Welcome to Weymouth Primary!
Saane Faaofo-OldehaverTuesday 4 August 2020
Talofa lava everyone.
Wow! Week 3! Term 3! Fantastic.
We have had an amazing start to the term with nearly all our children back. We have now got 558 beautiful children attending Weymouth Primary School. We had a lovely ‘powhiri’ on day one to welcome all our new children, families and staff to our school.
By now you should have received your newsletter from your child’s teacher letting you know all the amazing things happening this term, in each of our teams.
We are celebrating 3 language weeks this term. Cook Island, Tongan and Te Reo Maori. We will be sharing what is happening over those weeks.
Our teams are organizing trips – so watch out for the newsletters – in case you want to join them.
Don’t forget:
- School uniform to be worn Monday to Thursday and Fridays are casual or mufti
- Children should be coming to school at 8.30am and they go straight to classes. SKIDS operate everyday in our school hall before and after school
- Our parenting hub is up and running everyday from 10 to 12pm – pop in and have a coffee with Whaea Pauline
- Learning Conversations are in Week 4
- Our health nurses work every day on site from our hall
The dental clinic will be on site from next week.
Kahui Ako update:
Te Korowai Kakahu o Manurewa is now up and running. James Cook High, Waimahia Intermediate and Weymouth Primary alongside Early Discoveries, Mokopuna ki Roscommon, Potiki Early Learning, Star Kids and Barnados have now been endorsed by the Ministry of Education for us to begin our collaborative journey going forward.
Finally, next week is ‘Learning Conversations’ and your child will get in touch with you to arrange a time to catch up and discuss the goals your child has set. We are doing them differently this year, due to your feedback from our end of term surveys.
Regards
Saane Faaofo Olehaver
Thursday 16 July 2020
Welcome back to our amazing students and families of Weymouth School
Talofa lava, a warm welcome back for term 3. Our inquiry theme is ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ and our statement for this term is ‘We Fly’ ‘I Believe I can Fly’. ‘You can never win anything unless you are there to do something “Dame Whina Cooper”. Our curriculum focus is on the Arts. Our Weymouth Way for term 3 focus is “We Learn” Ka ako tatou.
We are expecting all students back at school now. We have made a few changes and I have listed them to let you know:
- Our breaks are 10.50 to 11.10 (morning tea) and 12.30 to 1.10 (lunch). We will have allocated play areas for our students.
- All students wear school uniform Monday to Thursday and due to your overwhelming feedback – we will have casual Friday where your child can come in mufti
- Children can be in classes from 8.30am – we will open classes at 8am but encourage you to send your child to school at 8.30am to allow our teachers time to set up for the day
- SKIDS operate morning and after school care – see the office for contact numbers
- We welcome Watene Atama our Attendance Officer. He will be working across 9 schools with the purpose of ensuring every child comes to school every day.
- Team Hubs – we have set up 6 stations across the school for any children who have not had breakfast and need lunch assistancParenting Hub – we will start our hub on Monday. We will be open every day from 10am to 12pm. Whaea Pauline will be our facilitator. She works for SKIDS before and after school so she is very familiar with our school. Her role is to contact all our famiies and let you know what is happening. She will have tea and coffee on offer. We have lots of household goods and clothing. You can come along and offer a donation and take what you need.
Our surveys state families would like support with budgeting and cooking on a budget. We will organise these and let you know the dates.
- Parent Complaints – a reminder we have a process and it is on our website, skool loop app and our school docs policies.
- We celebrate 3 language weeks this term. Cook Island Language Week 3-7 August. Tongan Language Week 7-11 September and Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori 14-18 September. We will let you know closer to time what is happening for each of these weeks
- Week 4 will be our week set aside for Learning Conversations. Your child’s teacher will be in touch prior to let you know what is happening. Based on your feedback we will be running these differently
Whaea Saane
Tuesday 23rd June 2020
Dear Parents and Caregivers
We would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU for all your work in supporting our school during lockdown and letting us into your homes to support the learning.
We are having a celebration at Weymouth Primary on
WEDNESDAY 1st JULY from 9a.m. – 6 p.m.
We will have some food to share, a short Survey to fill in, and a movie clip playing in the school hall of all the learning from home and school.
So put this date in your diary. More information will be coming soon.
Thank you.
Whaea Saane
Friday 12th June 2020
Greetings to you all.
Congratulations on all your hard work in doing your bit to get us to Level 1. We should all be so proud of our efforts.
