Principal's Column Happy March birthday to: Kapa Haka - 2021 Sausage Sizzle Roster - term one: Middle school trip Please drive with care in and ...

Term tahi Week waru                  Thursday 25 March 2021                       Number 04/21
In this newsletter...

     Principal’s Column
     Happy March birthday to:
     Kapa Haka - 2021
     Sausage Sizzle Roster - term one:
     Middle school trip
     Please drive with care in and around our kura.
     Camps - 2022

Principal’s Column
Kia ora e ngā whānau me ngā hoa o te Kura Tuatahi o Goodwood.
It is no accident that the first letter of our values acronym GRIT is G for generosity. Generosity is such a key
part of the fabric of Goodwood School. So many times we reach out to you, our community, and we instantly
feel your support.
Over the past couple of weeks our 250+ year 3 to 6 explorers have ventured out into the great outdoors
experiencing climbing, swimming, hiking, beach education and museum trips in some worthwhile alternative
activities to our COVID cancelled camps. To enable that to happen, over 60 parent helpers flexed their plans
at short notice to generously gift their time to come along and ensure that our trips could go ahead.
In our last newsletter, we put out the call to support our growing junior school with some new BBQ tables.
Within 48 hours 12 tables had been donated!
Our Hoa Pai team quickly respond to provide support to school initiatives such as the tryathlon and today’s
wonderful hot air balloon visit. We acknowledge and thank you all.
We also call on our explorers to play their part, and to consider how they show generosity in their interactions
at school and beyond. Many run ‘clubs’ to generously provide opportunities, others seek out those in need of a
friend and actively encourage them to join in games and activities. For many, the act of sharing equipment or
allowing others to have a greater say in how games are played are acts of generosity that they are developing.
These are worthwhile conversations to have with your explorer. How do they show generosity to others in their
whānau, to their friends and their community? What benefits does showing generosity provide to others, to our
community and ourselves?
Te tohu o te rangatira manaaki. The sign of a chief is generosity. Whitinui, Glover and Hikuroa.
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away Picasso.

Just a few of our incredible and very generous trip parent helpers.

Have a great week
David & Team

All current information is available on our school calendar at…
GOODWOOD SCHOOL CALENDAR and are also available on our school app for Android or
Apple at present we have 1624 downloads.

         Happy March birthday to:
         Cayla B, Emily M, Susie R, Charlie T, Shelby H, Jack H, Bia M, Cohen M, Aston W,
         Charlotte O, Indiana C, Imogen B, George M, George P, Fletcher W, Kaya A, Emily C, India
         R, George C, Jagger B, Scout W and Fletcher VZ.

Teacher only day - Thursday 1 April. Easter Tuesday 6 April
Next Thursday 1 April our team will be using one of our Ministry of Education provided teachers
only days to work together, sharing best practice and recent learning in literacy, maths and science.
School will be closed to explorers on this day.

Also please note that ALL STATE SCHOOLS will be closed on Easter Tuesday 6 April. This day is
a mandated school closed date specified in the Education Act.

If you are ready for a bit of a break and are keen to give our tourism industry a boost, these extra
days could provide the opportunity for a well deserved family Easter break.

If you are unable to use these extra days and require your child to be at school on the 1st and / or 6th
of April, Molly’s Holiday Programme will be available right here at school on both days. Phone 027
307 5158 to book. If you need to access the holiday programme but cost is an issue, please contact
us and we can help.

Kapa Haka - 2021
Our 2021 kapa haka group is off to an amazing start, having
already welcomed our new explorers and whānau. They are
currently learning new waiata and haka ready for performances
later in the year. Providing a quality kapa haka tutor,
performance costumes and travel to events sits outside the
Ministry of Education funding allocations and for this reason we
are asking for a koha or donation from kapa haka members. Last
year we did not ask for this koha and instead drew upon school
reserves due to the uncertainty of the COVID situation. This year
we do need to ask for a koha to sustain the programme. This will
be invoiced later this week. It is a koha or donation but without
your support we cannot run kapa haka.

