T3 W4 in Pōhutukawa

Making Dutch biscuits

Today Forest (Rae's home group) were lucky to have Linda, Keanna's mum, come in to share a part of her Dutch culture with the children. They made Dutch biscuits, which looked and smelt delicious.

The children really appreciated the time Linda spent with them, and enjoyed gobbling up the fruits of their labour. Thanks Linda!

 

Head Lice

This is a reminder to routinely check your child/ren's hair for head lice or eggs. Unfortunately the little creatures are sneaky and need to be treated when detected, as they are very easily transferred from head to head.

School email address

As you may have heard, we have had a talk with the students about the way they use their school email address and school Google account. It came to our attention that some students had been using their school email address and school Google account for purposes other than learning. To make it very clear, we talked to the students about the following points:

• not having extensions (including cursors, GIFs, wallpapers etc)
• slides and docs are to be learning related and set or directed by a teacher 
• slides and docs are not to be shared with other students unless allowed/directed by a teacher (to avoid being distracted by commenting chat)
• school email is to be used for learning purposes only, and not as a means of communication with other students
• students have been asked to 'unshare' docs, delete docs from their drive which are not school or learning related
• students can use their school Google account at home for continuing with any work started at school (especially if directed by a teacher), to go on any educational websites such as Studyladder, Nick’s App, Maths Whizz, Prototec, E-ako, Solve Me, ReadWorks or to complete any home learning set by teacher
• using teacher approved websites only. Some YouTube clips are allowed to be viewed when it is relevant to learning.

For all other usage which is not school or learning related, such as communication (emails), making slide shows or docs with friends, we suggested that the students use their own personal account. This of course would be with the knowledge and permission of parents/caregivers. The recommended age for creating a personal Gmail account is 13 years old. You can create a Google Account for your child under the age of 13 and manage it using Family Link. With Google Accounts, children get access to Google products like Search, Chrome and Gmail, and you can set up basic digital ground rules to supervise them. 

Technology is an ever growing part of our world and we feel it is very important to ensure that at school the purpose of technology is to enhance the students' learning, as well as teach them skills regarding technology to equip them for their future. By monitoring and setting tight guidelines with regards to technology use at school, we hope to grow responsible and respectful users of technology.

Winter sport

Next week is the last week of winter sport. Thank you so much to all of the adults who have volunteered and helped out with a team. We certainly couldn't have done it without you!