Our cover stars this week are some of our talented basketballers. They’re showing off their skills in front of one of our brand new basketball goals. Purchased and installed by the PTA over the weekend they provide our Yr 7-8 basketballers with something to aim at that is at regulation height. The PTA didn’t stop there though, they also purchased portable basketball goals to be used down the school further. And they topped it off with brand new nets for our netballers as well. Thankyou PTA team, you all do so much to support the school and we certainly all appreciate it J

Tomorrow at the end of Interval (10:50am) we plan to run another Lockdown drill. This time with the children outside during play and needing to quickly, but orderly head back into classrooms. Once again we’re letting children know of the time of the drill. We are awaiting the findings of the Ministry of Education review into Lockdowns that is currently being held as a result of the Christchurch events in March.

Term One comes to a close tomorrow. Friday is a Teacher Only Day with all the Gleniti Teachers joining teachers from around Timaru to hear all about “Taking a strengths based approach to Well Being”. This is an initiative from our local Kahui Ako who are funding a keynote speaker from the New Zealand Institute of Well Being and Resilience to speak to us all.

Term Two will begin on Monday 29th April. Term Two we welcome Lindsay Robertson into the Principal chair as I will be away on sabbatical for the whole term (due back bright and bushy tailed on Monday 22nd July!). Lindsay was the Principal of Geraldine Primary school for many years and comes to us with a great deal of experience. I’m sure that with the support of everyone around him he’ll have a great time here at Gleniti. J

We are very pleased to announce that Odette Franklin will be taking over in Rm 13 when Alex Hand leaves to go on Parental Leave mid-way through next term.

Congratulations to everyone who received a Principal Award at our assembly last week.

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

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Our cover stars this week are our amazing Gleniti Cubs Softball team. They have just won the under 11 South Canterbury softball competition beating Celtic Greensliders 9 – 4 in the final. Greg Newton tells me that the team improved out of sight from the start of the season with some great hitting and fielding in the final. Apparently there are some up and coming South Canterbury rep players in this team and they are looking forward to competing for the title in the 2019/20 softball season.

A huge thankyou to Greg for everything that he did in coaching and supporting the team. Further to this we would also like to acknowledge the under 9 Gleniti Giants T ball team who had a winning season, and thank coach Nick Symister for his time and effort.

Congratulations also to our team of swimmers who competed in the South Canterbury Primary Swimming Sports last Friday. Phoenix Smith came third in the 10yr Boys 25m Backstroke and the Freestyle, Rory Baxter came third in the 10yr Boys 25m Breaststroke, Tom Coupland came first in the 9yr Boys 25m Breaststroke, 2nd in the 9yr Boys 50m Freestyle, and 3rd in the 9yr Boys 25m Freestyle. To top it off our 9yr Relay of Tom, Athan, Yeon and Kea came third. What a great set of results.

Congratulations to following students who received trophies at the Highfield Tennis Prizegiving: Eva Callon –(best all round girl (Hotshots), Reuben Wheeler (best all round boy (Hotshots) and Addison Sparkes – Most Improved Girl (Hotshots).

Next week will be the last week of Term One. Just a reminder that Friday is a Teacher Only Day, and therefore Thursday 11th April will be the final day of the term.

There are two events coming up that the school would like to support. Firstly this Friday is Gumboot Friday. Maybe you have seen the adverts on TV. This initiative is being run by Mike King, New Zealander of the Year who is raising funds to provide counselling support to young people throughout New Zealand. The school fully supports this drive and children are more than welcome to wear their gumboots on Friday and we’ll collect the gold coins. We fully appreciate that we have been asking a lot money wise over the last few weeks (we raised over $1,000 for Christchurch just a couple of weeks ago) and so we fully understand if families don’t want to participate in this. Your call at home.

The second event happens on Saturday 4th May, just after the school holidays. A number of local organisations including the Timaru District Council are endorsing the Youth United Against Bullying Rally and March as part of the United Nations Anti-Bullying Day. The Rally will begin at the Soundshell from 10:30am and then everyone will march down Stafford Street and back again. Again, this is your call from home if you want your child to be involved but it certainly sounds like a great initiative to be involved in.

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

Gleniti School

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I am away on school camp for the first part of this week up at Aoraki/Mt Cook.

I posted the following on the school’s Facebook page on Sunday night. I’m re-publishing it here just in case people missed this:

Obviously there is nothing that words can do to convey the utter shock, dismay, anger, horror of the attacks on Friday afternoon in Christchurch. It’s certainly a day when somehow our innocence as a nation was ripped away from us, and we’ll never get that back again. Friday was a day when our place in the ugliness of the world was well and truly confirmed. I guess that it’s up to us all to ensure that this place is a one off and that we promote and live our lives in New Zealand in a manner in which we want all people to be a part in an equal and equitable way. Much Aroha, unity, patience, empathy and understanding is needed.
Our role at school will be an important one. I imagine this will be a lifelong role for us all.

As a small step forward, on Friday at assembly after the national anthem we will have a period of silence in memory. I would also like to have a mufti day on Friday. The theme of the mufti day will be Aroha, Unity and Hope. In collaboration with the Christchurch City Council, we will support their campaign called Colour Your Day. We will wear bright, happy colours. Donations will go to the Christchurch Mayoral Fund called, ‘Our People, Our City’.

Please note – the Canterbury Primary Principals Association has been in contact with Muslim advisors through the MOE. They have advised that the wearing of red is the least culturally appropriate colour from the perspective of the Muslim community; therefore, we ask that children do not wear red.

By wearing bright, happy colours, we will be showing our support for our Muslim communities and the people of Christchurch.

We regularly run fire drills and earthquake drills here at school. As you will be aware all of the schools in the Christchurch area were asked to go into Lockdown on Friday afternoon. As we have classes away at Camp we will be running a lockdown drill early next week to ensure that we are also ready.

There is a lot of online support out there for parents, and we believe that this is a good place to start.

Much love everyone …. Steve Zonnevylle

https://www.theparentingplace.com/how-to-talk-about/world-trauma/?fbclid=IwAR0DJHNNsv8w6kAtgrqRQftpz23SjYUUSic7SGOehORlZEUZE3Ccw1dJtyc

A massive thank you (again) needs to go out to our PTA who organised the Ice Skate Tour people to come to Gleniti School. It was a great week and weekend of experiences on the “ice” for our children. Thank you PTA for funding the in class lessons and for bringing this event to Gleniti School J

Congratulations to: Rory Baxter and Hunter Stevenson who attended the Canterbury Children’s Champs for Athletics at the weekend and their team won the 10boys relay. Rory also came 2nd in discus with a throw of 25.19 metres.

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

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