Bula, 

 Well it is the end of term 1.  We have had a big term with sports, hui, learning conversations, new play areas, whānau roopu activities, wheels days, Movin' March and coffee trucks!  We have another Kōrero and Kawhe this Friday from 8.15 am on the courts.  We would love to see you.  Tamariki can use their wheels or play on the playground while you have a kōrero and kawhe.  See the poster below.

If you didn't make it to Learning Conversations, kaiako will be in touch with you to make an appointment.  They are looking forward to working with you and your tamariki to make sure that you are informed about the learning that is happening at school. 

Some tamariki will have already received some of the Timely Comments (report comments).  Kaiako will write a Timely Comment for each learning area of Reading, Writing and Maths, as well as an Ako comment in the first two terms.  This will be repeated in the second two terms.  At the end of term 2 and term 4 you will also receive a post showing where your child is learning in relation to the curriculum.  We will give you more information about this closer to the time.  Have a look on HERO to see the Timely Comments.  You can comment on these or 'like' them, which is a great boost for tamariki. 

Some te reo Māori for you ... here is a phrase that can be used this week ...  E haere ana koe ki whea?  Where are you going?   E haere an ahau ki te hararei.  I'm going on holiday. 

Newsletters are sent out in weeks 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 each term.  There is a lot more information on HERO from kaiako for you too.  If you are not seeing more information on HERO, please let us know and we will try to fix that for you. 

As you know, we are keeping a close eye on absences.  We have 12 tamariki who have been absent for more than 30% of the term. These families have all been in contact.  We have 10 tamariki who have been absent for more than 20% of the term, most of these tamariki have been in contact too.  We will follow up with whānau if the high absence continues into term 2.  There are 27 tamariki who have been away more than 10% of the term, again we will be keeping a close eye and will be in contact with you to see if we can help in any way. 

Congratulations to Elio and Darcia.  They both take part in diving and Darcia won a bronze medal and a silver ribbon in her grade at the Wellington Diving Championships on the weekend.  Elio also competed in the Champs and received a merit certificate in his grade.  Ka rawe korua. 

If you want to look through any of our policies these are online for you.  Please enter schooldocs.co.nz into the browser, the community name is lyallbay and the password is maranui.  You can search for any policy in there. 

SWIS have invited us to come along to  'Our Kids Online' which is a talk about online safety and how parents can be part of the solution for their children.  We have had 'Our Kids Online' at Lyall Bay before and those whānau who came were blown away with what tamariki can access, but also with what whānau can do about it.  Please join this conversation for the benefit of your tamariki.  It is on May 22nd, at 6:30pm.  It is not suitable for tamariki to attend.  More information will be in the newsletter at the beginning of term. 

Dates to Diary