Friday 05 May 2017 Term 2 - Week 1

From The Principal

Kia ora tatou katoa, Annyong Haseyo, Talofa, Malo e lelei, Bula vi naka, Kia orana Nga mihi nui ki a koutou, Namaste, Nihao, Greetings to you all.

Welcome back after two lovely weeks of school holidays. I trust everyone is refreshed after the break and ready to settle down to another busy ten week term. I know that the staff have lots of great activities and programmes planned for everyone to enjoy.

Elm Park School welcomes the following children and their families who have joined us so far this term.

Jazmine Lama, Noah Tetupu, Savelii Sokolov, Sofia Hammond, John Pan, Escada Hemi, Jayriss Aranui, Sofia King, Lorenzo Sopoaga, Elias Hietala, Bilva Shukla, Misha Sokolov, Aliza Jivani, Abhinav Sooc, Anubhav Sood,

Aiden Stephen and Giavanni Aranui Olive.

Elm Park School, as you will know, is celebrating it’s 50th Birthday. Lots of excitement to be had for this amazing milestone. Friday has been a great day of celebrations and there will be more later in the year.

STAFFING - Just to advise you all of our staffing. Mrs Irene Jack will be leaving us in a couple of weeks, which is very disappointing. We have employed a new staff member who will be starting on 29 May in Room 22, her name is Miss Nikita D’Sousa, we welcome her and know that she will enjoy being part of the Elm Park Team. Mrs Kiralee Morris will be working together with Mrs Anna Howell in Room 5 with the Year 1 students in that room, as  Mrs Kerry Tetupu will be starting with the Year 0 children in Room 0. Room 8 will be taken over by Mrs Carina Borcher who will be working with the older ESOL students, Mrs Sarah Choi will continue working with the Years 1- 3 ESOL students.

Mrs Alicia Howard will be working with students in a variety of sports across the school this term as our swimming programme will be halted until Term 4.

EMERGENCY PLANNING - Our school has been working with an independent company Harrison Tew, who specialise in Emergency Management plans for schools. The procedures to be implemented allow us to respond safely and quickly to a range of circumstances.  A large number of schools in the area have engaged the services of this company to assist in their planning. We will advise you of more information when we receive it.  If however, should you hear of a lock down or evacuation at the school, please do not attend the school or contact the school by phone as we will not be able to respond. We will advise you of any details via our Website, Facebook or schoolbag page as soon as possible.

SCHOOL RENOVATIONS - We are still waiting upon our project managers to address our needs for the renovation of the Year 2 block and replacement toilet block. We are all impatiently awaiting the go ahead for this project.  In the meantime we are utilising this block as our school needs are growing.

Have a lovely weekend

Trish Plowright

Principal

RAIN COATS AND JACKETS AT SCHOOL - Please ensure your children have suitable jackets for school.  Many of the students are running errands in the rain during the school day or heading to other classes for groups and getting wet.  That is not so bad while the weather is still mild but they will need to stay dry in the colder, wetter months.

After School Arrangements - In an emergency please feel free to call the school office to pass on after school arrangements to your child.  However due to the number of children in the school, we need to keep these calls to a minimum.  Wherever possible, please make arrangements with your child before school and if they need a reminder, a note to their teacher or a note in their school bag would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Road Safety  Thank you to Mrs Karen Allen for co-ordinating the Road Safety timetable. We encourage parents to help us by not parking on the yellow lines, making sure that the children walk safely across the crossing and up the path, not on the back driveway as it is a busy access to the school and not abusing our staff who are doing this job on top of all the other things they do. If you have any spare time we would love your help to monitor the Road crossing.  Please contact Mrs Karen Allen (09 577 0191)

This is our 2017 Travelwise Student Group 

National Road Safety Week  - May 8th – 12th

The campaign theme is Save Lives#Slow Down

Next week our Travelwise group will be standing on the street with signs to remind drivers to slow down.  If you see us please wave or give us the thumbs up so we know you have seen our message and we can record your response.  Please help us keep Elm Park students and whanau safe on our way to and from school.

 Award Winners

The following students were recognised this fortnight for their commitment to the three R’s. Respect - The way we treat other people and property. Resilience - In the way we overcome obstacles about our learning and behaviour.  Responsibility - Managing ourselves, our jobs and the way we look after property and places in our school. Well done students!!

Focus on Children

In Term 1, Room 4’s favourite book was Dan the Flying Man. We liked to look at the pictures and see all the wonderful places Dan was flying to. We decided to think about some of the places we might like to fly to and draw them.

First, we brainstormed the different places we could fly to. Next, we drew a draft picture in our sketch book. Miss Donnell blew up these pictures and we traced over them in vivid. It was really tricky to get the small lines!

After we finished drawing over our picture, we coloured our pictures in with pastel. It was fun choosing our different colours.

The last thing we did was take photos of us flying. Miss Donnell asked us to lie down and pretend we were flying. And these are our pictures!

Community Notices

FRENCH LESSONS - We are seeking expressions of interest from parents who may wish their child to have French lessons.  These lessons would be here at Elm Park School.  They would be 45 minute lessons costing $15 each (payable by the term) and would either be during lunchtime or after school with La Petite Académie depending on what is decided once we gauge interest.  If you are interested in this, please email the school office at secretary@elmpark.school.nz