Update 1 December

Kia ora koutou katoa

A few things to update you on:

Congratulations: To Aroha Green and her family on the arrival of their new baby Ruby, 7lb 13 oz. Mum and baby are both doing well.

Whānau Hui: Our final whānau hui for 2011 was held last night. It was great to have good numbers of whānau supporting this kaupapa. We are planning already for hui next year starting with a hangi in week 4 of 2012, so please keep this in mind. We'll inform you of the exact day and time in the New Year.

Freeville Gardens: Last Tuesday representatives from Fonterra Colin and Kane, Adrienne from Avonside Girls' and Hannah from Tony Milne Landscape Architect presented Freeville School with 67 native plants. They were welcomed and the plants were accepted by some of our junior children and then the first three trees were planted in the corner of the field. Hannah will be working with us as we develop our gardens further and continue to make Freeville School a pleasant place to be.

School Roll: Currently our school roll is 311. We are planning on starting next year with approximately 300 students. This is more than we had at the beginning of 2010.

Year 8 Camp: Our Year 8's enjoyed a fantastic camp in Wellington last week. What a great bunch of senior students we have. Visits to Te Papa, Parliament, Capital E and the Weta Cave were all experiences they are unable to have anywhere else. We must thank the schools who contributed to funds so that we were able to run this camp with no cost to families. A special thank you to Paul and Bernice for their organisation.

PLP Folders and Meet Your New Teacher: Children will be given their PLP folders to bring home on December 9. At 2.15pm on this day they will go to the classroom that they will be in for 2012 and, if possible, meet their new teacher. We have two new staff starting next year, Kerry Poulsen from Otautau School and Jo Peters from Kauri Park School in Auckland. Kerry has been able to come to Christchurch for that day and will be able to meet with her new class. Unfortunately Jo is unable to leave her school and won't be able to join us.

Freeville Fun Day December 13th: The Freeville Fun Day is from 10am to 2pm on December 13th. Children do not need to be at school until 10am and can leave with their parents at 2pm. If this does not fit for you then please contact your class teacher so that they know who will be arriving early and who will need to be supervised until 3pm.

End of Year Assembly: Our final assembly will be held in our school hall on Thursday 15 December starting at 10.30am. Usually the assembly takes about two hours.

Starting 2012: Starting details for next year are as follows:

Friday January 27 - Teacher Only Day being held at the Russley Golf Course

Monday January 30 - PLP Meetings

Tuesday January 31 - PLP Meetings

Wednesday February 1 - Classes start. Pōwhiri to welcome new whānau and staff is at 9.15 am.

Children do not need to attend school during the PLP days but the school is open. If you are unable to arrange alternative care then your children can join a programme that will be run by our support staff on those days. Please let Jan in the office know if your children will be attending this programme so that we can check that everyone who should be there, is there.

Ngā mihi

John