Happy Holiday Time Whānau,

What a term it has been! There has been a lot of disruption, a lot of staff and students unwell, many changes to programmes and lots of cancelled events. This is the impact of living in a world with covid. However, we have learnt many new skills, developed a lot of resilience and seen the best of people in many situations.

Thank you for your ongoing support this term. I know that there have been so many changes to what was planned and envisioned for term one and what has actually happened. I feel hopeful that next term will be less disruptive and will be an opportunity for us to re-engage with all the activities and learning that make intermediate school unique.

Today we farewell 3 of our staff members who are moving on to new opportunities.

Whaea Jenny has been our amazing office administrator for the last 4 years. She knows all of our students and has met many of you at reception. We are going to miss her laughter, her organisation skills and her wonderful way of making us all feel aroha when we are in the office area. Jenny has taken up a position at the Marae which is her dream job and will give her the opportunity to use her fluency in te reo Maori and to make a positive impact on the community she will be serving.

Whaea Jodi will be taking over reception and I feel confident that this will be a seamless transition for us all.

Aaron Harrison has taught at our school since 2019 and has been a teacher who has been well loved, well respected and a ball of absolute enthusiasm. We will miss his sense of humour, his crazy ideas and his passion for the environment. Mr Harrison and his family are relocating to Blenheim and he has accepted a position as a deputy principal. We are so proud of him and wish him and his whānau all the very best.

Nicole Webber has been nanny to many of the children of our staff. She has run our playgroup and has helped us to create a pre-school friendly environment for our teaching staff. She is now moving on to work in a daycare centre. Our staff will miss having her around the school and our working mums on staff will definitely miss having her love and care for their babies.

Mrs Cyril Eltanal will replace Mr Harrison in room 14 and take over the teaching of Science. She is an experienced science teacher with recent experience at Intermediate School level.

We will also be welcoming Malia Naititi back to our school to take over in room 1 and work in the literacy team. Miss Naititi has been in Canada for the last 12 months and has returned recently. Mrs Thompson will still be working at our school in a part time capacity in the literacy team.

I hope you have a lovely plans for the Easter time and holiday break. All the very best. Take care of yourselves and we all look forward to seeing your children back on Monday 2 May.

JoAnne Sutton (she/her)

Principal / Tumuaki

You’ll be aware that Minister of Education Chris Hipkins has announced the move to Orange at 11:59pm on Wednesday 13 April.

The decision to move to Orange has been made on public health advice and reflects that we are moving past the peak of cases and our health system is able to cope. We are seeing that cases are declining due to high levels of vaccination and natural immunity after infection.

I wanted to give you an update on what the move to Orange means for our school.

At Orange, face masks are no longer required at school. However public health advice is that masks continue to be strongly encouraged when indoors. Wearing a mask is a key health measure that slows the spread of COVID-19 in indoor settings. For that reason, we ask that visitors to the school, including parents and whānau, wear a mask whenever they are indoors on school grounds.

We also ask that your child continues to bring a mask to school every day. There may be times that we’ll ask them to wear a mask, too – for example, when we are having an assembly in the hall. If there are a high number of cases at school or in the community, we may ask that masks are worn in classrooms for a time.

At Orange, students aged 12 and above are still required to wear a face mask on school or public transport.

We will continue to keep all the other health measures in place at school that we know slow the spread of COVID-19. These include ensuring our indoor spaces are well-ventilated, maintaining good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette, appropriate physical distancing whenever we can and, most importantly, staying home if we are sick.

We are looking forward to a few less restrictions and returning to school life that is a bit closer to normal.

Term 2 starts on Monday 2 May. Subject teaching commences.

As this is a winter term, students may start to wear plain black track pants to school as part of their uniform. These should not have any logos. Please encourage students to wear raincoats on wet days.

School is closed for the holiday period due to building works that include demolition and asbestos removal. The building site will be secure when students return to school but there will still be works in progress until late June.

HPV immunisations are on 16 May. All consent and non-consent forms need to be sent to the office prior to this date.

Thursday 19th May -PhotoLife will be at School and individual photos will be taken

Friday 24th June is our first ever public holiday for Matariki.

Achievement reports for students will be sent home on Thursday 7 July.

Parent and teacher conferences will be held early in Term 3.

Zone sports days and trials for sports camp will start up in Term 2.

Students will need to check the daily notices to find out when trials and trainings are happening.

So, it’s time we invited you back to school to have a look at our classes, watch our staff and students in action and see all the exciting programmes that your child is engaged in every day.

On Wednesday 18 May we would like to invite all whanau to come into school for a guided tour with your child.

We will be opening our doors to visitors from 9am to 1.15pm and from 2pm to 3pm. Book a time with your child and they will meet you at the office and show you around the school. Students will have their learning portfoilos to show you and will tell you about their learning.

Many of you missed out on our open evenings last year so this is a chance to see the school and see the places that your child learns in each day. Teachers will be teaching so this is not an opportunity for a parent and teacher conference. These will happen early in term 3 after the mid year report has been sent home.

The principal, deputy principals and our school counsellor will be available to chat with you and answer any questions.

This is an opportunity for our students to be tour guides and to share their learning. It is also a chance for them to show off our fantastic school facilities, our amazing teachers and some of the belonging projects that they have all been involved with.

Our BIS tamariki have been bringing in easter egg donations for such a wonderful cause.

Ka Rawe kōrua!! Great job you two and a HUGE thank you to all who participated.

Thursday 14th April - Last day of Term 1

Monday 25th April - Anzac Day

Tuesday 2nd May - Term 2 begins

Please contact office@bis.school.nz to advertise your community event in this space.