Welcome back to school after a glorious long weekend.  We hope you all enjoyed the extra day together as a family and found time to rest and relax.  Although this is a short week it is also a busy week with our Matariki celebration and Hangi on Friday.  We also have the South Cluster Cross Country planned for Thursday, however the weather report is not looking great so we will keep in touch as to whether it is postponed or not.

We had a big day on Friday and a special opportunity in the life of Welcome Bay School.  We had the pleasure of hosting local MP Todd Muller and Minister Hekia Parata.  The Minister visited to make a public announcement from our school relating to the Budget and some of the implications for Tauranga and how the Ministry of Education has prioritised money for our region to cater for the extreme growth. Minister Parata announced that Welcome Bay School will be getting to new classrooms along with Maungatapu and Oropi schools.  It was a real honour to have the Minister and Mr Todd Muller in our school and our tamariki represented us with excellence, the Minister was very impressed!

We are currently in the process of finalising some significant property upgrades within our school. Our updated 5 year property plan is currently with the Ministry of Education to be approved and the plan includes a major toilet upgrade and an upgrade and modernisation of Rooms Rimu, Tawa and Rata.  All things going well, it is anticipated that we will begin significant planning for these projects between now and the end of the year.  This is very exciting and will continue to add to our school’s improvement focus enabling us to deliver a quality environment for our learners.

School Hangi

WHOLE SCHOOL DISCO – Thursday 23 June 2016

Full details out this week including flyers and permission slips. It is extremely important that the permission slips are returned to school. Children will not be able to attend the Disco without parent consent and a commitment to pick your child up at the end of the Disco.  No child is allowed to leave the hall, walk home, or even out to meet their parent at a car.  All children must be collected from the hall after the Disco is over.  This is about their safety and we appreciate your understanding.

Remember to share with everyone you know about the newsletter format, we had a 50% open rate last week from 149 families and it would be great to grow this each week.  Remember you can access the newsletter via an email link or directly through our website via the “Our school information” drop down menu.

Have a great week.

Kindest regards,

Nik House – Principal