Years 3&4 Visit Quail Island - Week 4
Dear Parents & Caregivers
Tēnā koutou katoa. Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou. Welcome to the following students who have joined us recently: Emily B and Ryan and Bella K.
Principal's Summary
- Paid Union Meeting Thursday 22 March
- Aupaki News
- Deputy Principal Appointment
Paid Union Meeting
The New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI) will be holding paid Union meetings for all teachers and principals in March with the closest one for us being at Beckenham School at 1.30pm on Thursday 22 March. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss the upcoming Primary Principals Collective Agreement and the Primary Teachers Collective Agreements negotiations. The main issues are centred around the developing nationwide crisis in recruiting and retaining teachers and the push to create more time for teaching and less time for administration and compliance based tasks.
To enable our teachers to attend this meeting, we will be ceasing normal classes at 12.30pm on Thursday 22 March. It would be greatly appreciated if you could collect your child(ren) from school at this time. If you are unable to do so, we will be providing supervision in the Library through until 3pm. Please contact the office if you would like your child to be added to the supervision list.
We appreciate that this is not ideal for families particularly given that Sumner School will be closed for an Aupaki Teacher Only Day scheduled for the following week (Thursday 29 March) but the timing of these meetings is beyond our control. Thank you for supporting this request.
Aupaki News
Achievement Challenges
We start this year’s Aupaki newsletters by announcing that our Achievement Challenges have been endorsed by the Minister of Education. This is fabulous news for our kura and reflects a huge amount of work that has gone into creating these challenges. The Aupaki Achievement Challenges (which can be viewed here) have been developed following extensive analysis of achievement data across all seven schools in our Kāhui Ako (Community of Learning). The purpose of the Achievement Challenges is to respond collectively to areas in greatest need of improvement.
The endorsement of the challenges will now allow us to appoint across and within school teachers who will be tasked with raising achievement for our tamariki. This will also allow us to access additional staffing and funding from the Ministry of Education to work on the Achievement Challenges.
A major advantage of this approach will be that all of our students will benefit from the combined expertise that exists across our Kāhui Ako. Collaboration amongst the teachers will begin with a Teacher Only Day at Rapaki Marae on 29 March. The two major themes of this day will be raising achievement and engagement in boys writing and improving culturally responsive practice.
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Logo Launch
We are delighted to be able to share our new Aupaki logo with you. This was developed following a logo design competition last year that all Aupaki students had the opportunity to take part in. Two designs were chosen by the Aupaki Student Council. To complete the logo, the finalists worked closely with a local graphic artist ensuring that ‘student voice’ was a strong component in the final design. Our logo (see right) represents the literal meaning of Aupaki (sloping hillside) and relates to Au (waves) and Paki (crashing), which are important geographical features that connect our kura. |
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Enrichment
Enrichment classes have begun at Linwood College for Years 7&8 students. We currently have around 28 Aupaki students engaged in creative writing enrichment classes facilitated by a secondary English teacher.
In addition to the enrichment classes, we have a very exciting year ahead with a large number of Aupaki events that will see our tamariki come together in different contexts. These include a music festivals, speech competition, rock band showcase, cultural festival and two-day tech fest.
The next event is Aupaki Top Team which will take place on the 27th and 28th March at Redcliffs School. This will see close to 700 Years 7-10 students come together to participate in two action-packed days in a traditional-style Top Town format. We look forward to sharing some photos of the event in our next newsletter.
Deputy Principal Appointment
The Board of Trustees recently completed a full application process for the vacant Deputy Principal's position. At the completion of this process it was decided not to appoint a candidate as the field was deemed not sufficiently strong or broad enough to make a robust decision. We believe this had a lot to do with the timing of the advertisement. We will look to re-advertise the position later on in the term with the hope of attracting a stronger field. In the meantime, Andrea McKendry will continue to lead the Years 0-2 Team and Anne Blackmore-Smith will continue to act as Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCO). We are extremely fortunate to have experienced and highly capable staff to cover these important responsibilities. We will keep you informed as the Deputy Principal appointment process develops.
