Welcome to 2016!!!

We are a community of COURAGEOUS learners.

We sincerely hope everyone enjoyed spending fun times with family and friends over the summer break, and are as excited as we are about our year ahead!  

We are especially excited as in a few weeks time we will finally, after many months of planning, be moving into a new learning space. This will provide a flexible learning environment for your child, which we believe will allow for the effective catering of their learning needs to equip them in a world much different to the world us grown ups grew up in!  

Who are we?  

We are ‘The Kowhai Team’- “Together As One”

Your child/children and teachers belong to ‘one’ team of learners. No longer does your child have one classroom teacher, but a group of teachers who are passionate about teaching, and learning and most importantly have a vested interest in your child’s learning.  

How does it work?

The Pastoral Care Team:

All students have a ‘PCT’ (Pastoral Care Teacher).  This is the teacher who is you and your child’s ‘first port of call’ for any concerns or queries you may have.  Every day will begin with a short segment of time in pastoral care groups before converging into learning groups. Most organisational matters will be carried out within the Pastoral Care Groups. PCTs (Pastoral Care Teachers) are Erin Drayson, Ben Jackson, Regan Simmons and Chris Marks. Should you have other concerns regarding wider pastoral or learning needs, you can of course address these with Andrea Devane, the Kowhai Team Leader.

The Teaching and Learning Team:

Once students have had their ‘pastoral care’ time, they will come together as a whole group to begin their learning. The four PCT’s will be joined by either Andrea or Meryl Marks, and from here students and teachers will embark in the learning ‘our core business’. The students are likely to have different teachers for different learning areas. For our new Year Five students, this may seem scary at first but rest assured, they will quickly settle into this new way of learning and can only benefit from the different teaching styles on offer. We also have three dedicated and caring teacher aides working within the Kowhai Team, alongside the teachers, to assist a number of children with their needs.  

Our online Kowhai Learning Site and Individual Student Blogs

Students love to share their learning and they will each have their own Blog, which is a fabulous platform for this to occur.  This provides the opportunity for you to be involved in your child’s learning and we look forward to seeing your feedback! This is also an opportune time for you to discuss cyber-safety with your child, especially when they are using the internet at home. You will also be able to access what it is they are learning, on our Kowhai Learning Site, which communicates what it is we are learning and provides resources for learning.

A Community of Courageous Learners

Our David Street School motto is ‘Kia Maia - have courage’.  We embrace this motto as we all work together as learners. Just as students are continuously setting their own learning goals, so too are teachers working to improve practice to ensure we are working towards our core goal, optimum learning for all.

You too can be part of this learning team and we encourage you to get involved in what is happening and and around school to further enhance your child’s learning journey.  

Term Overview

What an exciting term of learning we have ahead!  We will begin this journey developing our team culture with a strong emphasis on ‘We are a Community of Courageous Learners', encompassing our David Street School Values and Learner Qualities. These values and learner qualities will permeate through everything we embark on this year.  

What’s to look forward to…

• Family Fun Night - next Thursday 11th February A great opportunity to come along and have some fun with our whole school community.  We look forward to seeing/meeting you then.

• Meet the Teacher Evenings  These evenings offer the opportunity to chat about how your child has settled into the Kowhai Team. More details about this will be provided through the school newsletter.

• Waimarino Trip - We also are excited about our upcoming trip to Waimarino on Friday 19th February.  See attached letter for information regarding this trip.

• Swimming Over the next few weeks we will all be heading to the Morrinsville Pools for our swimming instruction.  This is a requirement of the curriculum and an important part of our Physical Education programme. There is the Olympic sized pool for confident swimmers, and another pool shallow enough for those less confident in the water. For these students the focus will be to build confidence and have fun. Please ensure your child has their togs and a towel (named) in a bag on the dates indicated below. A swim cap is also a good idea.  Our school swimming sports will be held on Thursday 25th February. The more capable swimmers will be involved in a championship event at Morrinsville College and for those less confident, an alternative, non-competitive event will take place at the Morrinsville Town Pools on the same day.  Our instructional swimming dates are: Wed 10th Feb, Thur 11th Feb, Fri 12th Feb, Mon 15th Feb, Wed 17th Feb, Mon 22nd Feb, Mon 29th Feb and Wed 2nd March.

GENERAL

Water Bottles - We encourage children to have water bottles in the classroom as hydration is vitally important. The bottles must have a nozzle like a pump bottle and only be filled with water (Frozen bottles are not such a great idea as they defrost over the children's work!)

Library – The children need to have a library bag to take home their books. We have a "no bag, no book" policy. A plastic bag is fine.

We are looking forward to working together with you and your child in building our community partnership. In addition, if you have a skill or talent you would like to share with our students we would love for you to be involved so please get in touch with us.

See you all at Family Fun Night and kind regards

The Kowhai Team Teachers

IMPORTANT DATES

Mon 8th Feb Waitangi Holiday (No School)

Thur 11th Feb: Family Fun Night - Starting at 6pm

Fri 19th Feb: Waimarino Trip

Thur 25th Feb: Swimming Sports

Fri 26th Feb: Swimming Sports Postponement

Tues 8th March: District Swimming Sports

Sat 20th March: Piacow Triathlon

Tues/Wed 22/23 March: Meet the Teacher Evenings  

Easter Holiday: Fri 25th March, Mon 28th March, Tues 29th March

Fri 15th April: Last Day of Term 1