Gina’s Community Newsletter 31.1.2020

Kia ora whanau,
Welcome to our first full school year back in the CBD! I hope you have had a great summer and have enjoyed some downtime with your tamariki. This year is going to be full of challenges for me with a new role as your community leader as well as some personal news – my husband Ben and I are expecting a baby! Although this is exciting news, I’m sure some of you will have concerns about what this means for your child, particularly if they are in my HB. At this stage I intend to work up until the end of Term 2 and leading up to this Steven will ensure both my roles are filled so that the rest of the year can continue smoothly for our students. As Mel and I are teaching together this year, my homebase will also have the continuity of having her as a teaching LA throughout the whole year.


This year we are teaching in pairs as follows: Nadine and Suze – Yr 1-2 Gina and Mel – Yr 1-3Beth and Melva – Yr 3-5Kate and Debs – Yr 5-6. We have endeavoured to group students for learning in a way that means that the majority should be taught within their own teaching pairs.

Communication:Throughout the year we often need to communicate information with you. Personally I find lots of emails, and particularly long emails a challenge. If it is longer than what fits on my phone screen I probably won’t read it! My intention this year is to keep all communication with you brief. Each week I will upload a Sunday Community Newsletter  to the website. PLEASE READ THIS! It should contain anything you need to know for the week for homebases in our community. This means that any communication you receive via email through the week should only be urgent, eg. we need helpers to go out on a spontaneous trip tomorrow. If you need to communicate with your LA, please be mindful of the time. We all know teachers work long hours but we do have our own families to take care of too. Most LAs will check their emails at home, but if you are emailing after 6pm please note that they may not get your message until the next day. Some LAs also give out their personal phone numbers (mine is below), please use these only for emergency contact eg. we are out on a trip and you are running late or can’t find us. Please do not text us if your child is absent, this information needs to go to the office. 

Dates for your diary:

First Day: 10th February 9am – Meet at school for Mihi Whakatau

9.30am – Walking with LAs or making your way with your family to Botanic Gardens playground. LAs will be at the Botanic Gardens from 10am – 2.15pm – Pick up from Botanic Gardens playground or walking back to school with LAs .


Swimming 23rd March – 3rd April Jellie Park 12.15pm – 2.45pm


Floor 4 Community Camp: 6th – 8th April Blue Skies in Kaiapoi – All members of family welcome.
More information will come out about these events closer to the time. There will likely be additional trips and visits that your LAs will let you know about throughout the term. 


Music Mary: We have an itinerant music teacher who teaches guitar, ukulele and singing for a small weekly charge. If you wish for your child to be involved in these please email Mary at marydunne@xtra.co.nz.

 Sports Uniforms from last year: Please return washed sports uniforms to Dean by Monday 10th Feb. The first game of the season is Friday 14th.


Start Time: We would just like to reiterate that although the year 7-13s are not starting classes until 9.30am because they are in 1:1s, year 1-6 are still starting at 9am. We expect students to be present on the 4th floor at 8.50am.


Timetable: Information on our timetable will come out next week. As a general rule we will have literacy followed by maths until lunch time 4 days per week. Break times are from 11am-11.20am and 12.45pm-1.30pm.

Ngā mihi

Gina Harrison