Kia ora, Hello, Hallo, مرحبًا, নমস্কাৰ!, হ্যালো Hyālō, 你好 Nǐ hǎo, Kamusta, નમસ્તે Namastē, नमस्ते Namaste, こんにちは Kon'nichiwa, ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ Namaskāra, ជំរាបសួរ Chomreabsuor, 안녕하십니까 Annyeonghasibnikka, ഹലോ Halēā, नमस्कार Namaskāra, ꯍꯦꯜꯂꯣ, ဟယ်လို Haallo, Witam, Olá, ਸਤ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ Sata srī akāla, Talofa, Malo le lei, Mhoro, ආයුබෝවන් Āyubōvan, வணக்கம் Vaṇakkam, హలో Halō, ہیلو,, Xin chào, السلام عليكم As-salamu alaykum, ¡Hola!, Pẹlẹ

Mihi Whakatau

We had a wonderful mihi whakatau on Friday where the wairua (spirit) could be felt throughout our hall as we welcomed new tamariki, whānau and staff to EHS. I was incredibly proud of everyone as they gave their all to their waiata. It is great seeing our new Year 6s rise to leadership in Kapa Haka and see their whānau supporting them.

 

See our new tamariki who have turned 5 years old and who are just starting their learning journey at Eastern Hutt! We wish them and all new whānau to our school the very best!

Te Reo is used in many of our documents, newlsetters and classroom work. Here are some key kupu (words) that you may already be familiar with and we will continue to use:

·        Kia ora                                hello to any number of people

·        Kia ora koutou                  hello to 3 or more people

·        Ngā mihi                             thank you

·        Ngā mihi nui                      thank you very much

·        Whānau                              family / extended family

·        Tamariki                             children

·        Kaiako                                 teacher

·        Kaimahi                               staff

·        Tumuaki                              principal

 

Wishing all our families a Happy Lunar New Year! We know you will be enjoying all of the New Year traditions and celebrations.

The Lunar New Year began on the 29 January. It marked the transition from the Year of the Dragon to the Year of the Snake. Wellington has been running a free festival programme which will end this Sunday, 16th February for families to enjoy!

Our Fish Murals in the Junior Courtyard were looking very sad and untidy! Aviah Ward, an ex-student came to the rescue and worked on restoring them as a holiday project.

Aviah said she found the background really hard especially on her knees. Her favourite part was choosing the faces for the fish and seeing them "come to life" with the details and vibrant colours".  It was lovely to give a small something back to her school.  

 

Unfortunately, Eastern Hutt does not qualify for the Ministry Funded Donation Scheme. However, we appreciate that making the school donations can still be challenging for many families, especially at the start of the year when parents may have several students beginning intermediate and high school when other costs like uniforms and devices are high.

We are always grateful for the General Donations that parents are able to make along with the Activity Related Donations. These donations ensure that we can provide an enriched learning programme for all our students through including the following: Life Education, swimming, visits from performing artists, physical education providers, trips to Te Papa, Capital E, Year 3 – 5 EOTC weeks etc. 

The General Donation contributes to the cost of music teaching, sports co-ordinator, resources and IT equipment.

 

No child will be exempt from any activity or event, however, this means the school has to cover this cost and the operational funding is not sufficient to cover all of these expenses.

 

As always in the future, if you are in a position to contribute a little extra for families that may be struggling to contribute, this would be most appreciated. 

 

See details in this newsletter how you can make these payments, and contact Katherine Mason at the school office if you will be paying by instalments throughout the year as many families do.

 

Thank you to all of you who have signed up to help in various ways…Road Patrol, Year 5 EOTC, Year 6 Camp to Makahika, Home and School and other class events across the school. We really appreciate your support and look forward to another year of working together as a community to support one another.

Ngā mihi nui 

Julie Henderson
Tumaki (Principal)

Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua

A reminder that bikes and scooters need to be walked into the school grounds so that everyone, including parents with prams, and pre-schoolers are safe when walking in our school grounds.

 

As much as we love our furry friends, we have a ‘no dogs on school grounds’ policy so please do not bring them onto the school grounds. We are a very large school and not every child knows the right way to interact with them.  However, animal educational providers and Guide and Service Dogs are exempt from this policy.  

On occasion (for example if a child wants to show their class a new puppy), a dog may be brought to school provided that prior permission has been obtained from the classroom teacher.

This way everyone is kept safe.  Thank you for your understanding.

We know that several students bring a phone or smartwatch to school to have communication with their parents before or after school.

Just a reminder that as per our Cellphones and other Personal Digital Devices policy, including a Government requirement, phones and smart watches need to be handed in to the office or class teacher at the start of the day, and collected at the end.

Some parents have an exemption eg due to the device being used for health reasons.

