Rotorua Intermediate 12th Feb

Newsletter - 12th February 2021

Welcome to 2021 from Our Principal

Appreciating the Transformational Changes of Your Intermediate Aged Child

Early Adolescence, which is the descriptive term for Intermediate Aged Students, is definitely a unique period of growth for your child. Hormonal changes, growth spurts and the development of secondary sexual characteristics are well-known markers for this stage.

These aspects of their maturational growth often result in dramatic physical, social and emotional upheaval, the impact of which can influence a child’s individual sense of self. Children of this age and stage will make all manner of connections between identity development, general behaviour, and family and peer relationships. Often students struggle with the reality that during their intermediate school days, they will experience a fairly predictable sequence of events, by virtue of the maturational clock.

It is because of these developmental challenges we need to always work in partnership to support children through these transformational times. Therefore if you have any concerns related to how your child is coping with these changes, please contact their classroom teacher or our Mauri Ora Team for some supportive guidance.

We are here to help.

Garry de Thierry & staff

Up and Coming Events

Tuesday 16 February ---- Teacher Only Day - half day only school finishes 11:45am
Tuesday 16 February ---- FOTS Mufti Day - Gold Coin
Thursday 4 March --------Festival on the Field
Friday 5 March------------BOP Futsal. Trustpower Arena
Tuesday 9 March ---------RATS Duathlon- Waipa M/B Carpark
Thursday 11 March ------R.I.S. Swimming Sports - Aquatic Centre
Friday 12 March ----------PB/BOP Tennis - Whakatane
Friday 19 March ----------Teacher Only Day
Friday 19 March ----------PB/BOP Swimming - Aquatic Centre
Monday 22 March --------Term 1 Reports go home
Tuesday 23 March ------- Photolife School Photos
Thursday 25 March ------7 Hour Relay
Friday 26 March ----------PB/BOP Touch - Rotorua Stadium

Teacher Only Days in Term 1

Tena Koe Parents / Caregivers

Ensuring our staff are always, keeping up to date with new curriculum and program developments is essential, if we are fulfilling our professional obligation to all students; that being to provide them with engaging and meaningful learning experiences.

TERM 1 Professional Development Days

We appreciate these days can be disruptive to the day to day running of one’s home life, so hopefully an early heads up will give you adequate time to plan supervision for your child/children. If you get to a point that all your options to ensure your child/children are supervised during this time, please call into school so we can see how we might be able to support you.

There are two “Professional Development Days” coming up this term. We were fortunate to be able to book in expert facilitators last year, to lead our 2021 development, and the following dates are when they are able to accommodate us.

Tuesday 16th February (Half Day) - Te Rangihakahaka

Students will be released at 11.45am on this day as our teachers will be attending professional development around Te Rangihakahaka,and the new Maori resource Te Pataka Korero o Ngati Whakaue. Input will focus on our Koromatua, which our school’s Whanau structure is centred on. This guidance will allow us to enhance our students' understanding of the connection to our local Rotorua history, the attributes and leadership skills of these significant Maori Leaders.

Friday 19th March - (All Day Closure) - Pause Breathe Smile, Wellbeing Strategies

The mental, social and emotional wellbeing of your child is paramount for the sustainable growth of your child/children. For this reason, all staff will be engaging in a Pause, Breathe & Smile professional development course. We will develop greater awareness to identify issues related to wellbeing, and increase our strategies to deal with challenges that our students may go through. The need for this type of programme became very evident during last year’s lockdown and designed to help create a healthier New Zealand, by teaching mind health skills to help Kiwi kids navigate life’s challenges.

Garry de Thierry Jodi Hepburn

Principal Assistant Pr

Reporting to Parents and Whanau 2021

The vision of the New Zealand Curriculum is for your child to be given the experiences to become a confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learner. Our purpose in reporting to you is to share information about your child’s learning, progress, and achievement during their learning journey at Rotorua Intermediate.

Succinctly written reports will be provided at three points during the year (terms 1, mid year and end of year)), and there will be formal opportunities to discuss your child’s progress and achievement with the classroom teacher.

Term One- building a learning partnership

Festival on the Field-
This initiative, which provides an informal opportunity to interact with your child’s teacher, will be held on Thursday 4 March (week 5) from 5.00pm to 7.00pm. We strongly encourage you to bring your family, bring your dinner, and enjoy some live entertainment performed by current and past pupils, along with special guest items by well known local entertainers. It is also an opportunity to chat to your child’s teacher about how your child has settled into their class this year. It will allow you time to share any feedback or observations from home. We look forward to catching up, to support your child.

Term 1 Succinct summative report- sent home on Monday 22 March.

