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Week 2: Monday, 10 February 2020 Dear Riverina family and whanau A big thank you to everyone for helping our students have a great start to the new school year. Everyone looks smart in their uniforms and students are displaying courtesy by using their manners. The classes are buzzing with activity and everyone looks ready for learning. Well done! We have a busy week this week. The Life Education Bus is visiting each school and each class will visit the caravan. We have a focus on ‘Mindfulness’ to develop our current practices of PB4L. This was an area that our Community Survey identified last year. Room 7 and 8 are participating in bike balance skills on Monday. This is a follow up from the Bike Skill sessions the older students had last year. On Friday we have a visiting group working with students to develop basketball skills. We aim to take a team to a basketball league later in the year so be ready to be upskilled. Our School Pōwhiri will be held on 24 February to welcome new comers to school. Have a great week Nga mihi Carol Dickinson Principal Students who have celebrated their birthday during the past week: Helayna Rm 8 Alyana Rm 3 Attendance Attending school has proven to have a positive impact on student achievement and well being. We monitor attendance on a weekly basis. Last week we had 77% of students with 100% attendance. Let us improve that this week. Term Dates for 2020 Our school website has a calendar you can access and the Skool loop app also has a calendar and notifications. Please use these as another way to keep up to date! Monday 10 February Life Education Bus Monday 10 February Bike Balance Skills Thursday 13 Feb 6pm: Family Night Friday 14 Feb Basketball Skill sessions start Monday 24 Fe Pōwhiri Tuesday 25 Feb Interschool Softball Field Day Thursday 5 March School Swimming Carnival Friday 6 March RE starts Wednesday 11 March Interschool Swimming Friday 20 March Race Relations Day Wednesday 1 April Goal Setting Interviews Thursday 9 April END OF TERM 1 Teacher Only Days 2020: Monday 28 April and Friday 3 July Last year the union negotiated 8 Teacher Only Days over 3 years, with a suggestion that 2 are taken in 2020. Riverina has followed this advice and have allocated 2 days at the beginning and end of Term 2. Please note that school will be closed on these days. Lunch orders: Students can order lunch from the Office. Wednesday – Sushi $5 Friday – Sausage Sizzle $2, Ice Block $1 Guitar Lessons Erik Buys is a registered teacher and is offering guitar lessons at school for 2020. There is a reduction for groups of students. Riverina has guitars that students can use for the lessons: 30min lessons • One-on-one = $200/term • Group of two = $180/term per child • Group of three = $150/term per child Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Last term students were learning about reusing and recycling through their learning inquiry and the school production. Students also came up with ideas to use around school. This year each class has a new waste disposal system. A dedicated team in Room 1: Cayleigh, Monica and Julia, are enthusiastic to implement the scheme. They held meetings last week with Mr T the Caretaker and Mrs Dickinson, the Principal to see how school can improve. They have designed a recording system to record how carefully each class is motioning their recycling. They decided that at the end of the term the class that has achieved the most stickers will receive a free sausage sizzle or ice block. Great thinking team! Reminders: • Lost Property is located in Room 4 • Swimming is daily • NO HAT, NO PLAY Weetbix Triathlon It was fantastic to hear about two students who participated in the Weetbix Triathlon at the weekend. Tristan and Jayda had to run, swim and bike with other children their age. It is a great way to have fun and keep active. Please share with us activities that you are involved in outside of school. Walk to School Week Last week we shared some important travel messages. As part of the Travelwise campaign, this week we are focusing on students who walk to school, or park further away and walk. Each class will take a tally of students who walked. Students who walk will have a card that can be clipped when they walk each day. Family Night IMPORTANT We are looking forward to seeing all our families on Thursday 13 February. This is an important time for teachers and whanau to come together and start a learning partnership for your child this year. We will meet in the Hall at 6pm with an introduction. This will be followed by time to visit the classroom and introduce yourself and learn about the classroom set up. We will have two sessions so you can visit different classes. For students there will be sports activities available and Mrs Dickinson will open the pool. We will also be giving out tickets to people that can attend and there will be a draw to win 2 * $50 vouchers for Countdown. Mrs Goundar is unable to attend but will be available to meet with families at a later date. She is very disappointed and hopes to catch up with you all soon. Please take time to come along as this is an important time to make connections and set everyone up for success for 2020. Come along and join in the family fun on 16 February at Farm Cove. Events run by Pakuranga Rotary Club. PB4L Focus This fortnight our PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) focus is based on all of our C.C.K. motto. Courage – Māia, Courtesy- Atawhaitanga, Kindness- Manaakitanga The first two weeks every term focuses on ‘No Bullying’. We also strongly encourage students to be an up-stander not a bystander when they see bullying behaviour. Together we can make a difference. Congratulations to Room 7 for collecting the most tokens this week! Token tally – whole school Last term we challenged students to reach a school wide target of 800 tokens. We had the reward on our Celebration Day with popcorn, candyfloss, bouncy castle and Hungerball. This term we are going to challenge school to collect 1000 tokens! Can you do it?
