Wānaka Primary School Newsletter for Term 2 Week 4

Newsletter Term 2 Week 4

16th May 2023

IN THIS NEWSLETTER

IMPORTANT DATES

Week 4
Friday 19th May - Pod 1 Assembly - 2:15pm - Hall
Week 5
Tuesday 23rd May - Upper Clutha Rippa Rugby
Week 6
Thursday 1st June - COPSSA Rippa Rugby
Friday 2nd June - Pod 2 Assembly - 2:15pm - Hall
Week 7
Monday 5th June - Kings Birthday - SCHOOL CLOSED
Wednesday 7th June - PTA Meeting - 7pm - Staffroom
Friday 9th June - Tribe Afternoon
Week 8
Monday 12th June - Board of Trustees Meeting - 5pm - Staffroom
Tuesday 13th June - WPS Swimming Competition Years 4-6
Saturday 17th June - PTA Quiz Evening now postponed until 4th August
Week 9
Monday 19th June - Mata-au Festival - Senior Kapa Haka
Tuesday 20th June - UC Swimming Competition
Friday 23rd June - Pod 7 Assembly - 2:15pm - Hall
Friday 23rd June - Reports sent home
Week 10
Tuesday 27th June - COPSSA Swimming Competition
Wednesday 28th June - Parent Conferences
Thursday 29th June - Parent Conferences
Friday 30th June - Last Day of Term 2

Term 3
Monday 17th July - First Day of Term 3

IMPORTANT NOTICES

Scholastic Book Club

Issue 3 Scholastic Loop Book Club catalogues are available from classrooms. If you wish to place an order, please follow the instructions on the inside back cover using Option 1 – Credit Card / LOOP. No cash / orders are accepted at school.

If your order is a gift, please tick the ‘GIFT’ option, otherwise all orders are handed out to the children.

Orders close tomorrow - Wednesday 17th May at 3pm.

Garden To Table

Please click here to order

BOARD BUZZ

Board of Trustees Update

The Board of Trustees meeting was held last night and points of interest are as follows:

Jason presented a comprehensive EOTC Safety Management Plan which covers roles and responsibilities, risk management planning, standard operating plans, safety action plans and communication channels. It is pleasing to note that all the current EOTC procedures that Wānaka Primary School are using are in line with our SchoolDocs Policies and Procedures and the Ministry of Education EOTC Guidelines 2016.

Pod Recladding Update - Pod 4 and 5 are well underway and on schedule to be finished before the end of the term. Pod 3 will move into Pod 4 once it is complete. Pod 3 is the last Pod to be reclad, then the job will be complete.

Makerspaces - Wendy and the Leadership Team have a cost effective design in mind for the Makerspace areas which will enable a Makerspace area to be attached to each Pod. We will be able to share this with you once the designs have been finalised.

Managing Anxiety Live Webinar - Wendy is organising this Live Webinar to take place on Wednesday 9th August at 7pm in the School Hall. There will be a small door charge to cover the costs of the Webinar. More information on this evening will be forthcoming closer to the date.

The next Board of Trustees Meeting will be held on Monday 12th June.

Brendan Hearle
Board Chair

CURRICULUM COMMENT

Ssssh...we are all at work this week

This week looks to be a quieter week with less activity happening outside of in-class learning. Room 5 is off to Te Kakano on Friday and we have the Y3/4s in Pod 1's (Robyn's, Kylie's and Danielle's classes) assembly. At interval and lunchtimes this week we have our Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 Rippa Rugby teams practising for the UC Rippa Rugby competition next Tuesday 23rd. Other than that it is a great week for getting stuck into the basics and focusing on our Deep Learning studies. Let's hope not too much sickness keeps children away from such a 'green-learning' week.

Wānaka Primary Futures Trust

Earlier this year the WPS Futures Trust passed over $15k to WPS for the current 2023 STEPS programme. This will enable every child to have access to the STEPS online programme, provide student work booklets and extra teacher resources.

The Trust was set up a number or years ago, whilst we were still at our old site, with the vision in mind that accumulated funds could be invested and the interest used to provide much needed funds as we were a high decile school and therefore did not receive as much funding as schools with a lower decile (now called an equity rating). This is still the case.

We would like to thank the Trust for funding the STEPs programme as it is used by all students at WPS and is proving to be an effective resource for the structured literacy part of our reading and writing programmes.

