Welcome to Maia Fowler and Mereana Chalmers who started school this week.  
We hope you and your whānau enjoy being part of our learning community.

A big thank you to all whānau who came along to our Mahi Tahi  - meet our teachers sessions last week.
We really appreciated the opportunity to discuss classroom programmes and to hear about aspirations and hopes for your child/ren as learners this year.  Teachers also loved hearing about ways you might be able to be involved in supporting projects and learning.  
If you were unable to make it to our sessions please feel free to contact teachers and let them know your skills and talents and the aspirations and hopes you have for your child/ren in their 2025 classrooms.

Tomorrow Miss McIntosh gets married.  We wish Hannah and her husband to be Jacob all the best for their special day tomorrow and look forward to her returning to us as Mrs Sangster.

We need your help in promoting and modelling respect in our car park areas.  As a school we receive regular complaints about driver behaviour in and around our school.   These complaints include people not giving way to cyclists, parking in non designated parking areas, parking which blocks the Road Patrollers from having a clear view, leaving vehicles unattended in the drop off only areas to name but a few.  Please consider others, show respect for the parking rules around our place and look out for the safety of our children. 
When using the drop off/pick up zone please drive as far as possible into the lane before stopping and do not park or exit your vehicle.  If your child/ren are not there you need to move on to avoid congestion and a dangerous queue forming on Dunns Rd.

It is important for us all to ‘live above the line’ with our behaviour in the car park areas, taking responsibility and being accountable for safe and appropriate use.  
We need to remember we are all a part of this learning community and as adults we are role models for all the students in our care.  
We must all work together to keep our students safe.

We are beginning to experience increased levels of staff and student sickness.  We all want to keep people as healthy as we can and reduce the spread of infection so would appreciate everyone observing the Ministry of Health guidelines of remaining at home for 48 hours after the last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea.
Please note if we think a child is unwell we will ask for them to be collected.

Apologies - the Junior Sports Day is Friday April 11th, not 26 March, as previously advertised last week.  More information will come later in the term.

Sunday 6th April - Splash Palace

Cost - $8 per event entered

This event is for competitive swimmers. Click on the link below for information/registration details. Once you have registered your child with fastlane could you please email: sport@otatara.school.nz with your child's name and events entered, to assist with the relay team entry.  If you are not registered with a swim club please email the above email address with your child’s entry information. 

The team will also require a manager if you would like to take on the job please let me know.  

Further information

Friday 21 February - 2:00pm Whole School Assembly

Friday 28 February - 2:10pm Junior School Assembly

We hope you can join us to celebrate our learning.

                          Morning                                Afternoon

Monday          Carla Werder                     Carla Werder     
Tuesday          Tony Rain                           Deidre Murphy
Wednesday    Alice/Ben Febery              Ange Strachan
Thursday        Gillian Donnelly                Becky Nyhof
Friday              Kevan Taylor                     Sharon Livingstone

 

Parent helpers please be at school by 8.20am for the morning patrol and 2.40pm for the afternoon patrol. 
If for some reason you are unavailable on your rostered day please swap with another parent.