Newsletter - Week 2 Term 3

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Thanks for working around the Teacher Only Day we had on what was the first day back for many other schools. We had selected this day to stay closed as there was some uncertainty about the electricity supply to the school. It actually turned out to be the correct thing to do, as there still some things to get sorted.

The builders are making excellent progress and it looks like the new classroom block will be completed before the end of this term - well ahead of schedule.

The new term brings a number of new enrolments for us at GMS.

We say 'kia ora' to:

Stan-Lee Tonihi, Jacob Crispin, Georgia Bottrill,

Isla McLean, Dakota Dignon, Zephyr Weston,

Lenny Willing, Costa Hammond, Jerry Nguyen and Makeena Munyaradzi.

We currently have 477 children enrolled at GMS.

We are still collecting the Yummy Apple stickers and labels until the end of Term 3. All collection sheets will be collated and sent off to the promoters and we will then be contacted to let us know how much we have to spend on sports equipment. Collection day will be Monday 27 September 2021.

The more we collect, the more sports gear we can order, so get going and start collecting your Yummy cut-out labels and stickers! It would be great if we could all get behind this and collect as many stickers as possible.

Congratulations to Rooms 1a, 1b, 14a, 14b and room 8 who have made a huge contribution to our stickers and labels collected so far, well done!

For more information visit: http://www.yummyfruit.co.nz

You have a chance to celebrate our success in the Olympic Games AND support the massive Kapa Haka roopu we have at GMS. As we now have around 200 tamariki taking part in our two Kapa Haka groups, we need to purchase some more uniforms.

How can you help?

Come along to school on Tuesday 10 August dressed up in the uniform of your favourite sporting code, or the colours of a country you have supported at the Olympic Games, or dressed up as a flag or anything at all loosely connected to the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Bring a gold coin donation which will help us purchase the extra Kapa Haka uniforms we need. Thanks so much!

Toby Goodman very kindly answered the call for a donation of wood during the holidays and Jess de Souza from our PTA has been a great leader in this project, sourcing an old bathtub.

Last Friday a team of students and Mr Mellon set about constructing a frame for the bath ... and what a great result! We will keep you posted for details on when the worms will arrive and our farm is up and running!

Reignier School have advised us that the times for their patrolled crossing on Guppy Road have changed. The crossing outside their school will now be patrolled from 8.30 to 8.50am in the mornings and 2.50pm to 3.10pm in the afternoons.

The Taradale Intermediate enrolment packs will be sent home next week. Inside the pack you will find a prospectus and information sheet about the Whanau Evening they are holding instead of an open day this year. The Whanau Evening is scheduled to be held Tuesday 7th December.

On Tuesday 10th August, outside the library during the lunch break, we will be selling deleted library books. The books will be three for 50 cents. Remember to bring some cash to school if you are interested in buying some old books.

Further to our 17th June newsletter we have received another complaint from one of our neighbours, this time in Osier Road.

We ask that everyone respect our neighbours when parking. This neighbour could not leave their property, as one of our parents had parked over their driveway!

Please respect the road markings and ensure you're parked legally around the school when picking up and dropping off your children.

We want everyone to be a safe as possible - please help ... even if it means that some days you might just have to walk a little bit further.

The lucky book club flyers were sent home Wednesday, orders will close on Friday 13th August. No late orders so make sure you get yours in on time!

Below is a notice we have prepared so that families and whānau are aware what may happen should there be a major emergency forcing an evacuation of the school. This could be due to an earthquake and/or tsunami alert, or any other event we are directed to relocate (e.g. major chemical leak).

• The decision will be made to evacuate upon advice from the Civil Defence, an announcement on the radio or following a significantly powerful earthquake.

• A verbal warning will be issued by senior management and office staff to students and staff present at school, to evacuate the site to higher ground.

• Parents will be notified through the school App and/or a text. From the initial contact parents will be regularly updated via alerts through the App.

• Teachers are to collect registers and assemble children quickly on the school field. All children and staff will be accounted for before departing on foot to our designated evacuation site for tsunami warnings.

Our evacuation site is at the rear of Church Road Winery, 150 Church Road, Taradale.

• Students and staff will walk up Osier Road, through Knightsbridge to the rear of Church Road Winery. Senior staff will do their very best to arrange a vehicle for any students/staff who may be incapacitated or unable to walk.

• In the case of a distant earthquake Civil Defence may organise buses to transport local schools to our evacuation point. In the case of a local tsunami we will move quickly by foot to our evacuation point.

• All staff and students will again be accounted for once assembled at the evacuation site on Church Road.

• IMPORTANT – please be aware: Parents must collect their children from the evacuation area, not from school or along the way. For everyone’s safety, parents must not try to come to school and not try to collect their child en route to the evacuation point. This will only cause confusion and slow progress if individuals are getting picked up – it is hard enough moving a group of children this distance, without having other distractions of people arriving as the group is moving.

We need to be prepared for such an event happening.

Thank you to all the parents that do notify us when your child is away from school.

We have a large number of parents/caregivers that don't contact us. We also have some parents who do message us through by text but forget to put their child's full name and class in the notification.

This is very difficult to identify as we have a large roll and several children with the same first name! The best way is to use the school App to contact the office - as this prompts you to enter all your child's details, e.g. full name, room number and reason for their absence.

A reminder from the canteen we do not accept cash for lunch orders, please ensure your payment is made on the Kindo App before 9am.

If your child has an issue with their lunch order, make sure they go and speak to Mrs Batt immediately so she can fix the problem then and there.

SOME SAD NEWS:

Mr Mellon, our simply amazing caretaker since 2010, has decided to retire. Paddy has been a wonderful property manager and a friend to all in our school community. We will farewell him later on, but he will be sorely missed.

This means we are on the hunt for a new caretaker - do you know anyone who might be interested? We will have all information about the vacancy available next week either from the school office by Wednesday 9.00am or from the GMS website at the same time.

Ka kite anō

Mark Johnson

Principal/Tumuaki

• Week 2 - 6th August - Greenlock Shield Sports Exchange
• Week 4 - 13th August - Spooner Shield
• Week 5 - 16th August - Spooner Shield cancellation date
• Week 7 - 8th September - GMS Cross Country

Email: admin@gms.school.nz
Website: http://www.gms.school.nz/
Location: Greenmeadows School 45 Osier Road, Greenmeadows, Napier, New Zealand
Phone: +64 06-844 7024
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gmsnapier