Parents Info Evening - Understanding Anxiety in Children

Put this date in your diary
This is to give you all a heads up of an information evening we are holding next term, on Wednesday 9th August, for parents and the wider community about anxiety specifically with regard to our tamariki. The Life Education Trust have agreed to provide a 'live' webinar presentation to be held in our school hall. We have been involved in the 2 webinars they produced live for teachers and they are excellent and so we approached the Trust to see if they could offer us an opportunity for parents as well, to learn more about anxiety and how and why it develops in children and what to do about it. The presenter and the content is excellent.

We will pay for this, as they are a Trust and therefore do not have funds to do this. We will be selling tickets to cover the cost. So mark this date in your diary and come and join us in the hall for the webinar to learn more about anxiety in children, and us too as adults as well. More information will be sent home in upcoming newsletters and where to purchase the tickets nearer the time.

Tribe Day

Last Friday, the children had our first Term 2 tribe afternoon. The activities were centered around a special female in their lives as the children created cards, poems and origami flowers, butterflies etc for Mother's Day. For those more active tribe members, Jump Jam was the order of the day. As always, our tribe leaders were organised and awesome :)

Our next tribe afternoon will be in week 7.

Mata-au Festival

On Monday 19th June our Senior Kapa haka group will be taking part in a Mata-au festival. This is a day of workshops, sharing and celebration. It takes part at the Lake Wānaka Centre. More details will follow for this group.

SCHOOL NOTICES

Wānaka Primary Snow Sports Programme

Children enrolled at Wānaka Primary School have the opportunity to be involved with a winter Programme for 2023.

5-day programme at Cardrona or Treble Cone
1-day Ski Experience at Cardrona only

All children enrolled in the 5-day programme MUST be transported by a caregiver up and down the ski field and get them to their lessons on time. It is also the caregiver's responsibility to monitor their children at lunchtime.

Registration for the 5-day programme is OPEN now until 21 July.

The 1-day programme will have transport and supervision organised by the school.

Registration for the 1-day programme OPENS on the 29 May

Please read all information on the school website

School Camps 2023 - Term 3 & 4

Confirmed Costs for Year 5 & 6 Camps

Payment details:

Online to Wānaka Primary School Account No: 02-0673-0023784-001

Eftpos / cash at the office

If there are challenges that would make payment for camps difficult, please come in and see, ring or email Wendy (wendyb@wanaka.school.nz) or Lucy (office@wanaka.school.nz) as soon as possible.

Payment can be made in instalments.

More information will follow about each individual camp.
Please regularly check your emails.

PTA NOTICES

Mothers Day Social

Thank you to all the Mums who came along to the Mothers Day Social at Pembroke Wines and Spirits last Thursday evening. It was so nice to catch up with some familiar faces and also make some new Mum connections! A big thank you to Nadia and Troy Davidson who were wonderful hosts and provided some delicious platters and bubbles for us all. Thanks to the PTA for organising the event.

PTA Kiwiana Quiz

The WPS PTA committee is happy to announce we have a new date for the Kiwiana Quiz Night.

Get in quick to book your table of six. This could be a corporate table, a group of friends, or get a couple of tables together and compete against workmates!

Please pop into the office or call and reserve your table now. Also please feel free to contact Adele on pta@wanaka.school.nz or through the facebook page.

Please have a team name ready when booking and use this as your reference when paying to the Wānaka Primary PTA account: 02-0673-0024330-00

Thank you.

Clued-Up Kids

Last week (Thursday) our Year 6 children went to the Wānaka Rec Centre for a Clued-up Kids experience. During the morning, they spent their time learning about first aid, how to get out in a fire, what to do in an earthquake and much more. A really valuable and fun time was had by all. Thanks to our parent helpers for coming along!

LIBRARY NEWS

Library News

Click here to view our wonderful Library Webapp.

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

Ebooks and Audio Books

The Wānaka Public Library has 2 fantastic Ebook Platforms which are highly recommended. All you need is a library membership which is free.

Click on the image below to find out more and browse to see what is available:

HEALTH SNIPPETS

Contact for our local Public Health Nurse

Pip McLean is our local Public Health Nurse - should you wish to get in contact with Pip her contact details are: 03 440 4309 or 0272 839 395 or email Pip.McLean@southerndhb.govt.nz

COMMUNITY NOTICES