Our Tumuaki / Principal
It's the first week of Term One for 2023.
Welcome Back: I hope that you have had refreshing and enjoyable holidays where you got to get outdoors have fun and enjoy family and friends.
2023 Getting Ready for School: Thank you for coming in before school started and getting everything ready to ensure a successful start for your children for this year. We really appreciate being able to start the year confidently.
Holiday Property Updates: A lot has happened around the school during the holidays to continue our work of keeping our facilities spic and span.
- The classrooms have all been cleaned ready for the start of the year.
- We have been spider sprayed.
- The spoutings have all been cleaned.
- The path to the pool has been upgraded and widened.
School Structure: We are starting the year with 116 students, (coming from 82 families) and expect to rise to close to 130 pupils. We have six operational classrooms for 2023.
- Room 1, Team Kea, New Entrant to Year One, Miss Laura McVicar (11 pupils to start with).
- Room 2, Team Kiwi, Year One and Two, Mrs Abby Duffy and Mrs Hayley Clarke (16 pupils).
- Room 3, Team Pukeko, Year Two and Three, Mrs Jenny Coyle (20 pupils).
- Room 4, Team Tui, Year Three and Four, Miss Caci Mineur (21 pupils).
- Room 5, Team Kereru, Year Four and Five, Miss Sarah Botting (23 pupils).
- Room 6, Team Kahu, Year Five and Six, Miss Sanne den Boon (25 pupils).
We anticipate that as the number of new entrants rises in Team Kea there will be a move-through to Team Kiwi of some of the older children from that room. This could be as early as the start of Term Two or, at the latest, at the start of Term Three.
The Importance of Learning Partnership: We encourage a 24/7 understanding of learning where we take a team approach to grow the skills and abilities of our pupils. As part of this, there is learning partnership work that that the children work through at home. This includes reading, word learning and mathematical knowledge or basic facts.
In many of the curriculum reports to the School Board, when we are analysing student achievement we note that those children doing well with their learning have a strong support base at home.
Learning is like a three-legged stool. It needs the child, teacher and parents all on board to make it occur. When one of the legs is shorter or missing altogether learning can be lopsided or even fall over completely.
I would encourage all families, right from the start of this year, to establish strong home learning partnership routines. We know, from our student achievement data, that this positively impacts a child's learning trajectory.
Regular Attendance and Punctuality: Attendance at school is a big determinant of learning progress. For a child to get a year's worth of progress in a school year they need to have an attendance of 95% - 100%. Thankfully for nearly all of our pupils, this is exactly the case. This comes about due to strong family routines at home which we are most thankful for.
However, for some pupils regular attendance has been a struggle. This impacts their ability to achieve their age and stage milestones for learning. Across a whole year, some pupils can accrue a significant amount of absence. For example, a yearly average attendance of 75% equates to one whole term away from school in a year. If that occurs over four years, that is one whole year lost (25% x 4). This makes it very hard for teachers, especially as the children move through their schooling. The effect is that ability levels within one class widen.
One other quiet under-miner of achievement is lateness. Being late every day can also impact learning, especially in one subject which is taught first up in a day (e.g. maths). Being constantly late places a child on the back foot for that subject, putting them in constant catch-up mode. Lateness is like inflation to money. It devalues the learning so that it does not have the impact it should. We want all children arriving at school between 8.30am - 8.45am, ready for the bell at 8.50am.
Today let me encourage all families to support a high attendance rate for their children and to have children at school on time each and every day. The children benefit from these positive life habits now and into their futures.
Property Projects This Year: We have three big property projects that we are hoping will finally come to fruition after significant behind-the-scenes lead-in times.
- Pool roof and junior veranda upgrade.
- Boiler upgrade with new radiators.
- Classroom upgrades (sliding doors between Rooms 1 and 2, storage units in Rooms 3 and 4).
Acknowledging - Team Edendale
- Staff: Our teachers and support staff have been working hard for several weeks prior to the start of the year to get everything set up again and ready for the children. We met on Monday for our Teacher Only Day to organise the last few details ready for a successful year ahead. Everyone has worked hard in preparation for the children's arrival. Well done.
Our Events Coming Up
Term Dates - 2023
- Term 1: Wednesday 1st February to Thursday 6th April (10 weeks)
- Term 2: Monday 24th April to Friday 30th June (10 weeks)
- Term 3: Monday 17th July to Friday 22nd September (10 weeks)
- Term 4: Monday 9th October to Wednesday 13th December (10 weeks)
Term One 2023
Week 2
- Monday 6th February - Waitangi Day Public Holiday (School Closed)
- Friday 10th February - Celebration Time (2.20pm)
Week 3
- Monday 13th February to Friday 17th February - Goal Setting
Week 4
- Tuesday 21st February 7.00 pm - School Board AGM and General Meeting
- Thursday 23rd February 2.00pm - Preparation for School Meeting
- Friday 24th February - Celebration Time (2.20pm)
Our Kura News and Information
Meet the Teacher Goal Setting Interview - Week Three: From Monday 13th of February to Friday 17th February we have our Meet the Teacher Goal Setting Interviews. Book your time at the link below.
