Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Ngā mihi

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Kind regards,

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Kind regards,

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Kind regards,

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

Here is a link to this week's newsletter (as a PDF) 

Kind regards,

Nick Pratt

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,     

COVID update

I would like to thank you all for the support you have given us as we continue to navigate the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic is placing on our community. To protect our community we have all had to make significant sacrifices during this time. We are still operating under Alert Level 2 requirements. The current Ministry of Education advice states that schools should not host events with gatherings of over 100 people. As a result of this, we are currently working on a number of plans to safely celebrate our Year 8 leavers. This includes carefully considering our Year 8 leaver’s dinner and the end of year assembly. Before we commit to a plan, we are monitoring the advice from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health. We will keep you all updated on our plans as soon as we are able to. 

As you are all aware, teaching staff, support staff, volunteers and outside agencies that work with children onsite and during school excursions offsite must have received their first recognised COVID vaccination by Tuesday 16 November. As a school, we are able to safely operate under this vaccination mandate. All staff and volunteers that work with our tamariki for school based activities must be vaccinated and we continue to monitor this. It is important to note that parents who are dropping off and collecting tamariki from school do not need to have a vaccination at this time. This also includes parents visiting school for planned meetings with teachers. I must remind you though, that to ensure we are meeting the Alert Level 2 gathering requirements, we are only allowing parents of new entrant tamariki, and of tamariki requiring support in getting set up for the school day, to come onsite in the mornings and afternoons. We understand that this an inconvenience, but given the tricky nature of the Delta variant and the Ministry of Education requirements, we continue to take a measured and cautious approach. We are looking forward to relaxing these requirements when we are able to. 

Values Development

During this year we having been reviewing our school’s ‘values’ programme. This work has focussed on identifying the key life skills we see as being too important to leave to chance when supporting a child’s social and academic learning pathway at school. To guide this important work, we have gathered community voice in Term 1, unpacked key research, reflected upon our school’s history and considered any gaps in preparing our tamariki for their future. As a result of this targeted work, we have created the R.A.T.A. values. These four ‘values’ cover a balance of concepts that can be applied in multiple situations both inside and outside of the classroom. The following detail is a very light reflection of these important values for our tamariki. RESPECT is a value that will focus on respecting yourself, others and the environment. AROHA will highlight the importance of empathy, kindness, support, and care for the people in our lives. TENACITY equips the tamariki with key resilience strategies, perseverance skills and in developing a resourcefulness over resource dependancy mindset. And AKO champions the power of learning partnerships, collaborative learning, curiosity and our ability to contribute as both a learner and teacher in multiple learning partnerships. The teaching staff are currently unpacking how these ‘values’ can be explicitly taught and authentically applied at our school. This requires us to carefully consider how we support all ākonga (learners) from Year 0 to Year  8. We will keep you posted on progress in the design of our ‘R.A.T.A. values’. We are planning to formally launch these at the start of the 2022 school year. Please contact me if you would like to discuss our ‘values’ programme development further and how these will support our tamariki in becoming W.I.S.E. learners. I look forward to hearing from you.

iPads

Earlier this year we replaced many of our older iPads.  We would like to offer them for sale at $20 each.  All iPads have a protective case on them.  There is a mixture of iPad mini and iPads.  These will be available next week from 22 - 26 November and will be able to be collected from the main gate at 3pm each afternoon.  We require an adult to collect these and will not send them home with students.

PLEASE NOTE:

• Operating systems are NOT able to be updated anymore.  

• Most will have a charging cable and around half will have an adapter.  This will be on a first in, first serve basis.

• All will require a good charge as they have been powered off for most of this year.

• These are in a well used condition, therefore we hold no responsibility for them after purchase.

• These are not suitable to use as a device at TPS.

If you are interested, please fill out the attached form.  

