Newsletter February 2008

25 February 2008

Dear Parents,

As we begin Week Four, we can reflect upon a positive, purposeful and smooth start to our 2008 year.

Roll:

May I take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to our new students:  Year 0:  Brooklyn Jones

Ruby Lee, Saskia Rankin, Jessica Yu,Macy Greenland (from 10 March), Fletcher Anderson, Harry Howie-Smith, Harry Irwin, Daniel Jung, Jack Mountain.  Year 4: Taylor Keys. Year 6: Joeman Chan.  

Year 7: Mishelle Lee, Sebastian Gurobi-Hines.

Please know that, if you are new to the St Michael’s family, you are warmly welcomed to our ‘fold’.

Redpath Family News:

I quote from a letter received today. The Redpaths were living at Ranui House whilst Mr Redpath received bone marrow treatment.

‘We wish to express our gratitude and heartfelt thanks to you all for the help you extended to our family last year.  Elias, Imogen and Roan were all sorry to leave St Michael’s and immensely enjoyed their time with you.

Philip and I are so thankful that your School was willing and able to provide our children a kind, caring and understanding environment to learn in whilst our family was dislocated from home.

We commend you on the quality of the learning environment and the closeness of your school community.

We are glad to be home, with the children having settled back into their schools successfully, and Philip recovering well.

Thank you again for your generosity and supportiveness.  May God bless your work.’

Staff:

Year Five Teaching:   

It is with much regret that I write to inform you Mrs Jo Holmes has resigned from her 

present position from the end of Term Two.  Year Five parents were informed by letter over the last weekend.  Over the Christmas holidays, Jo and her husband Ben decided to begin their overseas experience in the middle of this year. The position will be advertised with the successful candidate assuming responsibility for the Year Five teaching from the beginning of Term Three 2008.  We hope to be able to advise you of the new teacher by the end of this term.  We wish Jo and Ben well as they make plans for their overseas travel.

After School Care:  

We welcome our new Supervisor, Mrs Brenda Moore, who has lead the Oscar programme at Elmwood School for nearly ten years.

We farewell and thank Katie House for her time as a teachers’ aide: Katie has been selected for a course for teacher training.

Mrs Jo Clark has assumed her duties as our Year One teacher and has made an excellent start.

I know that you would join with me in acknowledging and thanking our of teacher staff for conducting some most informative, professional ‘Meet the Teacher’ evenings. 

ACADEMIC 

New Zealand Curriculum:

The Deputy Principal and Principal lead our teaching staff, during the holidays, for a day devoted to the direction, dynamics and principles of our new New Zealand Curriculum.  As we have indicated: we are well ‘on track’ and in some respects are quite advanced in our extension implementation and interpretation of this new curriculum model.

Parent- Teacher Interviews:

We have received an excellent response to these annual Term One events.  It is an opportunity to forge a strong link between home and School with our pupil/your child at the centre.

P.A.T. Assessment: 

Our Years 3 - 8 pupils have been pursuing these Progress Achievement Tests.  Staff may allude to these results during the course of your 3/4 March interviews.

General Knowledge: 

I made reference to this new programme for our Year 4 - 8 pupils, which requires them to find answers (these answers are all listed on our General Knowledge blackboard in our Hall foyer) to ten set questions on themes, the first two being: Harry Potter and Winston Churchill.

Gifted and Talented: 

The staff and I are updating our Identification Criteria sheet for identifying the gifts and talents of our pupils, as soon as possible, in order that these needs can be catered for e.g. Art, Drama, Language, Music, Science, Sport, Writing etc.  Howard Gardner makes reference to his Multiple Intelligences: please indicate any of your daughter’s/son’s talents at your interview with her / his class teacher.

CULTURAL

Choir:

Our Junior (Years 4 and 5) and Senior Choir (Years 6 - 8) have now been auditioned.  I congratulate the members of our Senior Choir, who combined with the choirs of other Anglican Independent Schools to lead the singing at Bishop David’s Christchurch Diocesan farewell.

Orchestra:

This important School group has commenced their Friday practices.

Kapahaka:

Mrs Suzanne Pitama has reconvened the Wednesday practices of our Kapahaka group.

Appaissionata:

I congratulate Beatrix Loeffen on her participation in this gala concert, which featured Dame Malvina Major.

SPORTING  ROUND-UP

Annual Swimming Sports:

We were pleased and privileged to be allowed to convene our annual swimming sports in the Christ’s College pool.  The following were our Age group Champions:

8 years Billie Heijgen Tyrelle Pitama

Karenia Anderson

9 years Millie Clifton Jesse Simkin

Madeline Kendrew

Caitlin Bee

10 years Simone Gale James Nicholls

11 years Pippa Nicholls Blake Clark

12 years Thomasina Loeffen Oliver Dunne

Well done to these pupils and again I thank our Sports’ Master, Jon Russell, for his organisation.

Cricket:

We have begun our Tuesday afternoon practices for our 1st XI and Colts’ squads and Messrs, Kendrew, Kenworthy and Russell are suitably thanked for their commitment to developing the skills of these budding cricketers.

Tennis:

About forty Years 5 - 8 players have commenced their coaching with the Hagley Club’s Professional, Mark Belcher, on Thursday afternoons.

Mrs Moranne McIvor and Mrs Teresa Price are conducting some excellent coaching of our Years 3 and 4 pupils on Thursdays after school.  Thank you ladies.

