We're back!

Today school started again - it was wonderful to see so many smiling faces. Thank you to the PTA who provided morning tea for the staff and for helping with duty - what a great community. Some children have been to other schools including Allenton and St Joseph's in Temuka. Thanks to these schools who have welcomed our precious children.

Today we had a assembly and then JB took the whole school for Zumba which was great fun. We made bravery badges and had had fun being back at school. We are looking forward to having all our class back together again soon.

School starts again on Thursday

Hi Families. Our wonderful school will re start on Thursday 10th March at 9am. Please bring your own boiled water as the drinking fountains has been disconnected until the water is safe to drink. If at all possible we would like as many families as possible to walk or scooter to school as the roads are very congested with cars. I am looking forward to seeing you all. I realise some people will be still be away, please let the school know if you will not be at school on Thursday. Let's start back at school with a smile on our dials and be ready to have some fun! See you soon. Love from Mrs Simmons

It's Red and Black Day

Hi everyone. I have heard that it is red and black day today - are you wearing red and black? At Arrowtown School they had a red and black day and they raised more than $1600.00 for Canterbury. Quite a few children have made baking to sell and some children have been doing busking to raise money for people who need money after the earthquake. It has been very humbling to see so many people wanting to help in any way they can. There are more than 60 children from Christchurch at Arrowtown School - the caretaker is spending most of his day taking desks to classrooms. I wonder what George our caretaker is doing today? The Life Education caravan is visiting at the moment - Isabel has seen Harold the Giraffe twice. I'd love to hear what you are all doing. Leave a comment on the blog or e mail me and I'll write back to you. It sounds like Jessica is having a great adventure in Riverton. Enjoy the sunshine. Love from Mrs Simmons

Hi from Arrowtown

Hi Class. I am writing this from Arrowtown. Maddie, Isabel and I are staying down here for a few days until school starts again. Chris has gone back to Christchurch to do some work and help with the tidy up. Our chooks Poppy, Rosie and Daisy are not worried about the earthquake and they are laying an egg each, each day. Sophie the frog is great - I'm sure she will be looking forward to staying at your houses. Lucy our cat is fine - she has been eating a lot of cat biscuits and we might have to put her on a diet when we get back. The girls are going to Arrowtown School for a while and I helped out in Maddies class today. Yesterday is was cold and there is a fresh dusting of snow on the mountains. Maddie and Isabel have been swimming and having fun with their friends Annabelle and James and they especially like looking after 12 week old baby Daniel. I hope you are all helping your families and I can't wait to see you all again at school very soon. Love from Mrs Simmons.

An update from Mrs Warren

Update 4 - 1 March 2011 Sadly we will NOT be opening as hoped on Monday 7th March. Two structural engineers and an assessor have inspected the site today and have deemed the buildings safe and feel they have held up incredibly well. However, the sewerage pipes have not been so lucky. Considerable work is required to remedy this, also we require water testing and the liquefaction needs to be cleaned from the asphalt areas and then these areas require water blasting. We have not been given another possible date for opening. When the civil defence allow us back on-site we will clean up the classrooms and also let you come and get the children’s bags if this suits. The two minutes silence at 12.51pm today certainly bought emotions bubbling back to the surface. I know we are all looking for some normality and please know we are working hard to prepare the school for re-opening. We will load more learning tasks on the website to keep the children focused as much as they can be at a time like this Please let your children know we miss them and can’t wait to be together when school re-opens. Kia kaha, Ginnie

Some school work for you...

Hi Children. I would love you to do some school work while you are at home. Could you write a book review? Play some games on our blog. Have a look on the school web site there's some activities - click on Community Links and then click on For The Kids - I like the chocolate one - yum. Bring your work back to school when we reopen - I've got the lovely new stickers to put on your work. Leave me a message on the blog or send me an e mail at: nicky.simmons@stalbans.school.nz Take care, Love from Mrs Simmons

Smile!

We went blackberry picking and Chris made this yummy blackberry pie - yum!

Hi Class!

Hi Children and Families. I hope you are all safe and well. I went into school yesterday and picked up Sophie the Frog. She is happy at home with us and Isabel and Maddie are busy catching her flies. This is the long drop toilet that Chris has dug for us - we think it's pretty flash. Stay safe love from Mrs Simmons

School is closed until further notice

Well done to all the awesome children from Room 15 who looked after each other during the earthquake yesterday. It was a very scary time for us all. Thank you to all the wonderful parents who helped keep the children calm and entertained. We are all safe at home. I will keep you posted about when school will reopen - remember we have to finish our great stories about what's under the trap door. Love and hugs, Mrs Simmons xoxo

Statistics fun

This week we have been learning about statistics. Mrs Simmons gave each group a large handful of beans and we put the jellybeans in colour groups, then we counted the colours and recoreded how many we had in each group using a tally chart. Ruby has a great idea to add up how many beans each group had to see how many we had in total - thanks Ruby what a great idea.