Wānaka Primary School Newsletter for Term 2 Week 2

Newsletter Term 2 Week 2

7th May 2024

IN THIS NEWSLETTER

IMPORTANT DATES

Term 2
Week 2
Friday 10th May - Pod 3 Assembly 2.15pm - Hall
Week 3
Monday 13th May - Chess Tournament
Tuesday 14th May - Wednesday 15th May - Y3&4 visiting Aquavan
Wednesday 15th May - Clued Up Kids Y5&6
Thursday 16th May - Mother's Day Movie Night
Friday 17th May - Be Bright Eat Right Healthy Eating Magic Show - 2 performances
Friday 17th May - Tribe Afternoon - come dressed in tribe colours - PB4L Activities
Week 4
Monday 20th May - Board of Trustees Meeting - 5pm - Staffroom
Thursday 23rd May - Upper Clutha Rippa Rugby
Thursday 23rd May - Wild Feelings Performance
Friday 24th May - Pod 2 Assembly - 2.15pm - Hall
Week 5
Thursday 30th May - NZ Playhouse Performance of 'The Reluctant Dragon'
Friday 31st May - MOE Teacher Only Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
Week 6
Monday 3rd June - Kings Birthday - SCHOOL CLOSED
Wednesday 5th June - World Environment Day - Working Bee (more info to follow)
Week 7
Thursday 13th June - WPS Cross Country
Friday 14th June - Tribe Bake Sale
Week 8 - Book Week
Monday 17th June - Board of Trustees Meeting - 5pm - Staffroom
Thursday 20th June - Book Week Dress Up Day
Friday 21st June - Haka Tū Haka Ora competition Y6 Kapa Haka group
Week 9
Tuesday 25th June - Parent Deep Dive - as part of our mid year reporting process
Thursday 27th June - Upper Clutha Cross Country
Friday 28th June - Matariki Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
Week 10
Monday 1st July - Parent Teacher Conferences 3.15pm - 5.00pm
Tuesday 2nd July - Parent Teacher Conferences 3.15pm - 5.00pm
Tuesday 2nd July - Mata-au Kapa Haka Festival
Thursday 4th July - COPSSA Cross Country
Friday 5th July - Red Nose Day
Friday 5th July - Last day of term 2
Term 3
Monday 22nd July - First day of term 3

IMPORTANT NOTICES

School Sports Tops

Please check if you have one at home and return to Kath in Pod 6 asap.

Scholastic Book Club Orders

Scholastic Book Club Issue No. 3 is available now. It is an 'Epic Bumper' edition. All orders to be placed online by Thursday 16th May.

Ex-Student Devices For Sale

We have some ex-student devices for sale from our school office, as we have recently purchased new models as part of our digital devices replacement policy. These devices have been well used by our learners, and so are for sale on an 'as is, where is' basis. We have a few of each of these models for sale but last time the devices were sold off very quickly, so get in fast. First in first served.

iPad Air 1

No longer supported by apple
In case
No Charger
Apps requiring iOS 17 will not work with these iPads
$25

iPad 5th Generation
Apple bug fixes only
In case
No Charger
Apps requiring iOS 17 will not work with these iPads
$75

HP Chromebook 11 G5
No longer supported by google
With Charger
$50

CURRICULUM COMMENT

Emergency Drills Practice This Week

We will be staging our 3 practice drills this week. Today we sent out a practice earthquake drill alert and we will follow this with a fire drill and a lock down drill. Teachers have been coaching their classes over the last week to make sure they can react in an organised and timely manner. Drill practice is part of our health and safety processes.

New Kapa Haka Uniforms

Earlier this year we applied to The Lion Foundation to help us fund our new kapa haka uniforms and we were delighted to receive $5,000. Thanks so much! The uniforms have just arrived and we unpacked a few so we could take a photo to show you how smart they are. You will notice we have included our school logo in the koru design and instead of sewing these ourselves this year, as we did with our original uniforms 15+ years ago, we went to Academy Apparel (who specialise in kapa haka uniforms) and they got them to us super quick. So a big thanks to The Lion Foundation and to Academy Apparel for enabling us to have smart new uniforms. I would also like to acknowledge Charlotte Lawrie who designed our first uniform's koru design all those years ago. We consulted with whanau and iwi at the time. It is with us for another 15+ years Charlotte, as we love it so much and is part of our school story.

