Catherine Pearse

The Pearse whānau held a service for Catherine in the weekend, and it was a real testament to her impact with the amount of people that were there. Rosewood was full, and it was standing room only in the foyer. Family, friends, staff, ex-staff, children and ex-students all gathered to pay their final respects to a lady who dedicated 30 years of her life to helping children have the best day possible at school.

I’d like to thank everybody for their kind words of support over the last week and a bit, it has been very heartening for the team here at school. In particular I’d like to thank the ex-staff and local schools who have been kind enough to send in cards, flowers and food…it has been nice to feel that ‘sense of community’ wrap around us. 

Moe mai rā Catherine

Attendance

A couple of things to make you aware of here:

Firstly, as of Monday we will now have a dedicated Attendance Officer, Frazer Mailman. Mr Mailman is the ex-Principal of Masterton Intermediate, and for the last two years he and Lawrence Titter have been running a targeted attendance programme at both MIS and Lakeview with great success. The local Kāhui Ako secured some funding for this programme to be extended across the Masterton schools, and Douglas Park now joins Lakeview and MIS in a cluster. Mr Mailman’s role is to follow up daily with absences, build relationships with whānau and make home visits as part of getting children to school. His focus will be on children whose attendance is less than 80%, or who are on track to drop below 80%. This equates to missing 10 days of school across the term, and at DPS there were around 30 children last term with attendance stats like this. 

Mr Mailman’s role is a supportive one…what can he do, the school do, to ensure our children attend as often as possible. 

Secondly, the Associate Minister David Seymour has announced new attendance targets, and has produced guidelines for when/if children should be kept home. 

Here is the official guidance from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health. It has an FAQ section and some scenarios that might be useful…but ultimately things haven’t changed too much. If your child is unwell and too sick to learn, they should be at home. 

For a slightly more tongue in cheek read about the new guidelines…this Spinoff article is worth a read and a laugh!

Breaking news: If your child is vomiting uncontrollably, keep them at home. If you’ve ever sent your kid to school even though they were vomiting because you care that much about education, send an email to Seymour’s office – surely he’ll give you a medal or something.

Reminder: Teacher Only Day Tuesday June 4th

Just a reminder that all of the local schools, primary and secondary, are closed Tuesday June 4th. For the first time ever we are getting all of the town’s educators together for a day of learning. As one of the organisers I’m stoked with how the day is looking, and excited to get everyone in the same place, hearing the same thing. Thanks for your support.