Newsletter 27th September 2024

End of Another Busy Term

Another busy term at Greenhithe School has drawn to a close. There has been a lot to reflect on and enjoy in term 3.

School Events

Our school events are always a highlight. Any chance to bring the community together is always fun. This term we had the amazing art show, where I was blown away by the talents of the children of Greenhithe School and we also held the always popular folk dancing showcase for our year one and two learners. This is always such a highlight, the kids just have so much fun!

PTA

I can’t let this term finish without acknowledging what a stunning job the PTA have done this term. They have been so busy! With an epic Beats for Bingo community event, raising more than $10,000 for our school and creating a fun filled community event. They also launched the fabulous cookbook ‘Flavours of Home’. I have ordered several copies to take to England at Christmas to cover Christmas presents for my family. Mathathon was yet another success, with our children learning lots of maths while our community supported the fundraising, reaching approximately $10,000.

The team has been amazing and I’d like to thank every single member of our PTA for their hard work for our children!

New Curriculum

Education always seems to be in a state of change. The latest changes to the curriculum bring challenges and opportunities for our school. The timeline for the implementation is one of the biggest challenges and is placing additional workload on our staff and something we are trying to mitigate. We want to look after our amazing team here at Greenhithe.  Our teachers and leaders are certainly putting in the hard work to examine the changes and look at how the new teaching methods can bring positive change to what we do, while continuing to maintain the high expectations of quality teaching that we value.

Our school continues to perform well using the Government approved assessment tools. In our recent testing, using one of these approved tools has shown we are sitting around 94% of our students being at or above their expected level in both reading and maths! These are amazing results, and testament to the outstanding work of all of our staff. While these assessments are taken in years 3-6, the work to reach these levels of attainment begins on the child’s first day in our school. We have a cohesive and hard working staff who work closely together to ensure the children make progress.  

We want to excel as a school in ALL areas of the curriculum. It is important that children have opportunities to continue to learn to love the arts and take part in sports. We want every child at Greenhithe School to live our school vision so that our children grow to be capable, balanced, confident learners who embrace new experiences and opportunities.

I will continue to update you next term as the implementation of the new curriculum and teaching approaches develop.

Eating Time Changes

Following our parent survey and talking to other schools, we will be moving our eating times to the end of play. The times will now be:

Morning tea – 11.00- 11.20 (playtime) 11.20 – 11.30 – eating time at class

Lunch – 12.50 – 1.30 (playtime) 1.30 – 1.40 – eating time at class

This will be a trial for term 4 and we will let you know how it goes.

Holiday Maintenance

As a school, we continue to ensure we have the best facilities for your child to learn. Over this break, our main block is undergoing some work. This includes adding ceiling fans to classrooms to make the summer months a little more comfortable (although the heat of summer seems a long way off still!).

As there is work going on, please ensure if you or your children are using the site over the break, they stay well away from any building work. 

Term Dates 2025

We have been working on our start dates for 2025. They are as follows: 

Meet the Teacher Interview Day: Thursday 30th January 2025

(Details will be sent out nearer the time)

First Day of School: Monday 3rd February 2025

We look forward to seeing the children back for an exciting term 4!

Ngā mihi 

Stephen Grady

Principal

Greenhithe School

The Greenhithe School PTA has been very busy with the launch of the ‘Flavours of Home’ Cookbook, tea towels, bags, and dishcloths.  This is such a beautiful piece of history to keep and use! Thank you to all the families who have contributed. Orders can be made from Kindo! 

We also had our Beats by Bingo night, and it was a roaring success, and we raised over $10K.  Lots of fun was had by all, and we are grateful to our sponsors, Anil and Jaydyn from Ray White, and other sponsors who contributed to the auction and raffle prizes.  

Term 4 will see the PTA support the Athletics Day and, of course, our annual Summer Festival which will be held from 3pm – 7pm on December 13th. If you have a company interested in advertising or supporting the event, please email us!

We meet monthly on a weekday evening to discuss all things related to school life, provide a forum for community feedback, and fundraise for additional school resources. Our goal is to continue to grow and nurture the great positive community we have within the school and wider Greenhithe.
Everyone is welcome and is encouraged to come and participate. All of these wonderful initiatives need community support, so please reach out via our email ([email protected]) to find out more!

Thanks Sjaan