Balclutha Primary School

Principal's Report

Welcome to Term 4. I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable term break. For those who had a super busy holiday break will be looking forward to the long weekend coming up. It's hard to believe that in less than 7 weeks, our school year will be over for another year.

We have a busy 7 weeks ahead and are working to ensure our students' learning is not impacted by the current Alert Level 2 status we are in. Senior swimming starts in week 3, and the juniors start in week 5. More information about this has been sent out by the class teachers. All our classrooms have a range of exciting learning planned for the last term, so keep an eye on the newsletter, our facebook page, and SeeSaw to see what we are getting up to.

Assemblies have been scheduled for weeks 3, 5 and 7 but these will only go ahead if we drop to Level 1, or if our current guidelines are changed. We are currently looking at options for end of year celebrations such as our Year 8 graduation evening and our final assembly celebration. These will go ahead in some format, but may need to be adjusted to ensure we stay within the guidelines. Initially it looked like we may be back to Level 1 by then, but the growing cases in the North Island may mean we remain at Level 2 for the rest of the term. Hopefully not!

Sun hats and water bottles

The shade sails are up, the days are getting longer, and Summer is on its way! All students and staff are now expected to wear a sunhat when outside. If your child does not have a school sunhat, these can be purchased from the school office at a cost of $5. Thank you to the Balclutha Primary School Whānau and School and our Board of Trustees, who subsidise the the balance of the hat cost.

Under Level 2, we are unable to operate the drinking fountains at school. Please remind your child to bring their drink bottle every day.

Messages for Parents re Staff Communication and Vaccinations

The Ministry of Education has advised that it is not appropriate for teachers, school leaders or board members to use their position to promote their personal views. I can confirm that personal views of staff, around COVID 19 vaccinations, are not being shared with students.
Currently vaccinations are not required for school attendance as reflected in the Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021. Any decisions around vaccinations for children would be determined by Health, not Education.
Our school is following Ministry of Education advice that is based on Ministry of Health guidelines.

In the next week or so we are expecting clarification around the collection of the vaccination status for our students who are 12 and older, as well as the vaccination requirements for parents coming on site or to school activities as parent coaches or helpers. We will share this information with our school community once it comes in.

Enjoy the long weekend,

Ngā mihi nui,

Vicki Neave

Thank You...

Donna Buxton, from the Balclutha Rotary Club, came to school on Thursday and presented dictionaries to our Year 4 pupils. Thank you very much Balclutha Rotary Club.

Thank you...

Thank you to the Warden family, for the big bag of lovely books they have donated to the school. Some will be popping up in the library and some will go to classrooms. We are going to have a lot of very happy bookworms!

Whānau and School Update

Welcome back to Term 4!! We hope everyone had a nice break.

We have our Whānau and School Meeting next week on Thursday 28th October at 7pm in the staffroom, all welcome :-)

If anyone is keen to help with the Christmas Parade please touch base via the email address below or come to the meeting next week.

Enjoy the long weekend :-)

Whānau and School Co-Presidents

Sara Sutherland and Carleigh Frisby

Email: balcluthapta@gmail.com

Room 2

It was wonderful to see Room 2 bouncing back into class on Monday with bright smiles and stories about their holidays. We have been getting back into routines and are beginning to read a chapter book together before lunch. In our photos this week we are having our morning tea in the sunshine and listening to Rita during a Samoan lesson.

		$Learning about fractions using jelly beans.$
Room 12 cityscape artwork, completed with Mrs Judson.	Can you guess the number on the dice roll? The children started learning about probability.	Learning about fractions using jelly beans.