Information for parents

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We nearly have the first week completed and it has been fantastic (pity the All Blacks couldn’t have made it just that little bit more special).  I am looking forward to teaching your child and I hope this year will be memorable.

This term we will be swimming in weeks 6 and 9 (7^th March to 11^th March, 28^th March to 1^st April) and as it is part of the Physical Education curriculum we ask that you support us, helping to ensure that your child is able to participate in every session.

Please can you make sure that you child has the correct uniform and this is adhered to throughout the year. It would be helpful if you could name each item, especially sunhats (which must be worn in Terms 1 & 4-No hat, No play!).

We are quite an active school and have many fantastic sports teams with great reputations for fair play (as well as winning!). Behaviour at school will be one important factor in the decision around inclusion of your child into our sports teams this year. Your child will be reminded of this and we ask that you support us in this as well.

This year we will have a camp in Hamner Springs and a ski trip to Porter's Heights. More information will be sent out closer to the time.

Thank you to those of you that have bought/covered/labelled stationery already! If you haven’t, there are packs available from me or from the office. All children will need their stationery from Week 2.

Should there be an issue or concerns around any part of your child’s education, I would like to remind you that the procedure here at Grey Main is to make an appointment (or catch informally if it suits) with class teacher first. If there are still unresolved issues then your next step is to discuss these with the Syndicate Leader (Stephen Wood). Should there still be a problem, then make an appointment with either Jeff Beckwith or Mandy O’Sullivan.

Homework will be given out every week. It will consist of spelling/word study work, vocabulary activities and basic facts and problem solving activities (or a combination of these). These will be generic photocopied sheets. Also, in addition to these, there will be other tasks that will be required to be completed. These will be written down in your child’s diary and will reflect current learning during that week. We are trialling a new way of letting you and your child, know how they are going, in reference to the National Standards. The children will have a copy of the end of year report (but written in simpler language) and home tasks set of them will reflect what is required in this report. You child will have many opportunities to achieve each indicator. The child will be required to complete the task and then reflect on how well they are going in relation to the Nation Standard indicator. As the year progresses, you child will be able to identify any weakness that will need extra support so that come the end of the year it is not a shock. We are very excited about this new initiative.

Again please feel free to contact me on any issues that arise or if you simply want to chat about your child and our school.

Yours Sincerely

Jacinda Panther