Dear School Friends and Families
There are officially 114 more plants adorning our school grounds today than there were two days ago! What a difference this beautification project is going to make to our school environment. A huge thanks to Linzi keen for all the time and work put into spear-heading this project, and all the adult helpers we had on Thursday afternoon. We also appreciate the numerous donations we have received to help cover the costs of the native plants.
The school became alive with favourite book and movie characters last night (fantastic costumes!) as the children enjoyed the music, lights, smoke and bubbles at the school disco. Thank you very much to Alf Maclean for providing his excellent gear (and DJ time) to make our disco such fun. About $450 was raised to support children attending the Year 5 and 6 camp to Dunedin next term.
Next week we look forward to officially becoming a Sun Smart school with a special visit from Bridget Forsyth from the Cancer Society. Bridget will spend time with each class, followed by a short assembly at 12:20pm to present us with our UV board, certificate and tree. Anybody welcome to join us for this.
On Monday afternoon, teachers will be having a Term 4 planning afternoon. One of the programmes we’ll be running next term is the Fire Wise programme, with assistance from the NZ Fire Service.
As this goes to print, we’ll be visited by a Westpac representative who will be presenting the Sir Peter Blake Young Leader Award to one of our Year 6 students who has shown outstanding leadership qualities, being an excellent role model in terms of our school expectations We are kind; We always try our best.
One of the new entitlements the Ministry of Education has introduced following the latest employment settlements is that each school has 8 teacher only days to use over 3 years to be used to help schools meet workload commitments. Lumsden School will be having a teacher only day on Friday October 25 (second Friday of Term 4). This tags onto to Labour weekend, which may also suit families in terms of providing that extra day if choosing to take a get-away break.
Meanwhile, have a good (normal-sized!) weekend. Ka kite ano,
Andrew Watson
Principal
Newsletter News Flash
Parents – As well as receiving your hard copy of the newsletter this week, you’ll notice that it has also been emailed to you. From the beginning of next term onwards, hard copies of the newsletter will only be sent home should parents request it. Along with being emailed to each family, it is also able to be accessed via School Stream and the school website.
Please let us know by the end of this term if you wish to continue receiving the newsletter in hard copy form. Thank you.
Road Safety
We are conscious of the high importance of children crossing the road safely. When parking at school, please be mindful of not parking on or close to the crossing to enable safe crossing and good visibility. Thank you.
School Lawns Roster
We have an alphabetical roster set up of all the school families for mowing the school lawns so each family only gets a turn once every couple of years. If the date doesn’t suit please contact the school and we can swap as necessary. Thanks for your support with this.
Here are the guidelines to follow (if you have any queries please contact the school office):
· Pick up the school mower shed key from the Four Square Supermarket
· Check the mower has fuel and fill from can in shed if necessary. Please let the school know if petrol can is low and we will refill
· Check the map attached to the mower showing which areas to mow
· Catcher loads of grass can be emptied around the back of the school behind the sports container (container closest to carpark). Wheelbarrow in shed is available if required
· Top mower up with fuel, when finished and return key to Four Square Supermarket.
The roster for the next few weeks is (lawns haven’t grown much this week so have moved the rostered families back a week):
28/29 September Hamers Family
5/6 October Hansen Family
Room 2 Trail Blazing
As part of our Trail Blazer focus, Room 2 have been building model gliders. This has included looking at the airplane as an invention and some students have focused on early aviation pioneers as part of their learning. The gliders were flown successfully today and everyone had lots of fun.
Planting Day
Children and adult helpers transforming our grounds on Thursday planting 114 native plants to beautify our environment. Each whānau group will have an area to be guardians of.
Disco Fever!