I have outlined below some key messages for the remainder of the Term, which is 3 weeks. School finishes on 3 July at 2pm.
- All children to return to school and come in either mufti or school uniform.
- School gates (Evans Road and Estuary Road) will open at 8am for children who come early, and due to the cold setting in, we will open classrooms for any students that arrive early. A reminder SKIDS is open before and after school. See the Office for information or pop over to the hall and chat with the friendly staff.
- We will open the back gate until 9am then it will be locked until 2.50pm. Parents can come on site to drop children to their classes and to collect them from their classes after school.
- Parents are allowed on site during the day but please report to the office first.
- The drinking fountains will not be open yet, so please send a drink bottle. If you don’t have one we will supply cups.
- All playgrounds will be open.
- PE equipment will be out for children to use.
- All resources in the classrooms will be back in use for all to share.
- We will continue to encourage children to sanitise their hands and we will refill their bottles. All classes will still have sanitiser for all to use.
- If your child is sick please keep them at home.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
On 29 June we will be putting 2 roofs on some of our classrooms. One for Rooms 17 to 20 and one for Rooms 14/15. We have had some major leaks and need to replace them immediately before the wet weather sets in. The project is being run by our property managers Watershed. All Health & Safety measures will be in place. They hope to have the job completed before the end of July.
Saane Faaofo Oldehaver
Principal
FROM OUR HOUSE CAPTAINS
Over the last 2 weeks the house captains have been going around our wonderful school and interviewing students on how they like school after lockdown and their preferences about the new way of teaching.Our junior students love the new way of learning. Most of the juniors said school is different after lockdown because there is a variety of rules they need to follow and it is quite challenging for them to follow but they do like seeing the leadership team welcoming them in the morning.Our senior students rated high scores for our health and safety procedures. Most of our senior students say that the staff have been really strict on hand sanitizing and washing their hands. They really like online learning which is awesome to hear. Some things that we could improve on is changing the home time routine. But the overall feel of school now for them is awesome which is great to hear. We had an opportunity to talk to some students still learning from home. Most of them say that learning at home is fun because they like collaborating together with their whanau and doing activities together.
From the House Captains returned: Anna, Leila, Jizelle, Abisha and Masalusi.
Tuesday 2nd June 2020
A huge thank you to the KAITIAKI SISTERS who will be delivering lunches to support our children who come to school and have no lunch. Faafetai tele lava - very much appreciated.
Monday 1st June 2020
Happy Queen’s Birthday to all our wonderful families and children.
We are still operating in Level 2 and here are some important notices to ensure we all know what is happening over the next 5 weeks of term 2.
Firstly, a huge thank you to Mana Kidz Health team who presented all our children with a hand sanitizer bottle to clip onto their school bags. We had a presentation on Friday so now every child has their own bottle of sanitizer.
Now that all our children have their own sanitizer, we will now open the front gate at 8.15am and we hope all children will sanitize their own hands and then head to class. If children forget to bring their sanitizer we will still have our bottles at the gate and also teachers have stations in their rooms. We are able to refill the bottles too. Thank you Mana Kidz Health team.
We will still offer distance learning to our children and families who have not yet returned.
We will continue to have our health practices in place: washing hands regularly, discinfectant all surfaces and toilets after use, coughing into elbows and social distancing to the best of our ability as more of our students return. We have had almost half of our children back and are hoping over the next 5 weeks the rest of our children will return to school.
Front gate opens at 8.15am and children are to go straigth to class. 2.50pm we will start our staggered pick up with Rooms 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13, 14 and 24 followed by Rooms 15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23. This has been working extremely well with limited congestion at the front gate, so a huge thank you to you all.
No parents on site for the remainder of the term. No sick children allowed at school. Please help us to keep all our children safe.
RAIN JACKETS – the wet weather is upon us so please remember to send your child with their free Kids Can jacket they all received or an umbrella.
Wednesday 27 May 2020
Talofa lava everyone.
We are half way through our second week of lockdown and even with terrible weather, I congratulate all of you for supporting our system. At the end of the week we will update how we will work for the rest of the term. Today we finally hit half way 260 children at school. We are hoping more of you will feel comfortable to return next week.
If the rain continues on Thursday and Friday we will take children to the hall and at 8.30am they can go to their classrooms.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
It is important that our children bring their Kids Can jackets we handed out to all our children. The weather is wet and we are noticing lots of children coming with no jacket. Please pull them out and dust them off so they are good to go.
