Wānaka Primary School Newsletter for Term 2 Week 5

Newsletter Term 2 Week 5

28th May 2024

IN THIS NEWSLETTER

IMPORTANT DATES

Term 2
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 - Info Below
Thursday 6th June - COPSSA Rippa Rugby Tournament in Queenstown
Week 7
Monday 10th June - Maths Lesson Open Classroom - Info Below
Monday 10th June - PTA Meeting - 3.30pm
Wednesday 12th June - Maths Challenge
Wednesday 12th June - Maths Parent Information Evening 5.30 - 6.30pm
Thursday 13th June - WPS Cross Country - timetable next week
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
Friday 21st June - Pod 1 Assembly - 2.15pm - Hall
Week 9
Tuesday 25th June - Parent Deep Dive - as part of our mid year reporting process
Thursday 27th June - Upper Clutha Cross Country
Thursday 27th June - Students reports available on Edge Portal
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 Photo Orders

To place a school photo order and receive FREE shipping (with our school bulk order) please visit the Heritage Productions website www.heritageproductions.co.nz and click 'order photos'. Please enter our school's access code WANPS24 (located on the front of your paper order form).

Heritage Productions website contains all the information on pack sizes and pricing. Please select the pack/s you would like to order on their website and when prompted enter your child's name, room number and their ID number, located on the front of your paper order form (DSCF...).

Payments online are via credit card or debit card, you will receive an order confirmation by email.

The closing date for orders is Sunday 2nd June 2024.

Scholastic NZ Brochure

The latest Scholastic NZ Brochure is 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 will close at 3pm on Thursday 13th June 9.00am

Wānaka Primary School Tech Sale

CURRICULUM COMMENT

UC Rippa Rugby

Wow! What a great day was had by all of our teams and their supportive vocal supporters at the Rippa competition last week. Games were fiercely fought but what a wonderful spirit prevailed. Thanks to Tom, the very passionate sports teacher from Hawea Flat School, for organising this awesome UC event for our players and thanks to Charlotte Lawrie and the parents who coached, cajoled, encouraged and supported our teams.

A HUGE congrats to all 3 teams - Sonic, Pink Fluffy Unicorns and WAHS for being competitive, playing as a team and displaying our school values.

It was a great final between Holy Family and Sonic one of our Wānaka Primary School teams...and guess what? Team Sonic are off to the COPSSA (Central Otago Primary Schools' Sports Association) competition in Queenstown next Thursday 6th June. Let's see if we can give the teams from the Dunstan and Wakatipu zones a run for their money.

Performances

Last week children viewed a performance with a NZ setting and characters (eg a Tui) which explored feelings. It was very passionately performed and kept the children engaged.

On Thursday morning this week we have the wonderful NZ Playhouse coming to share a show with us, like they do every year, and this year they are performing the 'Reluctant Dragon'. Tarras School children will be joining us for this performance. The NZ Playhouse productions are my favourite as they are performed very professionally.

Ministry of Education Teacher Only Day

SCHOOL IS CLOSED ON FRIDAY 31ST MAY

A facilitator from the Ministry of Education is coming to work with all teaching staff, including our TAs on getting them started on the 'Maramataka' programme which will support teachers in developing their own Te Reo expertise within the classroom setting. This will include some 'lessons' we can undertake over the next term.

And because of Kings Birthday being on Monday 3rd June, your children will all get a 4 day weekend.

Kapa Haka Events Coming Up

In Week 8 the Year 6 students in our senior Kapa haka group will be performing in the Haka Tū, Haka Ora competition. This takes place at the Queenstown Memorial Centre on Friday the 21st of June.
The following Friday, 28th of June (Week 9), is Matariki, the public holiday. Our senior group will be performing at the dinosaur park as we have in other years.
Then in week 10, Tuesday the 2nd of July, we are having our Mata Au Festival. This will involve a day of learning at the Lake Wānaka Centre, followed by an evening performance from 6:30 - 7:30pm.
Our Year 5 students will be taking part in the Polyfest celebration in term 4. This is because there is a clash with the Year 6 camp and they are unable to attend.

Upper Clutha Schools Choral Festival

This is our first choral festival since Covid and the practices have just started to rev up for Sing Squad, Band, and our Junior Choir, who will all be performing. This will be held at the Lake Wānaka Centre next term, in week 3, on Wednesday 7th August at 7pm and Thursday 8th August, also at 7pm. The Sing Squad are having their first longer, formal practice tomorrow between 9 and 10.30am. It is impossible to practice during lunchtimes as there are so many things going on at school with students' leadership roles, netball and other sports and clubs, so Anne and I are squeezing in as many 'sneaky' practices in school time as we can. The choral festival involves all of the UC primary schools and we hope to bring together student musicians from our schools to form an UC band for the music festival.

Mid Year Reporting to Parents

About Student Progress and Achievement

As usual we put into place a 3 tiered process of reporting mid year. This consists of a Deep Dive, where parents come into the classroom to share children's learning, look through their workbooks, work on the walls, deep learning projects, etc, written reports and parent/teacher conferences.

