Kia ora koutou,

Next week we are holding our Student-Led Conferences. The Student-Led Conferences are a highlight for our tamariki, as they get special time and attention with their whaanau, focusing on them and their learning. There will be learning samples in the Learning Journals, and by looking at these alongside the students' books, you can talk with your child about their learning and gain further insight into the type of learning taking place and how your child is progressing. 

We are encouraging our students to lead these learning conversations and be able to talk about what they were learning, why they were learning it, how they are going and possible next steps. Students being able to talk about their learning in this way gives them ownership and responsibility for their learning. The child’s age, stage and maturation impact their ability to articulate and respond to this, so you may like to prompt your child during these sessions with questions such as…

• Tell us about what you were learning about here.
• How do you feel you went with that learning?
• How do you know?
• What do you think the next step could be for you?
• How are you feeling about how you worked towards the goal for this activity?
• What are you feeling proud of?

All children deserve to celebrate their efforts and progress with their whaanau and to see their whaanau being proud of them as learners. This can positively affect your child’s motivation to keep working hard and support self-efficacy and positive learning attitudes. If you have some aspects you wish to talk to your child’s teacher about but do not want to negatively affect your child's efficacy by discussing this in front of them, you can organise a meeting with the teachers for another time.

The Powerful Learning Reports will come home tomorrow. This report includes a Powerful Learning comment and Curriculum Achievement graphs for Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Most of our Year 1- 8 children will receive one of these reports, except some Year 1 students who have recently had a developmental report. When looking at the achievement dots on the graphs, it’s helpful to know that if your child’s dot is placed anywhere in the blue band, this tells you they are tracking within the New Zealand Curriculum Expectations. It’s also normal for a dot to stay at the same level over a year or more, for example, as the Curriculum Sub Levels typically take more than one year to achieve. 

E1 represents Early Level 1, and so on. 

Enjoy the rest of your week, and we look forward to seeing you at the Student-Led Conferences. 

Ngaa mihi nui,

Nyree Olliver

Our Agricultural Day is to be held this year on Tuesday 10^th of October, the first week of Term Four.

Now is the time to think about taking up the challenge of rearing an animal for Agricultural Day.  Please let us know if your child/children would like to bring an animal or if you have not been involved before and would like to find out more.

Chickens

If you are interested in rearing chickens and bringing them to Agricultural Day please get in touch as we are currently looking into the possibility of having these again this year. Baby chicks (sexed & vaccinated) would be ordered through school ($20 each) and picked up around the beginning of August to be brought along to Agricultural Day on 10th October,

Lambs, Calves  and Kid Goats

The Lambs, Calves and Kid Goats competition will be held on Tuesday, 10th October.  The school may be able to help with sourcing lambs and goats and provide tips and advice on rearing them. Animals can also compete at North Waikato Group Day and at the Waikato show if you choose.

If you are unsure of what Agricultural Day is about or have any questions about raising an animal, don’t hesitate to give us a call at school. Alternatively, you could visit www.waikatoaandp.co.nz.

Please email office@puketaha.school.nz if you are: 

1. Planning to have or already have an animal.
2. If you would like to know more about Agricultural Day.
3. If you would like to be kept informed about Agricultural Day

and you will be added to an email list for all future communication about this event.

Thank you

PUKETAHA ROAD & GORDONTON ROAD UPDATE

Due to poor weather and being behind in our programme, we have had to extend our hours of stop/go until 4pm.  Previously, we had stated that the stop/go would conclude at 2.30pm to help minimise disruption but unfortunately, this has changed.  We ask that you be patient and allow a bit of extra time in your afternoon trip to collect your children from school or early child care centre.  We do apologise for delays that have occurred this week. 

Over the next few weeks we will be preparing the road to construct the new roundabout.  This will involve a lot of heavy machinery work and we ask that you take care when travelling through the site. 

We hope that you all enjoy your break from the school run during the school holidays, where our contractor will be working hard to get as much work as possible done when there is slightly less traffic in that area.

Please keep in mind that once this project is completed, it will be much safer for you and your whanau to travel through this intersection via the new roundabout.

Once again, we thank you for your patience.  

If you find you're are running late for pick up due to these roadworks.  Children will be supervised at the gate until 3.15pm at which time they will be taken to the School Office to wait for you.  A phone call would be appreciated if you will be here after 3.15 - 07 8243870

PTA News

Not much to report from us, except a big thank you to those who supported the Samosa Fundraiser. We hope you enjoyed eating them (or your friends, family and workmates did!)

Also a quick reminder that there is a 20% discount offered from the School Fundraising Shop for the month of June, so only valid for the next week. Just use the code “winterwarmer” and please nominate “Puketaha School” and we also will receive a 10% donation of all sales for the month. This site is handy for gifts for people of all ages and they offer prompt delivery.  See flyer attached to check it out!

Kind regards,

Merynn Connors

PTA Chairperson

M: 027 6296820  E: pta@puketaha.school.nz

There will be no Friday lunch next week Friday 30th June. 

Instead Hell pizza will be available for children's lunches newt week on Thursday 29th June.  Please order via Kindo - orders will close at 12 noon on Wednesday 28th June. Limited numbers. 

Orders for this week - Friday 23rd June close as usual at 8am.

Please cancel your child's order through the 'My Orders' tab before 9am if they are going to be away.