Term 4 Newsletter, No 1 2023

Principal's Message

Ni sa bula vinaka Parents / Caregivers / Sunnynook Whānau,

This week is Fijian language week which we acknowledged at our first assembly on Monday. I would like to welcome our students and families who are new to our school, as well as our returning tamariki, for our final term. A special welcome to Vicki Nelson, who has opened up our new entrant class this term.

This year is going very quickly and Term 4 is traditionally an exciting, but busy, term. It is therefore important to keep an eye on our key dates for the term, read our fortnightly newsletter reminders and also access the calendar on our website. You can also find our 2024 Term dates in the Important Dates section of our website and in our newsletter.

After 20 years at Sunnynook Primary School, we farewelled our sports coordinator, Shona Fritsch. The staff came together in an appropriately themed farewell to Shona to thank her for her dedication and commitment to our school and students. She has efficiently organised our sports teams, field days, sports team photo days, and other sport related events.

Recently we have noticed that an increasing number of children are late to school or being picked up during the school day to attend appointments. As you can appreciate, this impacts both our office staff and our teaching and learning programmes. We respectfully ask you to reconsider your plans so that school attendance is given priority. It is important that our tamariki attend school every day unless they are unwell. We ask that you please ensure your children arrive at school between 8:30 and 8:45 am each morning to ensure they are prepared and ready for the school day to begin at 8:50 am.

I would like to congratulate Michelle Pou and Darius Witana who have been re-elected to our school Board of Trustees. We do appreciate the hard work and dedication of our Board members (see their candidate statements later in this newsletter).

Term 4 is also a very exciting time for our Year 6 tamariki - a delighful and mature group of students - many of whom started as 5 year olds at our school. Term 4 will be filled with many special memorable events.

I look forward to catching up with many of you at our school events throughout the term, starting with our Book Week character parade on the Friday, 27th October at 9.15am.

Ngā mihi
Virginia