Level 2

Firstly thank you once again for practicing the Level 2 procedures at gate drop off and pick ups with social distancing. Heading back into Level 2 is not what any of us want but with kindness, calm and clear reasons and systems in place, we will get through this again. Our students will be in a variety of head spaces, as will families with all of your different situations. We really appreciate your support and calmness so we can continue to make school a happy and safe place to be. Here is a clip sent to us by an Educational Psychologist please click here that you may like to share with your children to help them, if they are finding the change of going back into Level 2 is worrying them.

For those of you who didn’t see last night’s email newsletter with detailed procedures set out please click here.

Now that we have met as a staff we have a few tweaks and changes to add to help us get through the next few days.

  • Cross Country tomorrow – please see below.
  • Mid Term Break – Teacher Only Days. With our Teacher Only Days falling this Friday 14th and Monday 17th we have more time than most to settle into whatever the Government decides needs to be done.
    • Please encourage your children to take all their devices, library books, pencil cases etc home with them on Thursday just in case levels were to change over this time.
  • Library Books and Readers- We will be issuing more books than normal to some students. Please return books promptly so that we can keep the circulation going.
  • After School Care will operate in three Syndicate Bubbles
    • Taupiri students will be based in Koromiko Tahi. Pirongia students will head to one of the Pirongia classes. Maungatautari Students will be based in Koromiko Toru.
    • Seniors – may be allowed to use their devices at certain times if the staff deem it appropriate using specific programs only. E.g. Matific, Mindcraft, SeeSaw, Epic, Code.org, KiwiKids News.

Cross Country Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our annual School Cross Country. Unfortunately we can no longer welcome parents, grandparents and supporters onto our grounds. However standing 2 metres apart on the reserve, playground area or outside the school grounds on the Devine Roadside – away from where our students are running could be possible. We ask you to be at least 8 metres away from students as many of you will be cheering them on.

The weather forecast looks a little cloudy but perfect for our Cross Country. If the weather does not cooperate our postponement day is next Wednesday 19th of August.

Race times:

Maungatautari and Pirongia will be holding their cross country during the morning block, with the

Taupiri cross country starting after lunch at 1:15pm.

Here is an outline of the days races: Maungatautari races will start at approximately 10.05am, in this order:

Year 6 Boys

Year 6 Girls

Year 5 Boys

Year 5 Girls

Races for Pirongia races start at approximately 11.15am in this order:

Year 4 Boys

Year 4 Girls

Year 3 Boys

Year 3 Girls

Lunch approx 12.00pm-1.00pm

Taupiri Races will start at approximately 1.15pm, in this order:

Year 1 Boys

Year 1 Girls

Year 0 Boys

Year 0 Girls

Year 2 Boys

Year 2 Girls

What to bring:

Please ensure that students wear their Whanau shirts, suitable running shorts (Skorts are okay along with uniform shorts or any Tamahere sports shorts) and running shoes. We also ask that your child brings a change of warmer uniform to put on after their race, as they may get wet, muddy and cold. Please also make sure your child has plenty of food and water.

We hope that the South East Hamilton Country Schools Cross Country will still be held at Newstead Model Country School on Friday the 28th August. This team will be selected from our top runners in Year 4-6.

Thank you.

Vision Consultation – What do you think?

As part of our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) Professional development we have been re looking at our vision to make it more user friendly for our students and better able to be used in all learning and behavioural situations at our school. What we have developed so far is below. We still love our Vision and use it daily but just want to update it for further use and to have specific language around the Vision Kids. What do you think? Are we hitting the mark? Do these statements and values resonate with you and achieve what you want your child and their school to develop? To have your say in our very short 2-4 question survey, please click here. Can we please have your responses by next Wednesday.

Learning Conferences

It was great to see so many families come along to last week’s Learning Celebrations and the proud faces of your children, as they shared their learning journeys and goals.Thank you so much for your ongoing support. There is research to say that children who have their parents support and parental involvement at school achieve greater success.

