Fakafeiloaki Parents / Caregivers / Sunnynook Whānau,

This week is Tokelauan language week and I thought this Tokelauan proverb was very appropriate for our school.  Last week we celebrated Niuean Language Week and at the bottom of my message we have photos of our children in their national costumes from Niue and Fiji.  It is lovely to celebrate the various cultures of our tamariki here at school.  

We have had the Life Education caravan and Harold the Giraffe visiting at school over the past two weeks.  Every class has two sessions in the Life Education mobile classroom where they are taught different skills to help them make positive choices for a lifelong healthy mind and body. The lessons (and Harold) have been very popular with our students.  

Last week we were lucky to have the Tuatara Basketball programme running at school, and our students enjoyed learning many new skills.  This week has been Book Week and the children have had many exciting activities at school to encourage them with reading.  

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 27th October (tomorrow) at 9.15am under the shade structure.  

Ngā mihi
Virginia

Banner:
In week 2,  the class receiving the banner was Ruma Rima students for their excellent projects.  They explored the local region on the shore and learned about the area's rich Maori history. They used the paper mache technique and included QR codes into each of their projects.

In week 3,  the banner went to Room 17.  The students in room 17 are new to our school, as is Mrs Nelson, they are already displaying beautiful manners when sitting on the mat and reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.  

Caught Being Good:
Rm 20 Sayf - for keeping our school tidy.   

Yummy Apple stickers:
The Yummy Apple Trophy went to  Room 1 who handed in 4 complete forms. 

Thanks also to:

Rm 1 - Noah, James and 2 extra class forms

Rm 4 - Michael and Cameron

Rm 7 - Oliver and Jonathon

Rm 10 - Charlie

Rm 20 - Celcie

Rm 14 - Milo 

Top 2023 classes: Yummy Fruit company have kindly donated 2 boxes of apples for the classes that have contributed the highest number of completed forms in this year's promotion. We collected 111 forms over the year which means as a school we ate 11 100 apples! The top classes are:

5 forms: Rooms 10 and 12

4 forms: Room 14 

3 forms: Rooms 11 and 15 

1 form: Rooms 8, 9, and 17 

4 forms: Rm 7 and 21 

1 form: Rm 18 and19 

4 forms: Rooms 3 and 5

3 forms: Room 2

1 form Rm 6

We had an additional 27 forms handed in without room numbers so please remember to add your name and room number so your form is added to your class tally.   We now wait for Yummy Fruit company to tally all the sheets handed in from NZ schools and they then tell us how much we are awarded to spend on new sports gear. 

Last year's promotion: Last year we handed in 122 sheets of yummy stickers and received $1541 to spend on sports gear for the school.  Last year we were the 13th-highest school of Yummy sticker collectors which is an amazing achievement! 

This week students from Room 9  joined Mrs Montague for 'lunch with the Principal'.

LEAVERS:
Please could you inform the admin office in writing, as soon as possible, if your child will not be returning to Sunnynook Primary School in 2024. 
This is for the planning of staff, and class organisational purposes.  Please email Nadine at:  reception@sunnynookschool.nz with your child's name and room number if they are not returning to our school next year (only for students who are currently in Y1-5).

SCHOOL ENROLMENTS FOR 2024:
IMPORTANT
Enrolments are now open. If you know of anyone living in-zone who may be interested in enrolling their child, please ask them to go to our website and submit their online enrolment as soon as possible, as this helps secure our staffing for 2024.

LEAVERS – Uniform Donation
If your child has outgrown their uniform and it is still in good condition, please consider sending them to school with your child to be sold in our PTA second hand uniform sale. If donating a uniform, please wash this and put it in a bag. Thank you.

Please click on the link to our Team Newsletters for Term 4.
Ngā Totara
Ngā Kauri
Ngā Kōwhai

Following on from the successful maths workshop held last term, we will be holding a reading workshop tomorrow. It will begin after the book parade has finished around 9:45 am and finish by 10:30.

Deputy Principals Katrina Hosken and Rebeccah Bassett-Smith will unpack how reading is taught in each team, how it is asssessed and how to help at home.

All are welcome.

Ka kite koutou katoa apopop.

ESOL Coffee and Connect Morning

Last Wednesday we held a coffee morning for parents of our English Language Learners. We had some wonderful conversation around transitioning into New Zealand culture. Parents were able to share stories and connect with each other. There will be more opportunities to connect as a community next year, we welcome all parents of English Language Learners to join us. 

Emma Morrison and Emily Ko

Preparation for the upcoming Athletics Day has begun in all classes. Below is an outline of the day, keeping in mind that we may need to be flexible with timing. Please note the important points listed here, more specific detail has been shared on HERO. 

Please note:

To celebrate the end of Book Week, on Friday, 27th October, we will have a Book Character Parade. Students are encouraged to dress up as their favourite book character (not Halloween costumes) and think carefully about their costumes, using items from home rather than store-bought costumes. 

Parents are welcome to join in the fun and watch the parade, which will start at approximately 9:15 am under the covered courts.  See you tomorrow!

Our school participated in the annual “New Zealand Shakeout”.

Shakeout is held across the world to remind people of the right action to take during an
earthquake — Drop, Cover and Hold — and to practise a tsunami hīkoi (evacuation) if in a
coastal area.

This took place at Sunnynook Primary School on Thursday 19th October at 9.30pm. This was a successful drill which reminded both teachers and students what needs to happen in the event of an earthquake at school. The school were very efficient in carrying out this practice and managed to drop, cover and hold in their classrooms for the required period of time.  Classes then gathered on the junior courts and took a roll call to check that all students were
accounted for.
 
We will hold our next earthquake drill at a similar time next year and our next emergency
practice will be a fire drill, which will take place later this term. Schools are required by the
Ministry to run a minimum of two emergency drills a year. At Sunnynook we try and run
four drills a year- one each term. So far this year we have had a fire drill, a lockdown drill
and this latest earthquake drill.

Sunnynook is a ‘Sun Smart School’
All children are required to wear a sunhat during Terms One and Four in the playground. Children who do not have a hat at school are directed to a designated Shade Area.

Hats are available via Kindo for $14.50. When payment has been received, your child can collect their hat from the school office.  Alternatively, this can be ordered online via  Argyles uniform shop.

School Hours
Our school day is structured as follows:

Late - Students who arrive after 8:50 am need to report to the office via the student entrance for their late pass before going to class. It is important that students arrive before this time to organise themselves for the day.

Absences - If your child is going to be absent from school, please inform the school office every day that your child is going to be absent by either phoning 410 6534 option 1, via the Hero app or via our website. If possible, please inform the school office before 9:00 am.

New to Kindo
Working together with Kindo and ezlunch, our school offers you a simple and quick way to view and pay for items, order lunches and complete forms.  This is our payment system, so any emails you receive from Kindo will not be spam.

Please set up your Kindo account by following the instructions  on our website here.

This is our preferred method of payment and we encourage you to set-up your myKindo account today.

Hero App
We encourage you to use our Hero App. 
In 2023 our main form of communication with you - our school community, will be via Hero. On the Hero app, the little bell icon at the top right of your screen shows whether you have any new notifications.  At times if the post is a longer one you may need to click ‘read more’ to view the whole message. We would appreciate it if you could also use Hero to report absences.

Any parents/caregivers who haven't yet signed up for the Hero App can do so by clicking on this link.