure you a sausage sizzle - first in, first served! The second non-uniform day aligns with the last day of Pride Month (Thursday, June 30th) and has been organised by the LGBTQIA+ group to raise money for more books in the Library. Come along with a gold coin donation, in your rainbow colours if you would like to participate.
Covid cases continue to arise at school. There is a fairly even spread across the year groups. The Ministry of Education made contact today to say “We continue to strongly recommend that your staff and students in Year 4 and above wear masks when indoors”. You’ll know that we are experiencing continued disruption to normal teaching schedules and other appointments due to unavoidable covid-related absences amongst the staff. This can result in staff working over their allocated hours in the classroom, or being diverted to teach classes they don’t normally work with. As a result, replies to emails, other contacts and meeting arrangements have needed to be de-prioritised. We will keep you updated should the situation should arise where we need to ask class(es) to work from home due to staff shortages. Your patience continues to be appreciated.
We have upcoming Skating and Ski Trips for the Primary School Students in Term 3. A reminder that parent volunteers are required to have a Volunteer Form and Police Vet on file at school in order to participate. This is a Health and Safety requirement for schools. You can access both forms on our school website. Please be aware that a Police Vet can take up to four weeks to process, if you’d like to assist on these trips or to transport students, please complete the forms this term to avoid disappointment.
A quick note on communicating with the school before I close - we’ve had a few items arise in the last few weeks where staff members have been approached as friends rather than staff members with school-related issues. This can become a difficult situation if the staff member doesn’t know whether you would like to report an issue, or whether you just want a chat as a friend. I would encourage you to use the normal channels to raise issues with the school as and when they come up. This would be by calling/emailing the main office (03 435 0650 or [email protected]) or emailing your child’s Teacher/Dean directly. This directs issues through the correct channels and ensures the right people can assist.
He waka eke noa,
Kate Staniford
Principal | Tumuaki
Head Student Louie Skinner has news including National Area Schools fundraisers and Parent-Teacher Conferences.
The Board would like to update the community on a number of items happening at school.
Twizel, and the surrounding areas, was turned into a winter wonderland this week and the Twizel Area School ākonga made the most of it while the snow hung around.
In line with the Human Rights Commission release of their School Uniform Guidelines, the Board of Twizel Area School would like to review our uniform and related policies. The survey is open to all Parents/Caregivers, Students & Staff, and will close at 9 am on Monday, July 4th.
Congratulations to our Star Students from last week's Junior Assemblies. They were presented with their award and WAKA Value card.
Ākonga from M1 and M2 have been continuing their topic on Forensic Science this week, looking at blood spatter and they even had the chance to speak to a real Forensic Scientist via Zoom!
Our awesome Year 13 students are organising a non-uniform day for tomorrow, Friday 17th June. This acts as a fundraiser for National Area Schools Tournament. 🏓 🏀
Primary classes attended a Netball Development Day on 9th June with Alex Iro, a netball development officer for the North Otago region.
Students' WAKA Cards can now be seen online by parents through the SchoolBridge app and for students in Years 7-13 through the portal. Check out this exciting new digital feature here.
Mid-year Parent Conference bookings are open and filling up fast! Instructions on how to book your appointment with your child's teacher/NCEA mentor can be found here.
The fourth issue of the Scholastic Lucky Book Club for 2022 is now available, orders need to be placed by Saturday 16th July. You can order through the Scholastic website https://mybookclub.scholastic.co.nz or the Book Club Loop app.
Tickets go on sale today for the National Area Schools Raffle with some spectacular prizes up for grabs. From a spa to a skydive, to bed, breakfast & dinner at The Hermitage...plus heaps more, with all the money raised helping our selected Area Schools Tournament students to travel & compete at the…
Letting your child have their own social media account is about giving them control of their own online presence. It is essential that they learn how to navigate this at some point in their life. The big question is when.
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