Kia ora Koutou,

Certainly challenging times for us all but we are trying to maintain as much normality in our school day as possible. Our priority is to keep staff and students safe. I want to thank you, our community, for supporting us in following guidelines when you come to school.

Yesterday we moved our Rumaki to online learning as a safety measure. We have got hardcopy learning available at the office for parents without access to the internet.

While these classrooms are empty they will be deep cleaned in readiness for the students return.

It's important that you still advise the school if you have a child with a positive case as this will assist us with determining online learning timeframes. Please email principal@forestlake.school.nz

You will be notified if there is a positive case in your child’s class or hub so you can continue to monitor for symptoms. Remember, a positive case in your household means your household needs to be isolated. At the moment only Auraki is open for onsite attendance.

We have orders for devices on back order. If you have a child in Kahikatea 1 and in Auraki Kauri they can bring their own chromebook to school to use. No other device is acceptable as it is an online safety measure in our school.

Today Auraki Manutaki are participating in an online course for “Restorative Practice” This will add to their kete to support other students in the playground.

This is our first online newsletter. You will be able to read it on Facebook, the School App and our website. It gives us more flexibility to share information with you. If you would prefer a hard copy we will have some copies available at the office.

Today there will be a link to the Parent Handbook but as above you can request this is hardcopy.

Have you signed up to Seesaw? Email your child’s kaiako to get access. You need access for each individual child.

Our next newsletter will be 23rd March

Ngaa mihi

Whaea Chris

This year we are holding our triennial elections. The timeframe has been moved to term 3/ 4 and will likely be an online voting process. I will include dates for our upcoming hui so if you want to know a little more about what a Trustee does feel free to attend a hui. Currently we have these online.

28th March 2022

2nd May 2022

30th May 2022

27th June 2022

25th July 2022

29 August 2022

26 September 2022

31st October 2022 ( New board)

The board fully supports the decision taken yesterday by the Leadership Team to move our Rumaki to online learning. The indicative return date is Monday 14th March. This decision may need to be made in other areas of the school dependent on numbers of positive cases and students isolating.

Size 8 Polo Shirts, Size 10 Polo Shirts, Size 12 Polo Shirts, Size 14 Polo Shirts. All other items are in stock at the office. At this stage we do not have a date of when the new stock will arrive.

Matai 1 & 2 -

Matai 1 & 2 have been getting to know each other and learning about our school. Everyone has been working very hard on learning letter names and sounds and we have even managed to make time for science experiments, learning how to code with our robot mice and much more!.

Matai 3 -

In Matai 3, we have been learning about weekdays and colors in Te Reo. We learnt about Positive relationships through Kiwi Can and then implemented the same in the classroom. We have also learnt why we are special and even if we grow up, we are still special and loved by everyone.

Matai 4 -

In Matai 4 we got into the spirit of winning our first Gold at the Winter Olympics and created some Olympic themed art to celebrate! We have also been looking at all the ways that make us unique as part of our term Inquiry tōku mana motukake, tōu mana motuhake. We have been learning about how all of us are unique and together we create a Matai 4 that is one of a kind! We even made a giant mural of what makes Matai 4 special!

Matai 5 -

In Matai 5 we have been exploring what makes us special through our term inquiry tōku mana motukake, tōu mana motuhake. Which means I am special, you are special. The students have been exploring what makes them unique. Through different art mediums and activities, Matai 5 have drawn pictures of their whanau and discussed the uniqueness we each bring.

Matai 5 have shown an interest in learning about the monarch butterfly. Over the last two weeks, we have watched our caterpillars grow from small eggs to a cocoon and into beautiful butterflies.

Check out the gallery below for images from our start to the year

Did you know butterflies “taste” with their two front feet! Who knew!

Tēnā tātou e te whānau

Papaki kau ana ngā mihi ki a koutou te whānau i kaha tae mai ki te kura ako ai me te whai mātauranga. I tēnei wahanga o te tau kei te aro ngā tamariki o Rumaki Teina ki te kaupapa matua o te kura mo te wāhanga nei, ‘Ko Rotongahere Te Kura’. Mo tēnei mahi i tīmata ngā kaiako te tango tētahi whakaahua o ia tamaiti, kātahi ka whakapiri ngā tamariki kia hawhe o taua whakaahua ki tētahi pepa ma, mā te whakamahi kutikuti me te kapia. Ko tā rātou whāinga nui kia ngana ai te tā pikitia hei whakaorite ki tā rātou whakaahua me te whakaataahua hoki mā te whakamahi pene rākau me ngā pene karakara anō hoki. Anei ētahi whakaahua o tā mātou mahi.

Kia Ora whānau, Kahikatea students have settled into their hubs well. We are excited for the year ahead and are not going to let Covid dampen our spirits. To introduce ourselves, Kahikatea Kaiako and Kaiawhina have put their pepeha below.

Whakawhiti Huarahi 2022

E mihi ana ki ēnei tauira e kawe ake te manuka me te ako i ngā mahi o te whakawhiti huarahi. Ko ēnei ngā tamariki hōu e tautoko ana i ngā mahi kia tiaki i te haumarutanga o ngā tangata katoa.

Ānei ngā tauira whakawhiti huarahi ki roto i te Rumaki

Apanui, Tipene, Te Arepa, Te Miringa, Liam, Te Ahumairangi, Kavarn, Westley

Oriwia Awa, Anahera Neal, Waereti-Rose Watene, Ryder Whare

Ka pai ki ēnei tauira!

We hope you all had a lovely summer holiday and are well-rested and ready for the new school year. We would like to introduce ourselves:

Kia ora, Ko Bruce Gordon tōkū ingoa

I was born in Hamilton and moved around the country before coming back to Hamilton. I was educated at Hastings Boys High, Massey University and The University of Waikato. I have taught for 16 years, nearly 6 of those years at Forest Lake School. I have twin daughters and like to ensure I stay fit and active.

Kia ora, Ko Linda Simon tōkū ingoa

I am very excited to return from maternity leave and join the Auraki Kauri teaching team this year. My husband and I are blessed with two highly energetic daughters who keep us very active. I’ve been privileged to play Netball at an elite level for many years before becoming a teacher. I studied at Hamilton Girls’ High and the University of Waikato before starting my teaching career. I look forward to supporting your tamariki in their learning journey and making connections with all our Auraki Kauri whānau.

We’re excited about the opportunity to get to know you and work with you to meet the needs of your child.

This term we will focus on the following curriculum areas:

Topic: We will be learning about our Kura, Rotongahere and the students' connection to it and the community.

Maths: A focus on basic facts, numeracy addition and subtraction. Students will also be introduced to Numicon, a structured Maths approach providing explorations and investigations with an emphasis on the language of maths.

Reading: Learning reading skills and strategies such as skimming, scanning and predicting.

Writing: Learning how to use Descriptive language features to write character descriptions and understanding a Narrative writing structure.

Physical Education: Target Skills and Games.

E-learning: We are using Chromebooks in our learning and recommend students have their own personal Chromebook. Students have been working on gaining their ‘Digital License’ and how to become a responsible ‘Digital citizen’. This has become increasingly important for our tamariki to learn. We encourage whānau to continue these discussions at home. Students will use creative tools on Seesaw to take pictures, draw, record videos and more to capture learning in a portfolio that they can share with you digitally. If you are not connected to your child's Seesaw account please get intouch with Matua Bruce or Whaea Linda.

If you have any questions or queries, please contact us through Seesaw, or by email at bruceg@forestlake.school.nz or lindas@forestlake.school.nz

Below are some examples of the students digital license activity they completed earlier this term