Agri Maths

Our school’s lambs are making great progress. The tamariki from Tī Kōuka have been learning all about the necessary animal health requirements when hand rearing lambs onsite. On Wednesday, these tamariki were visited by a local vet who covered the importance of vaccinating lambs and invited a couple of volunteers to support her in administering the vaccinations. There has also rich mathematical learning throughout this process. We have contacted the Coalgate Saleyards and are in the process of taking the lambs to be sold to a local farmer in the Malvern area. We look forward to keeping you posted on our progress.

2022 Teaching Team

We are in the process of finalising the teaching team for 2022. We will be sharing the classroom structures and teaching team in the next newsletter. In the meantime, please email your child’s teacher if there is anything you would like considered as we complete this important work.

School Gardens

Our school grounds are looking amazing. The spring planting is taking off and the gardening initiatives are really starting to take shape. The environmental leadership team have got the edible garden up and running. Our resourceful and dedicated caretaker, Nic Thompson is really leading our landscaping and planting developments exceptionally well. The tamariki absolutely enjoy working with Nic and there is never a shortage of young volunteers supporting her. This week we received over 500 annual  bedding plants that were donated by Zealandia Horticulture Limited. Thank you to Nalin Gooneratne from Kiwiflora Nursery for kindly organising these. The planting of these annual bedding plants are creating a vibrant balance of colour around our kura.

Finally,

As always, please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss our school’s structures, cultures or future direction further. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Nick Pratt

Kia ora e te whānau!

A very warm welcome to Term 4, especially to all of our new ākonga and their families who have joined our Templeton whānau. It is a pleasure to have the term underway and wow, what a start it’s been. Last week, we had our Year 4-8 competitive athletics event, started our Agri-Maths programme and covered all of our final preparations for our whole school production. Our whole school was a hive of positive activity and learning. This week we loaded all of our ākonga into seven buses and headed to the Aurora Centre to perform our production. It has certainly been a busy and productive start to our Term 4. I would like to thank our whole school community for your support and patience over the last two weeks as we offered our children these important experiences.

Athletics

Last Tuesday we were able to run a modified athletics competition for our Year 4-8 ākonga. All ākonga that were keen to be involved in a competitive athletics event were able to compete. Some of our ākonga competed to set themselves a personal best, while others were aiming to be selected for the Selwyn Schools’ Zone Athletics finals. All of the ākonga who competed at this year’s athletics day did so in a manner they can be very proud of. The skills of our ākonga were in full display as they showcased their running, jumping and throwing abilities. We were very pleased to have been able to safely host this event and allow whānau onsite to support their children from a distance while meeting Alert Level 2 requirements. I would like to thank Mr Ryan Burson and Miss Georgia Haines for their skilled and resourceful planning of this year’s competitive athletics event. It was very important to our ākonga that we were able to give them this opportunity to compete in this event. Unfortunately, due to the current Alert Level 2 situation, the Selwyn Schools’ Zone Athletics has been cancelled. 

Production

With all of the challenges we have faced as a school community during this COVID pandemic, it was really important for our children that we did not cancel their school production. Since our very first school assembly in Term 1, the student leaders have openly shared that they were most looking forward to the production this year. This was a feeling that spread throughout the school as our children all looked forward to our production. The rich learning that the children gained from their production experiences has been immensely beneficial for our young people. Stepping out of their comfort zone, collectively problem solving with their teachers when designing their class item, working with their peers, and committing extra time for rehearsals during their lunch breaks, have all been invaluable opportunities to develop a strength of character in our children. So being able to acknowledge this growth by performing on stage in front of an audience was crucial. While we are deeply saddened that we were unable to perform in front of our family, whānau and friends, the fact that all children were able to perform twice on the big stage was the most appropriate ‘Plan B’ we could offer. Organising the filming of the performances was important to ensure that the children can celebrate their time on stage with their family and friends. These recordings will offer our tamariki a lasting memory of their 2021 production. It was a big day for all involved. The children were absolutely brilliant as an audience. They all cheered and supported their school peers when watching each other's performances. All of the class items were entertaining. In between items we heard wonderful memoirs read out from the children who wrote of special moments in their lives. The Kapa Haka performance was incredible. Our ‘Fuse drumming’ group nailed their performance and were supported by an incredible dance crew. 