Samoan Language Week
It has been wonderful seeing our children coming in their traditional wares and also seeing all the amazing activities everyone is doing in their classrooms.
Friday 22 May 2020
Dear families of Weymouth Primary School,
Well done to everyone who felt it was safe to return your children to school at Level 2. We have just completed one week and it was a huge success, with just over 200 children each day. Well done to all our children at home continuing your home learning and thank you to our Weymouth Angels who delivered more learning packs this week. A huge thank you to our teachers for teaching our children at school and those at home and making more learning packs.
Next week, we are still in Level 2 until our Prime Minister makes an announcement. We would love to see more of your children return.
Our new procedures next week will be:
At 8.30am we will open our gates for your children to come in to school.
We will continue to sanitize our children's hands as they come through the gate and social distancing will apply. We will send your child straight to the classes they were learning in last week, due to some teachers not back yet and one of our classrooms under renovation.
We will not open our playgrounds or drinking fountains. So please remember to send a drink bottle. It is OK if you don’t have one as we have containers and cups.
We will have Breakfast Club and lunches for our children next week. We have set up 6 stations – one for each Team where our amazing staff can give out breakfast and help make the lunches. A huge thank you to Kids Can who have already delivered our first supply of food.
End of the day procedure
Staggered finish - we will keep these times as they have worked well.
So 2.50 to 3.00pm will be Rooms 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,24
3.00 to 3.10pm will be Rooms 15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23
Samoan Language Week – we will be celebrating Samoan language week next week.
Faafetai tele lava
Whaea Saane
Thursday 21 May 2020
Weymouth Primary School we rock!Start time
Moana, Te Awa,Papa Teams 8.45am (Rooms 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13)Te Manu Tuku Tuku 8.55am (Rooms 14,23.24)Maunga and Ranig Teams 9.00am(Rooms 15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22)
Finish time
Moana, Te Awa,Papa Teams 2.55pm (Rooms 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13)Te Manu Tuku Tuku 3.00pm(Rooms 14,23.24) Maunga and Rangi Teams 3.05pm (Rooms 15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22)
Please note we have added a tab with scholarship information for your children on our website. Have a look and feel free to ask any questions.
Regards
Wednesday 20 May 2020
Good afternoon to our amazing families of Weymouth and our awesome students.
Next week we will be able to go back to 8.30am when we will have our teachers waiting for their students to make their way to their classrooms.
Tuesday 19 May 2020
Once again a huge thank you from our Weymouth Staff for your support at this time.
Saturday 16 May 2020
Friday 15 May 2020
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR STUDENTS RETURNING TO SCHOOL NEXT WEEK
PLEASE NOTE ONLY THE FRONT GATE WILL BE OPEN FOR SCHEDULED DROP OFF TIMES
NO PARENTS ON SITE PLEASE
To our amazing Weymouth families and students.
Next week we move to level 2 and welcome back our students and their teachers.
I have outlined how we will operate to begin. In a few weeks time our Prime Minister will be making another announcement, so we will review again.
Our teachers will be working in their own classrooms. We ask if your child can bring a drink bottle and their lunches and they will bring their own rubbish home. Children can come in mufti and can bring their slippers, a toy and their scooter if they like. We will have limited resources in order to ensure we are not sharing any equipment.
We will have staggered starts and finishes in order to continue social distancing. Our hygiene practices will also continue throughout the day e.g. washing hands, disinfectant on all surfaces and door handles and coughing into your elbow.
At this stage we will not be using our drinking fountains or play grounds.
We ask if your child is sick – to please keep them at home.
Students will need to be dropped off and if they are walking home you will need to phone the office and let us know – 09 2690588.
All students to line up. As they enter we will sanitize their hands before they go to class. No parents on site. In the morning please wait at the gate – line up on the blue marks on the concrete keeping your distance. At the end of the day please wait at the gate and when your child sees you they will come out.
Our staggered start and finish is as follows:
(If brothers and sisters come together – they will enter with the team they arrive with).
