Chelsea School Newsletter
Week 10 Term 4, 2023
Important Term Dates
Term 4, 2023
- Wed 13 Dec: Xmas Carols and Hangi Night 5-8pm
- Thu 14 Dec: Kākano and Pakiaka EOTC Wet'n Wild Day
- Fri 15 Dec: Meet the (2024) Teachers 9.15 - 11am
- Mon 18 Dec: Picnic Day
- Tue 19 Dec; Junior Prizegiving at 9.15am
- Wed 20 Dec: Senior Prizegiving 10.30am
- Wed 20 Dec: School closes for the year at 12.30pm
- Wed 07 Feb: First Day of Term 1
Kia ora whānau
Welcome to the last newsletter of 2023.
Term 4 has been massive! Full of fun, challenge and incredible learning.
Haere Ra …
We will be busy farewelling members of our staff throughout the remaining week, and we will also be welcoming new members of our whānau, too. Change can be unsettling but exciting, as it causes positive change and growth.
Sven, you are going to be missed so very much. I applaud your return to the classroom for a bit! It’s important for leaders never to forget what it is to be on the ‘front line’, and Ponsonby is very lucky to have you. You are an incredible leader with an absolute heart of gold, and we are so fortunate that you crossed paths with Chelsea. Your impact has been immeasurable in all areas of our school. Personally, I will miss my work bestie, although the Dad jokes? Not so much!
To Debby, who has won a position supporting learners as a Resource Teacher of the Deaf. You are going to be phenomenal. Thank you for your work over the past 4 years. We have learned a lot from you.
To Phoebe, the sun shiniest ray of sunshine, you have smashed your first two years of teaching, and we wish you all the very best for your move to sunny Northland.
To Whaea Jas, we are so excited that you are heading to train as a teacher. You are already incredible in this space; this is the perfect next move for you!
A huge thanks must go to the team at Chelsea for their hours of planning and organisation of the amazing range of events our learners have been lucky enough to experience this term. You are incredible, and you work so hard to give our kids the very best. I appreciate you!
Also, to our community, thank you so much for all of your help and support throughout the year. Education is definitely a team sport, and we are so appreciative of our incredible whānau. We couldn’t offer half of the experiences we have without your help.
To our PTA, who work tirelessly to support our school, a million thank yous! With the help of our whole community, the PTA donated $50,000 this year, which is phenomenal.
To our school Board, who are a huge support to the direction of the school, and to me. Thanks for all of your work in supporting and driving the mahi that we are undertaking.
The next 4.5 days are again packed with fun and celebration! Our Carols and Hangi night will get everyone in the Christmas spirit tonight. Every year, I watch the weather forecast with growing anxiety, and this year is no different, although at this stage, slightly more promising than in previous years! We are in Auckland, though, so do bring something warm! We are performing on the hall deck and the bottom court, so please set your picnic area up on the grass in front of the court. At about 6.45 pm we will ring the school bell, which is when learners need to move to find their teachers. Teachers will go to the court and have their classes lined up, ready to move to their waiting areas. Singing will start at 7.00 pm. At the end of the night, we will ask that parents of our Y0-2 learners come up to pick them up from the court area, as we don’t want any stressed, lost little people.
A huge thank you to the Keepa Whānau for donating a big portion of the kai for our hangi. So generous! Also, thanks to our kaumatua Stan Conrad and Northcote College for lending us the Kai Cookers. Lastly, kia ora to Rebecca Hedges for all of your hard work and organisation to make our hangi a massive success. Lastly, a huge thanks to our community who spent time preparing ingredients and packs! Team work makes the dream work!
Hangi meals can be collected at approximately 5pm from the swimming pool gate. If you line up along the ramp area beside the pool, this will help us to keep traffic flowing.
Upcoming Happenings
On Friday morning, our learners will spend some time with their new teachers and classmates for 2024. Any transition can be a source of stress, and it’s our jobs as key adults in their lives to be positive and excited about the opportunities that change brings. We will be sending information about your child’s new hub and teachers through Hero on Friday afternoon.
On Monday, we have Picnic Day, a day of fun and a chance to spend time together enjoying various activities. Whānau are welcome to come and have a picnic with us on the field and bank at 12.30 pm. We realise how hectic this time of year is, so there is no pressure to attend! Please ensure your tamariki are covered in sunscreen and dressed for the day (no singlet tops) - think sun-smart choices!
On Tuesday, we will be holding our Junior Prizegiving (Kākano & Pakiaka) at 9.15 am, and then on Wednesday, our Senior Prizegiving (Rito & Māhuri) will be held at 10.30 am, where we will also be farewelling our gorgeous Y6 learners.