PJ Day Thank you

It was great to see the children & staff warm and cosy in their winter pj’s and onesie’s at school on Friday for our PJ Day.

A HUGE thank you for all the donations of bedding, PJ’s and sleepwear plus the gold coin donations that totalled $147.00 that YOU as a whole school community gave for SleepWell MoePai, to distribute to people in need. Sleep Well Moe Pai were blown away by your generosity.

On behalf of Sleep Well Moe Pai, thank you!

Pirongia Speeches

We are so proud of each and every student in Pirongia Syndicate and their ability to stand up and deliver a speech over the past 2 weeks. All speeches were delivered with a ‘can do’ attitude and truly exemplified the risk takers we have here at TMCS. On Monday we shared 1 or 2 speeches from each class with the whole syndicate – what a treat! Those who spoke were amazing and those in the audience all sat with respect and beautiful listening manners. Congratulations to all students!

Taupiri Speeches

We are incredibly proud of our Taupiri students for their positive ‘can do’ attitudes towards their poetry presentations over the past few weeks. All children confidently shared their poems to their classes and visiting parents. We want to send our sincere thanks to families for your continued support over the past weeks supporting your child to learn their poems. All students can be very proud of developing their personal confidence when talking to an audience. We can celebrate that this was a positive and rewarding experience for all. Well done students!

Sport Cancellations

Due to Level 2 restrictions, there will be no basketball or hockey games this Friday night. As we are provided with further information on other sporting codes, we will share this with families.

Teacher Only Days – This Friday 14th & Monday 17th August

Please remember that our school will be closed this Friday 14th August and Monday 17th August, due to our staff being involved in Teacher Only Days, as previously shared.

ICAS Exams Starting Next Week

These exams will continue next week whether it is Level 2 or not. We will be further distancing the students who are in Pirongia from those in Maungatautari.

Here is a reminder of the dates:

Wednesday 19th August – Science Exam

Tuesday 25th August – English Exam

Wednesday 26th August – Digital Technologies Exam

Wednesday 2nd September – Spelling Exam

Thursday 3rd September – Mathematics Exam

Team Photos Next Thursday – 20th August

We are hoping Sports Photos will still happen next week despite Level 2 restrictions, we will have to have greater distances and slightly different management. Please make sure your children continue to bring their sports uniforms and correct socks etc.

The Photo Day Timetable is as follows:

8.30am      Netball x 7

9.10am      Football x 14

10.30am    Morning Tea

10.50am    Basketball x 4

11.10am    Cricket x 4

11.30am    Flippaball x 3

11.50am    Hockey x 6

12.20am    Jump Jam x 3

12.30pm    Lunch

1.20pm      Touch Rugby x 7

1.55pm      Rugby x 3

Year 4 Camp

Information regarding the Year 4 camp has been sent home this week. We will not be asking parents to complete the Student Health Form all over again, so instead we have sent home the ones completed in Term 1 for checking and re-signing. We will however be starting the parent helper process again due to the fact that we never got to selecting these last time. If you have any questions, please see your child’s teacher.

EVENT NEWS

The Lit Quiz on Monday 24th and the Interschool Chess Competition on Thursday 27th, along with the Pirongia and Maungatautari School Discos on Thursday 27th August are still planned to be held. We may of course have to pull the pin on these events depending on COVID 19 restrictions at the time.

The Disco has a theme – T.C.M.S children can dress in a character or anything that starts with one of the letters of our school name . e.g. T = Teacher, C = Cyclist, M= Monster & S = SpiderMan.

Tickets will be available through classroom teachers – disco tickets are $5.00, which includes a bag of popcorn and pizza slices are $1.00 per slice. Payment must be made to the classroom teacher in cash.

We ask that children bring along a full water bottle, which they can refill. There will also be a stall offering treats for sale on the night, so feel free to bring some pocket money along.

Just a reminder of the times –

  • Pirongia Disco is on from 5:10 pm – 6:30pm
  • Maungatautari Disco from 7:00 pm – 8:20pm