Tena Koutou, Talofa, Namaste, Hello and Greetings

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting Pip and Harold the giraffe in the Life Education truck. After missing our last visit with Pip and Harold due to covid, students and teachers were all very happy to board the truck and learn something new. The truck has had a couple of upgrades since the last visit and each class was able to select a student for the ‘body scanner’. This was a lot of fun and related well to our learning about the body systems. The digestive and circulatory systems were two areas that classes looked at, focusing on the importance of a healthy diet and how nutrients move through the body within the blood. During these lessons it was evident that some of our children are not eating breakfast before school. We are very lucky at East Gore School to have a breakfast club in our school hall. We have volunteers every morning here and are ready to serve weetbix, toast and yogurt from 8:30am.

This week we had our ‘Super Power hour’. This was a special event planned for our school by Paula Marrah, our learning support coordinator and a number of outside agencies. The purpose of this event was to teach our students about different ‘super powers’ children and adults can have. One of our guests was Demitris, a former East Gore student who is now at Gore High School. He attended with Wendy from BLENZ and taught the children about what it is like to be sight impaired. This was the highlight for many of our children who were able to learn about Braille but more importantly meet a fabulous role model who they could admire.

We have had visitors this week from other schools involved in an Art Course held by REAP in our school hall. They have been having their breaks during our play times and lunch times and a couple of our 5 years noticed a number of students playing in the playground without their ‘costumes’ on. This was a very cute reminder for some of our older students to wear correct school uniforms.

With only three weeks left this term we would like to remind you all that we will be opening the East Gore School Museum in our school hall in Week 10. We will be open during the day for parents to come in for a visit during the day and we will keep you updated on which days we will keep the hall open after school.

A couple of friendly reminders…

School does not open until 8:30am and students should not be at school before then. This time is precious preparation time where teachers are busy and not necessarily in their classrooms actively supervising children.

During spring time we often see fluctuations in the weather. Children need to make sure they still have warm clothes whilst also applying sunscreen at home on days when it’s appropriate. Sunscreen is available at school as are a selection of second hand school jumpers (for a small donation) if needed.

Sarah Gilbert

Acting Principal

Kia pai tō rā whakatā (have a great weekend).