What a great event Footpath Frenzy was last week. We invited the Mayor, Damon Odey, to walk with us and he brought along his funky shoes – and so did we! It was wonderful to see the different types of shoes full of colour and glitz for the occasion. We normally begin Footpath Frenzy with about 35 children. Last Friday that was doubled, and we collected many more children along the way.

It’s certainly interesting to see the positive effect that Footpath Frenzy has on the travel/car congestion in Heath Street and Springs Road. Congestion is almost non- existent on Footpath Frenzy morning!

Of course we’re hoping that the likes of Footpath Frenzy will have a positive on-going influence on the choices that we are making in regard to travelling to school. Today we’re sending home with everyone the “Hike it, Bike it, Scoot it, Skate it Family Guide. It promotes Safer Journeys for children and we’re hopeful that parents and care-givers will take time to read this useful resource.

This week’s Footpath Frenzy will start from the corner of Mountainview and Wai-iti Road. See you all there at 8:30am on Friday J

Congratulations to Emily Best who competed in the Canterbury Junior Gymnastics champs in Christchurch during the weekend. Emily came 1st overall in the 1 unders and now gets to compete in the South Island Champs here in Timaru in a couple of weekends time. Great effort Emily!

Congratulations also to Liam James and Daniel Bruce who have been selected for representative duties for South Canterbury Rugby. Liam has been selected in the South Canterbury U12 Rugby team, and Daniel was selected in the South Canterbury U11 Invitational team. Great work boys!

And finally, congratulations to all the Gleniti Netball teams on a successful season. The Gleniti Diamonds won their grade, and the Gleniti Magic and Gleniti Fireflies came a close second. Thank you to all the coaches and managers for your help throughout the season.

You might notice that the Gleniti Staff are all wearing black today. In fact many Teachers and Principals throughout the country will also be wearing black as a way of highlighting that it has now been two weeks since the Teacher Strike and there’s been no new offers in the negotiation process. The issues haven’t gone away and we’re still serious about improving our schools (as in New Zealand schools) for our children (as in all children attending New Zealand schools).

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

This week we welcomed the following new student Lincoln Robinson R15. 

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What a special week last week was for Gleniti School.

On Friday our two Kapa Haka teams competed in the Flava Festival at the Theatre Royal for the first time. This event has been going for a few years now and so it was great that we could be a part of it all. I’d like to thank everyone who supported our teams. There was quite an army of supporters in the back ground organising and making uniforms and in particular I’d like to thank Suzanne Robinson and Trish Watton for all their time and efforts. A huge thank you also to Matua John, Whaea Margaret and Kylie Latu for all the work that they did in getting our teams stage ready.

Our teams all looked so great on stage! Well done everyone.

On Friday night our Gleniti A Hockey team played Bluestone in their final. The rain might have put a dampener on the match, but you couldn’t tell as our team won 5-1. As a result we won two trophies, one for being on top of their pool during the round robin and one for being the winners of Division 2. For the record the team went through the season undefeated, winning all but one of their games, which was a draw.

Thank you to those parents and children who came and marched alongside our teachers during the Strike Rally last Wednesday. Your support was wonderful and we all appreciated it greatly.

On Monday we counted up all the cans that had been collected as part of the Salvation Army Cans for Good Project. Wow! What an amazing response from our school. We counted over 240 cans of food. Thank you everyone, what a great effort.

This coming Friday we have a special guest joining us on Footpath Frenzy. Timaru Mayor Damon Odey will be joining us as we walk to school from the corner of Pages Road and Hunter Hills (8:30am start). Mayor Odey is infamous for his colourful shoes, and so we’re inviting children to fancy up their shoes to mark the occasion!

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

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

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Congratulation to our cover stars today, the Gleniti Kereru’s. Our 7 a-side Hockey team won the Championship in the final last night beating the St Joseph’s Warriors 5-0. The bulk of this team have now won two championships in a row! Great job team!

Congratulations also to our Yr 7-8 Aoraki Maths teams who competed last night in the annual competition. Our Yr 7 team (Holly Turner, Nikki Encina, Georgie Butler and McKendra Sparkes) shared third place after they had scored 18/20 points, but lost out in the play off. Great effort!

Footpath Frenzy continues this week! For anyone who would like to walk to school with me, I’ll be waiting up Gleniti Road near Cedar Place at 8:30am on Friday. J

As you will be aware the school is closed because of the Teachers and Principals one day strike next Wednesday 15th August. As a school we are certainly aware and concerned about the disruption that this will cause, however as a profession we feel strongly that a stand now needs to be made. Some Parents have asked if they can show their support by joining our march down Stafford Street on Wednesday. Yes certainly! If you would like to join us you certainly can. The march is starting at the Soundshell from 11:00am sharp and heads down Stafford Street.

As we said last week teachers are 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.

So this is certainly not all about pay. 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.

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

Steve Zonnevylle

Principal

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