13 May 2021
Kia or koutou
Contents
- Important dates – teacher only days coming up
- Camp payments
Important dates – teacher only days coming up
Teacher Only Day – Number 5
- 4th June – Friday week 5 – no children at school
- This was planned to give families an opportunity for an added long weekend to coincide with Queens Birthday on Monday 7th June
- Staff will be 1/2 a day at Whangarei Primary with a number of schools working on ‘Write that Essay’. The 2nd 1/2 of the day Otaika Valley teachers only will be planning the health curriculum for sexuality education. Once this is completed a letter will go home to parents/caregivers with details on the teaching content at each level of the school. This is part of our community curriculum consultation.
Teacher Only Day – Number 6
- 23rd of August week 5, term3 – no children at school
- Staff will be preparing for our 3 year strategic planning and community consultation about the focus and direction of Otaika Valley School.
Both of these days come under the 8 ‘Accord Days’ associated with the teachers/principals collective agreements. These are required to be completed before the 2022 June Collective Agreement end date. Note: These do not come off the school year ½ days, they are counted as a day open.
Teacher only days number 7 and 8 will be in 2022.
Camp Payments
Thank you to all of those parents who have contributed to paying a donation to fund the 2021 camps. They were a huge success and very beneficial to the growth of the children. A few parents are still chipping away with payments, thank you again. To date 82% of the senior camp expenses have been paid with $626 remaining. To date 75% of the middle school camp have been paid with $1035 remaining. A total of $1662 remaining.
If you intend to pay the donation towards your child’s school camp or are unsure if you have or not, please contact Jen in the office. Staff are now looking at paying deposits for 2022 camps and knowing our final financial position now helps us make decisions on where, how long and what activities can be offered.
Below is the message from Term 1 regarding camp costs…
The Board of Trustees advises that payment of 2021 camp costs are to be considered a donation. All donations paid are tax deductible and tax receipts will be issued to parents/caregivers.
Without the financial support of parents/caregivers these camps would be uneconomic to fund, and it would jeopardise our ability to offer such experiences in coming years. The School would not be able to meet the costs of camps out of its Operational Grant, as previously these were always an extra compulsory payment. Using the Operational Grant would take away much needed money allocated for learning resources of core curriculum areas.
Donations for the full cost of your child’s camp will ensure camps continue in the future. In 2020, the same message was sent to parents who responded by paying the camp costs. If you find the camp cost a challenge, please discuss this with your child’s teacher and myself, to work through options. We aim to get every child to camp.
Kind regards
Terry
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