 On Saturday we had 22 dancers compete at the Southland Festival of Dance. They were lucky to take up the opportunity to learn dances from Rachel Wilson and Jysse Prattley from Rachel’s Studio of Dance. We are proud of all the girls who worked hard during their lessons, looked amazing on the day and danced with joy and flair. The following girls received placings in their finals:
Katelynne & Mya - 3rd in the Foxtrot Katelynne - 2nd in her solo Samba Issy & Izette - 1st in the Foxtrot Willow - 1st in her solo Samba Isabella & Aliyah - 1st in the Samba A special mention to Isabella who won a term’s scholarship at Rachel’s Studio of Dance. We look forward to seeing where this takes you! We are also proud of the whole team, they scored the most points as a school and therefore took out the Schools Section in FIRST PLACE! An amazing achievement that they should be very proud of. Thank you to all the parents and whanau who supported their children. A massive thank you to Rachel and Jysse who voluntarily give up their time each week to share their knowledge and talents with our students. We are so grateful for their time and energy. A big congratulations to our friends over the bridge - East Gore School. Their dancers were amazing and they got lots of placings and scholarships too. A great event to be a part of, well done to all involved!  Kia ora Parents / Whānau, There was lots of excitement and many duck shooting stories on Monday morning… we must have the best shooters, so many ducks shot! Sounds like a fun weekend for many families. Southland Festival of Dance We are excited that twenty four students will compete in the schools section of the dance competition in Gore on Saturday. We are very grateful for Rachel Wilson and Jysse Prattley who have donated their time to teach our children their dances. We had our own show yesterday and we loved seeing the flair and skill of our dances after just 7 weeks. The festival is on at the Gore T&C on Saturday, starting 9.30 am. The dance crew would love you support. Thank you to Rachel and Jysse for offering this wonderful opportunity to our students.
Attendance We are delighted to see a significant shift in our attendance in term 1. 82% of our students attended regularly compared with 67% in term 1 last year. We had 95% of our students arriving on time regularly. We appreciate your attention to ensuring your child is at school unless sick or other emergency /unavoidable situations. Lets keep a strong focus on this as there is room for improvement, especially unjustified absences at 26%. Ministry of Education statistics have recorded our absences for the following reasons: 56% Illness / Medical 5% To be followed up 26% Unjustified 2% Stood Down 10% Explained and Approved  Learning Through Play We are constantly reviewing and being upskilled by Longworth Education’s director Sarah Aiono, as to how to improve our learning experience for our students. Our senior school has introduced a stronger thematic approach under the umbrella, ‘Under One Sky’ which symbolises our cultural connection focus for this term. The modified approach provides more structure for those learners that need it while leaving options open for those that have ideas and creative thoughts they want to explore further. This will be showcased as part of our Cultural Festival at the end of the term. We wish all our mothers a wonderful day on Sunday. On this Mother’s Day, we honour the quiet strength, endless sacrifice, and unconditional love of mothers and mother figures. Their guidance shapes hearts, builds communities, and inspires the next generation every single day. Nga mihi Linda Fraser  Cross Country is happening on Friday the 22nd of May at Dolamore Park  We are excited to share that the Home and School committee is moving toward a more efficient way of working! To value everyone's time and reduce the number of formal meetings, we are restructuring into smaller, focused sub-committees for projects like the Home & Garden Tour, Uniforms, Pizza Days, Breakfast Club, Disco, Community Support, and Heat-ups. Each group will operate independently under a team leader who reports directly to the Presiding Member, allowing us to spend less time "around the table" and more time making things happen. We are also introducing online meetings as a flexible option for our busy volunteers. Our AGM will be held on 10 June, and we are currently seeking enthusiastic individuals to step into the vital roles of Presiding Member and Secretary. If you have the skills to help lead our school community in this new format, please get in touch with Anneke in the office. Keep an eye out for a notice coming home soon, which will provide a detailed description of each sub-committee and what each role entails. Families can expect a detailed information sheet coming home soon, which will include an opportunity to sign up for your preferred sub-committee. 
In Room One we have been learning about ANZAC Day. We imagined ourselves as soldiers on the battlefield and wrote postcards home to our loved ones. We used our creativity and empathy to think about what life may have been like for the soldiers during the war. Kia Ora Everyone, It was my happy duty to welcome new students to our Kura at the start of Term 2. I have been fortunate to attend three Mihi Whakatau gatherings at school since I became a Board member and it is a pleasure every time. The participation of our entire student body, our Kapa Haka group, our teaching staff and our Principal make every occasion such as this something our entire school community can be very proud of.  I am very pleased to inform you that Board Parent Representative Sonya Stewart has been appointed Deputy Presiding Member of our Board of Trustees. This an important role in actioning Board business as well as working alongside our Principal. The Board is grateful for the engagement of our parent community with the new Attendance Management Plan set out by the Ministry Of Education. There is ongoing and consistent Ministry oversight and follow up of our actions around our management of student attendance. We appreciate your ongoing support and attention to this very much. With the start of a new Term the School Policies and Procedures team reviews current school policies on a number of topics. We really want as much participation in this as we can get from our School Community. To review a policy just go to the school app, select ‘Links’- School Docs. Depending on your device you can type in our school name or select from the drop box. User name- westgore Password- wiggie Policies for review will be highlighted. You can select which one you wish to review. Once you have read the topic you
can select the blue button ‘Start Your Review”. We appreciate your input very much so over the term if you have a spare five minutes do have a look. All of the school policies are in place for the well-being and safety of everyone at West Gore School. Nga Mihi Susan Hasselman Board Of Trustees As we prepare for upcoming events such as the Cross Country Meet, and for students who use the bus daily, we ask all parents and caregivers to please take a moment to review our key transport policies on SchoolDocs. These include the Daily Bus Policy, Bus Safety, Bus Behaviour, and Responding to Bus Incidents. These policies outline important expectations for safe and respectful behaviour while travelling to and from school and school events. Understanding these guidelines helps ensure all students travel safely and that bus journeys remain positive for everyone. Thank you for your support in keeping our students safe on and off the road.  |
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