 Internet safety
Last week's incident involving some of our children’s safety on the internet has now been resolved due to Netsafe, John Parsons and our local Police Education officers' involvement. The site has been removed. This is a good opportunity to check up on what your children have access to on the internet and what sort of activity they are involved in. There is a staggering number of children in our senior school with access to phones and other devices. Many of the apps they have access to are restricted for much older children. While John Parson’s and teacher’s messages are very clear about sharing photos and messages without consent, this appears to be very common practice. The risks are enormous when they are used on the internet , can cause distress and is bullying. Let’s work together to keep our children safe. Home & Garden Tour We are delighted with the success of this year's Home and Garden tour. Thank you to all of you for your tremendous support in selling raffles, baking and to those of you that helped in the organisation prior, post and on the day. Many of you sold a huge number of raffle tickets as well as a great number sold on the day. The total form raffle tickets alone was over $8K . Your baking was well received with $1,100.00 raised. The total raised is in excess of $15K. This is a fabulous effort from our school community and our staff. This day could not happen without the incredible support of the Home owners. Our eight home owners very generously opened their homes for our benefit and we are so grateful. Bayleys Realty Group and SBS Bank, our major sponsors, contributed to the success and we are grateful to them. Our local businesses have once again generously supported our raffle prizes. We are grateful for your generosity year after year. A special thank you to Kelly Thomson and the Home and School committee for their work in organising this wonderful event for our school. We look forward to some new swings with the funds raised. Class Placements 2026 Teachers are in the process of organising classes for 2026. We will again have 7 classes in 2026 and they will all be composite, more than one year level in each. We have a small amount of flexibility in the make-up of classes. We would like to hear from you if you have any special requests about the placement of your child, i.e. twins in the same class or separated, being the older or younger child in a composite class. We spend a lot of time placing your child in what we believe will be the best place for their relationships and learning. We have not finalised teaching year levels for our staff yet. This is not an opportunity to request a specific teacher. Please send an email to Linda Fraser, [email protected] with any considerations for your child by Friday 14th November. Dolamore Park Many children and parents are disappointed that we have had to cancel the second class visit for the term due to the weather event two weeks ago. With Southland in a state of emergency the Director of Education suggested outdoor education events be postponed. Thank you for your commitment to accompanying us on these visits. Room 3,4 and 14 will still go on November 27th. We look forward to the whole school visit on December 5th. This day will be a fun school community day. We hope that whanau can join us over the lunch hour at least . More details to follow. School Events We hope everyone has signed up to the School App https://schoolappsnz.co.nz/ School events are listed in this space so please transfer to your calendar. If you would like some help to download the App please pop in and see Anneke in the office. Pond in Junior School This space creates so much pleasure, fun and learning. We love it and all fine days from now on it will be played in. A reminder for your children that it is a learning space where plenty of fun and experimentation can be had but it is not a swimming pool. Teachers are clear with the children about the expectations and we are not phoning parents for changes of clothing. Enjoy your weekend. Nga mihi Linda Fraser  Weather Event It sounds like many of you have experienced some hardship as part of yesterday’s weather event. It is great to have most children at school as it gives them some normality and time for you to get on and sort things at home. We were greeted with lots of stories this morning and some children have gone on to do some expressive writing about their experiences and feelings. It is great for your children to talk about their feelings as it helps them process what has occurred. We have had two wonderful St Peters students come across the road to help load a trailer of branches etc. Thank you to Harrison & Josh. Thank you to our wonderful caretaker Brent, who was here early to clean up our grounds. He is just the best!  School Staff Strike Thank you to you all for your support for the school staff strike yesterday. We do appreciate the inconvenience of this. We are very determined that we want things to be better for your children in our New Zealand schools. The main areas requiring urgent support are: > Support for our children who require specialist help and extra support in their learning > Serious teacher shortage in all sectors. > A stop to major curriculum changes and expectations constantly changing for our learners Home & Garden Tour Planning is going well for our upcoming event on Sunday 2nd November. We are grateful to our school community for: > selling raffles cards (already $5K banked) If you still have a raffle card on the bench please return to school asap, sold or unsold. > Baking for next Friday or delivered on Saturday morning. You would have received a tray home on Wednesday so check school bags. If you could like another one please come to the office. > If you are able to help on Sunday morning please let Anneke know. This is a very special and successful event for us and we are always so grateful to our Home Owners who make this possible. Attendance Thank you to those of you that are making an effort to ensure your children are at school, unless they are sick. We are monitoring all absences and following up on unjustified absences so we have an understanding of your issues. Please contact Linda if you have a situation that requires your child to be off school.  Dolamore Park
