Term 4 – Week 4: Principal Update

  FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER

PRINCIPAL’s UPDATE

Kia ora koutou katoa,

Nearly halfway through the term and I’ve been a little lacks on the updates!

MASKS

Mask wearing is no longer required at Birkdale Primary School and is left up to individual whānau.

You may have noticed an increase in mask wearing amoung staff. We’ve had some staff continue to be affected with Covid and are trying to reduce the disruption this my have on learning by increasing our mask wearing when inside and in close proximity with adults.

HATS

Term 4 is a compulsory hat wearing term. Please send your child to school with a school hat.

STATIONERY

Next year, we are hoping to have one payment for school stationery for everyone. This can be paid directly to the office before school starts; then we will provide the stationery packs at the beginning of the year, straight to the classroom. We often get bulk deals as a school and are trying to make the purchasing of stationery more cost effective for parents. A lot of schools already have stationery packs availble for parents to buy. If they are not able to provide the stock we need in time for next year, we will send the lists home as usual with the plan to roll it out next year.

2023 AURAKI CLASSES

We are currently organising these now. A lot of time and effort goes into organising classes. We take into consideration emotional, academic, social needs and combinations between children. We have been working on them since the beginning of term and are still not really finished. We have not assigned teachers to classes yet and won’t until the very end.

The Auraki classes next year will continue to be composite (a combination of year levels), although next year all classes will be either Y1-3 or Y4-6, there will be one reception class for our New Entrants. Class and year compositions are usually dictated by numbers of students in each year. We also believe that increasing the composition, gives us greater flexibility when combining students, especially in a smaller school.

Please be reassured that we do have your child’s best interests at heart. We will not be able to accomodate parent requests around social groupings and teacher preference, as this influences other students in the class not only your child.

TE REO MĀORI

Next year, all teachers at Birkdale have been asked to start (or continue) their own te reo Māori learning journey. It is knowledge we value as a school.

If this is something you are also interested in, the Ministry of Education will be offering online courses starting in the new year – this will cater to a range of levels: beginner to advanced. I’ll keep you updated when registrations open. I would encourage all whānau, whether your child is learning in rumaki (immersion Māori) or Auraki (mainstream), to take advantage of this opportunity. 

Noho ora mai

Natasha Teinakore

Tumuaki | Principal

MY CULTURE, MY VALUES