KTS Newsletter
Term 4, Week 6, Tuesday 23rd November 2021
A warm welcome to Dylan, who joined Room 3 last Monday.
It has been just wonderful to welcome students back on site. Nothing beats the sound of children laughing in the playground after focused learning time in their classrooms. We continue to refine our processes as more children come back on-site to ensure we meet all the health and safety requirements.
On the whole, our systems and processes are running smoothly; staff are busy, students are busy and hopefully you have the security of knowing when you can return to work. I know we will all be looking forward to hitting the traffic light system on Dec 3rd. I will clarify in next week’s newsletter what this means for schools but my understanding, at this stage, is that we continue with the current organisation.
A reminder please that students do need to bring a hat each day as we are spending more time outside.
- Alison
End-of-Year Events
We have been thinking about how to adapt a number of our regular end-of-year events so that we can still acknowledge our senior students. Please note the following:
Prizegiving
As a result of current restrictions, our prizegiving will have a different look. The Year 6 cups and new KTS Learner badges and the Year 8 cups will be presented as part of their respective graduation celebrations – see below for more details about this. We will be presenting KTS Learner badges (what were our Cornerstone badges) for our Year 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 students on Friday 10th December and Monday 13th December, depending on which classes are in for that day. These will be live streamed (ZOOM) as no parents will be able to come on site.
Friday 10th December
9.15 - 9.30 - Rooms 5 and 7
9.45 - 10.00 - Rooms 11 and 13
Mon 13th December
9.15 - 9.30 - Rooms 4 and 6
9.45 - 10.00 - Rooms 10 and 12
10.15 -10.30 - Year 7s + head student announcement
Details around the sports prizes will be confirmed next week.
Year 6 Moving on Up
This year, the Year 6 graduation, and now also prizegiving, will be held on Monday 13th December at 2:00pm. We invite all Year 6 students to attend at this time and will ensure safe social distancing. Again, we will share the event digitally.
Year 8 Graduation
The year 8 graduation on Tuesday 14th December at 6:00pm will still incorporate an opportunity for students to dress up and celebrate their years at Kohia. There will be a simple dinner, prizegiving and then the graduation. As this is an indoor event, parents are not able to attend. We plan to live stream the prizegiving element and then record the individual citation ceremonies; this footage will be sent to parents. This is always such a special evening for students, we have done our best to retain what we can.
Ringing Out
We have organised our class roster system to ensure that our year 8s will be on-site on Thursday 16th December, the official last day of term. We are inviting our Year 7 students to come and take part in the traditional ringing out so they can form an adapted one-sided guard of honour as we farewell staff and students who are leaving us at the end of the year.
Reports
Teachers have been working on reports over the last few weeks. The report, consisting of a general inquiry and science comment, will be published on Friday 3rd December. Learning goals will be updated for reading, writing and maths along with the achievement graphs.
Staff Changes
After 20 years working at KTS, having begun here as a beginning teacher, Carolyn Bowden has decided she wants to spend more time travelling, spending time with her grandchildren, cycling and pursuing other interests. She will finish at the school at the end of this year. Carolyn spent many years teaching in our Year 6 level of the school before moving into her science specialist role of late. She has developed a passion for science that has been passed on to students and ensured such a vast array of experiments that wow and amaze. We also know that our senior students are well prepared for their move to secondary school as a result. Carolyn will be missed by staff and students alike but she is very excited for the different opportunities ahead.
Tara Jones is also moving on to newer pastures. She and her partner are getting married early next year and have decided to relocate to Marlborough to be closer to family and friends. We thank Tara for her 2 ½ years at the school and wish her well.
Jo Bateman is taking a year’s leave as she is expecting her second baby early next year. We wish Jo and Phil all the best as they extend their family and look forward to welcoming her back in 2023.
We thankfully are fully staffed for next year. I will let you know who and where teachers will be in the last week of term. Students will find out their classes for 2022 on Monday 13th December, although at this stage they will not be visiting their class and teacher due to current restrictions. Teachers will be sending out a slide show to introduce themselves to the class.
Talent Quest
Library News
All library books now need to be returned to school for the annual stocktake. If students have not returned to school, there is a box on the front steps during school hours for books to be dropped off. We do charge for lost books so please help with this.
Summer Reading At the end of stocktake I will be organising summer loans for students who are returning to school next year and have returned all their books.
Literacy Awards I have badges to give out from earlier in the year and recently, and will be doing this in small groups on different days to connect with all students over the next few weeks. I will be recording these presentations and sharing them with you in the newsletter each week. The first awards are for Tamoghna, Room 7 (Bronze award); Alisha Room 13 (Cobalt award); and Laura, Room 8 (Gold award). See the video HERE.
– Jane
Sports Update
Sports uniforms
A reminder that all sports uniforms are due back. Please return these to the school office in a bag labeled with your child's name, Room no. and their sports team.
Flippaball/Waterpolo
We are looking for interest in Flippaball (Y3–6) and Waterpolo (Y7–8) for next year. For Flippaball, we are going to continue in our Waterwolves competition, as they can provide coaches. For Waterpolo, there is an Intermediate competition that we can enter, but coaching is not provided. Alex Corbett has kindly agreed to coach an intermediate Waterpolo team if we have the interest.
Each team needs a manager. The manager needs to organise the team at the games, email out playing times, etc. Parents must accompany the child to training and games. For detailed information please refer to this document: Flippaball Term 1 information.
If your child is interested for Term 1, 2022, we need to know now so we can organise teams over the holidays. If your child is keen to play next year please email Rachel Ogilvy (rachel@kts.school.nz) by Friday 26th November. If you are willing to coach or manage, please include this in your email.
Learning at home
Calendar of events
- Auckland Grammar testing – Thu 25 Nov @ 09:00am
- Board of Trustees Meeting – Wed 01 Dec @ 07:30pm (online)
- KTS Learner awards – Friday 10th and Monday 13th December (see above for details)
- Parnell Pools Pohutukawa (TBC) – Mon 13 Dec @ 09:00am
- Year 6 Moving on Up and Prizegiving – Monday 13th December at 2:00pm
- Year 8 Graduation and Prizegiving – Tue 14 Dec @ 06:00pm
- Final day of the year – Thu 16 Dec
Contact Us
Email: office@kts.school.nz
Website: https://www.kts.school.nz/
Location: 3 Kohia Terrace, Epsom, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Phone: 09 630 4525