Tēnā koutou katoa
Ngā mihi nui, kia koutou katoa - Warm greetings to you all.
It was brilliant to host our middle and senior school Swimming Sports at Memorial Pools last week. The last time we were able to host this was in 2019. A huge thank you to the volunteer parents who assisted with timing, without your support it simply would not have been possible to run this event. An equally big thank you to Dave Medley and Jo Taele, for your great organisation, and our awesome teaching and support staff who kept the event running smoothly so that all kids had plenty of time in the water competing.
Our year 1 and 2 classes attended the Beach Education day at Omanu Surf Club last week. This is very valuable learning for our students, especially as we live so close to the sea. Again, thank you to our fantastic TPS parents and grandparents who could attend and support the learning. We feel very fortunate to have such strong community support.
It was a pleasure to attend our first Friends of the School (FOTS) meeting for 2023. Joining this group is a great way to meet other TPS parents and contribute to our school. Please come along to the next meeting on 28th March, 6:30 pm in the staffroom.
Last week I sent an email explaining that the teachers union has announced that primary teachers will be joining their secondary school colleagues to strike on Thursday. This decision was not taken lightly, it has been over 8 months since the teachers' current Collective Agreement (terms and conditions of employment) expired. Teachers are fighting not only for a pay increase but for improved support and resourcing for education such as lower teacher-to-student ratios, and more specialist learning support for schools.
Unfortunately the strike day is right beside our already planned Teacher Only Day on Friday necessitating two consecutive days where the school is closed for instruction. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this causes our school families.
This term our uniform supplier (Kukri) has notified us of a price increase across all of our uniform items. The uniform prices from the start of term 2 will be as follows:
- Jacket $65 (no increase)
- Fleece $54 ($4 increase)
- School Polo $34 ($2 increase)
- Shorts $32 ($2 increase)
- Skort $34 ($2 increase)
Crocs are acceptable school uniform footwear, however, the GIBBITZ used to decorate the crocs have started to become an issue. Allocating precious teaching time to sort out missing gibbitz and various related issues is not a priority. Therefore, GIBBITZ are now officially banned from school- please leave them at home for weekend wear, thank you.
A reminder that phones and smart watches (with phone capabilities) are also not allowed at school. If it is absolutely essential that your child has a phone for after school activities, the phone or watch can be left at the office for safe keeping each morning and collected at 3:00pm. If phones are found at school or used during the day, they will be confiscated and parents will be requested to come into school and collect them.
Nau mai haere mai. A very warm welcome to Hokianga Mafi-Woods, Ricoh Lambie, Brylee Hughes, Amr Anwar, Aryan Kumar, Charles Warren, William Dropulich who started their schooling with us recently. It is great to have you and your family join our TPS Team.
Ngā mihi maioha
Fiona Hawes
principal@tauranga.school.nz