The code is: 26zjv
Learning Partnership - Starts Next Week: We have a staged programme of introducing the Learning Partnership work for the children at home.
- Week 2: February 7th - 10th - Reading and Number Knowledge starts up
- Week 3: February 13th - 17th - Word Lab spelling is added to the above.
Waitangi Day - Monday 6th February: This coming Monday is a public holiday as we celebrate Waitangi Day. The school will be closed.
Celebration Time - Fortnightly: We are doing our Celebration Times fortnightly on even weeks of the term. Here are the dates for Term One. They start at 2.20 pm.
- 10th of February
- 24th of February
- 10th of March
- 24th of March
Parents and friends of the school are welcome to pop along and join us for this time.
Book Club - Issue 1: Scholastic Book Club Issue 1 has gone home. All orders need to be returned to the office by Friday 24th February. You can also order online.
Uniform - Keeping a High Standard: Thank you for your efforts in ensuring that children are in the correct uniform. This keeps our school looking smart and aligns with our school's value of excellence.
We would like to start the year with high standards for our school uniform. You can purchase new items online or at the Invercargill Warehouse.
We have a new sports jacket available from the school office and this year there will be a new polar fleece with an Edendale Primary School logo on it. We expect this to be available very soon.
The office also has a good supply of pre-used uniform items that are good quality and very reasonably priced.
(If you have items you are no longer using we appreciate the donation of these items to support others into a good uniform.)
A reminder that the school sunhat is also a required part of the uniform and all children need these for Terms One and Four.
Ritchies School Buses: Edendale School is served by a busing network managed through Ritchies. Two of our buses are shared with Menzies (Homested and Brydone), one is solely for us (Seaward Downs) and one is a Menzies Bus which has some of our children on it (Fortrose).
- Morning: To ensure a smooth bus run please have all children ready prior to the bus in the morning so that there is a quick pick-up at each stop.
- Afterschool: We do our best to get children to the bus as quickly as possible. Your assistance with early change of arrangements (prior to 2.30pm) greatly helps us (and those parents waiting for the children at various pick-ups along the routes) to get everyone to where they need to be as promptly as possible.
- One-Offs: For students who want to have a visitor join the bus to travel to or from school on a one-off situation, we do ask that the student provide our school (and bus driver) with a note from parents/caregivers (prior to the visitor travelling) or have the parent/caregiver phone our school office 03 206 6959 and the Ritchies office 03 208 9902.
App for Absences - Download: Download our app for lots of school information and also as an easy way to send absences through the school office. Scan the QR code below.
Edendale Dairy Lunches - 9th February: There is a new price list for the Edendale Dairy Thursday lunch options. Check it out below. It starts next Thursday the 9th of February.
Fuels for School - Thank You: A big thank you to those businesses that have nominated us to receive Fuels for School points. We use these to purchase technology and through the number of businesses supporting us this is making a difference.
- KC & JD Dairies Ltd
- Rimoo Farm Ltd
- Alpine 7 Ltd
- Sam Hunter & Amy Crofts Partnership
- Black Gully Farms Ltd
- S & R Pastoral Limited
- Sailing Away Family Trust
- L A Dairies
- JM & LM North
- Ridgedale Limited
- Elmsmoor Farming Limited
- Boston Dairies Ltd
- Morton Mains Farms Limited
- Triflor NZ Ltd
- David Clark
- Rosebrae Farm Limited
- Cupido Sharemilking Ltd
- WK & MR Lumsden
- Jason Wallis Agricultural Contracting Ltd
- G J Borst
- Alpine 7 Ltd
- Webber Farm Limited
- KJ & LL Heads
- CJ & CJ McKenzie Ltd
- Webber Farm Limited
Our Kaitiaki School Board
Term One - First Meeting and AGM for 2023: The School Board's next and first meeting for 2023 will be an AGM followed by a General Meeting on Tuesday 21st February, starting at 7.00 pm in the staffroom.
Part-Time Casual Position - Grounds and Caretaking: We have a position available for a part-time casual grounds person and general caretaker. Please send an application with a brief CV to principal@edendaleps.school.nz.
Our Contact Information
Email: admin@edendaleps.school.nz
Website: https://sites.google.com/edendaleps.school.nz/edendale-primary-school
Location: Edendale Primary School, 24 Salford Street, Edendale 9825, New Zealand
Phone: 03 206 6959
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdendalePrimarySchool
Twitter: @EdendaleSchool
