June 13, 2022
Kia ora koutou
Apologies that there was no update last week. I caught Covid when I was at a Principal’s conference in Queenstown so I took some time off work to recover.
School Calendar for the remainder of 2022
Below are the dates for Public Holidays, Term Dates, IEMs and Staff Only Days for the remainder of 2022.
| Date | Event |
| Wednesday 22 June | Matariki – school celebrations 2pm – 7pm |
| Friday 24 June | Matariki Public Holiday |
| Thursday July 7 | Last day of normal timetabled classes for term two |
| Friday July 8 | IEMs – supervision is available for students in Years 1 – 6 if needed |
| Monday 25 July | IEMs – supervision is available for students in Years 1 – 6 if needed |
| Tuesday 26 July | Term 3 normal timetabled classes begin for term three |
| Monday 22 August | NCEA professional learning day. Students in Years 9 – 13 will learn at home on this day as the Learning Advisors who teach NCEA will be off site. Online learning will be provided for students on this day. School is open for year 8 and younger. |
| Thursday 1 September | Staff Only Day – School is closed for instruction |
| Friday 2 September | Staff Only Day – School is closed for instruction |
| Thursday 29 September | Last day of timetabled classes for term three |
| Friday 30 September | IEMs – supervision is available for students in Years 1 – 6 if needed |
| Monday 17 October | IEMs – supervision is available for students in Years 1 – 6 if needed |
| Tuesday 18 October | Term Four normal timetabled classes begin for term four |
| Monday 24 October | Labour Day – Public Holiday |
| Friday 4 November | Last day for students in Years 11, 12 and 13 (NZQA exams start on Monday 7 November) Graduation at The Piano |
| Friday 11 November | Show Day – Public Holiday |
| Thursday 15 December | Last day of school for 2022 |
Pride Week
Next week June 13th – June 17th is school pride week! It is a time to celebrate and affirm our Rainbow Community.
The GSA has been working together to come up with a week full of lunchtime activities to help celebrate inclusiveness and pride!
To kick things off we would love for everyone to dress up in some bright rainbow colours on Monday and there will be face painting available at break times on the stairs
More information and posters to come as to what else will be available to participate in next week 🙂
Netsafe Presentation for Whānau
Thank you to Sarah Marshall for organising Netsafe to come and present to whānau about digital technology and how you can help your children to keep safe on the internet and when they are using social media. This presentation is designed for parents and whānau and students who are Year 5 and above.
This will take place on Thursday 16 June. There will be kai available from 5:30pm and the presentation will run from 5:45 – 6:45 at Ao Tawhiti.
If you are coming then please RSVP to sarah.marshall@aotawhiti.school.nz for catering purposes.
Staff will also be working with Netsafe earlier that day so the messaging for young people will be consistent across our community.
Starship Support Tool To Address Youth Mental Health
The Ministry of Education are promoting a new communications app to help address the growing mental health needs of New Zealand young people called the Village is free to download via www.villageapp.kiwi as well as from Google Play or the App store. The app is designed to help rangatahi aged 13 to 25 was co-designed by New Zealand rangatahi and whānau.
Covid Update
We continue to experience low covid numbers which is great. Thank you all for contributing to this by supporting our public health measures.
The numbers over the last two weeks are as follows:
Learning Advisors x 2
Teacher Aides x 2
Year 5 x 1
Year 6 x 1
Year 7 x 1
Year 8 x 2
Year 9 x 1
Year 10 x 2
Year 11 x 2
Year 12 x 3
Year 13 x 1
Apologies if I have missed any other positive cases. If your child does test positive then please email us at covid@aotawhiti.school.nz. This helps to support our health and safety decision making around covid.
Please continue to keep your child at home if they are unwell.
Here is a link to the updated education guidelines under the COVID-19 protection framework.
Matariki
It is that time of year again! Celebrating matariki at Ao Tawhiti is a highlight of the school year. This year, we will run our usual celebrations on Wednesday 22 June from 2-7pm. We would LOVE you to be involved. Click here to see how you can help, and here if you or your child/ren want to perform. Any queries, please contact niki.stephenson@aotawhiti.school.nz/ 027 226 4017
Have a great week everyone.
Ngā mihi nui
Anita