Welcome
Welcome to Aidan Basil and Sophie Cornelius who started with us this week. Our current roll is 795.
Happy Birthday
Happy birthday to Wolfe Morales, Fiona Hu , Benjamin Stewart, Troye Williams, Jack Crombie, William Gray, Cleo McIlroy, Mishel Nayshul, Keagan Hockly, Elaina Conaglen, Zayn Flewellen, Ava Wewege, Ryan Ha, Alizee Rose, Aimee Young, Addison Isted, Franklin Fu and Ocean Morales.
Silverdale School Board Hui
On Monday 4 April at 7.00pm the Silverdale School Board will meet for our hui. This hui will be held via Zoom and all are welcome to attend.
Later this year there will be the Silverdale School Board elections, if you are interested in joining the Board please come along to our hui on Monday.
Here is the link for our hui:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83173415503?pwd=QUJMd29YNDRnVkEyNnpZZU82RkZuUT09
What does a member the Silverdale School Board do?
- The Board are elected by the parent community of the school every three years (if an election is required)
- We have 5 parent elected trustees, one staff elected trustee and the Principal
- The Board governs the school and emphasises strategic leadership rather than administrative detail.
- The Boards main focus is student achievement.
- Set strategic directions and long term goals in consultation with the Principal
- Monitor financial management and approve the budget.
- Approve major policies and programme initiatives.
- Ensure the Board is compliant with its legal requirements.
- Act as a good employer.
Kids Corner
This is writing from Rooms 31 and 33 about the storm last week.
Bang! Bang! The rain smashed on my car and it made loud noises. Then I saw a beam of light and I was blinded. I felt scared because the thunder sounded like TNT blowing up! As I walked into school I got wet from the loud fast rain. The water went inside my shoes and my socks and it felt wet and uncomfortable .
Preston Jamieson
Boom! Crash! Boom! The lightning and thunder was so scary and bright I was so terrified of the noise. The lightning was blue with bits of yellow that looked like a thunderbolt, flashing like blinking lights. The thunder popped and boomed in the sky. The rain poured down from the sky, down over the roof.
Casey Hill
Boom! The lightning roared. It looked like a light going on and off like someone was switching the lights on and off. The thunder shouted loudly from the sky. Like a loud growl sound. The rain was pouring from the sky. It sounded like a loud drip as it hitting the pathway.
Chanē Boshoff
As the rain splashed onto the concrete it crashed onto the floor. I ran downstairs. Suddenly I jumped from the car and ran fiercely speeding to class.
Ethan Jacobsohn
First, I ran as fast as I could but before we got in the car… Booooooooooooooom!The lightning came straight down to the ground. Next we drove past gate 3. Suddenly I saw that the road was flooded because the rain was drizzling hard. A car was almost underwater! I got out of my car. I was running in the rain and finally I got to class. I was soaked.
Jordan Johansen
Ten Tips for Using Your Home Language at Home
- Speak your language or languages as much as possible, and encourage everyone in your family to speak as much as they can.
- Tell your traditional stories, rhymes, poems and sayings to your children. Talk to them about your family, culture, and history.
- Write to family or friends with your children in your language – cards, letters, emails, texts or social media – and plan visits to them if possible.
- Read books together every day. Point to the pictures, read all or some words, and perhaps use bilingual books as well.
- Watch programmes or movies in your language on television, from the library, or online. Perhaps choose ones with English subtitles.
- Help your children with homework in your language from their school, club, church, temple, or mosque.
- Sing songs with your children in your language.
- Have fun! Play music and traditional games in your language.
- Put up posters, alphabets, or charts in your language.
- Explain that your children can be strong in two or more languages and cultures at the same time.
Remember: Using your language or languages at home will help your children succeed at school, and in their future work. It’s OK for your children to mix their languages. It’s OK to ask for help from family, friends or teachers if your children don’t want to use your language. It’s easier in a group. Join community activities, or find or start a language playgroup, culture group, school or club locally (or online).
Key Changes to the COVID-19 Protection Framework Impacting Schools
The key changes to the COVID-19 Protection Framework impacting schools are:
- removal of My Vaccine Pass from the framework effective from 11.59pm Monday 4 April
- and from 11.59pm last Friday 25 March:
- removal of any outdoor capacity limits at all colours of the framework
- increased capacity limits when indoors at Red, moving from 100 to 200 (but still allowing for one-metre spacing) and no capacity limits indoors at Orange and Green
- no requirement to display QR codes at any setting (but be ready to use them again in the future)
- no need to have alternate check-in systems for COVID-19 beyond your usual visitor register processes
- no mask requirements when outdoors (but masks remain a requirement indoors for staff and children/students in Years 4-13 when at Red)
- additionally, masks will be strongly encouraged to be worn at Orange.
Attendance At School
As you may have seen, in the last few days the media has reported a reduction in the number of daily cases.
While we know that cases in school will rise and fall with that of the level in our community, our health experts tell us that children are much more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 in the community than at school. We also know that nationally in mid-March no more than 4% of teachers in any seven-day period reported as testing positive. It is currently around 3.5%.
As you know, it’s great for any child’s wellbeing and learning to be at school with their friends, teachers and other school staff. You also know that we have very good systems in place to keep everyone as safe as possible.
This is why we remain open at Red.
I wanted to remind you that in our school we are keeping the additional layers of protection in place to help prevent or reduce the risk of onward spread.
We know that being fully vaccinated and boosted reduces the risk of severe illness due to COVID-19. We are encouraging all adults in our school who are working with students to be vaccinated including their booster. If they are eligible, I encourage you to get your child vaccinated, too.
I know that some of you still have questions about this, however, so I’ve included links to a video that answers many of the common questions about the vaccine:
Mask wearing for our students Year 4 and above and for all adults remains in place in indoor spaces and we are getting lots of fresh air during the day. We encourage mask wearing for children in Years 1, 2, and 3. We also continue to focus on basic hygiene such as washing hands regularly, covering any coughs and sneezes, and cleaning surfaces regularly.
Like the links above, KidsHealth has some other great resources you may be interested in:
Some students will need to isolate at home. This is in line with Government advice and if this happens, we will support them to continue their learning home to minimise any interruption.
According to the Paediatric Society of NZ, in most children COVID-19 is a mild illness. It can be managed by whānau with some simple measures such as keeping fluids up and keeping an eye on your tamaiti (child).
If you have any concerns about sending your child to school, please get in touch – our team is here to help. We want children to be at school and engaging in learning with their friends.
Your job remains the same, too: please continue to keep a really close watch of your whānau for anyone with symptoms. If unwell, please stay at home and get advice about getting a COVID-19 test.
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