The slick choreography was expertly performed by our Year 7-8 dancing team. During the production we were treated to wonderful singing from the Middle Learning and Intermediate Learning team choirs. Finally, the staff all managed to get on stage to entertain the crowd with an ‘Evolution of dance’ routine. There are a whole lot of photos to follow on Facebook in the next few days. 

I would like to thank all of the people involved in preparing and delivering the production this year. Special thanks need to go to the Aurora Centre staff for allowing us to use their facilities during Alert Level 2, Angie Green for her expert videography and editing skills in the filming of our production and our production team of Anita Boaz and Ali Stewart. Finally, a huge thanks to Anna Wright for the significant amount of skilled work that she put into leading the planning and delivery of this year’s production. 

Agri Maths

The Tī Kōuka ‘Agri Maths’ learning programme has started successfully. It is wonderful to have the two lambs onsite and being cared for by our staff and learners. As mentioned in our last newsletter this study involves the hand rearing of two lambs on our school site. The learners have had to work with our community in preparing a safe pen for our lambs and to organise the milk powder and feed. Our lambs are being well cared for and there is a great deal of rich learning for our children through this initiative. We will keep you up to date with the progress of our lambs in the coming weeks.

2022 planning

We are in the process of confirming our classroom structures for 2022. Please let your child’s teacher know if there is anything we need to consider as we plan our class placements for 2022 in the coming weeks. There is much careful consideration that we put into classroom structures and rolls each year. Any timely input from whānau greatly supports our planning. We will keep you informed of our progress in our 2022 planning.

Upcoming Dates and Events

Please take the time to view our calendar of events. This continues to be updated regularly as we plan to meet our COVID requirements. There are many important events coming up later on this term and we remain optimistic that they will be able to go ahead. 

Enjoy the rest of your week and have a lovely weekend.

Ngā mihi nui,

Nick Pratt

Principal - Tumuaki

Templeton Primary School - Te Kura o Rātā 

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Templeton community for the support our school has received during these unprecedented times. We have all had to quickly adapt in a manner that met our rapidly evolving health and safety needs, while trying to maintain a sense of routine and normality. We have collectively navigated these challenges in a child-centred manner and grown from the experiences gained during this time. So thank you for your continued support.

Production

There is an excited buzz around our school as the staff and students prepare for our whole school production next term. We are currently awaiting the notification on our Alert Level status to confirm the timing of our production in Term 4. If we are in Alert Level 1 at the start of next term, we will be running our production on the Thursday and Friday evenings in Week 2. Ticket sales will be available for purchase as soon as we have confirmation of the dates we can perform our production. We do apologise for any inconvenience this may create, however this situation is currently beyond our control.

Principal's Morning Tea

This morning I was fortunate enough to spend time with ākonga from each of the classroom learning spaces. These ākonga were selected by their teachers for consistently being WISE learners throughout Term 3. I really enjoyed hearing about what is going well in our kura from these ākonga. More importantly, I greatly value hearing how we can further improve our kura from the children's perspective. These morning tea opportunities are a wonderful way to celebrate our ākonga and work together alongside them to develop our kura’s learning programmes and environment. I really enjoyed the conversations I had with many of the children during today’s morning tea. The ākonga had wonderful ideas of how we can further improve our kura. Key themes that came through from today’s morning tea were developing spaces for children to engage in the visual arts, a workshop area for hard material projects and more opportunities for structured games at break times. These ideas have been duly noted and we look forward to working alongside our children and community to plan these improvements.

Agri Maths and Edible Garden

Our edible garden space is looking really functional. The planter boxes have been constructed and fruit trees planted. Our Enviro Leaders are currently preparing to plant vegetables in this space. We are excited to see our ākonga learn in this new space while developing strong partnerships as we grow and prepare food for our school community.