Touch:

Our team is entered in the Friday afternoon competition at St Andrews.  Mrs Jo Clarke and Mr Jon Russell are acknowledged for their managing and coaching of this team, respectively.

Year 5 and 6 Camp: 

Apart from the inclement weather, our annual Year 5/6 camp to Living Springs proved to be an enjoyable, worthwhile experience.  I pay tribute to our parents: Linda Bennett, Monique Gale, Noel Carlile, Kevin Holden and Marc Auwerda and our two staff Joe Holmes and Jon Russell for ensuring the success of our 2008 camp.

SPIRITUAL

Year Eight Assembly Leaders this month have been: Florence Fournier, Annabelle Priddy, Olivia Parker,  Pippa Nicholls, Ashleigh Macdonald, Kempton Haitana, Drew Mathieson, Blake Morgan, Te Teira Pitama, Callum Salt, Thomas Pearson and Joshua Rawlinson.

Bible Readers at recent School masses have been: Courtney Clyne and Oliver Dunne.

Bishop David’s Farewell:

It was an honour and privilege to speak on behalf of our Christchurch Independent and Integrated Schools and Rotary, at the Diocesan farewell to Bishop David and Joy Coles in the Town Hall last Sunday, to recognise Bishop Coles’ 17 years as our Bishop and Warden.

 

SYNDICATE REPORTS:

Senior Syndicate:

The Senior Syndicate has started the year in great style.  Year 8 pupils are settling into their school leadership roles, while the Year 7 class busy themselves being Junior Playground and Mass monitors.  Year 7 pupils have also started their Technology lessons at Hagley Community College, and parents should see the first project coming home in a few weeks.

We are looking forward to our visit to Rehua Marae on 12 March, and pupils are busy learning their mihi and waiata for the occasion.  Thank you to Suzanne Pitama, who will support us on this visit.  To prepare for this visit, both classes are studying marae protocol and understanding what a marae is.

Finally, we look forward to meeting as many parents as possible next week at the Parent- Teacher interviews.

A P Kendrew 

Middle Syndicate:

A special welcome to those new parents of children in Year 4 to the high flying Middle Syndicate.

A great start for the Middle Syndicate with Years 5 and 6 on camp during the second week.  Year 6 walked in from the Sign of the Bellbird.  We were due to go sailing on Tuesday but unfortunately we were literally ‘rained out’.  Year 5 arrived on Wednesday and thankfully brought some good weather with them.  The children thoroughly enjoyed their activities and are looking forward to the 2009 

camp.  Pupils from the Middle Syndicate performed really well at the recent School Swimming Sports and have been selected to represent the School at the ISSA Swimming Sports at St Andrews.  We congratulate our Middle Syndicate Champions.

Our Science focus for this term is the Native Bush and being able to identify native flora and fauna. 

J C Russell

Junior Syndicate:

On behalf of the Junior Syndicate teachers, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the parents and families of our new students. We hope that your association with us will be a long and positive one. I would also like to welcome our Year 1 teacher, Jo Clarke, who is proving to be a wonderful asset to our team. 

Most junior children have made a smooth transition to their new classes. Teachers have been busy establishing classroom routines and collecting assessment data on children so that they can best cater for their learning needs. They have also been working on attractive classroom displays of the children's work. 

Swimming at Aquagym in Week Two once again proved to be very beneficial and enjoyable for the children. Thank you to all the parents who assisted.

Currently our students are focusing on our Social Studies topic: Groups. This will be followed by our Science topic, Classification. For this we are looking forward to our trip to Orana Park on 11 March. We have had a tremendous response to our request for parental assistance: thank you. Unfortunately, owing to the cost, we have had to restrict parent helper numbers to ten, on a first come, first served basis. 

Teachers are looking forward to meeting parents at the interviews this week.

T V Price

School Fee Automatic Payments:

If you have not already done so, could you please ensure that you have set up the new amounts for 2008: Our School Bank is Westpac Trust Bank Canterbury Centre and our Account  Number is 03 1593-0012094-00

1 Child    2 Children   3 Children

Weekly $111.50   $221.80 $331.30

Fortnightly $222.80 $443.60 $662.50

Monthly $482.70 $961.20       $1,435.50

Emergency Clothing:

Any donations of good clean uniform and underwear, particularly in the smaller sizes, would be greatly appreciated for use in our School sick bay when pupils are sick or have accidents.  Thank you.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Year 8’s 2007:

Last Friday, it was pleasing to receive 28 out of 30 (93%)Year 8 leavers for a lovely pizza tea, which was organised by our P.T.F.A. committee members: the ‘buzz from past parents and pupils was wonderful to hear

Principals’ Tips:

Plan Your Sleepovers

Should you let your kids sleep over at a friend’s house? If they are genuine friends and you know that their family standards are similar to yours means you should have few concerns apart from the lack of sleep your child may experience.

However, keep in mind children need constant supervision.  With the lure of the Internet and other forms of entertainment, your kids could come back home very different than when they left.  Unfortunately not all adults are aware of what is developmentally appropriate for kids so it makes sense to be vigilant about what your kids are exposed to.  Give your child permission to say “I’m not allowed to watch this.” or to contact you if they feel uncomfortable in any way.

(from Mary and Ian Grant’s Hot Tips for Parents)

Thank you, again, for your support of our various events: our partnership with you is vitally important. 

All the best.

Yours sincerely

K R Boyce

Principal