Start time:
Moana team (rooms 1,2,3,4 & 5) = 8.50am
Te Awa team (rooms 6,7,8,9) = 8.55am
Papa team (rooms 10,11,12,13)= 9.00am
Te Manu Tukutuku (rooms 14,23,24= 9.05am
Maunga team (rooms 15,16,21,22)= 9.10
Rangi team (rooms 17,18,19,20) = 9.15am
Finish time:
Moana team (rooms 1,2,3,4 & 5) = 3.00pm
Te Awa team (rooms 6,7,8,9) = 3.05pm
Papa team (rooms 10,11,12,13)= 3.10pm
Te Manu Tukutuku (rooms 14,23,24)=3.15pm
Maunga team (rooms 15,16,21,22) = 3.20pm
Rangi team (rooms 17,18,19,20) = 3.25pm
We appreciate your support as we transition back to school. Our students that have not returned yet will continue with distance learning packs. Our students at school will continue to use the same packs.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries.
Faafetai tele lava
Whaea Saane
Tuesday 5 May 2020
Monday 27 April 2020
To our amazing and supportive Weymouth families
Greetings to you all. I hope you all managed to join in the amazing ANZAC Day celebrations up and down the country. I thought they were spectacular how communities created a wonderful celebration to remember all those who fought and lost their lives.
Tonight at 11.59 pm we move out of Level 4 and into Level 3. This will mean some parents returning to work and some children returning to school. We have worked hard to contact all our families to see how they are doing and whether they are returning to work and therefore their children returning to school.
We can report that 40 out of 519 students will be returning on Wednesday 29th April. We have created 5 bubbles for these students with two teachers per bubble. They will be at different places around our school and they will have their own set of toilets and a small outside area allocated to each bubble. We have hand sanitizer and soap and warm water in each bubble. We will ensure we continue to practice social distancing, washing of hands regularly, and sneezing or coughing into our elbows.
Last Saturday I hand-delivered a letter with instructions for our families returning. We will have only the main gate open for entry and at the end of the day, we will use the other gate on Evans Road for exit purposes.
We are asking our parents to adhere to the staggered start so we can safely get all children in, in the morning, and out in the afternoons, again adhering to the health and safety regulations we are following from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health.
We are also asking if parents could remain outside our gates and just be available and ready at the drop-off and pick up times. We are creating a robust tracing system, therefore we would appreciate if parents remained outside our gates, to keep all our children and adults on-site safe. Our office will remain open so you can contact us at all times throughout the day.
We have a number of teachers and support staff working from home. Their roles are to look after all our children who will continue to stay home and do distance learning. They will also be checking in for pastoral care purposes to make sure all our families are OK and if there is anything they need.
The children returning will continue to work on their learning packs that were delivered by our teachers or the Ministry of Education. They will be doing the same work as the students that are remaining at home, therefore ensuring we are providing a fair platform for all our students.
From all of us at Weymouth, our Board of Trustees, our teaching staff and our support staff, we want to thank you for all you have done to keep your families safe over these past 4 weeks. We do not know quite what our future in education will look like, but we do know change is always a good thing. As your school, we will embrace whatever change is needed to support the learning journey of each of your families.
We love and miss you all and we thank you for all you do for our children.
Saane Faaofo Oldehaver
Tuesday 21 April 2020
Talofa lava to our wonderful Weymouth children and families
Yesterday the Government decided that we will move into Alert Level 3 on 28 April. That means we will be open to receive students from the 29 April. We will start to prepare our site from tomorrow.
We hope that Term 2 and our distance learning programme has been a success for you so far. I have heard many of you have received the learning packs or devices and are continuing to work from your homes.
The key message for you is that if you can, you should keep your child at home.
You should only physically send your child to school if you need to. If your child has a health condition that means they are at a greater risk of a severe illness you must keep them at home. If your child is sick please also ensure you keep them at home.
In order to ensure the safety of those children and our staff who do come to school, we will be operating with strict enforcement of health and safety measures.
I want to assure you that we will continue to support your child’s learning at home.
Many of our staff will be back on site and can prepare more learning packs to support you at home and we will deliver them to your doors.
We will contact you later this week to find out whether you can keep your child learning from home, or need your child to attend in person.
Tomorrow I will be on site to prepare and ensure our cleaners have our school site spic and span for next Tuesday. Our leadership team will also be on site to prepare the organisation and our staff will be on site on Tuesday 28th April for our ‘Teacher Only Day’ to prepare and organise their classrooms to ensure we adhere to the guidelines.
Hopefully you have managed to have your learning goals conversation with your child’s teacher and have had an opportunity to share your experiences of learning at home and staying safe in your bubbles.