We have also set up a new learning opportunity for our children to develop an understanding of the primary sector. This learning initiative is titled Agri Maths and involves the hand rearing of lambs onsite. There is much to consider when offering a learning programme that involves livestock. The Tī Kōuka ākonga have been working alongside key groups to ensure that we are set up appropriately to care for these lambs. There is authentic financial literacy, measurement and statistics learning that will be covered during this study. There are also the key learning opportunities of caring for animals and the life skills that are developed through these experiences. Throughout this programme, we will be partnering alongside vets, local farmers, stock agents and other members of our community to learn about a rural economy and how this works. Once the lambs are ready, we plan to transport them out to the Coalgate Saleyards to sell to a local farmer. Thank you to Glenn Purdon for sourcing and donating the waratahs and netting for our lamb pen. Thank you also to Maurice Adler and Nic Thompson for constructing this space. Finally, thank you to the team at Farmlands in Waterloo Road for working with the children, offering advice and generously donating the Milk Powder, Feed and Feeding Equipment for our lambs. This project is a genuine team effort!

2022 Planning

We have started the planning process for 2022. This planning involves confirming our teaching team for next year and how we best utilise our staff to meet the needs of ākonga. Can you please notify the Office if your child/ren are not returning in 2022. We would also like to confirm our New Entrant numbers for the 2022 school year. If you have a child turning five next year, then please ensure that you have filled in an enrolment form to support us with our planning.

Friday Night Hoops

Basketball is a rapidly growing sport in Canterbury. As a result of this we are very keen to offer basketball opportunities in Templeton for our young people. Over the last three weeks we have had organised basketball coaching sessions on our sports court each Wednesday afternoon. During the last two weeks we have also hosted Friday Night Hoops with the team from Crossover Basketball Coaching. Tyla Harrison-Hunt from Crossover Basketball Coaching has very generously run these sessions which are open to the young people in our community. These sessions offer a positive sports experience for our young people. Tyla is not only an incredible sports coach, he is also an impressive role model for our youth.  

Intermediate Speech Finals

The Intermediate Learning Team ran their speech finals this Wednesday. The calibre of public speaking was impressive. All of the Year 7 and 8 akonga presented their speeches in a manner that they can be well proud of. They were all entertaining, informative, thought-provoking and persuasive. Congratulations to the following akonga who placed in this year’s speech finals:

1st Place Year 7 Alfie Dodds

2nd Place Year 7 Aaysha Guiney

3rd Place = Year 7 Chloe Hankin and Pippa Wiseman

1st Place Year 8 Tayla Guiney

2nd Place Year 8 Xavier Nakaroti

3rd Place = Year 8 Chloe Davis-Richard and Shana Gooneratne

Finally,

Have a wonderful break with whānau and friends over the next two weeks. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back in Term 4 as we enjoy all the opportunities that our final term of a school year offers!

Noho ora mai nā - Stay safe team.

Ngā mihi nui,

Nick Pratt

Principal - Tumuaki

Templeton Primary School - Te Kura o Rātā

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,

Welcome to Term 3. There is an excited buzz around our kura as the tamariki prepare for this year’s Whole School Production. Scripts are being prepared, scenes finalised, dances choreographed and songs practised. The rich learning for our tamariki that results from a Whole School Production is invaluable as they prepare to deliver a performance that their school and whānau can be proud of. The teaching team are well and truly invested in supporting their classroom maximising the learning experience that results from a Whole School Production. While targeted literacy and mathematics teaching continues in Term 3, there is authentic integration of the Arts and Technology in our teaching and learning programmes. Please see the Community Notice that is being sent out on HERO from our Production leadership team about our upcoming performances.

The recent upgrades in our school’s sports courts have created a popular space for our community to use after school hours. We certainly encourage sports and positive activities on our school grounds. If you have given permission for your child to come and use our school grounds outside of school hours, please remind them that they are not to go into the Busy Bumbles after school care programme to talk to their friends. Busy Bumbles is a service that families pay fees for their children to attend. It is important that the Busy Bumbles staff can focus on the enrolled children, and actively care for them. 

