Newsletter No. 1, February 4 2022

Welcome back to 2022. 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!

Although the return to school has looked very different to ‘normal’ we are now well versed in dealing with the unexpected! I think I speak for the whole team when we say how proud we are of our tamariki for how well they are managing these changes and how they continue to take everything in their stride. A huge thank you to you all also, for all that you have done to keep abreast of the communications that have been coming thick and fast from us - we really appreciate your support!

The beautiful weather has also enabled our ākonga to get outside enjoying our brand new outdoor spaces. While not yet quite finished, they are providing a fantastic space for our children to play, and for outdoor learning so that our older children can have regular mask breaks. If you haven’t already, please plan a wander through the grounds after school hours to have a look.

The change to Red setting has meant we have been unable to welcome our new staff and students as we normally would through our Kai me Kōrero evening and mihi whakatau. Nevertheless I would like to extend a huge Haere mai and very warm welcome to:

Beau L, Sienna M, Ernest C, Jasper M, Oscar T, Sylvie K, Cooper R, Millie G, Bodhi B, Millie S, Dolly D, Marshall G, Sam Q, Marco K, Ella P, Amelia & Louis S, Billie & Frankie H.

I would also like to welcome Natasha Fraser and Andrew Daniels who are joining us as Team Leaders for Te Onepoto and Awaroa respectively. A big ‘welcome back’ also goes to Hannah Smaill who is joining us in Tuawera two days a week after returning from maternity leave.

Mrs Granger visits the New Entrant class - Week 1

Our concept for inquiry this term is our School Value of Whanaungatanga. Whanaungatanga is all about developing and maintaining respectful connections with people. Our value has whānau (family) at its centre and at Sumner School we understand this as developing a school whānau that actively works to develop and foster respectful relationships. This value provides a fantastic starting point for our teaching teams to get to know the children in their spaces as unique individuals and also as learners. Earlier this week our teaching teams sent out their start of term curriculum newsletters. Please have a read of these if you haven’t already. A further curriculum update will be sent home a little later in the Term

In the days before school officially began our team was hard at work beginning our professional learning for 2022. Our focus for this year is our core curriculum areas of literacy and maths.

We are excited to be continuing our maths professional development alongside Sarah Cobb from Mathematically Minded. Our focus this year is to continue to build 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 will (hopefully) have opportunities for parents and whānau to be involved in this learning alongside us in different ways, for example; information sessions, open afternoons/sessions and continued communication through our newsletters and our website.

We have also begun our Structured Literacy learning alongside Caroline Morritt, our Resource Teacher of Literacy. During our preparation days together Caroline shared with our teaching team some of the latest research regarding how children learn to read and the science that underpins this. Teaching teams have already started to implement some of this new learning across all the school.

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.

Thank you for your support so far with the changes we have made to our school routines under Red. As a school we are continuing to receive updates from the Ministry of Education daily to ensure we have the measures in place to mitigate the spread of any potential cases that make their way into our school community. One of these measures is the wearing of masks for our staff and Years 4-8 children. We have been blown away at how brilliant our Years 4-8 children have been in adjusting to school life with a mask. We know this isn’t easy and please be assured we are working to ensure that our children (and staff) have regular ‘mask free’ breaks outside to get some fresh air and a drink.

Our plan at the moment is to maintain ‘business as usual’ for our ākonga for as long as possible, but the Board and I are currently working to ensure we have the necessary plans in place to support teaching and learning should members of our staff or school community need to self-isolate for periods of time.

And finally, we wish you a very happy and healthy Waitangi long weekend. We look forward to welcoming the children back at 9am on Tuesday.

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Ngā mihi nui
Anna Granger
Principal

The PTA fundraiser providing hotdog lunches on Tuesdays will not be going ahead with Red light restrictions however we will reassess the situation as the year goes on.

Sushi is available for children's lunches on Friday each week and can be ordered online at: info@puresushi.co.nz
Orders need to be completed by noon on Thursday for lunch on Friday.

Art classes will start Week 2 on Wednesday 9 February from 3pm to 4.30pm in Room 21.
All classes are strongly based on drawing skills using pastels, dye, charcoal, chalk and paint. We cover a fun range of subject matter and complete a piece of art each session.
Lessons are suitable for 6 year olds and up, everything is included in the cost as well as afternoon tea. Booking is essential.
The cost for the term (10 weeks) is $200.00.
For more information or to book in please contact Jo: 027 35 10 321 or joloughnan@xtra.co.nz
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