| | | | | | IMPORTANT DATES Term 1 2024
Week 3
Wednesday 14th February - Parent Voice Meetings 3.20pm - 5.00pm
Thursday 15th February - Parent Voice Meetings 3.20pm - 5.00pm
Friday 16th February - Challenge Wānaka - NO SUBWAY this day
Week 4
Pod 1 Swimming all week
Tuesday 20th February - Parent Welcome Picnic and Jump Jam - 5.00pm
Week 5
Pod 6 Swimming all week
Thursday 29th February - Athletics (Years 3-6)
Friday 1st March - Athletics (Years 3-6)
Week 6
Pod 7 Swimming all week
Week 7
Thursday 14th March - Upper Clutha Athletics
Friday 15th March - Pod 6 Assembly 2.15pm - Hall
Week 8
Wednesday 20th March - Author Visit - Steve Mushin
Friday 22nd March - Pod 7 Assembly - 2.15pm - Hall
Week 9
Monday 25th March - Otago Anniversary - School Closed
Wednesday 27th March - COPSSA Athletics (Years 5&6)
Friday 29th March - Good Friday - School Closed
Week 10
Monday 1st April - Easter Monday - School Closed
Tuesday 2nd April - Easter Tuesday - School Closed
Wednesday 3rd April - Top Bike (Year 6)
Week 11
Friday 12th April - Pod 4 Assembly 2.15pm - Hall
Friday 12th April - Last Day of Term 1
IMPORTANT NOTICES Parent Voice Meetings Parent Voice Meetings are on Wednesday 14th February and Thursday 15th February from 3.20 - 5.00pm. Click on the link to make your booking:
https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/code/v3zug the code is v3zug.
A parent voice script with a variety of suggested questions for your consideration can be found here to help you prepare for your meeting.
Bus Students Please let us know your bus standing order for this term.
Scholastic Book Club Scholastic Book Club Issue 1 is out for the year. You can collect a copy from the office.
Close off date for orders is Monday 19th February at 9.00am. |
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Challenge Wānaka is Fast Approaching Thank you to everyone for registering your children for this amazing event that doubles as our school triathlon. Please take time to read through all the comprehensive information provided below and on the Puzzling World Challenge Wānaka Website.
DATE: Friday 16th February
CHALLENGE WĀNAKA PACKS will come home with your child on Tuesday 13th February.
The pack will include ALL items needed for racing and ALL information you will need for the day. You can also visit this link: Race information for local students.
Students will learn all about the event and what to expect on the day through discussion in class/pods.
BIKE TRANSPORT
Those 225 families dropping bikes at school please do so by 8.50am on Thursday 15th February. You will see the set up on the courts for this.
Those other 186 families, your bikes are required to be at Glendhu Bay between 4-6pm on Thursday 15th February.
NO BIKES will be allowed into the transition zone on race day.
There are very precise times for Bike pick up/collection. Please see the RUN SHEET on the website or click this link: Bike Pick up times. Otherwise all bikes will be returned by the truck to WPS for collection. More information to follow next week.
All students come to school as usual on Friday 16th February and will be transported to and from the event by bus. There is an exception: We ask that Year 6s are collected from Glendhu Bay following the last event of the day. Times will be provided in next week's newsletter on Tuesday 13th February.
Please Note: There will be NO SUBWAY orders on this day.
Children who are not competing in the Challenge will be contacted about their child's arrangements for the day by the end of this week.
WPS Sport Coordinators
Kath and Charlotte |
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2024 Annual School Fees
Activity Fee
The annual activity fee is $60.00 per child for 2024. This is a compulsory fee which covers extra-curricular costs, such as those incurred by bringing visiting performers/specialists to Wānaka, for example, sports coaches, dance/music/drama performances and special events. Collecting this annual fee avoids the time consuming exercise of collecting 450 plus entry fees each time there is a performance or activity. The $60.00 payment is required by 20th February 2024. Please make your payment as soon as possible, as participation in such activities is on a user pays basis.
School Donation Since 2010, the Ministry of Education has frozen core funding to schools. This has increased the reliance on receiving a donation from parents to adequately staff and resource the school.
Your donation assists the Board to fund items or activities that the Ministry of Education do not fund, for example: - Specialist Music (e.g. band, instrumental)
- Extension programmes
- Kapa Haka Programmes
- Digital Technology
- Specialised equipment for the classrooms
- School Shows (e.g. Pantomimes)
Unfortunately, Wānaka Primary only receives the bare minimum in operational funding due to the school being a Decile 10 as determined by the Ministry of Education, hence the donations received truly make a difference to your child’s experience at Wānaka Primary School.
The suggested School Donation is $150.00 per child for 2024. Tax deductible receipts are issued for all donations.