Bike Stands

To avoid congestion at the bike stands please ensure your child uses the bike stands over by Pod 5 if they are in Pods 1-5 with only Pods 6 and 7 using the bike stands by the courts. This is so we don't have bikes that can't be fitted and just dumped on the ground, as this can cause a hazard. We have also asked our seniors to take their bike over to the Pod 5 stands if there is a situation where there is no room left to park their bike in a stand by the courts.

Seat Belts and Booster Seats

We have noticed a huge improvement in the numbers of children being restrained coming into school at drop off and also children and parents 'making it click' at pick up time as well. Please keep this up and develop this habit in your child so it is automatic.

Education Review Office

Tomorrow we have a visit from our ERO review officer so we can present the review evidence from our Evaluation Plan goals in 2022, and also for the leadership team to view the new format for the School Improvement Framework. ERO will then write up a report as to Wānaka Primary School's progress with set improvement goals which will then, after being shared with the Board, be uploaded to the ERO website and then another round of setting goals around continued improvement continues. We pride ourselves on our coherence where we align policies, systems, processes, practices and leadership throughout the school to drive strategic improvement at all levels, to continually improve the learning for all of our learners.

Structured Literacy

Wānaka Primary School has had a structured literacy approach embedded for a number of years to ensure an explicit, systematic, and sequential teaching of phonological awareness. Twenty years ago we used the 'Sounds Alive' approach to explicitly teach phonemes, letter-sound relationships, morphemes, text structures and vocabulary. Sounds Alive was an innovative programme at the time, developed by Kate Lloyd, who was deputy principal at WPS and it was taken up by many schools in the South Island and beyond. Then around 8 years ago we had two of our experienced teachers train with SPELD and it was at that time we took on STEPS and also the Alpha to Omega framework. STEPS also has an explicit, systematic teaching framework focusing on phonological awareness at its core and comes with very detailed teacher manuals, student workbooks as well as many varied online games, activities and assessments for learners and for teachers to see what sounds etc., they need to work on next and to monitor their growth. The educationalist and developers behind STEPS have continued to grow the learning opportunities with sounds, words, and text structures. So we are well ahead of the game. STEPS is our main tool in phonological awareness but teachers also use other strategies, such as Alpha to Omega, also still using a number of Sounds Alive practices and other teaching tools that we pick up through experience so that we can use the right strategy at the right time for the specific need of the child. We use STEPS in the classroom to deliberately and directly teach sounds etc., for independent work (printed work booklets, online games and activities), home learning, and also for our Literacy Lift programme.

However we still believe in a BALANCED LITERACY programme. Please note that at times the Government, and the media, confuse a balanced programme with a whole language programme. Whole language is defined as teaching children how to read using authentic text and teaching reading and writing basics through texts instead of in isolation. Direct phonics instruction is when children are taught to read by learning specific phonics rules and skills. All good teachers would use both of these strategies depending on the needs of the child. Children learning to read and write all need deliberate phonics instruction with those who struggle having more explicit and focused learning around decoding letters and sounds. Please find the link here to Wānaka Primary's statement on The Teaching of Literacy to get a fuller explanation of how we teach literacy. From my experience focusing too much on phonics and not on the joy, meaning and love of books and writing etc., is as extreme as just using whole language approaches. Thus we need a balanced approach and to tailor what and how we teach to individualised needs.

Reminders for the Week

Pod 3 assembly this Friday
Makerspace units are being put into place on Friday and Saturday - a forklift will be used so please make sure children are not left at school in the playground on Saturday unattended
Aquavan is here next week for years 1-4 classes to enjoy and learn (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Clued up Kids event for Year 5 & 6 (Wednesday next week)
Healthy Eating/Magician show on Friday next week

EPro8 Central Otago Heats

On Wednesday 1st May, 3 teams of Year 5 and 6 students competed in the EPro8 Central Otago Heats. The EPro8 Challenge is a hands-on engineering competition which incorporates aspects of technology, mathematics, science and literacy as well as drawing on The 6 Cs of creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.

