Our competitive senior swimming sports are being held this week. 

Important points:

• Bus will leave school at 9:10
• Children can come to school with their togs under their uniform
• Please ensure you put sunscreen on BEFORE school
• Children need to be able to swim 15m non-stop to enter
• Those senior children not swimming in the competitive swimming sports will remain at school with Mrs Mulliss and Whaea Jen. So if your child is not swimming, please do not keep them at home. Send them along to school! 

Like the kids, I am super excited about our upcoming camps. Huge thanks to everyone who has offered to come and help in any way. Some memories are about to be made...

The permission forms for Patea Dam should have already come home and fingers crossed we have these back at school already. The Te Wera notice and permission form will come home today. 

I hope to attend the majority (if not all) of these camps. So if you have any issues at school over this time, please call in and see your child's teacher, my DP's (Shane and Kris) or contact me via email principal@tawhiti.school.nz 

This term as part of our social and emotional learning we will be talking about feelings and strategies to use when we are feeling certain ways. This also links in with our te reo Māori learning. A wee wero (challenge) for your whānau...when waking up in the morning or coming home after school / work, try asking "how are you" in te reo Māori. Heres a poster for the fridge to help out...

I enjoyed getting out and seeing our unit learning in action on Friday - collaboration was the name of the game and there were eggs being dropped in homemade parachutes, dresses being made from newspaper and bouncy balls being created. 

Homework

Homework should be up and running across all classes from this week. We realise that life is busy and sometimes children have sport and other after school commitments, however, just 10-15 mins a night focussing on reading or learning basic facts can have a huge impact on children's learning. Many of our senior classes have been trialling sending out homework on HERO. This has had a few teething issues so please if you have any queries or issues with homework, contact your child's teacher. 

Attendance at school is important for children's learning. When children are absent from school regularly, it affects not only their learning but also their ability to make and sustain friendships impacting their social and emotional development. 

As a school we are required to report to the Ministry of Education on attendance and take all practical steps to ensure and support children to attend regularly. The Ministry defines regular attendance as 90% or more of the time. This % acknowledges that sometimes children are unable to attend school for unavoidable reasons such as tangi or illness. 

Some interesting facts:

• 95% attendance for the year = 10 days or 2 weeks of missed school. 
• 90% attendance for the year = 20 days or 4 weeks/1 month of missed school. 
• 85% attendance for the year = 30 days or 6 weeks of missed school (this is over half a term!)
• 80% attendance for the year = 40 days or 8 weeks of missed school (this is close to a term!)

In 2023 we had 118 children who missed half a term or more of school. Already this year, there are 85 children with attendance less than 90%. 

Some important notes:

• Please give us a CORRECT reason for their absence on HERO. We are noticing that when many children are absent, the stories from children are often different from the reasons given on HERO. Please do not click medical as the reason unless they are actually sick. 
• Half a day at school is better than no day...if your child has an appointment please pick them up early or drop them off late. This is better than keeping them home for the whole day.
• If your child's attendance drops to 85% or below, please expect to hear from us. We will make contact not only so you are aware of your child's attendance rate but so we can work together to get your child to school. We know you also want the best for your child! 
• If your child's attendance drops to 80% or below, we will work with you to create a formal attendance plan. At this point, your child will also be referred to the Ministry of Education attendance services. 

Every day matters, every minute counts...

• We have a 'Nothing Naughty Bar' fundraiser. Money raised go towards the increasing costs of our beginning of year camps as well as other trips (such as marae stay in Term 2) to keep these affordable. All orders are due back to the office by Friday 8th March. A hard copy form will be sent home this coming week but is also attached here just in case. Thanks for your support with this.(They are delicious and healthy - you wont regret buying some!) 
   
• Please note that our swimming pool is out of action until further notice. We have some paint issues that need resolving before children are able to swim. But don't worry...seniors are still travelling to the Hawera Pools for their lessons and the juniors were having a blast on the slip and slide today! 
   
• Great news...the council has informed us that the berm sealing job down Glasgow street has been put out for tender. They are hopeful this will be completed before winter. (Our fingers and toes are crossed!)

Enjoy your week!

Sarah