Payment of the Activity Fee and School Donation can be made by:
Direct Credit to Wānaka Primary School – account 02-0673-0023784-001
Eftpos (cheque or savings no credit) available at the school office
Cash – please ensure you provide your child’s name and room number with payment
Brendan Hearle
Board Chair
Wanaka Primary School Board of Trustees |
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Start of Year Update We have started the year with 10 students less than last year at 451 and smaller classes as we had a restructure to allow this. We only have 3 of us 'walking' (not attached to a class), in the leadership team (myself, Jason and Jennie) and only 2 literacy lift specialists (Marg and Marj) to allow us to start with 19 classes. Our teaching team and numbers in each class is as follows:
Pod 1 - year 1 - Sharon - Room 1 - 16 students
- Charlotte - Room 2 - 14 students
- Sharon and Charlotte will also take on our mid term intake
Pod 2 - years 1/2 - Ben - Room 5 - 22 students
- Casey - Room 6 - 23 students
- Megan - Room 7 - 23 students
- Mel - Room 8 - 24 students
Pod 3 - years 3/4 - Lisa - Room 9 - 25 students
- Kelly - Room 10 - 24 students
- Anne - Room 11 - 23 students
Pod 4 - years 3/4 - Kylie - Room 13 - 25 students
- Robyn - Room 14 - 23 students
- Danielle - Room 15 - 23 students
Pod 5 - Marj and Marg - Literacy Lift teachers
- Jen and Kirsty - Reading Recovery teachers
- Leah - SENCO - ESOL students
Pod 6 - years 5/6 - Moira - Room 21 - 27 students
- Anna - Room 22 - 26 students
- Kath - Room 23 - 27 students
Pod 7 - years 5/6 - Karina - Room 25 - 28 students
- Coral - Room 26 - 26 students
- Dave - Room 27 - 26 students
- Charlotte - Room 28 - 27 students
Andrena, Jo Parr and Sophie Gallagher are our classroom release teachers. Marj and Jen are also doing teacher release this year in addition to their literacy programmes. Your children are so lucky to have a stable, experienced and passionate team of teaching staff again this year.
Teresa, Debbie, Karen, Katherine and Megan make up our wonderful Teacher Aide team.
In the office we have our office manager, Lucy, ably assisted by Anna and Jo. Melissa continues to be our finance and personnel manager and works off site most of the term keeping in touch often daily with the wonders of technology. In the library Melissa Ashby continues to hold the fort. John is our caretaker. We continue to employ Crest cleaners to clean our school and Simply Garden Care (Rich and Nicky Tribe) are our gardeners.
We are well staffed for the year and looking forward to a fabulous 2024 packed full of quality learning experiences, fun and active engagement. Our through line this year is 'Ka Tipu' which means to grow, increase, develop, sprout, prosper, spring.
NO BIKES TO BE RIDDEN IN THE SCHOOL AT ANY TIME
As we incurred a bit of damage last year from bikes being ridden in school, such as plaster and paint being chipped off garden surrounds and damage to our seating, we are asking you to remind your children, both at primary school and MAC that bikes are not to be ridden in the school, other than on the path around the field or on the newly constructed bike path which leads from Kelly's Flat through to MAC. This week we have had children in MAC uniforms speeding through the school via the main entrance with a couple doing a jump on our garden wall (recently repaired and painted) and cycling through our Ko Wai Tatou (the painted poles) - this not only is a hazard with our children coming into school but also damages the school.
Coming onto the school grounds is a privilege not a right so please ensure all users show respect of property, gardens and people when coming in to enjoy the school campus. This rule also applies after school and in the weekends/holidays; there have been signs on the gates for years but these seem to be ignored.
Kapa Haka Starts This Week Anne and I are asking children in Year 3/4 who want to be in the junior kapa haka group and children in Year 5/6 who want to be in the senior kapa haka group to meet with us tomorrow morning (Thursday) to show their interest in being part of these two groups. We usually end up with 50-60 students in each group. If you think your child would benefit from being in these groups please urge them to come along and/or let your child's teacher know you would be keen for them to join so they can prompt them to come.
Band - Year 4-6 Children Year 4-6 children interested in the guitar and being in the band met up with Pete Stevenson, our guitar tutor today to register their interest and also show off their skills. He usually takes 2-3 groups each Wednesday from 1.30-3pm. If your child missed out and would still like to be considered for guitar lessons and the band please let your child's classroom teacher know.
Helen will meet with children interested in playing woodwind instruments and the keyboard tomorrow. If you would like to make sure your child goes to this, please email their classroom teacher. |
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Seasons for Growth
We intend to run the Seasons for Growth programme in term 2. Please use this link to register. |
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Positive Behaviour For Learning - PB4L PB4L School-Wide looks at behaviour and learning from a whole-of-school as well as an individual child perspective. The framework is based on international evidence and is helping New Zealand schools build a culture where positive behaviour and learning is a way of life. Each fortnight we focus on a school wide goal to encourage positive behaviours. The current goal is: 'We take care of our school and use spaces and equipment for their purpose'. |
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Library News  Welcome back to our Wanaka Primary School whānau. I felt so anxious about returning to work after a long hide-away summer break in my very happy place (and sneaking in a few adult reads before I return to children's books). However on my return and having a few days to potter around the library, making things look nice for the children, I realised I really do have the best job in the world. I welcome you to come in and have a look around our library any time during school hours. I am always happy to assist with reading recommendations and get reluctant readers addicted! And remember if there is a book we don't have I will get it!
Scholastic Loop
 Scholastic Book Club Issue 1 is out for the year. You can collect a copy from the office. I haven't handed them out to all the students for this particular issue so that you are not bombarded with another extra thing at this time of year.
I will hand future issues out to the classes as I normally do. Remember not to pay at the office and don't get your children to bring money into school, it's all done online and instructions are clearly laid out at the back of the brochure. If your order is a gift, please tick the ‘GIFT’ option, otherwise all orders are handed out to the children. Close off date for orders is Monday 19th February at 9.00am
Quote of the Week  |
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The Incredible Years Parenting Programme |
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Free Live Music Event at Wānaka Library |
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Financial Wellbeing Workshop |
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Football Registration Open |
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Watercolour Art Classes WATERCOLOUR RETURNS! |
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| Delicious, nutritious and popular with kids, Subway delivers school lunches every Friday. Order online at subwayexpress.co.nz by 9am. |
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