Kia ora e te Whānau,

I am sure, like me, you have noticed the changing weather over the past few weeks. Autumn is a great time of the year with cool crisp mornings and changing colours of the leaves. It also invites warm jumpers and hot drinks all of which sound really good to me. Over the week I have spoken to a number of tamariki about the leaves, acorns and chestnuts. They often use natural items in their play, creating and weaving using what is lying around to make something beautiful and unique. When I spoke to them about their creations they said they love the way creating patterns makes them feel calm and slow. I love that! Finding slow, calm moments during a busy day, our tamariki are so smart.

We have seen our absences numbers decrease over the week, with our covid positive numbers staying low. Thank you all for keeping your child at home when they are unwell. We hope once we reach the end of the COVID peak, we see all our gorgeous tamariki return to school.

We hope you are all managing to stay warm and well. A reminder that daylight saving ends this weekend on Sunday 3 April at 3.00 am with clocks going back an hour. Enjoy an extra-long Sunday.

Noho ora mai/Stay safe

Belinda Kennedy and the Ilam School Team

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In this Update, you will find information on the following:

• Cultural Narrative - our school name

• COVID-19

• Earthquake Drill

• Sports coaches required…we need YOU!

• Teachers only Day - Monday 4th April

• ANZAC Poppy appeal

• School Policies

• Cool learning @Ilam

In our school-wide learning in 2022 we will explore links to our cultural narrative gifted to our school from Ngai Tahu, our local Iwi . We will be using the new Aotearoa New Zealand History curriculum to support us. We will also investigate Our Place and Space looking at design and technology. It is our hope that tamariki get to understand how a space can create and encourage belonging and identity. It is very exciting and we hope to share our learning and discoveries with you over the school year.

If you have any expertise in the field of design, wellbeing, storytelling or cultural identity we would love to hear from you. If you are able to support our learning programmes please get in touch with your child’s class teacher.

We know that some changes have been made to the current Red Framework. These come into effect on Monday 4th April.

These are the guidelines that we know to date; further information is likely to come out over the coming week:

• Scanning/Use of the QRCode is no longer required, just the regular visitor sign in at the office if coming for more than drop off or pick up

• Mandates are removed, so we look forward to more engagement with whānau

• Mask wearing indoors remains at Red and Orange for Years 4-6 and Years 1-3 if they wish. If you need to enter a building please continue to wear your mask

• Removal of any outdoor capacity limits at all levels of the framework

• Increased capacity limits when indoors at Red, moving from 100 to 200 (but allowing for one-metre spacing)

We have appreciated your continued and clear communication with us, informing of absences and letting us know the reason why tamariki are away. This helps the Admin Team a great deal.

On Friday we practised our Earthquake Drill and Evacuation procedures. This went very well. We continue to tweak what we do so we are as prepared as possible if such an event occurs. We will practice our Lockdown procedures towards the end of the term. Each year we have four lockdown practices, (one per term), two earthquake practices and two fire drill practices.

On Monday 4th April school will be CLOSED for instruction. As a staff, we will be engaging with Maths Professional Learning with Carol Butel from Learning Solutions. Carol is an experienced Maths facilitator who has worked with a number of schools across the Canterbury Region. We are excited to be on a year-long journey with Carol exploring our beliefs and programmes in regards to Mathematics. Ilam Oscar will be open on this day, please see further information below.

In terms 2 and 3, our senior students participate in sporting activities each week. They participate in hockey, netball, rugby, soccer and table tennis. In order to run the teams effectively, we need some support. Are you available to take a lunchtime coaching session and then support the team at the game on a Friday afternoon? You would also need to umpire the game alongside the other teams' coach.

If you are interested or would like to more information please contact Linda Ewen at linda.ewen@ilam.school.nz

School photos have been postponed as a number of students are away due to illness and isolation requirements. . We will inform you of the new dates in the coming weeks.

All of the schools policies and procedures are available via the SchoolDocs website.

This term, the Board of Trustees have been reviewing the policies and procedures listed below. All policy feedback received will be discussed at the following Board of Trustees meeting, and taken into consideration. If deemed appropriate by the Board of Trustees, an amendment will be lodged with SchoolDocs and reflected in the Ilam School policies portal.

The following policies are currently up for review:

* Safety Management System

* Risk Management

* Visitors

* Emergency Planning and Preparation

* School Closure

* Disaster Management

* Crisis Management

* COVID-19 Information and Procedures

Policies and procedures are available via the SchoolDocs website. You will need to sign in with the following details:

• Username: ilam

• Password: ilamschool

1. Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.

2. Read the policy.

3. Click the Policy Review button at the top right-hand corner of the page.

4. Select the reviewer type "parent".

5. Enter your name (optional).

6. Submit your ratings and comments.

The school office can provide a printed copy of the policy and a review form if required