School will finish at 12.30 pm on Wednesday.
Learning Stories
It has been a pleasure to read the Learning Stories our teachers have written about your children. I feel so very proud of each and every one of them for all the progress they have made and their successes, big and small! Please make sure you read these to your children and celebrate their growth and progress this year.
Amazing Learning
As the year wraps up, our learners are still hard at work, ticking off goals and being immersed in exciting and creative learning. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been so impressed with the learning that is happening within our classrooms and beyond. Engagement has been high! What a great way to finish the year.
Kākano Market
Seeing our littlest people planning and organising a market day was beautiful. They worked so hard with their posters, planning, baking and creating, and raised $895 for Starship. I absolutely love this kind of hands-on learning, and it's even more powerful when it’s for such a good cause. Advertising, change counting, crowd control - the learning within this exercise was priceless!
Super Star Writers
I was lucky enough to spend a day with Rito Hub 1 a couple of weeks back, and we read a fabulous book written by a friend of mine called ‘Aunt Concertina and her niece Evalina’. It was about a magical kite found at a second-hand shop that flew the two characters worldwide! We then wrote about where we would fly to if we could choose our destination. I was so impressed with the descriptions that the learners created. I just had to share some with you!
Bug Hotels!
This term, Kākano tamariki have had the opportunity to participate in learning experiences based around the concept of Whakapuawai, which means to cause to blossom, develop, flourish, prosper, and thrive. With Mrs Jones, we learned about different bugs and how they help our environment. Are they yucky? No! Through group discussions, we talked about what we needed bugs for. The tamariki came up with some great ideas! "Catch other bugs we don't like," said Gus. "They make compost, eat food and then poop it out," said Pak. "Bees make honey from flowers by touching the yellow," said Michelle. "They eat our waste", said George. We then headed to the bush to see what bugs we could find there and collect some materials we thought bugs might like. When we had all our materials, we returned to the classroom, where we worked in groups to create our 5-star DIY bug hotels! When all the bug hotels were made, we then took them back into the bush, where we placed our bug hotels, ready for their first guests. Ka Pai Kākano tamariki, what great Kaitiaki you are! Next time you walk through our bush, see if you can spot any bug hotels and check out any new guests!
What a year 2023 has been! There have been so many memorable events and opportunities for our learners to be involved in. 2023 has also been a year of hard work in the property space, and I am so happy with what we have accomplished together. The new build is now well underway, with a finish date of October 2024. The pool renovation has gone well, and we are now waiting on the fence installation, changing room upgrade and heating. The Curiosity Container is taking shape, and a concrete path and pad will be laid in January. Who can forget the grand opening of the new playground? I would like to say a massive thank you to the Board, who have worked tirelessly alongside SLT to get these projects moving, along with our PTA, who are key contributors to the work we have been able to do.
2024 will bring the remediation of the hall to a close. There have been many complex issues to work through, including outstanding consents from 1994!! The process of clearing these is well underway, and we should see some much-needed improvements happening towards the end of Term 1. This work includes replacing the roof, guttering, part of the cladding, internal ceiling tiles and a complete gutting and remodel of the bathrooms (much needed!).
As my time at Chelsea draws to an end, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our community. It has been the privilege of my career to lead the team at Chelsea for the past 6 years. My ‘why’ has always been around kids having a safe place to learn and grow into the people they aspire to be. I grew up in a home with many challenges, and school was one of the few places where I was safe to explore who I wanted to be without fear or anxiety. This is all I have ever wanted for kids in my care. Our tamariki are the most special people on this earth, and they deserve kindness, care and unconditional love. If you get these foundational pieces right, they will thrive and feel safe to stuff up. Has it been perfect? Far from it. This work is messy, rarely linear, and exhausting at times - it can take everything from you! We have always done the very best we can, though, and I feel proud of what we have built here. I adore our kids and feel incredibly sad to be leaving them. I will miss the hugs, the chats and the love! I have also felt so much love from our community over my 11 years as part of the Chelsea whānau, and I thank you for this. It has kept me going through some very tough times. It has been incredible working alongside the best team I have had the pleasure of knowing. Every single member of our team turns up each day ready to do the absolute best they can for our learners and our school. They truly make my heart sing!
I know the school is in great hands moving forward, and I will be back - I don’t think I will quite believe the new build has happened until I walk through it and touch it!
All the very best for 2024 and beyond! I will miss you all so very much.
Arohanui,
Amanda Douglas
Tumuaki of Chelsea Primary School (for a few more days)