PTA Newsletter – 15 February 2022

School community news and upcoming PTA events and initiatives

Upcoming PTA Events

If you have a Google calendar you can add events directly to it via the Calendar page. For more events go to the Full School Calendar List.

Welcome back, it has been great to see everyone back at school and getting into routines. I know the staff are happy to be back full time but perhaps not as happy as the parents are, there are some very big smiles at the school gates in the mornings! We are of course bracing for potential isolation requirements but making the most of relatively normal weeks while we can.

In this uncertain environment the PTA has had to rethink how we run fundraisers and we anticipate that most of them will have to be virtual this year. In the interests of simplicity we are aiming to hold one main fundraising event each term and hope that you will get behind these. Later in the year we hope to be able to hold some community events as we are all missing being onsite and the connections made when families can come together.

We would also like to extend a huge welcome to our families who are new to Kohimarama School this year. It can be challenging to join a new school community in this environment but we hope that you and your children are settling in well. I do hope we’ll be able to welcome you in person in a few months time.

Centennial Celebrations

Unfortunately we have had to cancel the school Centennial Celebrations. Given the uncertainty of the rest of the year we are not rescheduling these events. The school will mark the Centennial with the planting of the Centennial Tree later in the year when it is appropriate.

We are however going ahead with publishing the Centennial Magazine, in commemoration of Kohimarama School’s Centennial, we’ve created a magazine that honours and celebrates 100 years of school and local community memories. A 64 page ‘bookshop worthy’ printed magazine jam packed full of historical information, pictures of school life and lots of memories from students past and present. Also includes key events & milestones, Principal, PTA and BOT reflections over the years, sports, arts, music, recipes and much more!.

It will be a fantastic keepsake for all families past and present. Indicative cost will be approximately $30-$35 (dependant on print numbers). Please pre-register for your copy today. Magazines will be ready in March, with a final cost advised once we can confirm print quantities required.

Pre-register HERE

Centennial Gala

Our Kohimarama Centennial Gala Dinner & Auction Night Fundraiser is also sadly not able to go ahead as planned and unable to be rescheduled due to uncertainty. If you purchased tickets please click on this link, to indicate whether you would like to donate your ticket to the school for fundraising, or request a ticket refund and supply your bank account details.

We still have many auction items that have been generously donated by our school and local community and we will be bringing these to you as an online auction as soon as we can. Watch this space!

Help Needed!

The Kohimarama PTA receives so much support from our parent community in all the activities that we undertake but we are looking to fill some key roles in our team so that everything continues to run smoothly. If you are able to help with any of these positions or would like to discuss with us directly please contact us at kohiptachair@gmail.com, and either Julie or Lizzie will be in touch.

Class coordinators – We need a coordinator for each class to act as a link between the school and the class parents. This person is responsible for organising class get togethers, welcoming new families to the school and organising a teacher gift at the end of the year. It is a minimal time commitment of about 1-2 hours a term.

PTA Secretary – We are looking for someone who loves to know what is going on in the school and is able to come to our meetings on the first Monday of every month to take the minutes and keep us organised. We are a small core group and make sure to keep our meetings fun and precise, we would love to have you join us!

Second Hand Uniform coordinator – We have a large supply of second hand uniforms at hand and need someone to manage it and requests to purchase them. At the start of the the year this takes about 3 hours a week but after that it is less than 1 hour. All funds from selling the second hand uniforms go towards the Kohimarama PTA.

The PTA is always looking for extra helping hands for the many different activities that go on within our school.

We know that there are so many parents out here who want to help but can’t commit to meetings or responsibilities on a regular basis, so we run a ‘Friends of the PTA’ WatsApp group.  This helps us communicate more directly with you and makes it easier to find help when we need it.

If you’d like to be a part of this please send your name and phone number to kohiptachair@gmail.com and we will keep you in the loop.