Thank you to those of you that have supported our classes at Dolamore Park. The weather has not played the game fro all classes so we will let you know of when we can fit the cancelled visits in. Have a good long weekend and enjoy your day off on Monday (Labour Day). Ngā mihi nui, Linda Fraser Principal  Kia ora Parents / Whanau, The term is rapidly coming to a close. It has been a very busy and productive term with so many events and great learning happening in classes. Board of Trustees Last night our newly elected Board of Trustees members met for the first time together. It was great to welcome and do some team building with our team. Susan Hasselman, a previous presiding member has been co-opted to fulfil the role of presiding member for the next year. We are grateful to Susan for stepping into the role, in service to our school. We welcome back Zac Andrews, Monika Du Plessis, Jacqui Ruddenklau & Rebekah Prattley and are thrilled to have Sonya Stewart and Sam Srimanthula join our team. Your board does a huge amount of work, mostly behind the scenes, governing our school. It is an important role and successive people have contributed hugely to the success of West Gore School. Thank you to Shelley Lithgow & Torrone Smith We are very grateful and thank Torrone Smith and Shelley Lithgow for their outstanding work on our board over many years, both serving as presiding members during their tenure on the board. Shelley has given 9 years service to our board and Torrone 10 years. TJ and Shelley have been loyal and committed to the success of our school, providing continuity and careful committed governance to our school. TJ and Shelley are both hard workers and while their contribution has been in the governance of the school they have been tireless in their practical mahi they have contributed over many years. Thank you Shelley and Torrone for your significant contribution. Our school is a better place for your contribution. We Need Your Help Please?
We are in need of help with some straightforward tasks please. Heat Ups We require a parent to help put the heat ups in the pie warmer in the hall on a Wednesday morning at 9.00am and someone to collect them out and sort them into class tubs at 12.50pm. Both these tasks take approximately 20 mins. The children love this lunch option and we need some volunteers please to continue this next term. House and Garden Tour This is organised by our Home & School and is a very successful fundraiser for our school. We are working towards upgrading our Outdoor Play areas in our senior area. We have raised more than $15K each year and is a popular event community members look forward to. We need you to help us with a few jobs, labeling raffle cards, putting posters up around our local community businesses, attending a working bee on Oct 21st to prepare for the day, help on the day, Nov 2nd with registrations, distribution of goodie bags, making lunches for home owners etc. All these areas will have people who can lead but we require extra support to lighten the load for a few committee people doing a lot. Anneke will email a google form home today for you to commit to supporting one of these tasks. Thank you in anticipation of your support. Many hands make light work. Literacy We are delighted with the progress of many of our students in their writing this term. We have been supported by Rebekah Prattley, our literacy leader and Lauren Latimer a consultant who we have developed a great relationship with over time. Lynne Bell and Kay Stevens our Learning Support Coordinators are experts in this area as well so we have a strong team supporting your children. Handwriting is a focus area because it enables children to efficiently record their ideas. All children are working in exercise books that have half height lines and everyone has a pencil grip. This is necessary to ensure we are setting all our children up with good habits or we are now focusing on correcting some bad habits. Enjoy using our wonderful public library over the holidays to keep your children reading. Teachers in the Junior school will send books home over the holidays. Please talk to your child’s teacher if you have any specific questions. Road Crossings It is a great concern that we have several parents crossing with their children in close proximity to the crossings. We encourage you to use the crossings, whether they are patrolled or not. We have had several near misses and one day we won’t be so lucky. The safety of your children is paramount to us. Enjoy your weekend Nga mihi Linda Fraser  Kia ora Parents, Whānau and Caregivers
