Here we are, the last week of the school year. The last school week of the decade!!
Students and families had a grand time at our end of year dance last week, and it was lovely to see so many whānau, students and staff at our Tea By The Sea evening, relaxing, and chatting and enjoying each others company. Our local firemen turning up with the fire engine was an added bonus and staff and student alike loved climbing aboard and exploring!!
Our three yearly review took place late in Term 3. The Ministry of Education Review team spent 3 days at school, interviewing parents, teachers, the lead team, and our specialists. We know we are fortunate to have such a wonderful specialist team, and were thrilled that through this process, their great work was praised and acknowledged through external eyes. Well done Team!!
Click the 'Read More' to view the report.
Thank you to everyone who completed our recent survey, the results can be found here.
Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou. Warm greetings to you all.
What a lovely time of year. The weather has really taken a turn for the better this past week. Please do send in a sun hat for your child and remember to slap on the sunscreen before school.
As many of you know, for the past two years we have been part of the Ahuriri Kāhui Ako. We have had many great learning opportunities alongside our colleagues from the other schools.......
I hope everyone has had a great term break and it is certainly wonderful to see the students back at school once more, and so readily engaging in their lessons, catching up with friends and settling back into the weekday routines.
A very warm welcome back to Jo-Anne Schreuder. Jo-Anne has been on maternity leave and is now back teaching in our Nelson Park satellite this term. Our theme this term is looking at Healthy Foods through a Science lens. Students will be exploring life processes to recognise that all living things have certain requirements so they can stay alive. Some of....
Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou. Warm greetings to you all.
Its been a busy term, with the students getting involved with their learning both in school and out in the community. Classes have enjoyed their visits to the National Aquarium, local parks and waterways as part of our conservation focus. The end of Term 3 is looming, and with it we see the end of another winter, which I am sure everyone is ready for after all of the colds flu and bugs that have affected students, staff and our whānau this term.
Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou. Warm greetings to you all.
Congratulations to our Kapa Haka students who did really well at the Tamatea Kapa Haka festival. It is not easy to perform in front of so many people, and I was so proud to see how our students stood tall and sang their hearts out. Thanks to everyone who last week sent in cans for the “Watties Cans for Good” Salvation Army collection. Not only is this a great cause to support, it also provided lots of fun Maths learning opportunities.
Well Done everyone!!
Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou. Warm greetings to you all.
Students and staff have returned to school ready for another action packed term! A big welcome to Trish Horrobin, who will be working across the school sharing her skill and expertise with students, support and teaching staff. Trish has joined us from Newlands Intermediate School in Wellington where she was the school SENCO (Special Education Needs Coordinator). Prior to this Trish was a specialist teacher at Patricia Avenue Special School in Hamilton and various Special Schools in England.
Kia ora koutou e te whānau
It was a shame that we had to cancel the whole school assembly last week. The hall at Tamatea High School had been set up and decorated for their Senior Ball. It looked very exciting, and we knew the temptation to explore for many of our students would have been too much!!
Kia ora koutou e te whānau
It is always lovely to have our students all together as a whole school at assembly. Everyone enjoys seeing what other classes have been up to over the term. I am always extremely proud of our older students who are fine role models for our juniors. Congratulations to our students who received a certificate at Assembly last week.
Kia ora koutou e te whānau
Welcome to our new students and their whānau. We welcome Tina Brightwell to staff. Tina who is fluent in NZ Sign Language, Te Reo and English will be working at in our High School classes. Welcome also to Elen Nathan, who is joining the FAST team. Elen is an Occupational Therapist who has many years experience within special education.....
Kia ora koutou e te whānau
Congratulations to our high school classes who won the ‘Bake Off’ Challenge at Tamatea Highs food festival. Thank you to everyone who contributed baking or came along on the night to support. It was a real team effort, with baking coming in from across the whole school.....
Kia ora koutou e te whānau
Who would believe that the weather would change so quickly!! Unfortunately as it was so cold and wet on the day, we had to postpone Tea By The Sea. We will try again when the weather warms up in Term 4......
Welcome back to the new school year everyone, and a very warm welcome to our new students, their families and whānau, and to our new members of staff.
What a great beginning we have had to the school year. Staff came back to work on Monday 28th January for a week of fun filled professional development. We spent two of our staff only days focussed on Sensory Learning across the curriculum, both inside and outside of the classroom........
Kia ora koutou e te whānau
It is hard to believe that we are at the end of another school year!! 2018 began with us receiving a very positive Education Review Office external review, which congratulated the school staff and Board of Trustees on our rich learning and specialist programmes. Staff didn’t rest on their laurels, they continued to focus on further developing our programmes and systems so that our students can enjoy success in their learning. It takes a whole team to ensure that this happens, and I would like to thank all our staff and our Board for the energy and passion they bring to their work.
Kia ora koutou e te whānau
Thank you all for your understanding and support last week when school was closed due to the teachers and principals strike action. We do understand that this causes difficulties for our families, but we feel strongly that something must be done that will begin to fix the crisis that we are facing in schools across our country. We will be voting within the next two weeks either to accept or reject the Governments latest offer....
Kia ora koutou e te whanau
Thank you to our parent community for your understanding and support during the recent teachers strike. Speaking with staff, and colleagues and reading the comments on news articles, many teachers and principals are not very happy with the newest offer that Ministry of Education has made, as it does not address our main concerns regarding additional teacher support for students with special educational needs, or work load, and retention of teachers.
Kia ora koutou e te whanau
We have certainly had a lot of fun over the past few weeks. KidsCan Crazy Day last week saw many staff and students dressing up and enjoying themselves....
Kia ora koutou e te whānau. Welcome back to Term 3 everyone. A very warm welcome to our two new students, Jack and Max, and their whānau. I had a wonderful and refreshing sabbatical last term. It took a wee while to get used to not having the daily busyness of a typical school day!!
A big thank you to everyone that participated and contributed to the 2018 Fairhaven School Quiz Night. It was a fabulous evening with lots of fun and hilarity. The FAST Team aka “Let’s Get Quizzical” certainly stepped things up with their outfits!! We may have to incorporate a prize for the best dressed team next year!!
We have certainly moved into the winter season with some windy wet weather! Term 2 has flown by and our teachers are busy preparing Learning Stories for the students to be sent home at the end of the term. Learning Stories describe a successful learning moment for a student.
We received a visit from ERO in March 2018. The final report has now been published and can be found below.
Kia ora koutou e te whānau! Well! What a busy start to the term!
We have received the External Evaluation Report from the Education Review Office following their visit to the school in Term 1. We are very proud of the results and feel that the team from ERO really understood our school and our vision. The team acknowledged the hard work of the teaching and support staff, and also the support of our Board of Trustees.
Kia ora koutou! We hope you all enjoyed the break from school. Term 2 is going to be very busy with lots planned, this includes our whanau morning and quiz night. Make sure you put the dates in your diary.
We hope you all had a great Easter. Here is the latest newsletter from us here at Fairhaven.
An exciting start to the Term. Tea By The Sea, Sensory Room update and an introduction to our Base class.
Welcome back everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Summer break and are ready for an exciting 2018 at Fairhaven School.