What a term!

Julie Cronin from Te Mata School Home & School Committee

Well folks, it's been a crazy busy term, with work and study, assignments, maths club, birthdays, preparing for Christmas (oh cripes, thats only 20 days away 😱) and all the day to day minutiae of being a parent. But we are all nearly there. Whew! 8 days to go (we finish at lunchtime next Friday).

The pools are open and fabulous. Get yourself an Aquatics Hastings card and get discounted entry to the public pools. Even the snacks are reasonably priced. Or get yourself a Club Card (available from iSites and Splash Planet with proof of address) and go to Splash Planet.

The Village Library is nearly open, and has the amazing Summer Sparks reading program. It's not just reading this year!

The Village Club has their annual Ham Carve on Sunday morning if you are a member. If you aren't, why not join! The kids will have a blast and you can stuff your faces. Father Christmas will even make a visit, or so I'm told.

Visit Arartaki Honey and check out the yummy selections on offer. Take a jar or pot and get your own, cheaper than the supermarket!

Or visit the MTG. It's free and fabulous!

Or do something completely off the cuff. Let me know what your ideas are.

If you are going away for the holidays, make sure you turn everything off, lock everything up (including pet doors) and let your neighbours know where you are going and when to expect you home. And give them contact details, for emergencies! Growing up in an emergency services family, I heard a lot of stories about people who came home to burglaries and fires and no one had let them know, because they had just gone without word or leaving contact details.

It's heartbreaking to return late at night only to find you had no home/possessions to come home to. I know, it's happened to us. They even stole my brothers socks and the toilet paper!
They must have been clothes horses though, they stole the iron too.

If you have pets, make sure they have somewhere safe to stay and be feed regularly, with fresh water provided every day. For cat families, Pussyfoot Cattery is my recommendation, but you will need to call and check what's happening with them. Louise told me they are on the move after Christmas.

Now, as for school. Our lost property is growing again. Please, before you go home on the last day, make sure to check for any items you may be missing. Even if you think you aren't missing anything, please check. I have returned quite a few jumpers and hats to kids who swore they weren't missing them. There are entire wardrobes with of clothes in the trolley. There are hats, pants, jumpers, shirts, shorts, socks, shoes, scarves, drink bottles, lunch containers, socks and hankies etc. If you find something in their belonging to someone you know, take it for them.

Anything that is not labelled will go to either the op shop or the tip after school closes.

Please, please, please check.

Also check the clothes your kids bring home, to make sure they belong to yours and if they don't, please return them to the school office or lost property trolley. NOT TO THE UNIFORM SHOP! Or, if you know the child/family, directly to them or their classroom. I am still missing my sons jumper from last years cross country. It has/had Levi Smith on the name tag.

If you find anything that doesn't belong to your family over the holidays, I am happy for you to drop it off to me and I will take it in next year. Just send me a message and I'll take care of it.

If you have left any containers at school for the fundraiser, please pop into the hall kitchen and check if they are there. There are named containers "Nettle" and "Peck". We also have a small black velveteen hooded jacket and a Green Lantern super hero cape left over from the fundraiser.

A huge thanks to everyone who has supported Te Mata School over the year, through fundraising, mufti days, discos, parent helping, maths club, school trips, the uniform shop, the lunch ladies, sports event volunteers, pencil sharpeners, glue guns wielders, guillotineers (don't do it when you are tired. It really hurts!), parents/grandparents/aunties/uncles/foster parents and guardians who read with your kids at night, and help with homework and projects, families who pay school donations, and those that don't (please do) and anyone and everyone else.

Thank you to the teachers, support staff, student teachers, teacher aides, Home & School, school board and anyone I may have inadvertently missed. You do a wonderful, hard, hopefully rewarding job, for far too little financial reward.

And most of all, thanks to the kids. Without them we would be a weird group, people would look at sideways, for all we do, with no one to do it for. With them we are an amazing bunch of people doing an amazing job for an amazing bunch of little people, who will, hopefully one day, go on to become amazing big people, doing what they can for the amazing little people in their world.

I think that pretty much covers everything for now. Spot ya on the flip side!

Oh and Merry Christmas; Happy Hanukkah; Blessed Rohatsu; Happy Mawlid an-Nabi; happiness, peace and love to you all. May the New Year bring you all you need and some of what you wish.