Staffing News
We would like to let you know that Jason Barnes will be leaving our kura at the end of this year. Jason has taught and co-led Whānau Kererū students for 10 years and we will miss him! What a huge contribution he has made in his time here with multiple roles he has undertaken.
“It is with mixed emotions that I share with you that I have resigned from my leadership and teaching position at Takapuna Primary School from the end of this year. After much consideration and discussion with my family, I have decided to take up a new opportunity outside of schooling, and closer to home. While I am saddened to be leaving Takapuna after 10 amazing years, I am looking forward to spending the remainder of the year with Kererū E.”
Emergency Preparedness
As part of keeping our school safe we need to be able to respond safely and quickly to a range of emergency situations.
We work alongside an independent company, Harrison Tew ® , who specialises in emergency management planning for schools, whose procedures have been successfully implemented in hundreds of schools throughout New Zealand. As part of maintaining our emergency procedures in our school, specialised training is being conducted with our senior leadership and staff by Harrison Tew ® .
The students will also receive information on how to respond in an emergency directed at their respective age groups from either their teacher or Harrison Tew ®. We will then be conducting a lockdown exercise under the guidance and support of Harrison Tew ® . During the exercise you will receive a notification from the school, so it is important that your emergency contact details are up to date and correct. The notification will emphasise that this is an exercise/practice and will explain that all updated information will then be posted on the school website.
In a genuine incident, should you become aware of a lockdown or evacuation at the school, can I please ask that you not attend the school or phone, as we will not be able to respond. Your presence or contact may make it more difficult for us or the emergency services to manage a situation.
We thank you for your support.
School Uniforms
I would like to assure you that our school uniform has not changed for 2024 and beyond. We have moved to a different supplier. The new supplier has closely matched our uniform look as well as updated the material so that it is a bit more suitable for children to wear daily. They have been able to either keep the same cost or make it cheaper (for most of the items). As shared in previous emails, we have created a new look sports top personalised to Takapuna Primary School.
Happy Diwali
A very happy diwali to all our families who are celebrating this on Sunday.
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) OPEN CLASSROOMS- Whānau Kiwi
This morning, our whānau Kiwi teachers and children invited families in to see the work children have been doing in STEM. It was wonderful to see so many parents coming into the classrooms and celebrating this learning with their children. Whānau Tūī and Kererū have their STEM sharing planned for later in the term.
Feedback from families
A parent recently suggested to me that I should share our strengths as a school with the wider community. I have taken on this feedback and here is one of many messages I receive from families.
“Thank you so much for all the effort that you are putting into these special literacy topics. He loves it and is always telling us about what he’s doing. He tells me on the days that he has literacy and says he’s really looking forward to class! He’s also loving the science that you have been doing. He could tell me all about pH and alkaline/acidic and how they did the testing in class. He also loves going around the world doing experiments in your class. He tells us what countries he has in his passport and what the experiments are about. I also went on the lake trip yesterday and saw all the kids getting really into the testing and looking for bugs.
Devika – I’ve copied you in to say thanks as well for your focus and support for science as I know it’s an area that you have wanted to focus on in the school. It’s great to see the passion and enthusiasm from the learners!”
Hi Devika, I wanted to let you know I really enjoyed reading this. I’m very grateful for the dedicated teachers my kids have. I also think having the same teacher for 1.5 years has been really great for my older son.”
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