KTS Newsletter
Term 2, Week 1, Tuesday 3 May 2022
Welcome back to Term 2, and a warm welcome to 13 new students who started at KTS this week: Chloe, Alyssa and Fred (Rm 1); Lucas and William (Rm 2); Sabrina (Rm 5); Marcus (Rm 6); Jonathan (Rm 8); Jaden (Rm 10); Yuqi (Rm 11); Charlotte (Rm 12); Yuxi and Jason (Rm 13).
We are looking forward to welcoming students new to the school this year at our powhiri next Thursday 12th May. Let us hope the weather behaves so we can have this special ceremony, as it is outside. Our apologies that we have, due to numbers, decided to limit the invite to new students this year.
It was certainly nice to have a two-week break. I hope you all managed some nice time with family and friends. It was lovely to see so many students back yesterday looking refreshed and ready to take on what we hope will be a more normal term.
The Year 7 and 8 students are setting up for their camp in Matamata, departing tomorrow. This camp is always an amazing experience for the students and we are again just thankful that we have been able to proceed. We look forward to the updates. Our Year 5 and 6 students start their aquatics programme this Thursday at the Dean Greenwood Swim School in Mt Eden; we certainly miss the easy access to the university pool but it will be good to have the benefit of trained swim instructors for this essential aspect of our school curriculum. A sincere thank you Sean and Joyce Zhang (Vanessa Yr 5) for providing buses for this. We really appreciate the support.
Please remember to check in Hero to read and comment on the learning post from the end of last term. Each comment earns 100 house points for your child, with every 'like' earning 50 house points. These are being totalled on Friday, and the winning house will be celebrated in next week's newsletter.
Finally, a reminder that we have a Teacher Only Day on Friday 3rd June with all the local schools in our Kahui Ako (Community of Schools). We will be spending time looking at the Aotearoa Histories curriculum and starting some revision of our school’s literacy programme.
Keep well – Alison
COVID – Orange settings
We have had a number of staff contract COVID over the break, some of whom are still not back at school. I guess it was not surprising with such a small number off throughout Term 1. It will be interesting to see how we go over the next week or so. In the meantime, as I shared last week, we have the following in place for the orange setting:
Whilst mask wearing is now a choice for all staff and students, we are still very much encouraging their use. If there is a positive case in any classroom we will be strongly recommending mask wearing. We will continue to have child-sized masks available for students to wear.
When working in close proximity with identified 'at risk' students, staff will be required to wear masks.
Students within year groups will be able to work with each other, but not across year groups still.
'Azoomblies' will continue with any other larger group meetings being held outside (e.g. our pōwhiri on 12th May).
Group clubs and sports practices will start but only within year groups. Any across-year group activities will remain outside.
Parents are welcome on site, but please NOT in classrooms. If you need to meet with your child's classroom teacher, please arrange a time for a ZOOM call.
Parents coming for a confirmed meeting or for a specific task are required to sign in at the office and we strongly recommend mask wearing.
As a school we will continue to ensure our classrooms are well ventilated and maintain good hygiene practices.
We will continue to provide home learning for those students who are isolating at home.
Please continue to keep students who are not well at home and let us know of any positive COVID results.
KOHIA QUIZTACULAR
Thursday 12th May 6.30pm
Have you registered yet?
Connecting our school community. The PTA is very aware that we have not been able to have any community-based events for some time so …. sit in the comfort of your home and join us for a Family Quiz.
Each family will take part in a family-based Kahoot quiz (via ZOOM). Depending on numbers there will be two or three different ZOOM rooms, all doing the same quiz at the same time.
$10.00 per family – plus you earn 500 house points.
Please enter now by completing this form
There are some great prizes up for grabs; thank you very much to our wonderful sponsors:
Park and Walk – Wednesday Walkers
Starting next week (11 May)
We are trialling a supervised walking bus that travels between Melville Park and school in the morning and afternoon on a Wednesday. A small group of parents has volunteered to shuttle students to school; we appreciate this effort to reduce cars on Kohia Terrace.
How it will work:
Mornings: drop off at the top of St Andrews Rd by the Melville Park playground between 8:20am and 8:40am. They will be accompanied to school by an adult and will walk independently to their classroom. There will be at least two groups leaving over this time; the last departure will be at 8:45am.
Afternoons: Meet by the junior gate between 3:00 and 3:10pm; students will be accompanied by an adult who waits with them until they are met at the entrance to Melville Park by the University on St Andrews Road. If nobody picks them up by 3:15pm they will be returned to the school office.
Second-Hand Uniform Sale
The PTA will be holding our first second-hand uniform sale for the year on Wednesday 11th May. The sale will start at 2:30pm and finish at 3:15pm. A limit of 6 items per family will apply until 3pm to make it fair to buyers. Donations for the sale are gratefully accepted so if you have any unused uniform items that are taking up space, please drop these into the office. All money from the sale contributes to PTA fundraising.
Intermediate open evening
Are you starting to think about where your Year 6 student will be going for Year 7 & 8? Come to the open evening on Tuesday 21 June at 6:30pm to find out more about intermediate education at Kohia. If you have friends who are interested, send them along too. We usually open a few balloted places, depending on numbers.
Yummy sticker promotion
Time to get crunching and collecting Yummy apple stickers. This year is the 25th anniversary of the Yummy sticker promotion for schools! After you have crunched your way through a ‘Yummy’ apple, keep the sticker and add it to a sticker sheet. These can also be downloaded from the website or collected from the office. Full sheets can be dropped at the office and earn 1000 house points. The more stickers we collect, the more sports gear we can earn for our school, so start munching!
Calendar of events
Community Notices
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