Term 1, Week 8, 2019 (Wednesday 27 March)

He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all!

First up, the Fair! This was a great success with a lot of fun had by everyone. A massive thank you to Sue Campbell and all the wonderful parents who helped to organise such a great event. Thanks to everyone for coming along and volunteering time and energy to help run the stalls. Teachers, support staff, parents and children worked really hard to get this off the ground and we are grateful to everyone for making the extra effort! The office staff are working hard processing expenses and invoices before they can say how much has been raised. We will be able to make an announcement next week.

We are also incredibly grateful to the many sponsors that supported our fair.

Avana Beauty; BATS Theatre; Brooklyn Hair Salons Vivo; Circa Theatre; Enjoy Childcare; Garage Project;

Glowjob Custom LED Lights; Gravity & Grace Robyn Connor; Kelly Sports; WRAC (Kilbirnie Pool); Kip McGrath; Learn Piano; Little Makos; Sarah Gray Donation; South End Motors; Staglands; Summers -Jess Matthews; Vogelmorn Bowling Club; Yoga for Kids; Zealandia; Roseanne O'Connor Piano; Andrew McPartland Guitar; and

Hellers - Sausage for Schools

Internet Safety

We have had some questions lately about what filters we use at school. We have content filtered by N4L (Network for Learning). This is as good as it gets in terms of filtering, and children are much more likely to access inappropriate content while not at school. We also teach digital citizenship skills so children learn how to keep themselves safe online.

Teachers also pay attention to what children are doing online. Children have their access to the internet turned off if they are found to have been accessing 'inappropriate' material, this includes accessing games and Youtube for purposes not related to their school work.

Earlier in the term a family reported to us that Mathletics had been hacked and that their child had seen inappropriate content while using it at home. We immediately got in touch with N4L and Mathletics to report what we had been told and to get them to investigate. It was found that there was an issue with the filtering on the home network rather than any issue with Mathletics itself. We value the importance of keeping our children safe online and take any reports of misuse seriously.

A name for the French class!

There was consultation with the French parents and our whanau hui group to come up with a te reo name for our French class. The official name is Ruru La Chouette. Welcome to Ridgway, Ruru La Chouette!

Coin trail

Thanks to our families for supporting the coin trail last week. We raised approximately $450 which will be donated to our local mosque in Kilbirnie.

School Photo Day - Friday 5 April

If you would like a family/sibling photo taken, please fill out the form coming home today and return to school before photo day. Preschoolers family/sibling photos will be taken between 8.30 and 9am.

The Arts Festival

Ethan Arnold (Year 6) wrote a short piece about the different performances that Kukupa and Kaka saw when they went on the Arts Festival trip. If you would like to read about this you can find it here.

What Now Live Screening

Just a reminder that your families are invited to register online to be part of the live screening of What Now on Sunday 7th April, Berhampore, Wellington.

This is a FREE family fun event in your community!

You are most welcome to include this link in your notices for your families to register online to be part of the audience www.whatnow.tv/bonus/audience

Movin' March

WOW passport competition

There's still one more week to fill your cards and go in the draw to win one of six $300 AVANTI vouchers. Even if you live too far away to walk, why not try walking or scooting from a Park & Stride or Walking Pou? The school with the highest percentage of walk or wheel trips in each district will win a $100 Prezzy card. If you haven't walked or wheeled yet - it's not too late to start! Students can submit up to two incomplete and as many completed cards as they wish.

Parent Photo Competition

Greater Wellington Regional Council is giving away daily family passes to Space Place in the final week and on Friday there'll be an adult Micro scooter up for grabs as part of Jack's Favourite Friday Photo competition. Just snap a photo of your family's journey to school during Movin' March, post your photo publicly on Facebook or Instagram with #movinmarch.

Ngā mihi

Sarah Taylor