Basketball has become an extremely popular sport in our community. As a result of this, we are currently working alongside the Templeton Residents’ Association, Christchurch City Council and Crossover Basketball Coaching to create opportunities for Templeton in this popular sport. We are aware of the wonderful Tuesday afternoon basketball initiative that has been run by some dedicated and resourceful parents at the Templeton Community Centre. We are keen to build on the great work that has been done to date and set up additional Basketball opportunities for our Templeton tamariki and the wider community. We have Tyla Harrison-Hunt from Crossover Basketball Coaching (and ex-pupil) coming to speak at next week’s assembly to introduce the upcoming opportunities for our school and community. More information to follow.

We are very excited to be in the final planning stages of our edible garden space. Construction has started on the planter boxes for our fruit trees and vegetables. On Wednesday of next week we will be planting the 14 fruit trees that are being provided by Canterbury’s ‘Orchards in Schools’ programme and Kiwiflora Nurseries. From this point we will then begin adding vegetables as they come into season.

I would like to remind you that we will be running a teacher only day on Friday 27 August. We have been planning this day since the beginning of the year and placed it on our school calendar back in Term 1. This is a day for our teaching and support staff to focus on how we can further enhance the learning and wellbeing of our Templeton tamariki.

As always, please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss our school’s structures, cultures or future direction further. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ngā mihi nui,

Nick Pratt

Principal - Tumuaki

Templeton Primary School - Te Kura o Rātā

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,

Reports and Three Way Conferences

During this week we held the three way learning conferences. This was an incredibly important opportunity to ensure that the children’s learning progress could be celebrated, key next steps in their learning identified and how we can collectively work together to support their learning. We would like to thank the whānau who attended these three way learning conferences. The staff really appreciated the opportunity to connect with you all and set the children up for success in Term 3 and 4. It is important to note that sometimes challenges in the children’s learning requiring targeted interventions can take place at any time. Please ensure that you contact your child’s teacher if you need to book a time to meet and discuss any significant social or academic concerns you may have. This will help us to ensure that our children are well supported in their learning.

We have made some deliberate changes to our reporting processes. I would like to thank the teaching team for their time and commitment to prepare these Mid Year Reports. We will continue to review and refine our school’s reporting systems to ensure that they meet the children’s learning needs. As a result of this, the HERO reports will be updated regularly to reflect key learning progression moments. 

EPro8 

The EPro8 Year 5/6 finals series started on Thursday 1 July. We had a team qualify for this round. During this round our Year 5/6 team performed exceptionally well to earn a place in the semi finals. This is an extraordinary achievement as they were up against 11 other quality teams from across Selwyn. The Templeton team is named Ti Kouka o Rātā and consisted of Bella Matthews, Conrad Hurst, Larry Chen, Shae Willis and Lucas Egan-Beach (Team reserve). They collaborated effectively to complete some challenging engineering tasks through team problem solving and resourcefulness. We are very proud of their achievements and wish them all the very best for the upcoming semi finals. Well done team!

Parent Support Group 

Last week our PSG ran a series of three Discos on Friday. This was an incredible effort that the children and staff present really enjoyed. Yesterday this group of dedicated parents ran the second Slurp Sizzle Crunch for Term 2. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of the skilled and resourceful PSG members that invest so much quality time into our children. You set a great example of community and service for our children!

Edible Garden Project

During this term the Enviro Club has been designing an edible garden space for our school and community. This space will have a combination of fruit trees, vegetables and other beneficial plants. It will become a space for our Templeton tamariki to learn about gardening, soil science and the importance of caring for our environment so that we can produce food from the ground. As mentioned in previous newsletters, the Enviro Club learners have been working alongside Mrs Donna Chambers and Sarah Davies to plan this space. Mrs Angela Poxon and Mrs Margo Wilson have also been running a Junior School Enviro Club at lunchtimes focusing on projects to support our school’s environment.

