Kia ora Vogeltown whānau, welcome to the newsletter for Week 5 of Term 3. It has been nice to see some of the sunshine shining through at the end of the week and great to see our Maunga.
As I have mentioned over the last 3 weeks, the flus and colds have taken over the school, not just our school but all New Plymouth schools. On Monday of this week we had 103 kids away - nearly a quarter of our school. It is a good reminder again to keep kids home if sick and practise our hygiene habits.
On Monday the Ministry of Health announced that the 7 day mandatory isolation for anyone with covid has been dropped. This started as of Tuesday the 15th August. This is great news for the country and brings an end to the covid restrictions that have been in place since 2019. A big thanks to our whanau and community for adhering to these restrictions when they were in place over the last 3 years - nga mihi nui whanau.
We mentioned last week that we are running our traditional cross country on September 6th - we are making a change to this tradition and we will seek whānau feedback after the event. The school cross country will be for those students who want to run it, and those who don't will be out to support the runners. Those who do want to run it, and try to get through to the New Plymouth Cross Country, can sign up with their classroom teacher.
At 2pm on the same day, we will then be having a 'whānau colour run' at the Junior school, where we will expect everyone to participate - including any parents/caregivers! Bring a white shirt as we have a heap of coloured flour to throw around and see how messy we can get! See the poster below for times.
It was great to finally get our Room 1 up and running. We have not been able to access this room since the fire in October last year! A big thanks to all the builders, electricians and architects that have been involved to get us back in this space! Mrs Hunt and Mrs Williams are very excited - especially when the new furniture for the room arrived this morning! The Room 1 kids look very happy and cosy in the rooms and we are now operating 16 classrooms at Vogeltown School.
A big thanks to the New Plymouth District Council's 'Lets Go' team who have let us know that our application to complete the scooter track at the junior school was successful. We will now be able to have the kids go around the field on the track without going over the turf - this will be completed these September holidays.
In other property news the roof of the junior school, the admin block and a few other roofs will be replaced in September holidays. The junior school is a massive piece of work and may take all of Term 4 as well. We will keep you updated as the term goes on. The inside of the junior school will also be completed with new carpet and vinyl in the main corridors outside Rooms 2, 3, 4 and 5 down to the office.
We have added some dates for Term 4 above. Hopefully none of these dates will change, so lock them in to your diaries. Speaking of Term 4, a reminder (although it is a long way off) that we have a Teacher Only Day on the 13th of November. This is in line with the TOD days that all schools have to offer staff as part of their collective agreement. We will be participating in a cultural awareness and localised curriculum day at Whare Hononga and Pukaka Pa (Marsland Hill) and other special cultural areas within New Plymouth.
Mr O and the VS Team
A massive congratulations to these tamariki who earned themselves a Principal award this week. Our focus is respect this term, and it was great to see so many of the awards were supporting this.
Ka mau te wehi to these rangitahi:
Te Ara Ripeka Rangiwai, Kovin French, Nova-Lee Chapman-Sadler, Lumi Fromings, Rizal Hutton, Joshua Erne, Louis Hodson, Jackson Cowley, Ted Cozens, Olive Adams, Mia Vooght, Jeronimo Navas Daal, Tayah Davidson-Hermanns, Carla Visagie, Aksh Chamola, Lachie Salisbury-McInnes,
Donovan Salisbury-McInnes, Sophie Bush, Eddie Vooght, Charlie Morrison, Rhonda Gecse, Isabella Soffe, Christopher Cockle, Blake Gillum, Noah Carley, Lewis Newland, Sarah Venables, Cotto Rapira, Keiran Dalley, Connor Stevenson, Ben Croker, Tiaan Botha.
Tu meke whānau, congratulations!
You can try the hoodies on for size up at the GameChanger shop, which is just up on the corner of Carrington and Huatoki Streets.
VOGELTOWN SCHOOL CONTACTS
Email: office@vogeltown.school.nz
Website: www.vogeltown.school.nz
Location: Vogeltown School Huatoki Street, Vogeltown, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Phone: (06) 753 6843
