Board 2021 Term 2 Newsletter

 Kia ora katoa,

 An especially warm welcome to all new families who have joined Te Kura o Tawatawa-Ridgway School community this term, we look forward to getting to know you. 

Staff Thank You

The Board wishes to extend their thanks to the staff for all the hard mahi they put into making Ridgway such a great place for our tamariki to become Ki Te Hoe! In particular we recognise that great progress has been made in the following areas:

• Discovery Learning - this new initiative is proving popular with children across the school.

• Improving processes for supporting children with a range of needs.

• Reducing anti social behaviours across the school.

• Continuing to learn te reo Māori.

• Transitioning from Seesaw to Spotlight for reporting (see below)

Tino pai katoa! We appreciate all your mahi!

Spotlight @School App

The change from Seesaw to Spotlight for reporting has had a few hiccups, but we are pleased that nearly every family now has the @school app working. We now want to make sure that everybody is using it. Remember to turn on the notifications so that you see new posts while they are still relevant.  Staff have had three days training including at one of the most recent Teacher Only Days and this has really paid off.  Parents will be able to see several reporting posts via the Spotlight button on the @school app for Term 2 and can expect more in Term 3.  Teachers are also making more use of the blog function now and we look forward to the interesting posts about what classes are busy learning.  

Winter illnesses

Please keep your tamariki at home if they are unwell. Sick kids coming to school results in sick teachers, which as well as being no fun for the teachers brings additional logistical impacts to the school and ultimately impacts your tamariki. Please look after our community and err on the side of caution by keeping them home if they are unwell.

Bank development project

We are excited to have received the draft plans for the development of the bank between the school and the playing field. You may recall that last year Ridgway were awarded $158,000 as their share of the nationwide School Infrastructure Project (SIP) grant allocation. The Board agreed to spend this on the development of a treetop walkway and adventure play area on the bank. Further development work will be funded from school fundraising. The bank redevelopment will include slides, swings, climbing ropes, a crows nest and other adventurous installations.

Building works and school drop-off/pick-up

A friendly reminder at drop off and pick up times to remember the road rules. Parking illegally on the dashed yellow lines at the crossings puts our tamariki at risk - they may not be visible to other drivers, please do not stop on yellow lines at any time, even for a short time. 

The ongoing building work brings extra pressure at school drop-off and pick-up times. 

We encourage you to make use of alternative means of transporting your children to school - there are two walking buses your children could join, one from Kingston and one from Vogeltown. If you need to use your car, please allow extra time as you may need to park further away from the school than normal.  

There is a building diary where you can keep up to date with the school rebuild project.

All members of our community are welcome to come to a board meeting to see what goes on or speak on a particular matter, please let us know in advance if you would like to attend. We meet twice a term, usually in week 2 and week 8.

Nā mātou noa, nā,

Ridgway School Board of Trustees

Contact:

Barbara Dean 

Board Chairperson 

ridgwaybot@gmail.com