Have a great weekend.
Ngā mihi nui
Stuart Cameron
Principal
Enrichment classes have begun at Linwood College for Years 7&8 students. We currently have around 28 Aupaki students engaged in creative writing enrichment classes facilitated by a secondary English teacher.
In addition to the enrichment classes, we have a very exciting year ahead with a large number of Aupaki events that will see our tamariki come together in different contexts. These include a music festivals, speech competition, rock band showcase, cultural festival and two-day tech fest.
The next event is Aupaki Top Team which will take place on the 27th and 28th March at Redcliffs School. This will see close to 700 Years 7-10 students come together to participate in two action-packed days in a traditional-style Top Town format. We look forward to sharing some photos of the event in our next newsletter.
Deputy Principal Appointment
The Board of Trustees recently completed a full application process for the vacant Deputy Principal's position. At the completion of this process it was decided not to appoint a candidate as the field was deemed not sufficiently strong or broad enough to make a robust decision. We believe this had a lot to do with the timing of the advertisement. We will look to re-advertise the position later on in the term with the hope of attracting a stronger field. In the meantime, Andrea McKendry will continue to lead the Years 0-2 Team and Anne Blackmore-Smith will continue to act as Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCO). We are extremely fortunate to have experienced and highly capable staff to cover these important responsibilities. We will keep you informed as the Deputy Principal appointment process develops.
Have a great weekend.
Ngā mihi nui
Stuart Cameron
Principal
Swimming Sports Day - Week 5
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Spotlight on Excellence
Congratulations to the following students who received Surfer Awards this week at the assembly on Monday:
Respect: Sean B for an excellent start to the year and showing respect for his learning, classmates and the environment.
Sincerity: Jack C for always putting maximum effort into producing excellent work.
Sincerity: Samaya W for always looking out for others and for being a great Year 2 role model.
Unity: Edward P for being ready to listen straight away, contributing to other people's learning by sharing great ideas, and having a positive and cheerful start to the year.
Resilience: Rosie C for showing resilience during our Splash and Dash practise.
Resilience: Cruz W-S for showing a positive attitude in class and demonstrating perseverance during challenging tasks.
Empathy: Elle K for always showing kindness towards her friends in Te Manawa and by caring and including them in everything she does.
Respect: Charlie H for being a fantastic listener and always showing respect to his peers and the classroom environment. You are a great role model in Room 6.
Respect: Sean B for an excellent start to the year and showing respect for his learning, classmates and the environment.
Teacher Only Day
Please diary Thursday 29 March as a Teacher Only day. This is the Thursday leading into the Easter Break. Our staff will be involved in a day of professional learning at Rapaki Mārae along with all the teachers from the Aupaki Kāhui Ako (Community of Learning).
Please diary Thursday 29 March as a Teacher Only day. This is the Thursday leading into the Easter Break. Our staff will be involved in a day of professional learning at Rapaki Mārae along with all the teachers from the Aupaki Kāhui Ako (Community of Learning).
Enrolments 2018-19
If you have a pre school aged child in your family who hasn't enrolled yet we would greatly appreciate you completing an enrolment form at the Office as soon as possible. Please let neighbours and friends know of this request to help us plan for later in the year and into 2019. Contact the Office for further information: admin@sumner.school.nz or phone: 326 6546.
If you have a pre school aged child in your family who hasn't enrolled yet we would greatly appreciate you completing an enrolment form at the Office as soon as possible. Please let neighbours and friends know of this request to help us plan for later in the year and into 2019. Contact the Office for further information: admin@sumner.school.nz or phone: 326 6546.
Junior Splash and Dash
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Swimming Sports Day - week 5
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Big Book Buy Up 2018
Thank you to all the families that supported the event this year.
Through your generosity over 110 new books have been purchased for the library. This is a great opportunity to have input into what goes into the library and get the books that your child wants to read. The books are being processed and will be available to issue shortly. If you have not yet paid for your book, please do so as soon as possible.