To support our tamairki in creating this space for our school and community, we have also been working alongside the Templeton Residents Association (TRA). Through this process the TRA have become a key community group to strengthen our partnerships with the wider community. This powerful partnership has allowed us to gain access to key skills and resources from the Templeton community to support our edible garden project. The TRA and local Community Board Members have supported us by broadening our network. As a result of this, Maugers Contracting were able to come in and use their machinery to clear the area for our edible garden space. On Tuesday, Maugers supplied their resources and staff to complete the necessary preparation work for this student driven project. Thank you to Maugers for your generosity in helping our school prepare an edible garden. Thank you also to the TRA for your ongoing support. This community spirit is setting our school up for success!

Litterless Lunch Box Initiative

The Enviro Club has been running a Litterless Lunch Box competition this term. During this time the Enviro Club members have been checking each classroom's lunchboxes for recyclable material and compostable waste. Any non-recyclable waste was counted up and each class earned an average during Term 2. During this time, all classrooms dropped their average in waste. A really pleasing result for our school and environment. The following classrooms were placed in the top three for our school. 1st place Room 15, 2nd place Tui, and 3rd place Kākā. 

The winning class earned a shared lunch from Subway. We will be continuing this initiative into Term 3. Thank you to the staff and students for running this initiative in our school. It has promoted healthy eating and sustainable waste practices.

Uniforms

We have noticed that some children have not been wearing the correct school uniform. Our uniform is red and black which also includes any under layers like thermal tops. These uniform guidelines mean that the children are able to participate in physical outdoor activities as well as classroom based ones. Mufti days are designed to allow children to wear different clothes, jewellery and accessories to show off their individuality.  When wearing the same school uniform as their peers, children realise that they are part of our school team and need to conduct themselves according to our WISE learner ways and school values. 

We have highlighted the area that needs to be addressed below. 

Our monogrammed school uniform can be found at The Warehouse in Hornby.  The children do not have to have Templeton Primary School on their tops so any red school polo shirt and sweatshirt is acceptable.  Our Parent Support Group (PSG) has second hand uniforms available for a gold coin donation.  These can be purchased anytime.  They have two days a term where they have these on display for sale before school.  These dates are advertised on our school calendar.

This calendar and our uniform guidelines can be found on our school website: https://www.templeton.school.nz/parents

Over the next six months we will be investigating how to further develop our school’s curriculum. Part of this process is our school’s vision and branding. All of our community will be involved as appropriate in this process and consulted on progress as necessary. When the school brand has been finalised we will investigate any purposeful adaptations to our school’s uniform.

Finally,

We wish the children a safe and happy school holidays. We look forward to seeing them all back here for Term 3. Stay safe team.

Ngā mihi nui,

Nick Pratt

Principal - Tumuaki

Templeton Primary School - Te Kura o Rātā

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,

INTERFACExpo i-movie Link

Three of our talented Year 8 Student Leaders attended the INTERFACExpo earlier this term. They were asked by the organisers to film this year’s expo and then produce a short video that showcases this event. This team represented our kura with great resourcefulness and skill to create an end product that both the INTERFACExpo team and Templeton School were proud of. Please take the time to view their short i-movie clip by clicking on the following link. InterFace Expo 2021. I would like to thank Mr Paul Jack for his skilled mentoring of these young movie makers. This is also an important opportunity to acknowledge the incredible team of students that made this i-movie. Well done to Noah Campbell, Paige Mathie and Hayley McEwan for creating this i-movie. We are all proud of you. This has not only showcased the talent in our school, but has inspired all of our team to produce more i-movies in the future. 

