From the Principal
You may be reading this newsletter on a mobile device, a laptop computer or a desktop whilst you are sitting at work. When my own children attended Pigeon Mountain School, we received a monthly printed newsletter on one side of A3 paper, and our children would occasionally thrust crumpled notices from the bottom of their bags!
Nowadays, it seems that we have so many things happening in our school, and we have multiple ways for us to connect with our community. This newsletter will summarise the diverse range of methods we use to communicate with our students, parents and wider community.
Since you are reading this newsletter, let’s start with our school website, which hosts the fortnightly edition of updates and information. You can also view our school calendar here, but much of the information is based on broad topics which change relatively infrequently- uniform, information on enrolment processes, and term dates. Much of the content on the website is placed there for prospective or new parents.
SkoolLoop is a communication app for existing parents (this replaced SkoolBag in 2020) which we use to send notifications of important updates or events. Like social media, this works best on mobile devices, and helps us access parents on the move through the day. Our social media is an extension of SkoolLoop, and we choose to use Facebook and WeChat as our platforms. WeChat is a platform which is incredibly popular in China and with our Chinese community owing to the fact that Facebook is not accessible in China. Updates on Facebook and WeChat are sent out simultaneously, and will generally include non-essential updates, reminders or even school celebrations like sporting results or visitors to school.
Communication from individual classroom teachers is through channels which suit our teachers best- I’m sure they talked you through their particular favourite during the Meet the Teacher evening. We have teachers who use DoJo, SeeSaw or Google Classroom as their preferred method, whilst others prefer the simplicity of email.
Within school, our Daily News is communication directly for students. Whether it be news about sports trials or extra curricular activities, this method of communication has served Pigeon Mountain students well over the years and helps them develop the school value of responsibility. In the next week or so we will be switching to a new platform for this- Ludi (which Y4-6 students will already be familiar with from using Basic Facts in Maths). Not only will students now be informed by watching our Daily News broadcast, but they will also be able to access the daily notices either in school or from home, to make sure they stay informed.
FINALLY, from time to time, to read the widest possible audience, in the most important circumstances, we utilise email to send information and news to the parent community. We are conscious of email fatigue, and save these schoolwide emails for very occasional use.
Dates for your Diary
HPPA Swimming – Thursday 11 March
HPPA Cricket Field Day – Friday 12 March
Y6 camp 16-19 March
Easter Break – School Closed 2 April to 6 April
Student Led Conferences – Wednesday 14 April
Student Led Conferences – Thursday 15 April
End of Term 1 – Thursday 15 April
Teacher Only Day – Friday 16 April
Term 2 Commences – Monday 3 May
BOT News
Next meeting Wednesday 17th March at 7pm
PTA News
Next meeting AGM Tuesday 23 March at 7.30.
Community Notices
HPNC Mother Earth FutureFERNs Year 3 & 4 Netball Competition.
This is a 12 week competition running over Terms 2 & 3. The objective of this competition is to provide an environment where Year 3 & 4 players learn to play the modified 5 aside game, in a fun social way. Teams arrive from 4pm with their coach they do a warmup, take a little practice, ready to play at 4.20pm. There are 4 x 8min quarters, games finish just before 5pm when teams cool down. This is a social competition with no score taken and coach’s umpire their own teams without a whistle. The cost per team is $200 and registrations close 30th April.
Dates for the season are below.
Term 2 Tuesday 18th May – 6th July
Term 3 Tuesday 3rd Aug – 24th Aug
http://www.hpnc.org.nz/future-ferns-year-1-to-4/tuesday-future-ferns-team-registrations-2021
If you need any more information please contact me by email. junior@hpnc.org.nz
