Friday quick bits…

Ahiahi mārie OVS whanau and caregivers, (good afternoon)

A warm welcome to all of our new school whanau over the past 2 weeks, and a special congratulations to our student RURU values winners at todays assembly. It was my first school assembly and I am very proud of the student achievement and behaviour on display…we are in for a great year.

Perhaps not so great is the news of cyclone Gabrielle heading our way this weekend.  I am hopeful that Northland gets away lightly, and that you all stay safe and well through the weekend.

If for some reason we do have flooded roads, we will be using our website and school email to inform you of any school closure. Please monitor these closely.

Following on from our earlier communication, we hope to see as many whanau as possible next Thursday for our meet the teacher evening, which starts at 6.00pm for Junior Rooms,1,2 & 4 and 6.35 for Senior rooms 5,6 & 7.

Our free sausage sizzle will start at 5.30 so come along and meet our fabulous PTA and enjoy a few minutes to mix and mingle with our school community.

Thank you to all whanau who have completed these agreements. We strongly encourage you to take your time to read through these with your child and help them understand our schools expectations, and discuss their appropriate use of Digital Technology in our school environment.

For the first few days of school  staff have been gently reminding students of hats and sunblock. Starting next week we will be implementing a much firmer stance, remember ‘No Hat’ means Play in the shade!

Wow…I have only been here two short weeks and yet the active whanau support for our school is already very evident.

I would like to take this opportunity to briefly acknowledge the following members of our school whanau.

Kevin Gorman for volunteering his time and skill to design, paint and fit the new Otaika Valley School sign at the Loop road access. It looks great!

Thanks also to Matt Macdonald from Black Earth Ltd, who volunteered his time  to help chainsaw, clear some fallen branches and get our kura ready for the term 1 start.

Thanks also to Gareth Bourke (BoT member) for his work in keeping our pool crystal clear and lastly a shout out to our great PTA who are lining up their culinary expertise to man the BBQ for the Meet the Teacher evening. Thank you one and all.