Newsletter - August 2017

Thank you to all our parents for your positive feedback in our communication survey. The main things that came up were you wanted newsletters monthly, more postings and reminders on facebook, and what a great job we are doing.  Please do talk to us if you have any concerns as we always want to improve ourselves.

On behalf all the teaching team we would like to introduce Poppa Dave.  Dave Sherriff has had three of his mokopuna (grandchildren) at Pukeko over the past 10 years. He enjoys reading to children so has committed to volunteering his time to do just that. We will see him on Monday and Wednesday for an hour of stories.  Do not fear, Grandpa Gary has not retired. He’s just slowed down as he reaches that big achievement of 70.  We  may not see him much as whitebaiting season approaches. 

We are also excited to announce that we are starting the Baby watching programme again (we have almost done it every year).  Thanks to Rocco’s Mum, Zoe, and  baby Freddie.  This programme starts when a baby is about 6 weeks and ends when they are a year old. Every Friday, Zoe and Freddie will spend time with us on the mat.  We watch the relationship between mother and child, the body language, eye contact, sounds etc and ask questions about what we might think is happening.  This programme started in Germany, and is called BASE, (babywatcing against aggression, for sensitivity and empathy). It helps children see outside themselves and connect with their emotions.

Thanks to Este’s (Tristan’s Mum) suggestion, we are part of the team that is organising a community workshop on Understanding Boys.  We think that all whanau with boys under 14 should go.  Wednesday 6th September 7-9pm at the Katikati Resource Centre with a small cost of $5. Book a baby sister or Grandparent now!! It is presented by Wendy Pirie from Moving Smart.

What a wonderful time we had at our Matariki Celebration. Thanks for making it special. For those who couldn’t make it, mark on your calendar now our up coming WHANAU DISCO.  Always another highlight of the year.  Friday 15th Sept 5.30-7pm. Have a think about you and your children’s favourite songs and we will add them to the play list.

Plastic Free July—Thanks for the great effort you put in. We will continue talking about it with the children. There are some shopping bags left, excellent presents only $5.

Bible Verse  - One of our values is encouraging kindness

Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you.

                                                                                                                    Ephesians 4:32                                                                           

With many of our big kids moving on to school we have a few gaps in the roll. If you would like to add a day or know someone interested please talk to us or send them our way.

Graduates day  on Thursday 12th October.  This is a day when we invite all the children who have gone to school over the past several terms to come back for a morning.  We celebrate their learning and transition by inviting them to share about their school experiences.  This is a special day for both the school children, and their old friends here.  Of course teachers love to see our friends come back.

Children love seeing photos of themselves, even more so showing them to people who care about them. So have you taken your child’s profile book home lately, or shown them their stories on story park??  Did you know that you can print the photos that we put on storypark, unfortunately only while using a computer.  Just left click! Have you written your own family story on Storypark? We love to read them and it is great for your child. We place them on our Whanau  Stories Wall.

Father’s Day Breakfast Friday 1st September 7.30-8.30am—Special time with our Dads as they do so much for us and we can do something for them to show them they are special. A flyer will be out soon.

Important Dates

17 Aug, 28 Sept, 19 Oct      Lexham Park

22 Aug, 19 Sept, 17 Oct      Summerset         

1st Sept                               Father’s Day Breakfast

12th October                       Graduates Day   

Ma te Atua Koutou e manaaki….May God Bless you all.