SCHOOL SWANNANOA

SWANNANOA SCHOOL

Our VisionThe Swannanoa Achiever

will be well equipped tothrive in an ever-changing

world

Address: Tram Road, R.D.6Rangiora

Phone: 03 312 6813

Email: [email protected]: www.swannanoa.school.nz

12TH FEBRUARY 2021

NEWSLETTER

A Passion for Learning, a Pride in Belonging

Contact Us

Tēnā koutou ngā whānau, ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Bula vinaka, Namaste, Talofa lava, Taloha ni,

Kamusta, Kia orana, Mālōe lelei, mauri, Aloha, Fakalofa lahi atu, Groete, Haikei, Halo ola geta, la

Orana, Insamal, Wènhòu, Greetings

Kia ora Koutou,

In this Newsletter:

· Start of the year

· BOT update

· Swannanoa Whanau Picnic invite

· Ako meetings booking information

· The update from the first week provided for those who missed it.

I am sorry it’s a huge newsletter (newspaper) so I suggest making a cup of tea and then read.

Welcome to week two. I have to say it’s been better than the first week. The fence and your

adjustment to using the new entranceways is awesome, thank you. The tone and atmosphere around

school is great. I am seeing our philosophies and values being embraced in every hapu - calm alert and

focused, predict and prevent, rich and responsive learning; along with all of our values evident.

Everyone is trying hard with kaitiakitanga (being a guardian of our environment). The pool is being

appreciated and well used. Duke’s parents (Jess and Lee) kindly volunteered to come down and cut up

the broken pine tree limb. The fair team is buzzing and full of enthusiasm (have you committed to the

roster? Not many spaces left). We hosted over 40 teachers from across our Kahui Ako on Wednesday

(gosh I am very proud of our staff, students and school) and I received so many positive comments

about our kura (school). Finally, the coffee shop is open (thanks heaps team)!

Waitangi Day

We all enjoyed having Monday as a bonus

holiday and hopefully you managed to have a

learning conversation with you child about

Waitangi Day celebrations and the significance

of the day.

Swannanoa News

1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 1

Cycling / Bikes /Helmets

It is great to see our students biking. Just a

reminder to use the start of the year to talk with

your child about cycle safety, especially in the

rural area, where helmets are essential and fluro

vests recommended. There have been some

isolated cases of students biking around the

neighbourhood without helmets. We are better

than this.

S W A N N A N O A S C H O O L

Our Pool

What an awesome resource for our community

and last weekend was an example of how

fortunate we are to have this village well! Once

again thanks to the pool team for their work to

ensure the pool keeps operating safely.

Digital Technology

Digital Technology is used to extend and enrich

learning, and for better communication with

whanau through Seesaw/E-tap App. The google

world is used for planning, timetables, quality

feedback and goal setting. We want equitable

access to technology for all students, as the

devices are integrated into all aspects of teaching

and learning.

We encourage bring-your-own-device (BYOD),

especially in the Hapu 3 and 4 area. However, we

have capability across the whole school, just talk

to your child’s team leader or Aimee Roodt if you

have any questions. BYOD helps address the

strategic goals of our school. Our preferred

device is an Ipad, however other devices could be

suitable, simply talk with your teacher.

School Bus

All bus children and families will receive a bus

contract to sign as part of the start of the year

information about safe practices. We will be

appointing bus monitors shortly. I will be meeting

with all bus children next week to induct and

remind everyone of best bus practice.

Ako Meetings and Swannanoa Whanau Picnic!

These are scheduled for next week. Please see the

notice later in this newsletter for the booking

information for the Ako meetings, which will take

place Tuesday 16th February from 3:30pm and

Wednesday 17th February from 3:30pm. The

purpose of Ako meetings is for your child to bring

something they are really interested or passionate

about to share with their teacher. This is an

opportunity for the teachers to get to know you

and your child, so that they can understand your

child and how they learn. Thanks for making time.

Swannanoa Whanau Picnic - please see the

attached flyer. The Home & School have decided

to repeat the successful fun night that ran on

Tuesday evening while the Ako meetings were

taking place. BBQ provided, sports gear provided

just bring something to eat and the ability to make

your own fun.

Learning Conversations

Ako is one of our Ō tātou taonga (values) - it means

learning is a partnership. We all want the same for

all of our students, as you do for your child(ren).

We all know that when the home and the school

work closely together and the same message is

reinforced that student achievement is greater.

