 Kia ora Parents, Whānau and Caregivers, Mihi Whakatau It was great to start our term, as we always do, with our Mihi Whakatau on Monday morning. This is our ceremony to welcome our new tamariki and whanau into our West Gore community. It is great to see so many eager five year old's joining our New Entrant rooms along with new families joining our kura.  We also farewelled Torrone Smith, our last presiding member as he handed over to our new presiding member Susan Hasselman. We thank Torrone for his final words to the school and his welcome to Susan as she steps into her new role. Please see Susan’s first newsletter to the community in this newsletter. We know Susan will lead our board with her knowledge and expertise. We are very lucky as a school community to have the experience and commitment of our whole board for the next three years. Attendance You will see Susan, our presiding member has reported about this issue after a discussion at our recent BOT meeting. The ministry has the following target: Government’s target of 80% of students present for 90% of the term by 2030 There are very clear steps for all schools to follow so that no student will be left to accumulate absences without an appropriate response to return them to regular attendance. West Gore school had only 53% of students meeting this target in term 3. You can see attendance is a real issue for us with many children having significant time away from school for unjustified reasons. (see Susan's report for how we mark the roll, either justified or unjustified) You can expect to hear from the school when these absences occur for further explanation and planning to ensure your child is present at school unless for a justified reason. Please speak to me if you intend to take your child out of school for an unjustified reason. We do want to work with you while ensuring your child is present at school and maintaining their learning. Sunhats With some warmer weather to come we require all children to have their West Gore red sunhat at school. We have a week of grace week, next week for children to get their hat and get it along to school. After that children not wearing their hat will be required to sit/play under the trees at the front of the school during play times. Thank you, in advance, for your support to keep our children sun safe. School App As part of our ongoing communication improvements the new App has gone live yesterday. We have sent home a flyer with information on how to download this new app with your child yesterday. If you have any questions or need help to download the new app, please see Anneke in the office. All important dates can be found under the "Calendar" Tab and you can subscribe to certain classes for more, class-related messages. Kindly note that from this coming Monday, 13 October this new app will be the only app you can use to send absentee notices and on which you will receive alerts or notifications.  Home and Garden Show - November 2nd
Our Home and School group are very busy organising this wonderful event that is our only fundraiser for the year. In past years we have raised approximately $18,000 which is a huge help to providing extra things for our children. In recent years the money has gone to the development of our outdoor learning / playground spaces. This will help support the senior playground area this year. We are in need of more help please. Please contact Anneke in the office if you are able to help over the next three weeks, at the working bee on Tuesday 21st October or the weekend of the event. Many of the jobs are small but many hands make light work. We need more help please! Home & School meeting - 3.15pm Monday 13th ,this coming Monday to continue our organisation. We would love to see you along at school in the staffroom. Your children are welcome to play in the playground or read in the library if wet. Raffles - thank you to those of you that have returned your card and money and to those that are continuing to sell more cards. This usually raises about 13 of the total from the Home and garden event. All raffle cards back by Wednesday 15th please. (Please return so we do not have to spend time following up with you.) Dolamore Park Visits We have four classes visiting Dolamore park next week. We are grateful for your support in accompanying your children's class as we can't go without your supervision. Our children are excited about getting back into nature. Fitness & Physical Activity Leaders (PALS) Richie Crean is our School Facilitator from Active Southland who has been working with us all year in support of our school fitness programme. This has been wonderful to ensure this exercise is fun, active and aligned with our skills for growing. Our tamariki have a repertoire of games and activities that they love. Richie has also supported our Physical Activity Leaders, (PALS) along with Sandi Pasco and Jasmine Collett. This is a great programme where our PALs run games and activities during lunchtime two times per week for other children. This is particularly useful for teaching children games so they then feel confident about the rules and can independently join their peers. Many just love to join in and play the games with slightly more structure. Enjoy your weekend. Ngā mihi Linda Fraser Principal Comments are closed.
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