Tēnā koutou katoa. Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou.
Welcome back to 2023. I hope that you all had a wonderful break and are feeling rested and ready for an exciting year at Sumner School.
It has been wonderful to see the students returning to school for the start of the school year. The last few days have been a great opportunity to re-connect and hear about the adventures that have taken place over the summer… and to see how much they have grown!
An extra special Haere Mai to Lorna & Aidan L, Brodie T, Dylan P, Emma & Tobias V, Isla B, Jesse J, Logan H, Marcel M, Molly M, Olive B, Olivia E, Poppy H, Samuel D, Sylvia K and Xanthe H.
We are also welcoming back Pip Andrews to our Te Onepoto Teaching Team after a year away on Maternity Leave.
Our focus for the beginning of the year is our School Value of Whanaungatanga. The Māori value of Whanaungatanga is all about developing and maintaining respectful connections and networks with people. This value has whānau (family) at its centre. At Sumner School we understand this as developing a school whānau that actively works to develop and foster respectful relationships. Our Hauora Hui Learning Conferences and Kai me Kōrero evening have given our teaching teams a fantastic starting point in getting to know the children in their spaces as unique individuals and also as learners. Thank you all for your participation in these.
I know that teaching teams are already busily underway planning exciting events for our children.
Term 1 is looking like a busy one and our Events Calendar is pretty full already. Please make sure that you keep a regular eye on this to ensure you don’t miss anything!
Spotlight on uniform reminders and sun safety… Christchurch is continuing to provide us with a beautiful summer and it is wonderful to see the children out enjoying the sunshine and being sun smart. Almost all of our children have returned to school armed with a sun hat and sunscreen. Please remember that (navy bucket or wide brimmed) hats and rash tops for swimming are compulsory in Terms One and Four. Based on the already overflowing nature of our Lost Property bin located in the School Office, I would highly recommend naming these, alongside all other school uniform items! Please also remember to pop sunscreen in your children’s bags as our teachers make sure that there is time in the day to reapply sunscreen after swimming and before break times.
A reminder also that our uniform information is located within our A-Z page on our school website. We really appreciate your support in ensuring that long hair is tied back and that children are wearing the correct uniform (including black, blue and white socks) and sensible footwear.
Spotlight on communication… Just a quick reminder that if any contact details (address, phone numbers or email addresses) have changed over the summer break to please let us know so that we can update our system. Please contact the Office to do this admin@sumner.school.nz
Spotlight on our school grounds… We are really proud of our school grounds and warmly invite our community to use them out of school hours. However we ask that you encourage your children to respect our school facilities and to continue to show their School Values at all times both while on our grounds and in the village. This includes remembering not to bring dogs onto our site at any time and to remind your children not to bike, scooter or skateboard on the artificial turfs as this damages the surface.
Spotlight on Professional Development… In the days before school officially began our team was hard at work beginning our professional learning for 2023. Our focus for this year continues to be in our core curriculum areas of Literacy and Maths.
We are excited to be continuing our mathematics professional development alongside Sarah Cobb from Mathematically Minded. Our continued focus this year is focusing on building our teachers’ professional capabilities alongside a focus on assessment, goal setting and how this informs our teaching and coverage of the curriculum. As part of this work we plan to have opportunities later in the year for parents and whānau to be involved in this learning alongside us in different ways, for example; information sessions and open afternoons/sessions.
We will also be continuing our Structured Literacy learning this year alongside the University of Canterbury and our Resource Teachers of Literacy with the Better Start Literacy approach (Years 0-2) and The Code (for our Years 3-8 ākonga).
Another focus for us is the implementation of the new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum. We are currently undergoing professional development in this alongside our Aupaki Kāhui Ako (community of local schools including Redcliffs, Star of the Sea, Heathcote Valley, Mt Pleasant, Lyttelton and Te Aratai College) with the aim of delivering our first inquiry around this with the children in Term 2.
As a staff we are really excited about the professional learning we are embarking on this year, and we look forward to sharing this with you through regular updates in our newsletters.
And finally... I hope you have a fantastic Waitangi weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather! See you all at 9am on Tuesday for the start of Week 2.
Ngā mihi,
Anna Granger