We are really wanting our children to be great

thinkers, investigators, problem solvers and have a

strong understanding of numeracy and literacy.

Metacognition, or simply put ‘thinking about

thinking’, is an important term we use – and as a

staff we talk about stoking curiosity. (continues over page)


1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 2

Learning Conversations Continued

One way to help create curiosity is to ask good

questions of your child e.g. What did you learn

today? What difference will this make to your

life? What was a really good question you asked

today? Can you tell me an example of kindness

(kotahitanga) you saw or showed today? What

made you smile today? What did you do that

showed creativity today? If you could change one

thing today what would it be? Did you show

integrity (tikanga) today? What made your

teacher laugh today? What was the hardest thing

you did today? Did you stick with it? That’s how

we show success (porowhita).

We use words like struggle and grit when

discussing our values. As we know we need to let

our children struggle and figure ‘it’ out as this

helps so much with resilience and perseverance.

Please try to introduce these terms into your

learning conversations. Thanks for your support.

Swannanoa Country Fair

Last Tuesday night the planning team met and

shared exciting updates around sponsors and

even rosters. Never has there been such a great

response so early about positions on the roster.

There is a newsletter going out soon so look out

for ways you can help and contribute. There is a

real buzz about the fair this year and so many

people have it locked into their calendars.

Remember the funds from the fair supports our

school, with this year the focus being teacher

aides. It also contributes to the cost of camps,

outdoor spaces, library, sports gear, music

equipment, IT, and this year resurfacing of the

pool along with other school needs.

Ultimately, the fair is all about your child and, as a

school, building the sense of

community, which is one of our school values.

That’s the pikorua (the twist,

whakawhanaungatanga) - we are stronger

together than we are as individuals. Thanks in

advance to everyone for helping to once again run

such a fun event that demonstrates to everyone

what a great place Swannanoa is.

Coast to Coast

There may well be other parents competing! But

good luck to the two I know about, Jo Spencer

Bower and Ryan Kiesanoski who are competing

this year. What inspirational people.

Thanks to Sarah Counsell

Thanks to Sarah Counsell for her work as our

grants person. If this is something you are

interested in, please look for more info in Blair’s

communication in this newsletter. Thanks Sarah, I

will miss your creative wit, banter and ability to

extract money.

Our thoughts

Our thoughts are with Rangiora High School

Community with the passing of Samuel Brown one

of their Guidance Counsellors. So very sad.

Contact Details

Please make sure we have your latest and correct

contact details and emergency contact details. As

we start a new year please let us know if anything

has changed.


1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 3

Chaos at the Gate!

Are you part of the solution?· 20km/hr past a school bus either way.

· Choose safety over convenience.

· Protect all children.

· Keeping your child safe shouldn’t put others at risk.

· Always set a good example when crossing the road and

model safe practices.

· Please keep footpaths clear, especially between the

school and the preschool.

· Please don’t park on yellow lines.

· Drive slowly, with patience, in the school grounds.

Wellbeing and Wellness

This is a big focus for us every year as we enhance

our relationships. We use a growth mindset a lot

and as a staff we know it is so very important for

us to model wellbeing. The Board of Trustees

recognize this as very important as well, and the

BOT are continuing to resource wellbeing with

Michelle Wilson and Sue Spark. We will continue

to run professional development and parent

information opportunities to help up-skill

everyone. We have been supported by the

Ministry with some Urgent Response Funding to

help in this area as well.

https://allright.org.nz/articles/tricks-get-your-

child-loving-daily-routines/

https://www.theworrybug.co.nz/blog

https://allright.org.nz/tools/courses-tools-

busy-parents/

A useful resource from AllRight is a webpage

called Sparklers. This resource is highly

recommended and has really great resources for

everyone. There are tools for helping with

supporting you and your child around emotions,

sleep patterns, stress, anxiety and heaps more. It’s

really worth a look.

https://allright.org.nz/tools/sparklers/

Great Support for Parents

Parenting is tough! Our job as parents is to worry

about our kids and to be there for our kids.

Starting school and the beginning of the school

year can be a rough time and often we can feel

alone and isolated.

Here are a few really useful sites.

(Getting your child loving daily routines.)

(Minimizing starting school and back to school

worry and anxiety.)

(This site gives details about many different

learning opportunities for parents)


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Waiho I te toipoto, kaua I te toira.

Let us keep close together, not far apart.

All the very best for 2021, thanks for your ongoing support.