Middle school trip
Rūma Weka, Kōtare and Kākāpō have arrived at the museum and are exploring, hypothesising, observing and
making estimations on simple machines that Galileo made scientific contributions to.

   PLEASE RETURN YOUR POOL KEY TO THE OFFICE

Please drive with care in and around our kura.
Earlier this week a young girl suffered critical injuries after being struck by a car on her Auckland school
grounds. Investigations are ongoing and our thoughts are with her, her whānau and her school along with our
best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. Such an incident is a timely reminder to us all to drive with
EXTREME CARE in and around our kura. Please observe our posted 5km limit in our car parks. This is
WALKING PACE. Please also observe parking restrictions and leave clear lines of sight for entering and
exiting vehicles. We want to make specific mention of not ‘queuing and waiting for a car park’. If you can not
find a park outside the turf, please drive through. The ‘queuing’ is making for dangerous access into/out of our
kura and causing backups along Fencourt Road. As our school grows traffic management becomes more
challenging. Remember our morning ‘kiss and drop’ zone and that we have a 15 minute after school pick up
period from 3.00 - 3.15 pm. Arriving at 3.10 pm greatly assists with managing congestion.

Disturbing Content Online (A reminder)
From time to time parents and agencies contact us warning disturbing content circulating platforms including
tiktok. Friday Night at Freddies was a recent example - there have been many - and the next one may be just
a click away for any child.

Age restrictions apply to some of these platforms

Facebook - 13 years
Instagram - 13 years
TikTok - 13 year (15+ is recommended)
Snapchat - 13 year
Roblox - 13 years

These restrictions apply for very good reasons. Your adherence to these age limits not only keeps
your child safe but supports the decisions made by other parents. Imagine if all families stuck to
these restrictions. We would have a much safer and kinder environment in which our children could grow and
flourish.

It is interesting to note how many tech moguls (Tim Cook, Susan Hobbs) are refusing to let their own
children use social media.

This staying safe online guide and some of these printed resources may be useful.

Other support is available from a number of agencies including:

Netsafe https://www.netsafe.org.nz/ and our good friend John Parsons

John is scheduled to visit our kura in June to work with explorers staff and community - watch for
dates soon.

The Great Morning Inflate
Wow, what an amazing morning at our Hoa Pai, Great Inflate, Balloon Brekkie! We were blown away by
your support. Thanks to competition winners George, Daniel and Max. To Waipā Home of Champions,
Volare Handcrafted Sourdough Breads and Pastries and our Hoa Pai team. Special thanks to balloonists
Neil, Nat and Michael who coped with some challenging winds to put on a great show. Awesome warm
hot-cross buns and the coffee cart completed a fantastic start to the day.

Camps - 2022
We have amended our booking for senior camp at Port Waikato 2022. We will hold two senior camps
(Sunday 13 Feb - Tues 15 Feb) and (Wed 16 - Friday 18 Feb 2022) These shorter and more intense camps
will have fewer explorers and allow for greater access to facilities. Structuring camps in this way will also
potentially allow us to head to camp at COVID alert levels 1 or 2.

Our middle team has managed to secure the very last 3 available days at Camp Raglan for next summer to
ensure that as many explorers as possible can enjoy a Raglan camp. The dates are (Wed 16 - Friday 18 Feb
2022). More details will follow later in the year.

The Online Entertainment Book is back.
We are thrilled to offer the opportunity to purchase this wonderful online book. If you are new to the
Cambridge book check out the amazing deals that you can access, cafe’s, restaurants, travel,
movies, great ideas for school holiday and weekend treats plus so many more fabulous deals! It is
also a fantastic way to support local businesses.

As this is a fundraiser for school 20% of each book purchased will go towards the new Junior
Playground. See the link below to direct you straight to the page for Goodwood School. Enjoy many
happy outings and wonderful dining experiences!

Here is the all important link: https://nz.entdigital.net/orderbooks/1543k40