Term Three- mid year reporting

Mid year report sent home Week 1, Tuesday 27 July
Progress discussions (one 15 minute parent/ teacher/ student interview) held over two evenings:
Week 4, Tuesday 17 August- 1.30pm to 6.30pm (school finishes at 1pm)
Week 5, Tuesday 24 August- 3.30pm to 6.30pm

Term Four- end of year learning celebration

End of year report sent home Monday 6 December.

EDUCA Portfolio of Learning: In addition to written reports, samples of your child’s learning will be shared at regular intervals each term through Educa. The benefit of this to you as parents and whanau is the opportunity to celebrate your child’s learning through real and relevant samples of learning across the curriculum. These samples will include what your child was learning, how they know they were successful and what their next steps are. You will also have the opportunity to record your positive, supportive thoughts on Educa.

In addition to these planned events, we encourage you to make contact at any time with your child’s teacher. Building learning partnerships between parents, whānau, and teachers is vital for each child’s ongoing learning and success. We look forward to having this effective partnership with you, over the year ahead.

Festival on the Field

We are looking forward to seeing our families and extended whanau at our upcoming

‘Festival on the Field’.

This event provides an informal opportunity to interact with your child’s teacher as part of getting to know each other and building positive learning partnerships.

The event is being held on Thursday 4 March between 5pm and 7pm.

This is an opportunity for you to bring your family, bring your dinner, make yourself a picnic spot on the grass and enjoy some live entertainment performed by current and past pupils, along with special guest items by well known local entertainers.

It is also an opportunity to chat to your child’s teacher about how your child has settled into class, as well as sharing the feedback you are receiving at home.

See you there!

Rugby Notice

RIS RUGBY 2021

Girls’ and Boys’

Yr7/8

Mauri ora Whānau,

This year RIS Rugby will be managed by Whaea Amanda, Matua Blake, Matua Jared, and Matua Pou. We are all looking forward to 2021 and are actually so excited that we’re actually making an early start to our season. We are aware that club rugby is also underway but we want to prep ahead of our busy schedule too.

We will be holding ‘optional’ preseason training sessions for any students interested in putting in some extras to get themselves ready for the season. The training’s are totally optional but they’re highly recommended as we are going to be narrowing in on the players who best demonstrate our school values and a wide range of rugby skills.

Where and what: Training is at school on the field from 3.30pm to 5.30pm EVERY Friday..

Please make sure everyone has:

Rugby boots or running shoes
Mouthguard (No mouthguard, NO contact!)
Other playing equipment (headgear, shoulder pads, etc)
Hydration (own water bottle)
Good attitude!

If you are unable to attend training for whatever reason or you have further queries then please contact Whaea Amanda via email (amandak@rotorua-intermediate.org.nz). For any cancellations, everyone will be informed during school.

Nga mihi,

RIS Rugby

Student Safety at 2:45pm:

Staff work consistently to ensure the safety of our students when leaving from the front of the school at 2:45pm. Your support to ensure their safety would be

appreciated.

We would appreciate it if you would follow these guidelines when picking up your child out the front of the school at 2:45pm:

· Arrange to pick your child up at least 5 minutes after the bell so they are definitely there waiting for you - DO NOT park on the driveway on the yellow lines as this causes congestion

· Keep your speed at a slow safe level on the driveway.

· Use King Street or Pretoria Street entrances to meet your child as an alternative.

· Do not stop on the yellow diagonal lines to pick up your child as this stops others entering the driveway which in turn hinders traffic on Malfroy Road.

· Do not stop on the driveway directly behind the vehicles parked in the visitors car park.

· Allow students to cross safely on the zebra crossing on the school driveway.

· TURN LEFT when exiting the driveway at this busy time

· DO NOT PARK on the

· Yellow lines on the driveway

· Grassed areas around the school

· If your child is not there please continue driving, exit the driveway to the left and continue to the roundabout at Ranolf Street and return down Malfroy Road and enter the driveway again.

zoom_out_map

Always cross Malfroy Road using the pedestrian crossing.

Congestion

1. If you have arranged to pick up your child on the school driveway would you encourage them to wait by the entrance to the foyer (see below). Ask them not to wait near Malfroy Road which will cause traffic congestion when parents stop there to pick them up.

Security

Please dont move off until your child is safely in the car with the door shut!

Your child’s safety is important to us, however if you are unable to support these safety measures please feel free to pick your child up at a specified place down the street where there is ample parking and less congestion.

A big thanks to the majority of parents and caregivers who support the above actions, as this results in improved traffic flow and enhances the safety of your children at the front of the school during this busy time period at 2:45pm.