Reporting 

During the course of this year, we have been reviewing our current reporting plans. As a result of this review, we have made some deliberate refinements to ensure we are more effectively meeting the purpose of reports. We need to ensure that reports give an accurate and purposeful update for students and their whānau on where their learning progress. These reports must highlight the child's current learning, what their next learning steps are and how we can collectively work together to grow the child’s learning. While we know that our reporting development to date is not by any means a finished process, the shifts in this practice are a step in the right direction. To complement the Mid Year Reports, we will be offering the three way learning conferences for whānau and their child to connect with the classroom teacher. This is a critical opportunity to identify what social and academic learning goals are required to allow every student to reach their potential in the second half of the school year. The Mid Year Reports will give whānau an update on how their child is progressing in the core learning areas of reading/panui. writing/tuhituhi and mathematics & statistics/pāngarau. Another key element in this reporting is how each child is applying themselves in these core learning areas. Essentially, if a child is showing good progress against their cohort, however their application is low, we can discuss the fact that they are not reaching their personal potential. This being said, if a child is performing below their cohort yet their application displays resilience and genuine commitment to learning in this area, we can celebrate their efforts and clearly identify how we can continue to support them to accelerate their learning in this area from home and school. We will be asking for parent and whānau feedback on the effectiveness of our current reporting systems in the coming weeks. This will allow us to investigate possible refinements moving forward that could enhance our reporting processes to support our children’s social and academic development as a team. We will be in contact next week to arrange the booking of the three way learning conferences in Week 10. These Mid Year Reports will be available for whānau on Friday 2 July. The three way conferences will take place on Monday 5 July (3:15pm - 7:30pm) and Tuesday 6 July (1:00pm - 5:45pm). 

Please note that we will be closing school early on Tuesday 6 July to host the three way conferences.

COVID-19 Update

With the recent change in COVID-19 Alert Levels for the Wellington area, it is a timely reminder of the importance for us to ensure we maintain good hygiene practices. If you or your child are experiencing cold and flu symptoms, please keep away from school. The COVID-19 QR Codes are displayed at our gates and office area, so please ensure that you are scanning in when coming onto our school grounds. The school staff continue to ensure that the necessary high touch surfaces are regularly cleaned and that good hand hygiene practices are in place.  

On another note, all Canterbury schools received a notification from the Camnterbury Medical Officer of Health highlighting an increase in gastroenteritis (stomach bugs) in our region. This communication highlighted the increased possibility of children and teachers developing symptoms. Children and teachers who develop vomiting and/or diarrhoea should not attend school and can return once they have been symptom free for 48 hours.

Edible Garden Update

The Enviro Club have been working alongside some key specialists in our community to develop a design for our edible garden space. This project will be based in the area that has been left after the removal of the Old Hall. We do need to extend this area by removing some of the asphalt that is around the planned edible garden area. Please contact me directly if you have access to the equipment and resources to support this preparation work. We are keen to hear from our community first before we engage some contractors from beyond our school community. We recognise the cost involved in operating the necessary machinery to do this preparation work and are prepared to negotiate a fair price to complete this work. 

Cross Country

Last week we sent a team of 27 to represent our school at the Selwyn Schools’ Cross Country finals. All of the Templeton runners represented their school with great pride and competed to the best of their abilities. Isabel Prescott ran exceptionally well and placed first. This enabled her to compete in the Canterbury Primary Schools’ finals this week. Isabel ran incredibly well and placed second in the final. A truly impressive result! Isabel has now been invited to run in the Canterbury team to compete later on in the year. 

Thank you to all of the parents who supported our runners. Thanks also to Mr Ryan Burson for all of his organisation to ensure our runners were able to compete in the Selwyn and Canterbury running events.

Teacher Paid Union Meeting 

On Wednesday 30 June, a number of our teaching team will be attending the NZEI Paid Union Meetings. As a result of this, we will be running an alternative programme from 1:30pm to 3:00pm for the students in attendance.

Please email or send a signed note to your child's teacher should you intend to collect your child early on Wednesday or give them permission to walk home early.

The children who do not have parental permission to leave early will be actively supervised at school and participate in an alternative programme in the afternoon. We have confirmed a number of teachers, support staff and myself, that will remain onsite to support the children who are unable to leave early as a group of our teachers attend the Paid Union Meeting.

