Next week we have our Student Led Conferences and already so many people have booked this in. The students are looking forward to the opportunity to share their learning with their whaanau. If you haven't already, you can book by going to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and use the code yzzcp.

Our P.T.A are starting to rev up their plans for our Spring Fair next term. This is always a great community day and we appreciate the effort that goes into organising an event like this. The P.T.A are looking for helpers to support this event which may take the form of helping at a stall during the day, baking for the cake sale and/or coming along to the P.T.A meetings to see where you might be able to lend a hand. They will keep us updated in our newsletters and also via the app closer to the time. 

Winter is definitely here. We currently have lots of winter illnesses affecting our families and staff, one being the Influenza A virus. We appreciate parents keeping their children at home while they are unwell and we understand how this can create its own pressure at home with trying to balance sick children and work. Our teaching team have also been affected by either being ill themselves or their children being unwell. Unfortunately, we are finding ourselves in situations where we are having to operate with relievers in the space or we can’t find a reliever and have to run the learning space with fewer staff and/ or fewer support staff. Our team try their best to come back from illness as soon as they can but haven't always had the chance to fully rest and recover. Teachers are often known to be perfectionists and the learners and their learning is personally important to them. They really feel it when they have missed time with their learning groups, or weren't able to give the detailed feedback in the workbooks they wanted to. They feel it when they weren't able to spend as much 1-1 time with children who need a little more time with the teacher, either with their learning or to coach them through social issues that may arise. We always aim to fulfil all the high expectations we set for ourselves but sometimes it’s just not possible. We need to be okay with not achieving 100% when we haven't had 100% to give. 

We know our community are aware of how illness is affecting schools as well as many workplaces. We do feel the support from our community and we appreciate it. We have even had parents offer to help out in the classrooms as well as some lovely bakng. This really means a lot so thank you! 

Enjoy the rest of your week! We will hopefully see some of you at the Quiz Night on Saturday. 

Ngaa mihi,

Nyree Olliver