Heoi anō tāku mō nāianei

That is all for now

Ngā manaakitanga

With best wishes

Brian

Kia ora e hoa Swannanoa School Parents and Caregivers

I would like to extend a warm welcome back to you all for 2021. We started the school year off with a

fantastic mihi whakatau last week, opening the school and inviting our new students and staff to join

us at Swannanoa. Fingers crossed we can have a lot less disruption this year.

I presented at the meet-the-teachers night some top-of-mind thoughts from the Board and I want to

thank everyone who was able to make it. Recognising not everyone could be there I want to share the

same messages with you all. I will try to keep it brief and just to a few points but there was a lot

discussed.

Grants requires filling in applications and any

follow-up from successful applications. We

tend to go through peaks and troughs of grant

applications but generally it is only a few hours

per month. We are looking for expressions of

interest from anyone who may be keen to

explore these roles. Please email

[email protected] if you are

interested. I would like to thank Sarah

Counsell for her work over the last year in the

grants space.

Strategic Meeting

In January we had our strategic meeting. We

do this all-day meeting once per year to

develop the strategic goals for the year and

ensure we have ongoing 5-10 year planning.

We had some great feedback from the

Sensemaker community engagement you were

involved in last year. In particular what we

heard from you is that you didn’t want to know

the ‘why’ of what we do but the ‘how’! How do

we teach the basics for example?

(continues over page)

Update From The Board of Trustees

1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 5

New Board Members

I am pleased to announce, following Claire

Chatterton stepping down last year, we have

appointed two new members to the Board.

Annusche de Villers has been selected to

replace Claire following a process that saw a

large amount of interest. We have also decided

to co-opt Shaun Coakley as an additional parent

representative. Both Annusche and Shaun bring

a diverse range of skills and world views to the

board and we look forward to their contribution.

We are currently working through an election

process to replace Shelley Toganivalu who also

stood down last year as staff representative.

Welcome Shaun and Annusche.

We have two essential Board support roles to

fill. One being Board secretary and the other

being grants officer (this can be the same person

and has been previously). Typically, the board

secretary is required for one night per month at

board meetings, and a couple of extra hours

following the meeting to type up the minutes.


This feedback from you is reflected in the

strategic goals this year and we will share these

following draft approvals at the first board

meeting on 24th February. There was some

strong feedback around communication also that

is being formed into a specific communication

strategy. Brian and the leadership team are

working hard on this.

Swannanoa Country Fair

Last Tuesday night the planning team met and

shared exciting updates around sponsors and

even rosters. Never has there been such a great

response so early about positions on the roster.

There is a newsletter going out soon so look out

for ways you can help and contribute. There is a

real buzz about the fair this year and so many

people have it locked into their calendars.

Remember the funds from the fair supports our

school, with this year the focus being teacher

aides. It also contributes to the cost of camps,

outdoor spaces, library, sports gear, music

equipment, IT, and this year resurfacing of the

pool along with other school needs.

The Fair

We are approaching that time of year where we

really ask the whole community to dig deep and

help us out. As a school we receive around

$400,000 a year to run the school. This goes to

wages, utilities, maintenance, cleaning contracts

and the list goes on. I am sure you can imagine

with over 300 students it can disappear pretty

quickly. The school fair is our primary fundraiser,

which means as a school we don’t do other

fundraisers. It brings in approximately an

additional 15% on top of our operational grant.

This is by no means a small amount and critical to

the running of the school. As a board we request

to the Home and School that we utilise about half

of that on costs such as funding more teacher

aides, leases or purchase of technology etc., and

the other half we request to spend on

environmental improvements for the children, e.g.

the school pool and playground. What we ask

from each family is a few hours on the day, and we

appreciate anymore that you can give. Aside from

being a significant financial contributor it also

supports our value of community, pulling us all

together to achieve a common goal. Please, when

asked, put yourself down for a role, just a few

hours, and if you can’t be available on the day

there are lots of things that can assist in the

preparation.

150th Anniversary

One of the areas the fair will assist with is the

celebration of Swannanoa 150th anniversary. A

great milestone for the school to reach. There are

a number of activities planned for over the year,

and our children and community will be involved

heavily in this. I know there is some great planning

going on as to how to tie in the 150th to

achievement and enrichment of our children’s

education. Amazing to think just 25 years ago, the

125th of Swannanoa, there were approximately 40

students. We start the year at about 310 and by

the end of the year we will be approximately 350.

That’s a big change in 25 years.