Wednesday 30 June

9:00am - 12:30pm Normal classroom programmes

12:30pm Children with written permission (email or signed note) can leave school grounds for home

12:30pm - 1:30pm Children in attendance have lunch 

1:30pm - 3:00pm Children in attendance participate in alternative programme

Playground Update

We are delighted to announce that the NZ Police have managed to source the missing playground equipment that was illegally removed from our school property in early May. This equipment has been returned and is now being securely stored offsite. I would like to thank the NZ Police for their expert support in sourcing and returning our equipment. 

Finally,

As always, please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss our school’s structures, cultures or future direction further. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ngā mihi nui,

Nick Pratt

Principal - Tumuaki

Templeton Primary School - Te Kura o Rātā

Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,

Enviro Club Green Mufti Day

It was fantastic to see all of the children arrive at school today dressed in their green mufti day kits. This initiative was organised by our Enviro Student Leadership team. All funds raised are going towards the edible garden project which is being planned for later in the school year. After the initial count this morning, the children have raised $371. A brilliant effort. The Enviro Student Leadership team has also identified the significant amount of waste our school produces on a daily basis. In response to these findings, a ‘Litterless Lunch Box’ competition has been planned. This will involve children working alongside their families to support this waste reduction initiative. Please see the below notice from our Enviro Student Leadership team for more information on how you can support in minimising the waste at our school.

Winter Sports

Over the last three weeks we have been sending all Year 5 to 8 students to Rolleston for the Winter Sports Programme. All children have been able to participate in a variety of sporting and physical activities. These include Aussie Rules Football, Basketball, Bowls, Dance, Hockey, Marching, Rugby League, Squash and many other options. The children have all been able to participate in one of the sports or physical activities for three weeks. They are now preparing to change to another option for the next three weeks. These activities are being coordinated by the Selwyn Sports Trust and delivered alongside a variety of local sporting associations. It has been absolutely fantastic to see our children develop a genuine enjoyment for physical activities and try our new sports. I would like to thank the many parents and volunteers who have supported this programme. Special thanks must go to Ryan Burson and Georgia Haines for their expert organisation to ensure our Templeton children benefit from these rich experiences.

Permanent Caretaker Appointment

After the retirement of our previous caretakers of Jim Jackson and Stu Dodds, the Board of Trustees and Management have been preparing to permanently appoint a new caretaker for our school. We are excited to formally announce that Nicola Thompson has been appointed as our new permanent caretaker. Nicola’s experience, skill sets and knowledge are an excellent match for the future direction we are taking our school. The upcoming property developments, landscaping initiatives and school health and safety systems will be in very capable hands with Nicola joining our team. We would like to thank Wayne Johnson for his support as he covered the school caretaker duties in the interim. 

Values Programme Development

During last term we asked for community feedback on our school’s current values programme. The values programme in a school is designed to target the key life skills and attributes that the school’s community have identified as a priority in the child’s development. There are many values and virtues to be considered. The challenge for our school is to consolidate these values into a clear set that covers our collective priorities. To guide this development we have drawn upon key research, current educational requirements and the future direction of the education sector in New Zealand. We must champion the fact that we are preparing children for their futures. The community voice highlighted that the current values of consideration, respect and honesty could be more effectively refined. Given the significant weight of these developments for our school’s curriculum and more importantly the children’s future, we are now in the position to share our current consolidation in this space. Please book a time to discuss this with me. I warmly welcome any parents and friends of Templeton Primary School to come see the progress made to date and share their thoughts on our future planning.

Property Update

Thank you for your support last week as we worked alongside the Ministry of Education to repair the classrooms damaged during the significant rain event we all experienced. All damaged classrooms have been repaired to meet the necessary conditions for our students and staff to work and learn in. There is some additional work required which will be completed during the next school holidays to minimise disruption to our teaching and learning programmes. 

Finally,

As always, please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss our school’s structures, cultures or future direction further. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ngā mihi nui,

Nick Pratt

Principal - Tumuaki

Templeton Primary School - Te Kura o Rātā