Kia ora e te whānau,
It’s been a great start to Term 4 with lots of sunny weather and a chance for the tamariki to reconnect with their friends and teachers. Our new DSS school hats have arrived and these look great! School sports tops should be arriving in the next two weeks for those who have ordered. A final order will go out later this term for anyone looking to purchase.
This week, we have spoken with our tamariki about the importance of being an upstander when they witness any inappropriate behaviour at school. We’ve also discussed how some content and themes from online spaces are not suitable to share in our school environment. Our key message to the children is that if they hear language or see behaviour that feels wrong, they should either inform the first adult they see or say the phrase “You’ve crossed a line” and walk away from the conversation. We are also finding that sometimes tamariki are not telling us about an incident until a day or two later. This becomes challenging as often whānau will get told before us and then we have to do the investigating secondary. Our message to all tamariki is to let an adult at school know as soon as possible. From there, we can deal with the situation accordingly.
Rooms 1 and 2 have had some disruption this week as new windows have been installed on the high-elevation point on the north-facing side. Although a small project, it now means along the junior school all these windows are uniform and coupled with the new south side windows will provide effective ventilation for these classes.
Last week, it was a pleasure to send out our staffing appointments for 2025. It’s a tough market at the moment to find teachers and leaders so I’m stoked that we have been able to fully staff our kura at this stage of the year. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be looking closely at class levels, and classes for 2025. If you know you are looking to enrol your child for next year, please let us know as this is imperative in terms of staffing and keeping class numbers to manageable levels. Enrolment forms can be completed online or you can grab a paper copy at the office.
Next week, on Tuesday, we have our school athletics day. This is a fun day for our tamariki to challenge themselves across the athletics disciplines. Children will be rotating in their class groups around the 8 events between 11 am – 1 pm. We have also had two new school flags made and have a mobile speaker system with a microphone to use as well. All whānau are welcome to attend this and see the tamariki in action.
I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend and see you back at kura next Tuesday.
Ngā mihi
Lee Ewington
He tumuaki no te kura of Dyer Street
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Maori
Portuguese
Russian
Samoan
Spanish