1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 6

Property

Property is a major function of what the Board

does and this year is going to be a big year. We

have a number of property projects going on at

the same time. Of course we had the new building

we were gifted last year, a great space that we

were lucky to get for nothing. This year we have

the fencing of the school (again a free project for

us) as well as the upgrades of the entrance-way to

improve safety. We have just had a massive

power upgrade done across the spaces which puts

us in a good place for future growth. The library

will move this year and we will see some

extensions on Hapu 1 and Hapu 3 spaces.

We also want to improve our outdoor spaces and

move the front playground and ship to reconnect

with the school. We will also see the removal of

rooms 1 and 2 out the front. Lots of activity but it

will be amazing when this is all complete, which

hopefully can be achieved before Labour Weekend

150th celebrations. We will likely need a couple of

working bees this year and when the playground

move happens we would love some parents to

help. Anything we can save here we can put

towards other educational priorities for the

children.


1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 7

We have an exciting year ahead of us, but another big year ahead of us. They never

seem to get quieter, do they? Please remember to have the conversations with the

teachers, the leadership and the Board. Tell us what we are doing well, tell us if we are

not doing something well. We love, and need, your feedback.

Ngā manaakitanga (with best wishes)

Blair Andrews and the team

Swannanoa Board of Trustees


1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 8

Visit the website http://swannanoa.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm

Enter the username (swannanoa) and password (waimak).

Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.

Read the policy.

Click the Policy Review button at the top right-hand corner of the page.

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Submit your ratings and comments.

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Term Calendarwww.swannanoa.school.nz

Tuesday 16th February : Ako Meetings from 3.30pm

: Swannanoa Whanau Picnic 5.30pm

Wednesday 17th February : Ako Meetings from 3.30pm

Friday 19th February : New Parent Morning Tea 10am

Tuesday 23rd February: Fair Meeting at The Platform 7pm

Wednesday 24th February: BOT Meeting 6pm

Thursday 25th February: Non-championship swimming Y5-8 Dudley Pool

Wednesday 3rd March: Championship swimming Y5-8 Dudley Pool

Sunday 7th March: Swannanoa Country Fair

Thursday 11th March: Pegasus Swimming

Friday 1st April: Teacher Only Day

Friday 2nd - Tuesday 6th April: Easter

Friday 16th April: Last day of Term One

1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 9

1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 1 0



1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 1 1

Pākura Collaborative Art

All of the children in Pākura

completed at least one feather

to make our collaborative art

piece. This years korowai will be

displayed on the wall along with

our korowai from 2018, 2019

and 2020. It resembles the

Swannanoa emblem to

celebrate the 150th this year.

Swannanoa Whanau Picnic

The Swannanoa Whanau Picnic

(run by the Home & School) will

be held on Tuesday 16th Feb at

5.30pm

BBQ provided, sports gear

provided just bring something

to eat and the ability to make

your own fun.


1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 1 2

White Elephant - Swannanoa FairA large part of the fair’s fundraising comes from the now famousWhite Elephant sale. The school community so far has donated a fullcontainer and nearly a hall’s worth of pre-loved items to be sold atthe fair! There are a variety of items to sort through includingkitchenware, sports gear, furniture, clothing, shoes, toys, books andbric-a-brac so the more help the better.

In order to move everything from the hall to the tennis court, theWhite Elephant team would greatly appreciate as much help aspossible. This involves you (and your family) coming along to theSwannanoa domain on Saturday 6th March – between 9am and 3pmto help. Any time you can spare would be greatly appreciated.

F I N A L W H I T E

E L E P H A N T D R O P O F F

D A T E S :

T U E S D A Y 1 6 T H F E B

S U N D A Y 2 1 S T F E B

T U E S D A Y 2 3 R D F E B

S U N D A Y 2 8 T H F E B

‘ H i k e i t . B i k e i t . W a l k i t . S c o o ti t . ’

i s a c o m p r e h e n s i v e r o a d s a f e t yr e s o u r c e f o r p r i m a r y a g e d

c h i l d r e n a n d t h e i rp a r e n t s / c a r e g i v e r s .

V i s i t t h i s l i n k t o v i e w :

https://education.nzta.govt.nz/assets/Education-portal/Teacher-resources/School-community-

partnerships/Hike-it-bike-it-2017.pdf


1 2 T H F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 P A G E 1 3

https://education.nzta.govt.nz/assets/Education-portal/Teacher-resources/School-community-partnerships/Hike-it-bike-it-2017.pdf

SCHOOL SWANNANOA

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