Newsletter 7th April 2022

“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want”

Bill Watterson

Kia ora koutou

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the latest PTA meeting on Monday evening and share with them where the school is at and what it is that we would most like to strategise over the next few years. As a high decile school the reality is that we are woefully underfunded and there is so much that the school can be thankful to these parents for. I often talk about the PTA providing the icing on our cake and it is true that they do. But they go beyond that too. Their role goes well beyond the obvious fundraising as they also perform a social role. We truly see TPS as being a part of the social fabric of our community and that has been an area that has changed markedly over the last few years due to the social restrictions that have been imposed by Covid-19. We have found that tough, and so has the PTA. The PTA creates opportunities for members of our community to come together for a great shared cause - our tamariki.

In terms of what the PTA provides funds wise, the other realities are that they do provide the icing on the cake and this allows us to go bigger, better and beyond in so many ways. A classic example of this is the school sandpit. Originally intended to be a circular hole in the ground, we instead had a vision that whatever we built would have a strong link to what we were thinking regarding Play Based Learning. This included all of the cool elements that we see within the sandpit now as well as the lovely landscaping. Just think how average it would have looked with just a hole in the ground...stimulating for our tamariki? Yeah, nah! No ramps or trees? No water features? No walls? Distinctly average. The PTA support allowed for that to happen.

As we walk through the school you will see many shade sails, half of which have been funded by the PTA. As has the astroturf. Also half-funded by the PTA. You will see large musical instruments and a playground .... funded by the PTA. You will see many of our tamariki with their noses in a book. As a school we are so very proud of the library we have and it is no secret that many schools are making difficult decisions to do away with their libraries due to a lack of space and the cost of buying books or staffing it. We are fortunate that our PTA heeded our call ten years ago and they fund this wonderful resource. Our library is the envy of so many other schools and rightly so. It is a great space which is well used and which provides extra impetus for our readers. We have a wonderful space with fabulous books. A space which is so very well used by so many and a space that excites kids about reading.

The PTA work hard, are creative and they make a difference for all of our tamariki. Our next big project is to take half of the current court and flip it so that we have an astroturf netball court running in the opposite direction. The current count has gone well past its use by date and this will be a welcome addition. Not just about netball though as this will also become an area that will be beneficial for a great many other sporting and PE activities both during and outside of school hours. The $90 000 cost of this project will be met via funds raised, grants and trusts. The PTA and the tamariki need your continued support to continue making this kura the great place that it is. Please help out when and where you can. Add to the legacy that the PTA leaves our school!

Thanks PTA, you do a great job. So very much appreciated! Nga manaakitanga

Thank you to the hardworking members of our PTA for raising much needed funds for school. And to the parents and whanau for supporting their events!

At their meeting on Monday night, PTA funds were allocated to both Lexia and Mathletics. All akonga benefit from these programmes and these would not be possible without the funds raised by the PTA.

Please continue to support the school via these fundraisers. The PTA are keen to include more whanau. Please contact Sanne on pta@taraprim.school.nz. Many hands make light work!

What a sterling effort our Director of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, has made over the last two years. It is true that prior to Covid-19 most of us wouldn't have had a clue as to who he was but now we sure do. I am sure that most of us will be thankful for the mahi that he and the team that he led has done and achieved over that period of time. His leadership, sense of calm and ability to explain what is going on and why went a long way towards ensuring that Aotearoa was a safe place to be.

His shoes will indeed be very difficult to fill! Koa Dr Ash!

This week's quote is very topical right now as we head towards the first set of holidays for the year. There is such a thing as fatigue and we are seeing that fatigue being linked to Covid-19 more and more. It is okay to let the mind, body and soul recover and sometimes that means that we need to slow down or stop. Our tamariki are no different to this and they will be tired by next Thursday whether they have had Covid or not. If you get the opportunity to plan for doing nothing, just chilling, relaxing and hanging out, then that could be a great thing to do. While we love holidays as they are the times when we get stuff done around the house or when we pack up and travel, those activities can also be tiring too.

Look after yourselves and your whanau. Take time out!

A great big shout out to the team at ANZ who do a fabulous job of supporting New Zealand cricket, and not just the Black Caps. At TPS we have three hardball teams and two Friday night cricket teams, all of whom require a fair bit of gear. Those who know and play cricket will be very aware that the cost of cricket gear is not cheap. So, we applied to ANZ and received a whole new gear bag full of lovely new Kookaburra gear! Howzat for a neat way of helping grow sports in Aotearoa New Zealand? Our sincere thanks to ANZ for their much needed support.

We just love the number of our tamariki that are riding scooters and bikes to school. A great way to get to school and to keep that fitness up! We used to have a wee rule back in the day that once inside the grounds that all wheeled vehicles need to be walked. That has got away on us a bit as we have focused a little on other matters of late (shhhh...don't want to say Covid out loud!). So we will be sending that message out to our tamariki and hope that you can and will reinforce that at home. As careful as they can be, there has been a number of little accidents involving one or two of our whanau being 'run into' and twice as many close calls! Health and safety to the fore!

Over the last few years we have had to think about and use our on-line learning platforms more than ever before due to the fact that we have had so much time out of the classroom. This has needed a bit of extra thinking from ourselves as it is not as simple as just replicating the classroom face to face learning. Trying to digitalise what we would normally do just won't cut the mustard. We need to understand the way that the mind learns online and it is very true to say that it is not the same as in the classroom. There is a great deal of potential in harnessing the positives that we have noticed in that online space and to do so we need to take a good look at how the brain learns and develop a suite of practical strategies.

Over the next week or two, we will explore that in the newsletter for you. As whanau who might need to be giving a bit of support to our tamariki in that online space it probably wouldn't hurt for you to know a bit more yourselves! And let's be honest, so many of you are also working from home too!

• Work in Sprints - Not Marathons! We shouldn't expect our tamariki to focus online for long periods of time. Online learning is very tiring (a bit like Zoom fatigue, if you know what I mean). We are very demanding of our brains online as there is so much sensory 'stuff' going on, let alone what might be happening in the home around us. There is also the need to resist the 'call' of other digital distractions too. Let's be honest it is easier to play around with other online stuff than deal with learning that we might find a wee bit difficult. Oh the temptation! We also know that the beginning and the end of any lesson are the parts that the learner remembers the most. This is amplified within the online construct. So, if we work in shorter bursts there is less likely to be that easily forgotten middle 'period'. We should also schedule regular breaks to ensure that there is less fatigue. And, added to this, if working at home, then ensure that there is plenty of water and food! We use 25% of our energy to keep our brains fuelled! True story!

A reminder that Taradale Primary will be closed this coming Thursday (14th April) as we have a Teachers Only Day. It is also the end of Term 1. As per the norm, Afcare will be available for that day. Happy holidays/Easter break – Stay safe and well. We look forward to seeing you all again in term 2 which commences on Monday 2nd May 2022.

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This year as a school we have been learning a Te Reo Phrase of the week. Whakatata mai. Come close to me. Kia tere. Hurry up. Click on this link to hear some children say the phrase.