We have enjoyed having our first full week at school and acknowledge the efforts whānau have gone to, in order to keep tamariki (children) home if they have had runny noses, coughs, sore throats and other things. Unfortunately it is just the nature of things at the moment and we appreciate the childcare juggling this has caused at home.

We continue to keep our spaces well ventilated and are keeping our syndicates separated as much as possible. As far as we know, we don't have any confirmed positive cases at the school. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will let you know if there is any change in school opening hours or requirements should a positive case arise. This communication will come out via the school app.

The teaching team enjoyed meeting with most families this week for check and connect meetings. If you were unable to check in with your child's teacher and would still like to, please get in contact with them to organise a time.

Each year we collate a summary of student progress and achievement. Our End of 2021 School Wide results are linked below. We are really pleased with how our academic results are tracking and it certainly highlights the connection between robust professional development and student progress. Over the last 3-4 years we have invested significant time and resource into maths, literacy (reading & spelling) & neurodiversity. Our focus now is on science & writing.

Our 2022 Annual Plan was approved at this week's BoT meeting. Our 3 overarching strategic focuses are:

Manaakitanga - Developing robust sustainable partnerships + Implementing the Pause, Breathe Smile Programme.

Ako - Review our science curriculum, weaving through the teaching of literacy and maths with a specific focus on writing.

Kaitiakitanga - Further develop te Aō Māori understandings + finish current environmental projects around the school.

The full document is linked below.

Our Updated COVID response plan was linked in the last two newsletters. Please make yourselves familiar with it - particularly the process for alerting the school should you or someone in your family test positive. The link has been included below.

Thanks very much to David & Michaela for running a super assembly today live from Ōnoke, we all really enjoyed it. Happy Birthday to: Allie Blake; Ben Freeman; Mia Gleeson & Miss Mitchell. We hope you enjoyed your days this week.

Well done to the following students who received certificates today:

Tom Nicol (Whetu o te Wiki - star of the week); Koby Klue & Thomas Anderson (Ōnoke). Joel Douglas; Keira Wither; Rex Hartley-Meilink; Harvey James & Oscar Nicol (Ruamahanga). Darcy Berryman; Toby Wilkinson & Harper Neilsen (Kourarau).

It has been exciting to see lots of science happening across the school this week. Our tamariki (children) are so engaged. As a staff we have our next science professional development session on Tuesday and we are very much looking forward to implementing the ideas that come from the session.

This is my finger string science work, we had to cut and glue some things together to make a paper finger and we watched a video about all the science in your muscles 💪 and joints, this was a very fun science activity.

Kia ora. As you know, we have had to cancel our camp to Abel Tasman. We are endeavouring to book a new camp which will likely take place in Term 4 - we will let you know as soon as we have something confirmed. In the meantime, we are keen to get out and about doing some EOTC things. First up is a trip to Patuna Chasm. Some of the kids would have gone in 2019, however it is a great local spot and in March the weather ‘should’ be awesome.

Steve Thomson has requested a massive working bee at the Complex on Sunday 27th February – the flood has caused a lot of debris to be piled up all over the new plantings – he is going to get the Rugby Club in to help move the larger stuff off the fences etc – they will need some repairing too. We will try and get as much of the Community in to help as it is significant and many hands will make light work. It would be appreciated if all Sports Clubs could send this out to their members and get as many as possible. So 10.00am on Sunday the 27th February – thank you!!

This term parents are asked to review our 'Visitors' policy. Search 'Visitors' or go to current review, read the policy and make any comments by clicking on the red icon - top right of the screen.

We invite you to visit the site at https://gladstone1.schooldocs.co.nz (note that there's no "www."). Our username is "gladstone1" and password "1471".

Email: office@gladstone1.school.nz
Website: http://www.gladstone1.school.nz
Location: 1471 Te Whiti Road, Gladstone, New Zealand
Phone: +64 6 372 7601