Otago Anniversary Day - Monday March 25, School Closed
Good Friday - March 29, School Closed
Easter Monday and Tuesday - April 1 and 2, School Closed
Learning Discussions (also known as parent interviews) - April 10 and 11
Last Day Term 1 - Friday April 12
First Day of Term 2 - Monday April 29
Homeroom Teachers
We certainly hope that your child has had a great start to DNI. Hopefully you made it along to the whānau night and had the opportunity to meet your child's homeroom teacher, and some of the other families.
If you have any concerns at all, your first port of call is your child's homeroom teacher. We do understand that it is very stressful if your child is unhappy, or worried about something, so please do get in touch with the homeroom teacher if there is anything playing on your mind.
How Did We Do? - Transition Feedback
Intermediate is all about transition - 50% of our school comes and goes every year! It would be great to hear from you about how the start of school has been. We'll use this information to improve the way we introduce students to our kura so that a big move such as changing school is as smooth as possible. We would appreciate you taking a few minutes to tell us how the transition has been for your child and family. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScxSeL2hp-Dq3yb7dbc8_SAStKc0Mx9tDCYk8wU69GjcFvXKg/viewform?usp=sf_link
2024-2025 Strategic Plan
You may be aware that in 2023 new school planning requirements came into effect. Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together requires our board to develop:
A 2-year strategic plan developed in consultation with the school community, that sets out how the board will meet our primary objectives (set out in the Education and Training Act 2020)
Intermediate schools are unique in that our school community changes more rapidly than most. As a consequence it is important that we consider feedback to have us evaluate and adapt programmes to best suit the needs of our learners, despite the fact that 50% will have moved on already.
DNI SHARING PANTRY!
Students have a great garden growing here at school and we sometimes have more food than the food technology classes can use, so any spare is put into our DNI sharing pantry which is at the gate nearest the field.
Come along and help yourselves to free kai. If you also have too much growing in your garden or preserves you wish to donate to the community, they would be much appreciated and you can leave them at the sharing pantry.
Colours
Your child may have talked to you about the system we used to recognise participation and/or excellence in extracurricular pursuits. We call them Colours. Students can earn colours in a range of ways such as playing for a DNI sports team, learning an instrument, representing the school in an activity, or achieving a high standard in an activity outside of school. There is a team within the school who look at the nominations and they make a decision based on the criteria.
You don't need to let us know about sports teams, musical pursuits, or anything that takes place as part of the school day, because we are aware of these activities. However, if your child participates in an Otago, or New Zealand representative activity, or achieves highly in a given field, then we would like to know about this.
You can communicate directly with the homeroom teacher via email who will advise the team and they will consider awarding a colour or you can complete this form directly
Student Accounts
Statements of school accounts are emailed out at the start of each month. The first ones will be sent home at the start of March. These will include any charges for sports, music lessons, and any other extracurricular activities your child is signed up for. Please note that not all music lessons are charged through school as some are paid directly to the music teachers. Group Guitar, Woodwind, Strings, and Brass lessons are paid to the school and will appear on school statements.
The statements also show any payments already made and the balance on the account. There is a School Donation of $80 per family plus a Modules cost of $115 per student for take home materials across the year and these will also appear on your statements. We don't send invoices for any items added to the school account across the year. All charges will be shown on the monthly statements.
Payment can be made either via bank transfer - the bank account number is on the statement as well as on the school website - or at the office via EFTPOS or cash (no credit cards).
Payments can be made in full or in installments - please contact the office if you'd like to set up a payment plan or need assistance paying your child's account.
Community Notices:
We would LOVE to have you join us for our annual Dash & Splash FUNdraiser on Sunday 18 February. Open to all swimmers, aged 5-14 years. It's a great little friendly event and lots of fun! Just $10 per child and they can enter as an individual or as part of a team.
We would also LOVE to hear from all the parents/friends who can help us on the day with marshaling. We cannot run this event without parental help, making sure our children stay on track and don't injure themselves. We know that you also want to watch your child so perhaps you could consider bringing two caregivers along (husband, wife, partner, grandparents, aunties, uncles, older siblings, etc) so that we can borrow one of them to help with the marshaling - all instructions provided on the day!
WHAT ARE WE FUNDRAISING FOR?
We are passionate about helping the children of the West Harbour community learn to swim and our reach spans from lessons for beginner swimmers through to coaching for our competitive swimmers and those who choose to swim for fitness. This season we have increased our capacity by 33%, allowing us to offer lessons and coaching to more children and adults. To do this we require some additional resources for our classes – and this event will help us to purchase these.
We hope to see you all at this event,
PCSC Committee
Adult Volunteers Needed as Ushers
Our local Professional Mens Basketball team, the Otago Nuggets, have 10 home games at the Edgar Centre this year from March through to July. We are offering up to 4FREE tickets (conditions apply) & other benefits to everyone who volunteers. Parents, this is a very easy way for you to receive FREE tickets for your family to come along to an event that is held inside, is very entertaining and family friendly.
