Newsletter - Week 1, Term 3

Greenmeadows School 2nd August 2022

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Tēnā koutou kātoa,

The second half of the year has arrived and aren't there are odd days when it feels just a little like spring is not far away ...

It has been great to start the new term with far more children at school than at the end of Term 2. Our numbers at school last week and today, are those of a typical (pre-COVID) winter week - long may this continue! At the end of last term we were experiencing days with more than one hundred children away ... this term daily absence numbers well short of fifty which is really encouraging.

The students of Room 7 have welcomed Mrs Tonks into their room and together they made a wonderful start to the term.

We also have our candidate teachers from EIT back with us this term on a posting within various classrooms around the school. Welcome back to Miss Kate Bruce, Miss Honore Pirret, Mr Jordan Sharko and Mr Charles Keung. They are all doing well in their respective rooms - Kate (Room 13), Honore (Room 5), Jordan (Room 9) and Charles (Room 3).

And finally we are getting a number of the school blocks repainted. The last time most of the school was painted was back in 2009. Now GEMCO Trades are working around the bouncing balls, numerous hordes of children and the major construction project to spruce up most of the school, as well as the OSCAR buildings.

Ka kite anō,

Mark Johnson

Principal

WELCOME TO GREENMEADOWS SCHOOL

We have had quite a number of new enrolments here at school over the past few weeks. The following wonderful people are now part of the GMS scene:

Callan Stewart, Oliver Priest-Lack, Lily Masseurs-Hislop, Otis Conroy, Mya Crawford,

Dominic Crawford, Ivy Dodge, Luca Hohaia-Hall, Max Salmon, Amia Nandan, Nahal Yosofi, Zahra Yosofi, Leonidas Taylor and Indiana Ward

We hope you really love it here!

Our roll is currently 470 pupils.

REPORTING TO PARENTS SURVEY

Late last term we sent out a survey to get feedback on your thoughts about our reports. We received exactly 100 responses - which is fantastic! Many thanks to everyone who made the effort to let us know your thoughts.

The four winners of a $20 New World voucher are:

Rob Morley

Jasveer Kaur Dhaliwal

Sammy Millar

Fiona Martin

These can be collected from the school office.

GMS SPARE UNIFORMS FOR WET AND MUDDY CHILDREN!

We have a supply of uniforms that we give out to children when they slip over in the wet ... or play too closely to the mud. BUT we are not getting these items returned - especially the smaller sizes. Can we please get these sent back to school ASAP?

Many thanks.

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GOOD CAPS COLLECTION COMPETITION - Term 3 2022

GMS has made a fantastic start to the 'Good Caps' collection competition ... we managed to fill up an entire car with the amazing numbers of metal and plastic bottle tops that had come in.

The weights of the collection to date:

14.7kg - plastic tops

63kg - metal bottle tops

Just think - close to 80kg of waste that would have previously gone into the landfill has been diverted somewhere else.

Let's keep this going!!! This competition runs for the length of Term 3.

TREE ALONG BOUNDARY

As communicated earlier in the year we have been looking at trying to include the large tree (that we think is a 'Japanese yew') in the development of the new entranceway. Unfortunately it is just too obstructive where it is situated. It will be removed in the coming weeks.

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YUMMY APPLE STICKER PROMOTION

School Sticker Promo | The Yummy Fruit Co

Collect the Yummy cut-out labels from bags (each cut-out label is worth 10 stickers) and individual Yummy apple stickers for your school’s share of the $200,000 free DG Sport sports gear prize pool.

www.yummyfruit.co.nz

GREENMEADOWS SCHOOL - PTA AND FUNDRAISING

The GMS PTA met last week and planned out the fundraising activities for the coming term. These include:

* the sausage sizzle for the GMS Cross-country on Tuesday 13 September

* the calendar fundraiser using artwork from the children. The orders have to be in by the end of this term.

We have achieved a lot with the PTA over the past few years. The amazing He Kapua - our covered astroturf has been created with funding from our PTA. The PTA also support the senior Year 6 school camps each Term 4.

Greenmeadows School has some ambitious projects planned for the future. We will need community fundraising to help make these things happen.

We want to create two new playground areas near the Osier Road fence lines. One on the field for senior students we aim to complete first. A second play area will go where Rooms 3a, 3b and 4 are currently situated - this will be for juniors. Once this has happened then we want to redevelop the area where the popular, but aging, junior playground and sandpit are.

The Board of Trustees are also looking at options to have solar panels installed to reduce our electricity costs. At current pricing we are looking at an investment of around $50,000 to install.

We are currently focusing on meeting a lot of additional costs for extras in the brand new buildings. This includes enhancing our new hall area with things such as a new sound system, a fancy projector and a giant screen.

The PTA has a role to play in assisting the school to be able to offer the best for our students and community. If you want to join and help make things happen please come along to a meeting. Contact the office if you would like to find out more about the PTA or fundraising.