Saane Faaofo Oldehaver & Maurice Guptill
Principal Board Chairperson
Thursday 16th April - Thursday 23rd April
Your child's teacher will be making contact with you during this period to discuss your child's learning goals for Term 2. A copy of your child's learning goals will be shared with you via email or will be posted to you at a later date.
If you have a conference preference day and/or time, please feel free to contact the classroom teacher.
You can find email addresses for our teachers here: Our People
Tuesday 14 April 2020
An awesome memory of our Super Hero Walk to School Wednesday!
Kia Ora to our amazing whānau and
caregivers of our beautiful tamariki...
One more day to go before we officially start school tomorrow. However, school is now going to look a little bit different for Term 2, as we try to make our way through and understand COVID-19.
Thank you to all of you for listening to our Prime Minister and staying in lockdown. I know some days are harder than others but I still want to thank you. All New Zealanders are trying really hard to obey the rules of Level 4, so we can eventually come out of it.
Starting tomorrow the Ministry of Education will be delivering learning packs to homes that required them. We sent them your addresses so they can drop them off to your letterboxes. These are to help you while you are at home. Your teachers are also preparing learning tasks/newsletters that will be put onto our school website too, and don’t forget there will also be TV channels dedicated to home learning ideas and activities.
Last week all schools were asked to gather as much data from families about their ability to access online learning. Based on this data that was collected, the Ministry of Education will now do their best to get homes access to the internet and devices. These will be distributed in waves, prioritising Secondary Schools first. At Weymouth Primary School we have limited devices and not enough to go to everyone that needs one, therefore we won't be sending these devices home.
Your teachers’ have also been preparing your home learning for you too, as well as preparing to ring your parents and have a chat about your goals they have prepared. Your teacher will be phoning over the next week so make sure we have your correct phone numbers, or email us if we need your new one.
I hope you are all enjoying all the different learning experiences at home in your bubbles. We are having lots of fun in ours but I truly miss you all so much and I can’t wait to see your beautiful smiley faces again at some stage this term.
Stay safe. Be kind, and I love and miss you all very much.
Whaea Saane
Monday 6 April 2020
Friday 3 April 2020
Greetings to our Weymouth families and everyone in your bubble.
A memory to share when Tayla graduated.
These are my parents Emil and Clare and my husband Seti, and my two children Tayla and Marcel.
I hope you are all doing well in our new norm for the next wee while. It is certainly interesting times and I feel that with all the information available on all social media platforms that you have plenty to do with your children.
There have certainly been some great suggestions; clean the house, teach your child how to change a tyre, cook a meal etc. I am loving the ‘teddy bears in the windows’ – hope you are spotting some when you go for your daily exercise.
I am currently in my bubble with my husband Seti, and my daughter Tayla who you all know and my son Marcel and of course my dog Malibu. I feel blessed having this time, as we can get so busy in our lives we forget to STOP and just breathe and enjoy our own families. We have had lovely home cooked meals every night. It is so good not being able to have access to takeaways. We have also managed to do exercise too – usually when I am working I am too tired to do exercise but now I am loving it. I walk my dog every day and then we all do a workout. We have also managed to do lots of work around our house which we never seem to get around to. I am lucky my husband is a builder, as he has certainly been busy during this lockdown.
I hope you are still enjoying your learning packs. Mrs Iese has also updated the website and there are lots of activities you can do. Parents there are also lots of tips on keeping everyone safe when online. There is also lots of support phone numbers or websites for families if you are needing some support at this time. Please take advantage of them.
The Ministry of Education is working closely with schools to determine what the future will look like if we have to stay in lockdown for longer. So when we get further down the line I will update you all.
For now, keep doing what you are doing. Enjoy this special time together and think of this time as a much-needed platform to be with those we love.
One week down team!!! We can do this. Be Kind. Stay in your bubbles. Be Safe.
Monday 2 March 2020
Kia ora koutou, talofa lava and warm greetings to our Weymouth Community, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and our beautiful tamariki.This year our theme is 'To Infinity and Beyond'. Term 1 is 'We Nestle' Ko Wai Au? Who am I?Term 2 is 'We Fledge' Term 3 is 'We Fly' and Term 4 is 'We Soar'. Our school culture is built on agentic approaches, relational trust and effective participation and collaboration at all levels.
At this time of uncertainty with the Coronavirus, we ask our community to look after yourselves first. Remember to keep washing hands regularly and clean surfaces too. It is also important to stay away if you are sick.