Kia ora and welcome to week 7

Kia ora koutou and welcome to week 7!

Thank you all for the continued awesome support. Last week we had three classes attend sessions at the Mindlab and we were able to transport our children to and from because of our wonderful whanau. Room 21 are due to head to the Mindlab this Thursday at 12:15pm so if you are able to help them out and experience the Mindlab yourself, please email Matua Bruce - bruce.hill@gisint.school.nz or send a note to school with your child. The Mindlab is a fantastic resource for introducing our children to technology such as stop animation, coding, green screens as well as 21st century skills such as collaborative learning, problem solving and creativity. We will be carrying on with this learning in our classrooms and adding to it throughout the year. Unfortunately, due to the Mindlab limiting their accessibility to ensure attendance is equitable across all Gisborne schools, we may not be able to get there again in 2016. The Turanganui Teachers are going to source other ICT experiences for our children as we know the importance of exposing our tamariki to future thinking and learning. If you have specific skill sets in this area and would be happy to share these with our kids please make contact with your childs teacher and we will organise the best way to share these skills with our kids. We are hoping to organise a careers type expo within our team whanau and friends so will be sending out a Google Form and notice to gather your ideas and thoughts. We look forward to working with you all in the very near future. Thanks to everyone who paid their $2 for the Mindlab. If your child attended and has not yet paid, and they did not sell 2 or more donuts, they will need to bring their $2 in to their teacher as soon as possible.

Uniform

The Turanganui teachers expect all of our students to look sharp on their way to and from school as well as at school. If you are having difficulties with providing your child with some uniform then please send a note or email your childs teacher and we will help them get the right gear. All items need to be named clearly too as we have had a few things go missing and sometimes there have been no names which makes returning things very challenging. Failure to have the correct uniform or note and mufti set (For PE gear) will result in a trip to the reflection room. Self Management is one of our four key school values so we expect our children to be organised at all times. 

A few helpful uniform reminders are...

• PE gear is expected everyday - Shorts MUST BE PLAIN BLACK. Togs are also essential.
• High Top shoes are not allowed and covered shoes and jandals/sandals must be plain black. Socks should be navy blue only for girls and regulation socks for our boys.
• No nail polish is to be worn to school.
• Shorts should not be rolled up - this is an emerging trend.
• Canterbury pants are only to be worn in terms 2 and 3. 

Farewell for Matua Quentin and Announcement of our next wave of Turanganui Leaders

Last Friday we had a fantastic farewell for Matua Quentin.  

 Thank you to all of our whanau for the delicious shared lunch. We were very proud of the way the children thanked Matua Q and for the way in which they celebrated our next wave of Turanganui leaders. We will be profiling these leaders this week and will continue to add to their group over the year.

Australaisan Exam Entries - Due 24th March

If you would like your child to sit one of these extension exams, please send the money to school by the 24th March. If your child did not bring home one of the notices, or they lost theirs then let their teacher know and they will give them another one. We have a large number of year 8's currently working in the extension tech classes, our whole syndicate does extension kapa haka and sound amazing and many of our children are putting their hands up for other sporting, academic and cultural activities. We had a large contingent trial for the stage challenge on Friday too which is awesome. Many thanks to Matua Bruce Campbell who has also offered to train a group of our students for waka ama starting today at 12:30pm at the Marina. Six boys and girls from each year group have been identified to represent our syndicate at a regatta in Tolaga Bay on the 23rd March. Thanks also to Matua Puri for accompanying our children. 
 Our first lot of badges were presented at last Fridays assembly with Lil'Dre and Sonny getting theirs for being students of the week. Both boys are encouraged to wear their badges daily with pride to inspire the others to follow in their footsteps. We look forward to our Turanganui Taonga being decked in awesome leadership badges as the year progresses. Who will be awarded the next lot of badges?
Criteria for the end of year major awards will also be shared with our whanau soon so our children know what they need to do to be considered for these prestigious awards. 

Internet Safety, Devices at school and Social Media Safety

It has come to our attention that a small number of students from across the school are breaking our school internet agreements and using their devices outside of class time to take pictures and post on social media sites. These images are then attracting unfavourable comments which is one of the reasons devices are not meant to be accessed out of the class. We want to ensure that all of our students are safe. At the start of the year all Gisint students signed a clear cut BYOD/E-Learning agreement so we will be following up with any students who have broken this agreement tomorrow. We urge all parents and whanau to actively look into the language, the sites and the photo's your children are using via their social media accounts. We had a quick look over the weekend and a large number have their Facebook pages wide open, are engaging in 'Live Subscription' Sites where they either film themselves or watch others around the world which may not always contain safe material and the language some are choosing to use are not portraying them in the best light. We will be following up with some of our students in the morning however we strongly encourage parents, caregivers and whanau to check out your childrens pages (Both private and public) to ensure they are acting safely and responsibly. Following on from Jim Parsons 'Cyberbullying' sessions we are disappointed that some students are leaving themselves vulnerable. 

We will also do further lessons on digital citizenship and digital footprints in class. 

So what's on in Turanganui this week?

Monday

Normal Day 

Tuesday

Tech

Wednesday

Tech

Thursday

Room 21 to the Mindlab

Friday

Kapa Haka

Kapa Haka Extension

Assembly

Room 20 Student of the Week Award

What's happening in the near future?

School Triathlon - March 22nd

Marine Reserve Trip - Postponed until term 4

Have a go at sailing - Monday 21st to 23rd - Notices due back asap.

New Tech Cycle starts 23rd March

Uawa Waka Ama Regatta 23rd March

BOP Touch and Lake Swim 24th March

Have a wonderful week everyone and keep checking back for more updates throughout the week.

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou

Turanganui Teachers