Term Three, Staffing, Winter Sports.

Welcome to Term 3. I hope everyone enjoyed a great holiday break with their children. My staff and I are looking forward to an exciting Term 3 working with your children.

I was talking to some children today about what they were looking forward to the most in Term 3 and the unanimous answer was Country Day. I guess Country Day is a highlight of our school calendar and a day everyone looks forward to. Obviously based on my conversations this morning, this year will be no exception. Our Country Day is set for Friday 16 September – details of this will come home closer to the time. I have included with this newsletter upcoming dates you might want to add to your calendars – this information was in our last newsletter of Term 2 as well.

• Friday 29 July Year 5 and 6 Ski Trip to Porter Heights
• Tuesday 2 August ICAS English Assessment for those children who have entered this.
• Tuesday 2 August Ellesmere Winter Tournament at Leeston. Our Soccer, netball and rugby teams will be competing against Leeston and Southbridge.
• Friday 5 August On this afternoon we will have our classrooms open for parents and caregivers to visit their children. They will have their books and work open to look at and teachers will be available to chat to parents and caregivers. If a more formal meeting is required, this can be set up after this day.
• Tuesday 16 August ICAS Maths Assessment for those children who have entered this.
• Tuesday 13 September Massed Choir rehearsal in Christchurch for our Choir.
• Friday 16 September Country Day
• Friday 23 September Last day of term three.
• Monday 10 October Term 4 starts
• Friday 21 October School Athletics
• Thursday 27 October Senior Choir performance at the Christchurch Primary Schools Music Festival – Horncastle Arena.

Staffing – At the end of last Term I accepted, with regret, the resignation of our Reading Recovery teacher Kirsty Burlinson. Kirsty has been in this role with us and Burnham School, for the past 6 ½ years. I have appreciated her professional approach to her work with the children who have been in the reading recovery programme. Kirsty has accepted a job at Waitaha School and I wish her all the very best.

Winter Sports vs Leeston – Our netball, rugby and soccer teams played their Leeston counterparts on the last Thursday of Term 2. I was really proud of the way our teams played their games. Our netball teams and soccer teams had wins while our rugby team had a close loss. Special congratulations to Jesse  (soccer), Emma (netball), Stella  (netball) and Kaleb (rugby) for receiving fair play awards. These were chosen by the opposition coaches. Our teams now look forward to the Zone Winter Tournament at Leeston on 2 August.