We have decided to make an early call and postpone the athletics day again. It’s very wet under foot still and not likely to dry out tomorrow, and with more rain in the forecast. So we will not be holding the athletic sports tomorrow as originally planned. There is a possiblity of a date next Thursday, but we will have to confirm this. Darn weather!

The end of the year seems to be careering towards us at an unbelievable speed. There’s always so much to do and finalise in these last few weeks. Some key dates to put in your diary as we head into the final straight!

· Year 8 Leavers Dinner at Sopheeze on the Bay on Monday 10th December

· Our End of Year Celebration will be held at the South Canterbury Events Centre on Morgans Road from 6:30pm on Monday 17th December

· School closes for the 2018 year at 12pm on Tuesday 18th December

· School begins for 2019 on Tuesday 29th January

Exciting news for me as Principal in 2019. I have been awarded a sabbatical in Term 2 of next year. This means I get to spend the term away from the school working on a research project. We’re all pleased to announce that during my time away that retired Geraldine Primary School Principal, Lindsay Robertson will be in the Principal chair here at Gleniti. Lindsay has a huge amount of great experience in education and it’s fabulous that we’ve been successful in securing his services for the term.

We’d also like to announce that Nadine Jones will be joining our teaching team from the beginning of 2019 as the new Team Leader in Learning Team 2. Nadine will be taking over Denise Hutchison’s role as she heads off to retire.

More retirement news! It seems to be the season for it. Allan McCambridge our Caretaker and Val Mulrine one of our Cleaners have both indicated that they will be retiring at the end of the year. Alan has done an amazing job looking after our school as Caretaker here over the last few years, and it’s sad to see him go. Equally so Val has worked tirelessly in keeping our school as spotless as possible over the years and it’s also sad to see her go. It will be hard to replace both of these quality people. But in saying that, for every challenge there is also an opportunity! So if you are interested in a Caretaking or Cleaning position … or you know someone who is then contact the school.

Congratulations to all those who received Principal Awards at our assembly last week.

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

Gleniti School

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What an amazing Disco event we hosted on Friday night. It was great seeing everyone come along dressed up as a Villan or Hero … there were some very clever costumes. Thanks to the PTA for everything that you did in organising and running our Disco. You all do an amazing job at these events and we all certainly appreciate everything that you do in supporting the school.

You’ll all be aware that the Primary Teachers and Principals strike will be running tomorrow, Thursday 15th November. The school will be closed for the day. We feel strongly that we need to be encouraging more people into the profession, and ensuring that those already in the profession feel supported valued and want to stay. We are hoping that families and whanau will support teachers in this action. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Friday.

On a more exciting note congratulations to our Running Relay teams who competed in the event at Caroline Bay last week. Odette Franklin took our team down, and provided us with this great report on our accomplishments, please take time to read it later on in the newsletter! Awesome work everyone.

Rooms 9 and 10 have moved back into their refurbished rooms. What a great difference the refurbishment has made! Check out our photos on Facebook.

Congratulations to all those who received Principal Awards at our assembly last week.

See you all at the Athletics on Monday 🙂

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

Gleniti
School  

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Our cover stars this week are all from Room 6. They’re out enjoying reading in the sunshine underneath the new Shade Umbrellas that have been donated by the PTA. Thank you very much PTA! We love them!

Unfortunately the Primary Teacher contract negotiations with the Government haven’t yet been resolved and Teachers and Principals (via the NZEI union) have announced another one day strike on Thursday 15th November. As a school we are certainly aware and concerned about the disruption that this will cause, as the school will need to be closed. However as a profession we feel strongly that a stand now needs to be made. Firstly, this is not about pay but about the quality of education that your child receives. There is a serious crisis occurring in Education. We have teachers leaving the profession in droves; a large percentage of our workforce about to retire (with others postponing retirement), lessening numbers of people entering training and graduates leaving the job in the first 5 years of teaching. We call this the 40% problem.

Significant groups of teachers are leaving in the first 5 years of teaching

40% of teachers are due to retire in the next 10 years

40% less teachers are being trained

We feel strongly that we need to be encouraging more people into the profession, and ensuring that those already in the profession feel supported valued and want to stay. We are hoping that families and whanau will support teachers in this action.

I’m really looking forward to the school disco this Friday evening! Woohooo! Good times for all.

Congratulations to all those who received Principal Awards at our assembly last week.

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

Gleniti School

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