He Pānui-Wiki Rima, Whānga Tuawha

Kia ora tātou katoa (Hi/greetings/hello everybody). Thanks to everyone for supporting our online auction - 1 week to go! We had a great day for our athletics on Tuesday and our kids did super well - lots of fun and a big congratulations to Longbush for taking out the win! It has been cool to see that our touch, cricket and tennis teams have been enjoying their sport and that the weather has been playing its part.

A big thanks to whānau for organising production costumes behind the scenes. We are closing in on 'D Day' and will be amping up our practices next week to make sure we are ready for filming on the 30th of November. Links to both the production and the kapa haka performance will be shared as soon as they are ready.

Noho ora mai (stay well, look after yourself),

Belinda Bunny

We are seeking a keen person who would be interested in being co-oped onto the BoT to take over the 'Grants' portfolio from the fabulous Mark Edwards who is stepping down from his co-opted position at the end of this year. Securing additional grant funding is an important piece of work because as you know, our funding allocation from the Ministry of Education doesn't stretch very far at all. Please contact Tanya Klue - bot@gladstone1.school.nz if interested.

The other position we have available is the pool manager - the awesome Clint Anderson is moving on when his son Jack finishes Year 8 in December. Now that we have a new pool liner and filter system the job is much more streamlined than it has been in the past. It may be a job that can be shared between 2 people. Please contace Graham Brown - graham@gladstone1.school.nz if interested.

We are excited to announce that Caitlin Peterson has been appointed as our new permanent scale A teacher. Caitlin is currently working at Martinborough School and comes highly recommended. We look forward to welcoming Caitlin to the team at the start of 2022.

We are equally excited to announce the employment of Becky Corkill as a fixed-term teacher. Becky will be teaching 4 days per week in Ruamahanga alongside Chelsea Douglas (Team Leader), Caitlin Peterson (new appointment) and Julie Nunn (Teacher Aide). Becky is already a valued member of our team as she currently works at school in a relieving capacity. We are still to appoint a 2nd Teacher Aide for the Ruamahanga space. Amy Strang and Paula Dick will be finishing their Teacher Aide roles at the end of 2022. Staffing in both Ōnoke and Kourarau remains the same as this year.

Thank you to Annie & Charlotte for planning and running this week's assembly. Well done to our certificate recipients we are super proud of your efforts this week: Jorja Palmer; Emilio Rogers; James Strang; Abby McGregor; Rosie Falloon; Charlie Kawana-Reid; Will Irwin; Richie Taylor & Evarn Delves. Ka pai team!

Congratulations to the students who have been selected by their teachers to attend the Principal's outing: Guy Reynolds; Genevieve Taylor; Jorja Palmer; Madden Davies; Henry Post; Sam Beetham; Mia Hodder; Molly Freeman; Lucy Harris; Maddie Nicol; Daxton Osmond; Brodie McGuinness; Oscar Nicol; Hugh Reynolds; Olivia Orsborn; Eddie Gardner; Kyno Gleeson; Edith Mason; Lucy McKay; Ella Strang; William Orsborn; April Freeman; Annie Heffernan & Nikau Percy. We are hoping 6 parents/caregivers will be able to assist with this trip. Details are on student invitations coming home this afternoon.

Congratulations to Te Wharau for winning the token competition for the first half of this term. You rock!

We are a 'Water Only' school. We have noticed lately that 'Up&Go', sports drinks, juice, flavoured milk and other drinks are creeping into lunch boxes and bags. Please keep these drinks for home. Thanks for your support with this.

Well done to Longbush who won the overall points for our athletics day. Everyone participated super well and we enjoyed seeing the efforts our students went to on the day. Videos of students participating can be found by using the link below.

Please see the link to information about the Year 8 Leavers Dinner on Tuesday the 14th of December & Prize Giving Assembly on Wednesday the 15th of December. A copy of this and invitations are going home with the Year 8's today. You will see in the linked information, that we can only have 2 invited adult guests per Year 8. Students and parents at other year levels who are also receiving awards will be notified and invited individually. We plan to film and live stream the prize giving assembly.

Our final whole school assembly will be on Friday the 10th of December. Because this will be a full school and staff assembly we are unable to have whānau at this event. The assembly will be live streamed and recorded. As part of the assembly, we will farewell staff leaving and those students in Years 1-6 moving onto other schools.

The 'Green Team' have been working hard all year over in the vege garden & orchard area. This week we had the lovely 'Garden Shield' judges visit us at school. We were proud of the way our kids talked to the judges, showed them around and presented their work in a scrapbook for the judges to look at. We can't wait to find out how we got on. A huge thanks to Mrs Black for overseeing the kids work - we love you Chris, you're an absolute star.

The Gladstone Church is planning and preparing for an outdoor version of the annual Christmas Choir & Carols event (the venue is still to be confirmed) - Sunday 19th December 2021 @ 5pm.

As part of this we invite students who are interested & have permission from their parents to be part of the children's choir. Please email student names to kate@gladstone1.school.nz and Kate will compile a list. This year only Year 4-8 students are able to participate.

Here is the auction link: https://www.32auctions.com/GladstoneSchoolMasterton. You can also access the auction site by using the QR code below. The auction will be open for 2 weeks. Please share with friends and family - this is our big fundraiser for the year. A huge thanks to all of the people and businesses who have contributed to create so many awesome auction prizes.

Pre-information is being given to the 2022 Year 7&8 students this afternoon. A link to the booklet is also included below. A more comprehensive document with a detailed itinerary, budget, RAMS etc will be sent home at the start of 2022. This is just an initial information pack.

If you would like a pool key for the summer, please contact Kirstan in the office - office@gladstone1.school.nz. Keys will be $40 for the season. When collecting your key we will run through the following COVID Guidance, have you sign the agreement and ensure you understand the requirements.

Community use of school pools

In Alert Level 2 areas, both indoor and outdoor pools are allowed to be open as public recreation spaces.

If your school pool is open and you give out keys to your pool, you must ensure your community understand what restrictions apply (for example, reduced numbers to enable social distancing).

You will need to have systems in place to ensure that visitors to your pool are familiar with the public health requirements for public venues before visiting the pool and comply with public health requirements while they are there including:

• keep two metres physical distance from people you do not know
• sign in using the NZ COVID Tracer app
• wash or sanitise your hands after using shared equipment.

• Production: We are filming the production.
• Science Roadshow: Monday 6th December.
• Principal's Outing for Terms 3&4: Tuesday 7th December.
• Final Whole School Assembly: Friday 10th December
• Year 8 Leavers Dinner: Tuesday 14th of December. Venue - Gladstone Sports Complex.
• Prizegiving Assembly: Wednesday 15th December 10am. NB. This event has been modified to suit alert level 2 requirements.
• Last Day of the Year: Wednesday 15th December. 12:00 finish. Buses will be running at this time.

Term 1 2022 will start for students on Wednesday the 2nd of February.

Email: office@gladstone1.school.nz
Website: http://www.gladstone1.school.nz
Location: 1471 Te Whiti Road, Gladstone, New Zealand
Phone: +64 6 372 7601