It has been great to be back to school this week after my refreshment leave. Thank you all for the lovely welcome back, so nice to connect with tamariki, staff and parents again. Relationships are at the heart of our work. Your children thrive when you connect positively with their teacher and share the learning journey with both your child and their teacher. A special thank you to Kay Stevens for stepping into the Acting Principal role for the last few weeks. Kay works within our school as our LSC and her experience in principalship lead to a very seamless transition into the role. She was very capably supported by Becs Prattley and Rachael Flaus. Congratulations to our new Board of Trustees members. A special welcome to TJ, who has been co-opted to provide continuity for the board, Rebekah Prattley , Zac Andrews, Monika Du Plessis, Jacqui Ruddenklau, Sonya Stewart & Sowmya Srimanthula. This is an important governance role within our school. It will be great to form a new team very soon. The board members enjoyed meeting with you during Three Way Interviews where they were seeking your feedback on our school. This is an important process so we can continue to meet the needs of our tamariki and ensure our school is open and purposeful. I have been so impressed with the progress with your children’s writing. We are working very closely with Lauren Latimer who is a professional development provider and teachers and students are making amazing progress with their achievement. This is exciting to see. I am sure you are seeing the positivity in your children as they are gaining skills in literacy. The Polyfest performance was such a highlight. I felt so immensely proud to see our tamariki and staff on stage showing passion, pride and energy as they performed. I am sure you also felt this as you watched your own tamariki performing. The support was amazing and so appreciated. We will have our Open Morning next week, Wednesday 27th August 2025. Everyone is welcome to come and learn how we engage our learners in a variety of ways. We look forward to meeting your family from 09:00am to 10:30am. Also a reminder of the half day on Tuesday 26 August 2025 for our staff to attend the paid union meeting. Children are to be collected from school at 12:20pm please. If you wish your child to remain at school on the afternoon of 26th August, and you have not yet returned the slip to the office, please let Anneke know by the end of today. I hope you are enjoying our new communication system. It will take us all a little while to become familiar with where things will be but we hope over time we will see the benefits. Nga mihi Linda Fraser Principal  You will all be aware of the 8.8 earthquake in Russia this week, and the related tsunami warning for coastal NZ.
Listening to the tsunami warning, I could not help but liken it to the changes in education at the moment. There is a tsunami of change washing over us as educators, your tamariki and you as whanau, with the changes in the curriculum. As yet we are still unsure of how the Ministry of Education wants progress to be reported, and that is why the latest report is an ‘interim’ format. Like much of what is happening in education there are still smaller ‘aftershocks’ from the Ministry of Education that will outline this detail in the future. We have loved seeing you at our 3-way conferences this week. It has been uplifting for teachers to be able to celebrate the many positive aspects of your child’s learning, and their whole being as we see them at school. It is also a very affirming time for your child, as they get to share the great learning they are doing and reflect on “where to next’ in goal setting for the rest of the year. Although I am here only briefly, I can see how hard teachers are working to come to terms with the new curriculum. Many years ago during one change period, we had years to assimilate new curriculum documents and to let our whanau know about the changes bit by bit. Unfortunately the Ministry of Education is moving as fast as a tsunami in expecting curriculum change to be made. The reports have new terms in them, and your child’s ‘achievement’ within the report may look different from previous times. This does not mean that they know less than previously. Tamariki are always on a learning journey. The term ‘needing support’ means that they need further support from their teacher before independent mastery is achieved. This support comes from their teacher, and will often be delivered in a group workshop situation, although it could be in a one-to-one mini session, a quick ‘touch base’ before school, or in a whole class session. I have enjoyed reading the new literacy curriculum, and seeing the progression across the year levels within it. It is specific and will be a great tool to guide teaching, and impact on your child’s achievement. There is a lot to learn, but, as you know, children have an enormous capacity to learn. The new curriculum will better prepare them for life beyond school, as nothing is left to chance, and maths and literacy are very specific in the requirements at each year of learning. If you are wanting to know more about the curriculum at your child's level, please make an appointment with his/her teacher and they will be very happy to show you this, and to let you know how you can assist with their learning at home. And lastly, thank you so much for supporting your child’s progress by coming to the conferences, and for your chat and feedback about this fabulous school with Board members. Kay Stevens Acting Principal |
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