Hi everyone,
Welcome to the school year for 2017, and our exciting new Kowhai learning space! We've had a great week this week meeting all your lovely children and getting to know each other. We've enjoyed meeting lots of parents as well - if we haven't met you yet, please come and say 'hello'! On Tuesday we will be sending home a sheet for you to discuss and complete with your child to help us learn about some of your home culture. We would appreciate it if you could return this by Friday of next week, please. K.I.T. notices This year we are sending electronic K.I.T. notices. They will be kept on this blog for you to check each Friday, and so you can easily find earlier notices as well. We will send an email reminder with a link to this page on a Friday afternoon. If you do not receive an email reminder please check that the office has your correct contact details. Swimming We are currently swimming on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Please ensure your child has named togs, towel and goggles with them. Please also make sure you have named all uniform items (they do look very similar!) ;o) If your child has grommets, or requires assistance with changing, please let your pod teacher know. The children have been grouped according to ability and we have a swimming ratio of 1 adult to 10 children. Class programme We have had some questions regarding 'play' in our programme. Play is a permanent feature of our learning space, and we look forward to sharing our research around this with you (we've already set up a special 'teaching thoughts' page for this!) From Tuesday we will begin withdrawing small groups of children for in-depth numeracy and literacy assessments. This will enable our instructional programme to start in Week 3. We will share specific details of our programme with you at our 'Powerful Connections' meeting in week 5. Storage of school bags We are waiting on coat hooks that have been made especially for us. We are hopeful they will arrive very soon. (Fingers crossed!) Update: The first of the coat hooks were delivered on Thursday afternoon - there are more to come! We will begin storing children's bags on these as they are available. Thanks for your patience while we waited for the hooks to be completed. Signing in The children have done a great job this week of checking in with their pod teacher as they arrive at school - well done everyone! From next week we are going to ask the children to 'sign in' with their pod teacher. The children will need to find their pod teacher and then write their name on a laminated sheet with their photo on it. This gives good practise at writing our names, and provides teachers with an easy visual of which children are at school. It's also a very helpful list in the unlikely event of an emergency. Thanks for your support as we establish these early routines! Classroom release This year, as part of our classroom release entitlement, specialist teachers will be coming in to take the children for drama, dance, PE, visual art, music and mindfulness. As a teaching team we will be meeting to plan, reflect, research (and write K.I.T. notices!) for two hours during the day. Our specialist teachers are Mrs Brook (drama), Mrs Kilpatrick (dance), Mrs Cockburn (PE), Mrs Meyers (visual art), Mrs Thomson (music) and Ms Riley for mindfulness. For Term 1 our classroom teachers are released from 10.00 - 12.00 each Thursday. As part of her beginning teacher release, Natalie is released from the classroom one Wednesday a fortnight. This release time is covered by Rebecca Brook, who will follow our normal planned programme. As part of her leadership role, Thelma is released from the classroom on alternate Wednesdays with Natalie. This allows her to meet with the leadership team and complete leadership duties. This release is covered by Anna-Kate Kilpatrick, who will follow our normal planned programme. In order to complete Digital Technology tasks across the school, Christina is released from the classroom for two hours on a Thursday, from 12.00 - 2.00. This release will be covered by a different specialist teacher each week, who will follow our normal planned programme. From time to time other teachers may require release for specific school-wide responsibilities or for other reasons (sick leave, bereavement leave, medical etc). Where possible we will use one of our specialist teachers as a reliever to minimise disruption to the children. Coming up
Library times One of the highlights of our week was our visit to the school library on Thursday afternoon. Each child has two library books in their school bag. Books are issued for two weeks at a time, but can be returned earlier than that if wished. Our regular library time is Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Please return library books to school in your child's reading packet, and then to the plastic box in their pod group. Change of clothes As part of our play programme, we will be regularly playing with sand, water and even dirt! We know that there will be (many) times when your child will come home wet and / or dirty. We're sorry for the extra work this causes at home, and invite you to send a change of clothes for your child if you prefer them to come home clean(ish). Subway orders / class absences / bus notices If you are filling out any of these forms, please note we are the Kowhai Learning Community! Phew - that's it for this week! Sorry for the super long novel - they won't all be like this! We hope you've all had a fantastic week back at school - we are all certainly very tired, and ready for a long weekend. We look forward to catching up with you all on Tuesday and hearing about your weekend adventures! Thelma, Nicole, Jo, Christina, Louise & Natalie kowhai@westmelton,school.nz
13 Comments
Kylie Wissel
3/2/2017 09:30:07 pm
Thanks ladies, what a lovely blog. After a rough start Max has finished the week off in very high spirits.
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Kowhai team
5/2/2017 07:03:29 pm
Thanks for the feedback Kylie! We're pleased to hear Max had a good first week at school. Enjoy your weekend.
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Kowhai team
5/2/2017 07:05:34 pm
Thanks Marianne! It's been a super busy start to the year - we were all a bit tired out by Wednesday!
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Cynthia Endicott-Davies
4/2/2017 10:12:55 am
Awesome blog Team Kowhai. Great start to the year, looking forward to an exciting year!
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Kowhai team
5/2/2017 07:07:15 pm
Thanks for the feedback Cynthia! We're looking forward to making the most of the outdoor areas that Lyndon's been busy planning! Have a great weekend.
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Nilab Najib
4/2/2017 02:19:05 pm
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Kelly
5/2/2017 05:58:31 pm
Thanks for the update.
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Kowhai teams
5/2/2017 07:09:06 pm
Thanks Kelly - it must have been good if it was remembered! :o)
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Erin Griffiths
6/2/2017 08:32:31 pm
Awesome blog :-) Honor has loved catching up with everyone in her new space, she loves coming in with her walker which is just great as it is giving her more independence.
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Kowhai Team
7/2/2017 01:02:40 am
Thanks for the feedback, Erin! We've loved seeing Honor's big smile this week, and have all commented on how much more room she's got now. There's even enough room for racing! :o)
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Tina
7/2/2017 10:50:07 pm
It's a great idea for this online notices. Owen had a great week for first starting week. He has already made some friends. He told me what he did at school and he also did sing a song he learnt from school. Thanks for all the effort you have made as a Team.
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kowhai team
8/2/2017 10:02:12 pm
Thanks for your comment, Tina! We're glad Owen's first week has gone so well.
Reply
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K.I.T. noticesK.I.T. notices are published every second Friday. They contain information that we hope will help to keep you up-to-date with what is happening in our learning community as well as the wider school. Please feel free to comment on each week's post with any news items or community notices of your own, or to ask any questions you may have! Archives
December 2020
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