Kia ora koutou,

Welcome to Week 3 of Term 2! The past two weeks have been eventful and enriching for our school community.  Teachers are beginning to prepare for upcoming events like the Matariki celebration and Fancy Dress Dance in Week 8 and the school speech competition in Week 6.  Teachers have engaged in some great professional learning opportunities to help further grow their teaching and learning skills in literacy and numeracy.

On the 7th of May, we conducted a successful fire drill. Our students and staff demonstrated excellent preparedness and cooperation, ensuring everyone's safety in an emergency scenario.

We had another insightful Professional Learning and Development [PLD] day with Kirsty Tatere during Week 2. This session focused on enhancing our teaching and learning strategies in writing, allowing our educators to delve deeper into effective writing instruction techniques.

Health and well-being were front and center on the 10th of May when Zenda from Lakes DHB visited to speak to our tamariki about dental health. Her engaging presentation emphasised the importance of good dental hygiene practices.

Mrs Pyman and I have dedicated three days over the past fortnight to attending Maths PLD sessions. These sessions have been instrumental in expanding our pedagogical knowledge and strategies in Mathematics, ensuring we can provide the best learning experiences for our students.  Two of the sessions we attended focussed on using engaging maths games to promote mathematical thinking and discussion.  Mrs Pyman came back from our course super excited and has already started introducing these games in Ruru.  From what I saw earlier this week, the students loved them.  If you have a child in Ruru, you might like to ask them about the games they are learning to play. Greedy Pig is one of my favourites!

Additionally, I participated in a valuable Education Review Office [ERO] webinar that discussed recent findings in Mathematics teaching and learning for Years 0-3. The insights gained will undoubtedly benefit our approach and enhance our students' learning outcomes.  There is a positive buzz about Maths across the school at the moment and it is awesome to see all teachers and students engaging with the learning we are doing. 

Looking ahead, we are excited about our major fundraiser, the Bike Day, coming up on Sunday, the 9th of June. This event promises to be a fun-filled day for the entire community, and we hope to see you all there supporting our school.  All monies raised from this event directly benefit the tamariki at our school.  Last year's funds were put towards fixing part of the hall roof, with the remaining money being tagged to our new playground.  

Our new playground is coming!  This week I met with Playground Creations to measure up and finalise design elements for our new playground.  This project has been a long time in the making and has been made possible by the funds raised from Bike Day and the generous grant we received from Pelorus Trust ($30,000).  We still have a couple of final decisions to make but we can expect the new playground to be installed early-mid August 2024.  Check out the designers draft image below. 

In the classroom, all our students are busy preparing for two upcoming events:

Keep an eye out for a WORKING BEE notice.  There are a few big jobs that we need to work on around the school.  We will be asking for your support in the coming weeks once we have finalised a Working Bee Date (likely late June/early July).  We need to remove our current playground, stockpile our bark, remove the old wooden fence near the former play centre and tidy up that area.  

Thank you for your continued support and involvement in our school community. Together, we are making great strides in providing a rich and comprehensive education for our children.

Ngā mihi nui,

Shirley Bailey
Principal

Our Bike Day committee have been busy behind the scenes organising this year's major school fundraiser.  A massive thank you to the Bike Day Team on behalf of the school.  We simply could not do this event without the continued support from our local farming stations, their staff and the Bike Day Committee, who give up their time every year to make this event a massive success.  

We are now calling for your support.

Thank you to the people who have kindly volunteered to help with food preparation.  I will be in touch with you early next week with details about how we will be organising this and where/when we need your support.

We now need some extra help in the following areas:

If you are able to help out, please contact me shirleyb@kuratau.school.nz . 

REMEMBER; All money raised goes directly to improving our school and the learning opportunities we provide your tamariki. 

Our newly appointed teacher, Emma Bridges will start at Kuratau School on Monday.  Emma will initially be co-teaching with Whaea Lou.  They will share the Room 4 & 5 spaces.  This is great news for our learners - two teachers for most of Term 2.!  Once our class numbers in Pīwakawaka reach capacity we will open Pīrere (Room 5) as a full time teaching space.  

We currently have spaces available across multiple year levels.  Check out our website for further details regarding spaces available. 

Our 2024 Triathlon Winners were excited to receive their engraved trophies at Week 1's school assembly.  Congratulations to the winners.  They all showed lots of resilience, determination and endurance. 

Fluoride varnish is a temporary protective coating that is painted on your child’s teeth. It is quick and easy to apply.  Currently, fluoride varnish is usually applied each year at your child’s routine dental examination to prevent decay.  Your child’s school is part of a program in which Te Whatu Ora (Lakes) Oral Health Service is applying fluoride varnish to eligible children in Years 1-8 twice a year at their school. This is an additional service that does not replace your child’s routine dental exam.

The dental team will be visiting Kuratau School on Tuesday 21st May 2024 to provide this service to those children who are
enrolled with us and have consent to have fluoride treatment.  If you have any questions regarding this service, or you do not
want your child to receive fluoride, please phone the Lakes Oral Health team on 0800 525 378 (0800 Lakes Teeth).

Kia Ora, I would like to introduce myself to your community. My name is Zenda. I am the new Oral Health Educator for the Taupo District and I work in conjunction with the Community Oral Health Service (COHS), educating in schools, preschools and Kohanga. I will be contributing to the newsletters sent to you to keep you updated with tips about Oral Hygiene and about COHS.

For this first contribution, I would like to remind you all to enroll your child/ren for this free dental service. This service is free until your child’s 18th birthday. If your child is needing an appointment, please call 0800 Lakesteeth (0800 525378) to book.