From the Desk of Mrs Fraser

Skills for Growing Focus: COMMUNICATION 
We had the pleasure of having Ben Bell, our local Mayor at our assembly on Friday speaking to our tamariki about communication. Ben was excellent and used some great examples that our children easily related to. 

Key learnings: Negotiation, Voting, Compromise, Listening, Speaking clearly and articulating what we really mean.
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These  are all things children are learning throughout their day at school.

​Year 6 Camp
We have welcomed back our wonderful group of Year 6 students, a great group of parents who have supported the camp and our three teachers,  Rebekah, Sandi and Kasey. 

A group of tired faces who have all experienced a wonderful time together sharing in a variety of experiences. I am sure we will hear more about their three days away very soon. 

The aim of our camping experience is for our children to experience time in a communal environment, being self managing, participating in challenging physical activities that stretch their resilience and confidence. Working together to encourage and support each other every step of the way. This year they got to stay at the Otago Museum for the night which posed so many firsts for our tamariki, parents and teachers. 
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We are very grateful to our teachers & parents who accompanied our students. These wonderful experiences do not happen without huge organisation and commitment from a willing team. Thank you to all that made this possible.

Southland Athletes
The following children will compete at the Southland Athletics in Invercargill tomorrow. This is a huge accomplishment and we wish them the best of luck. You make West Gore School very proud. 

Keeping our Kids Safe in the Digital World
Following the recent Rob Cope talk on keeping children safe online, we encourage all parents and caregivers to take a few minutes to review some of our key digital safety policies on SchoolDocs.

These policies help guide how we respond to digital incidents, support positive online behaviour, and keep our students safe in an increasingly connected world. 

We recommend parents review; 

1. Responding to Digital Incidents, 
2. School Social Media, 
3. Cellphones and Other Personal Digital Devices, 
4. and Digital Technology and Online Safety. 

Understanding these policies helps ensure that school and home are working together to support safe and responsible digital use.

​Taking a moment to familiarise yourself with them is an important step in protecting our young people online.

Attendance
As you already know there is a massive focus on attendance in all New Zealand Schools. The rate of attendance across the country is just over 50% of children attending more than 90% of the time. 

This is a shocking figure, hence the focus for all schools to improve this dramatically. We will be providing you with pieces of information each newsletter to inform you valuable information.

Todays focus is on Unjustified Absence. 
Unjustified absences are when the child is not sick, child medical appointments etc. and away from school. 
Our response around these are to record the reasons and we have a STEPPED process to manage these. Each term there is thresholds with actions. Some of you will have received phone calls, letters etc. 
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Our aim is to help you return your child to full attendance by working with you to understand the barriers for you or your child.

We only have 10 school-days left before end of term 1. Last day of term will be 2nd April 2026.
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Enjoy your weekend
 
Ngā mihi
Linda Fraser
Principal