Thank you to Greer Miller and the wonderful PTA team for organising the Big Book Buy Up.
*If you missed out, it’s not too late! You can help us reach our goal of 120 books by stopping by the office and purchasing one of the remaining books.
Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival
Auditions for 2018 Representative Groups
Your best musicians need to be part of this!
Applications for individual singers and instrumentalists to audition for one of the Festival’s Representative Groups – Junior or Senior Choir, Concert Band, Orchestra – are now open. This is the opportunity for singers and instrumentalists to achieve at the highest level of performance and to excel in their chosen area of artistic endeavour.
Please go to the festival website www.musicfestival.school.nz where all the information, and an application form, is available. There is information on the website that will answer every question of potential participants.
Audition applications close on the last day of Term 1.
Surf Lifesavings Champs and Regionals February was a busy month for the Sumner and Taylors Mistake Surf Lifesaving clubs with the Canterbury Junior Surf Lifesaving Championship and the Southern Regional Junior Surf Lifesaving Championships being held. In typical Christchurch fashion they experienced all four seasons during these events with some days requiring fluffy blankets, jackets and hot drinks and the next, sunscreen and plenty of water. It was fantastic to see well over 350 kids from all over the South Island attend the Regional competition and to see all the kids having fun and getting to know others from different regions in their age groups. The level of sportsmanship shown was really something to be proud off. A large group of Sumner school students were competing in these two events representing Sumner & Taylors Mistake Surf Clubs with some fantastic results, which are displayed on the school notice board. |
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Medal winner Amelie C
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Medal winner Callum G
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Triathlon Event in Sumner
Please be advised that the Canterbury Secondary Schools Triathlon event will take place on Thursday 8th March between 12:45-2:45pm. The event will have the bike leg passing by your residence.
Please take extreme care if you must drive anywhere on the bike course and avoid parking on the roadside. The course runs from Scarborough Domain, right into Nayland, left into Head Street, then laps of: Colenso, left into Wakefield, left into Heberden (at bottom of Evans Pass), left into Colenso then returning to Scarborough Domain via Head Street, Nayland and Heberden.
We apologise for any inconvenience the event may cause and thank you in advance for your consideration of the cyclists on the course.
For more information visit http://www.canterburytriclub.co.nz/secondary-schools-tri-champs/
Regards John Newsom – Event Director – 021 399 774
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Years 3&4 Quail Island Trip 
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Redcliffs School along with Ethel and Bethel the Bingo Babes bring you Bingo Night!
Friday 9 March, 7pm - 10pm at Sumner School Hall Who would ever have thought that two old ladies and bingo could be so much fun! Gather your friends and family for an evening of entertainment and games. Ethel and Bethel will run a hilarious bingo night along with fun auctions, raffles, chocolate wheels and more. Be sure to bring plenty of cash as Ethel and Bethel will have you reaching for your wallets. We’ve kept the tickets cheap at $20 so empty the swear jar, raid the kids piggy banks and look down the back of the chair for loose change! Cheese Platters and Sushi Pates can be pre-ordered before Monday 5th March. Beer, wine and snacks will be available to buy on the night. All money raised will go towards retractable tiered seating for our new Redcliffs School Hall. Tickets can be purchased from Leanne or Rachael at the Redcliffs School office. |
MASH will be open for the Teacher Only Day, 29 March. Please contact them to book your child in.
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Christ's College Invitation
Christ’s College is hosting Professor Lea Waters on Tuesday 6 March, 7.30pm. This is a FREE talk and we would like to invite the entire community to attend. To find out more about Lea and her presentation please review this: www.grownups.co.nz/competitions/strength-switch-speaker-series/ To register: https://nz.patronbase.com/_ChristsCollege2/Productions/1737/Performances |
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Thank you to our newsletter sponsors
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To sponsor our newsletter in this spot please contact: admin@sumner.school.nz
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