All 3 of our teams performed extremely well in the heats and 2 teams (The Capybaras and WPS Bananas) even made it through to the grand final the next day.

During Thursday evening’s grand final, both teams performed extremely well and The Capybaras (Rio Carnie, Bruno Blampied, George Campbell and Patrick Meyer) came in a tie for second place achieving success with their automated lawnmower.

Congratulations to all of our students who competed. You made our school proud, and thanks Karina for once again working with the EPro8 organiser to make this such a fabulous event.

SCHOOL NOTICES

Aquavan Visiting WPS

WPS Snowsports Programme Term 3

Click here to book

Life Saving Bus Drivers

We are so proud of the amazing bus drivers we have transporting our children to and from school. But did you know we have a super hero who acted promptly and efficiently after a Wānaka Primary School student was seen to be choking on the bus last year. Read below - aren't we lucky to have people like Evan involved with our school.

PB4L SCHOOL-WIDE GOAL

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 understand, accept and celebrate differences'.

PTA NOTICES

Mother's Day Movie Night

Thursday 16th May at Cinema Paradiso. Come along for a drink from 6pm, the movie THE FALL GUY (starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt) starts at 7pm.
Tickets $35 - includes a glass of bubbles or a soft drink and pizza.

Call or email the school office to reserve a ticket.
03 443 7687 / office@wanaka.school.nz.

Please pay $35 to the WPS PTA account: 02-0673-0024330-00 (first and last name + 'movie' as reference).

ENVIRO SCHOOLS

WPS Honey for Sale

Thanks to the families who sponsor our beehives which enable us to sell local honey from our Tiaki bees at a reasonable price - available at the school office by Eftpos or cash.

LIBRARY NEWS

Library News

Click the image below to view our wonderful Library Webapp.

Feel free to email Melissa at any time if you have any questions.

Book Week - Week 8

This year we celebrate Book Week at Wānaka Primary School. It is going to be bigger and better than before. It is in week 8 and details will follow in the next couple of weeks.

There will be a dress up day at the end of the week and the children can come dressed as their favourite book character or super hero. I am talking to the children as they come in with their classes so that they can start planning their outfits. I strongly encourage them to use what they have at home or go to Wastebusters and be creative. It does not need to cost money.

Digital and Audio Resources

Borrow box is an amazing resource which you can have free access to for digital reading and audio resources for your children. Click on the image below to look at the amazing range. You need a QLDC library membership (which is free) to borrow.

BookHub

BookHub is an relatively new NZ based website where you can search for books you want to buy online from NZ based booksellers rather than from overseas sites.

Obviously I support local booksellers as well but if you are an online shopper I fully support supporting NZ businesses before the likes of Amazon who charge exorbitant shipping fees. Click on the icon or this link : https://bookhub.co.nz/

Quote of the Week

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Stream Health Workshop

Path Wānaka | Ara ki Wānaka - Our Kids Online

Snow Gear Sale

Wao Film Festival 2024 - A Wonderful World

https://www.wao.co.nz/wao-film-festival

Tickets $15 per session
3 sessions for $30
Full festival pass $149 (includes online)
Kids go free (under 18)
Students only $10
Films suitable for the whole family
Enjoy our local cafe & bar
Online films available for 6 weeks

MAC Musical - Legally Blonde

OUT OF SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Junior Hockey

Calling all Year 3 and 4 budding hockey players! We are looking for 2 to 4 players to join the Upper Clutha Mini Sticks for the 2024 season to complete our 2 teams. No gear or previous experience necessary, come along and join the fun, team sports learning environment. Children are welcome to come for a trial before committing. Hockey runs through Term 2 only with practice every Friday 3.30pm to 4.30pm at Wānaka Primary School, and games on Sunday mornings in either Wānaka or Cromwell. For more details contact Martin at juniorclub@uppercluthahockey.club

After School Art Play

Beginners Coding

Lego Club

Delicious, nutritious and popular with kids, Subway delivers school lunches every Friday. Order online at subwayexpress.co.nz by 9am.

Wānaka Primary School

7 Ironside Drive

Wānaka, Otago 9350

New Zealand

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