kljp[kp[j[pook 169 Fitzherbert East Road, Aokautere, RD1, Palmerston North. Tel: 06 3574611 Fax: 06 3574116 www.aokautereschool.net School Newsletter – 28th April 2015 Important Dates For Your Diaries: N.B. School Assemblies are held fortnightly on Fridays at 2.10pm in 2015. Ø Wheels Days are on School Assembly days (It makes it easy to remember!) Ø School Banking: On Tuesdays. Ø Cross Country Practices – Daily – weather dependent – bring suitable shoes to run in and their inhalers, if they need them. • Friday 1st May: We are holding School Assembly to celebrate the successes of our Summer • Wednesday 13th May: Y1-3 will be off to the NZSO concert (Free but we will need • • • • Monday 18th May: School Cross Country (Postponement date: Thursday 21st May) Tuesday 26th May & Wednesday 27th May: 3-Way Conferences Wednesday 27th May: 11.45am PNBHS Road Show Friday 3rd July: End of Term sports people. transport) Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of the School, TENA KOUTOU TE WHANAU O TE KURA AOKAUTERE, W elcom e to Aokautere School: Brooke Murray has officially started school and is in Room 4. We hope she enjoys her learning and enjoys the cross country training sessions, too. Brooke is known to a lot of the children because her brother, Alex, is in Room 1. We know you will all help to make Brooke feel part of the school. thank you to everyone who helped make the ANZAC celebrations so special for us all: In classes the children have been learning about the ANZACs and the ceremonies that are held around New Zealand and Australia to acknowledge their sacrifice, bravery, comradeship, and the war effort back home. We also talked about the ANZAC spirit – where our members of the armed forces look after each other and supporting each other in the face of danger. It is this ‘spirit’ that was noticeable in the ANZAC troops and earned them the respect of others and it is this spirit that is a tradition of any of our armed forces who serve our country today. Our children were involved in creating poppies and assembling the white crosses that were sent out to schools as part of the MOE pack for ANZAC Day. Shelley Karatau and Mandy Mori had collected names of children’s relatives who had sacrificed their lives during war and these were displayed for us to read. We held an ANZAC Day commemoration assembly last Friday. Some of our parents took part as did all of our staff. This was the programme: v We sang the School Song” accompanied by Cecily Hoskins. v I welcomed everyone. v Mandy Mori read the poem “For the Fallen”. v We sang “The National Anthem” – accompanied by Michael and Mike Ashdown on flugle horn and cornet. v Ian Reid led us in a “Rememberance Prayer”. v Scott Finlayson delivered a speech to give us the context for the assembly. v The Class Councillors laid a wreath at the flagpole. This wreath was made by Jayne Ashdown. v R2 children laid a wreath that they had made. (They had placed large poppies on the grass by the sandpit beforehand.) v Room 4 and Room 7 children placed poppies in tubs or on the flagpole ‘steps’. v Payton Bamfield (Year 6) read the poem – ‘In Flanders Field’. v Tasha Corvino talked about the white crosses and that the children had used names off the “Roll of Honour” on our Memorial Gate for some of the crosses. v Bronwyn Bamfield attended to the flag – lowering and raising it during “The Last Post” and “Reveille” – played by Michael and Mike Ashdown v A 1 minute silence followed – by “Reveille” v We sang “Te Aroha” – accompanied by Cecily Hoskins v Then the children and parents and friends went around to read the names on the crosses and on the ‘wall of remembrance’ behind the flagpole. We can be very proud of our children. They were respectful and so well-behaved during the ANZAC celebration assembly. We are so lucky to have these children to teach! Flu Injections: We have some more people wanting flu injections and had some unable to come on the day we’d booked Annette. She has agreed to come back to give the flu jab to adults who booked it earlier and provided we can forewarn her of numbers, we can book in any adults who wished they had taken this up and now want to. The flu jab will cost you $17. Annette is booked up and we will have to give you an email or text when this is confirmed. We hope this won’t be too short a notice, so you won’t miss out. School Assem bly: This Friday, we are holding a special Summer Sports School Assembly to acknowledge the competitors who represented the School at Cluster Events. Come along to support our talented sports folk at 2.10pm this Friday. (Cecily Hoskins and I are on a course that day, so are unable to attend.) Cross Country Practice: This is a daily exercise – weather permitting. Therefore, please remind your child to bring their running shoes and to wear clothing that is suitable to run in. We are going to map the route to see how far we are running the groups. We have limited staff to ‘man’ the checkpoints, so if we use the road, we need to work out how to cover the children to keep them safe. We know it is important to have a course that gets them prepared for the Cluster Cross Country race – especially for the top students in each race grouping. Date Changes: Schools are places where there will be date changes for some advertised events. Things crop up. Things need to change to cope with these new situations. I am sorry if you find this annoying, but I can assure you that at the time they appear in the School Newsletter they are the date on the Staffroom Calendar and therefore I believe them to be correct. If things change, an email is often sent around, or it is written on the blackboard outside R2, or it is updated in the next School Newsletter or it is put on Facebook. I apologise for any inconvenience this causes you but you need to accept that there was a need for change and therefore it was done. I do not set out to be an irritant. School Banking: This started today. Enrolment forms are available from the School Office or from the School Bankers on Tuesdays. This is a way for your child to see that regular savings grow into worthwhile sums over time. SLIPPERS: Remember: children can keep a pair of slippers at school to wear inside the classrooms. I welcome your feedback and invite you to email me: vferry@aokautere.school.nz - Val Ferry