If your child is going to be ABSENT OR LATE from school please ring the absentee line 566 2734 or text only (we do not answer this phone) on 027-773-7243 before 9.30am and leave a message which includes name, room number and the reason your child is away or  is going to be late.
Late Children – please report to the office so we do not ring your parents.
Remember school starts at 8.55am.

You can still start an automatic payment for Stationery, Camp, EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) Activity Related Donations and School Donation, please contact Katherine by email at accounts@easternhutt.school.nz or ring the office on 566 0167. This is an easy way to spread the payments throughout the final term.
Direct Credit to our Bank Account.
Account Details:
ASB Lower Hutt
Eastern Hutt School Board 
Account number: 12 3478 0009657 00 

Eastern Hutt School works with SchoolDocs to maintain our SchoolDocs website for our policies and procedures.  Our site is available to our school community.

SchoolDocs updates, modifies, or creates policies in response to change in legislation or Ministry guidelines, significant events, reviews/requests from schools and regular reviewing from the SchoolDocs team.  

Our Board of Trustees, Staff and Parents have the opportunity to view these policies and give feedback.  

 

We will advise you when policies are up for review and how you can take part in the review. 

 

Below are the instructions:

1.        Visit the website http://easternhutt.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm

2.        Enter the username (easternhutt) and password (Eastern).

3.        Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.

4.        Read the policy

5.        Click the Policy Review button at the top right-hand corner of the page

6.        Select the reviewer type “Parent”

7.        Enter your name (optional).

8.        Submit your ratings and comments. 

 There are a number of students who are not being picked up until well after 3.30pm. There is no one supervising these students.  It is very important that you collect your child by 3.15pm as per Eastern Hutt School policy. 

If your child has borrowed some of the school’s clothes, please can they be washed and returned.  We have no small clothes if any students need to be changed.

If you are living in our zone and have a child turning 5 this year or in 2025, please contact the school office for an enrolment pack if you have not already done so. If you have family or friends living in zone who also have a child turning 5 please let them know to contact the school office on 566 0167 as soon as possible.
There will also maybe places for children turning 5 who live out of zone. Our next ballot date is in March 2025.
Enrolling NOW helps us to forward plan.

Welcome to Sport 2025. At Eastern Hutt we aim to provide a variety of sporting opportunities for our students to enjoy and have fun.  We want our students to be confident, willing to give a new sport a go, to take risks, to manage themselves in competitive situations and to become actively involved in sport.

We aim to emphasise the importance of establishing in our children, the importance of being active, the ability to work co-operatively in a team to pursue a common goal, the idea of self-management, (i.e. commitment to a team, picking up and returning sports uniforms on time and the attendance of practices and games), to show persistence, resilience, excellence and to have pride in themselves and in our school.   As a team we look forward to working alongside our community to achieve a positive and encouraging environment in sport for our kids.  

This year our primary focus is keeping our students active and involved.  Let’s make 2025 the year EHS gets involved in sport, participating, coaching, managing, sideline supporter. What will you do to be part of Sport in our community?

Games begin Friday 21st February to 28th March.  It is a well organised and fun competition, which enables our tamariki to develop ball skills, learn how to be part of a team and keep fit.  Teams will remain the same for Term 1 and 4, children must be committed to play both terms. All teams have been emailed out.  Please contact Julie Cameron if you have not received a team list.  ALL games are played during Term 1 at McEwan Park, Petone.  Good luck for a great season of touch rugby.  The draw will be emailed out via managers as soon as it is posted on the Total Touch Website. 

We wish all of our Year 5 and 6 teams the very best of luck as they too begin their Term 1, HV Badminton League.

HV Underwater Hockey are excited to invite Year 5 and 6 to get involved in the 2025 Mini Underwater Hockey League!
Have-a-Go Session – 1st March 2025
Date: Saturday, 1st March 2025
Session Options: 4:30pm, 5:30pm or 6:30pm
Location: Te NgaeNgae Pool
This is a great opportunity for students to try out underwater hockey before the league begins.  Everyone is welcome.

If anyone has any sport photos of our students participating in sport, or simply enjoying what the great New Zealand outdoors (swimming at the beach) had to offer over summer, please drop these to the school office (with a name and class on the back, so they can be returned) or email sport@easternhutt.school.nz
It is always great to celebrate our students being active. We would love to display them on our Sport’s Noticeboard.

Thank you to Jess Richardson who has been our netball co-ordinator for several years.  It is a big job and we appreciate all that she has done for our school netball teams.  Our new netball co-ordinator is Olivia Harris a handover has taken place and Olivia can be contacted by email on netball@easternhutt.school.nz 

Register your child online, be in quick as entry numbers are limited.

We look forward this term to welcoming into our school, Kelly Sports and Hutt Valley Badminton.  

I look forward to cheering our children on from the sideline this year in sport.  Go the Black and Gold.  
Julie Cameron
Sports Co-ordinator