Tena Koutou, Talofa, Namaste, Hello and Greetings
Welcome back!
On Friday of next week we will be saying farewell to Leah Heaps. Leah first started working here in 1998, working full time, then part time whilst raising a young family and of course full time again. Leah has even taught some of our current students’ parents! It is a great loss to our school, to lose a teacher of her caliber, someone who knows the school and the community inside out and is part of our school identity. Fortunately for the East Gore community she is not moving far, as she moves onto her new role teaching at Oxford Kindergarten around the corner. Leah is excited about this new role and we are excited for her too whilst also being happy that we can maintain our connections and links as children transition from early childhood learning to East Gore School.
With Leah leaving and myself busy in the office this term, we have welcomed two new teachers. Riley Kaio is our New Entrant teacher working in Kauri and Ally Gutsell is working in Rimu.
Riley hails from Gore but has spent the last 5 years teaching in Auckland, and we are very happy to welcome her to East Gore School.
Ally Gutsell is also a Southland girl and has spent time relieving in the area and working around the country. Both Riley and Ally have had a great start at East Gore, making connections with staff and students and have both dived straight into some excellent teaching and learning.
You may have noticed a lot of work happening here over the holidays and we are very happy to have a brand new roof on our two main buildings. There is more working to do as this term we are getting our brand new junior playground! It is going to be installed on the 8th of August but we will need your help to get it ready for the kids to play. We are having a working bee at 9 am on the Saturday 12th of August. Many hands make light work and if we all bring a rake to spread it around it will be ready much sooner.
Uniform
Children need to come to school with the correct school uniform. If you need help sourcing a jumper, please let us know as we have some second hand items available here at school. We encourage all students to wear the correct uniform.
Cell phones and Watches
Children do not need to be bringing cell phones into school. If children need a phone for after school activities, they need to hand them into the school office on arrival at school and collect them at 3 o’clock. Please remember to keep an eye on your children’s activity on devices and social media and also remember that social media apps have age restrictions, many of which are not suitable for primary school aged children. Some of our children have smart watches, these can be worn but need to be on school mode whilst at school.
Netsafe have excellent online tool kits and advice for parents around children being online and social media use follow this link https://www.netsafe.org.nz/advice/parenting/
to check it out.
Sarah Gilbert
Acting Principal
Kia pai tō rā whakatā (have a great weekend).