The parent Deep Dive day with your child is on Tuesday 25th June with 3 sessions available; 11am -12.30, 1.30 - 3pm, and 4 - 5pm
Written Reports will be sent home via email/Edge portal on Thursday 27th June
Parent/teacher conferences are on Monday 1st July and Tuesday 2nd July 3.15pm - 5pm. A booking process will be set up for this. We will also offer these conferences as online or telephone conferences to ensure everyone can have access to these.

Teachers are currently in the process of writing their student reports and you will notice that we have added in more space into the report format for reading, writing and maths comments.

We usually get a 95% plus response to our Deep Dives so we are looking forward to welcoming you in to classrooms to explore your children's learning and progress.

PB4L

There is great excitement (and noise may I add) in the office at interval and lunchtimes as children rush in to place their tokens in the receptacle by the front entrance. This is because our teachers and Manu Taki Manaaki (our student respect leaders) award students with tokens as they display our values of Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Being the Best they Can Be and of course kindness to others in the playground, assemblies and in the classroom. Wow! There are queues so well done everyone for displaying our values at school as you work and play. To reward the winning Tribe (and of course to inspire everyone until then) this tribe will have a mufti-day on Wednesday 3rd July.

Also check out our new posters celebrating our school values, which are displayed in every pod. These were developed from our own children's designs about what graphic best represents each value to them and then Abbie Barnes crafted these into more stylised designs for our posters. Thanks Abbie. Abbie also worked on our final design for the Kapa haka uniform's bodice, headbands and boys belts and will soon be tackling the update of our school 'learning landscape' learnership 'visual' model that we are working on to fit in with our school logo and vision.

Thanks to Karina and the PB4L staff team who keep nurturing our PB4L initiatives - they make such a difference in our school evidenced by the children's manners, kindness to others and their sense of pride in exhibiting these values on a daily basis. (A bit of hype and bribery through the Tribe activities and the token system helps as well).

Book Week

As part of our love of literacy and our awesome librarian and library initiatives, we are celebrating a BOOK WEEK from Monday 17th June through to Friday 21st June. There will be lots of activities happening, including guest readers and a Book Character Dress up day. So start thinking about those outfits now!

Upcoming Maths Events

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH
MATHS LEARNING FOR YOUR CHILD?

Come along and see how the updated New Zealand Curriculum has changed how we teach maths.

Monday 10th June - Maths Lesson Open Classroom:
This is a great opportunity for you to see first-hand how your child's maths class runs on a normal school day.

Pod 1: 9:45 - 10:30am
Pod 2: 11:00 - 11:45am
Pod 3: 11:00 - 11:45am
Pod 4: 9:45 - 10:30am
Pod 6: 9.15 - 10.00am
Pod 7: 9:45 - 10:30am

Wednesday 12th June - Maths Challenge:
This is a fundraiser for updating our maths resources in line with the NZ maths curriculum expectations. A sponsorship sheet will be sent home on Thursday. The children will be challenged to complete a task in 3 minutes. More information and an example will be sent home soon.

Wednesday 12th June - Parent Information Evening 5.30 - 6.30 pm:
Come along to the school hall to hear about the changes, followed by some hands-on activities run by the children.

SCHOOL NOTICES

3 Weeks to Go to Wānaka Primary School 2024 Book Week

Here is the programme:

Congratulations to Our Book Week Poster Winners

Last week we judged the winners of the Year 5 & 6 Book Week poster competition. I definitely never want to be a judge again as it is way too difficult to single out one winner. The standard was so high. I feel really proud of all the children that entered a poster.

There were 2 categories - Handmade and Digital

Winner of the Digital Category is Charlie Baumgren

Winner of the Handmade Category is McKenzie Read

Pod 3 Visit to the Lakefront

Pod 3 had beautiful weather for their trip to the lakefront on Monday. They are learning about the history of our town.

2024 Wānaka Primary Snow Sports - Term 3

The snow sports programme for 2024 is live. All information about this programme, including links to enrol, is on our school website at the link below. Please look carefully at the dates for booking, and information about the programme. Any queries to Jasonc@wanaka.school.nz

2024 Snow Sports LINK

Teacher Only Day 31st May

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: 'I take ownership of my learning and behaviour'.

PTA NOTICES

PTA Meeting - Monday 10th June - 3.30pm

Our next PTA meeting will be held on Monday 10th June at 3.30pm. Just pop by the school office if you are keen to join us. Thanks :)

SPORT NOTICES

Congratulations to Joe Dye

Joe was successful in securing the 1st place trophy at the Kartsport Canterbury Championships last weekend. Joe competed in 5 heats and secured first place in all events, holding off a pack of 8 other keen competitors in the Cadet Class.

ENVIRO SCHOOLS

Working Bee 1-3pm Wednesday 5th June

Next Wednesday, 5th June, is World Environment Day. To celebrate the Enviro team are having a working bee planting in the native reference garden.

If you would like to join us, you are most welcome to come along next Wednesday between 1pm and 3pm. If you would like your child to take part, please email their classroom teacher giving permission for them to help. Send them along with a change of old clothing and footwear (children love getting messy).

World Environment Day 2024: The Journey to a Greener Future

World Environment Day (WED) is an annual event celebrated on the 5th of June to raise awareness about the importance of preserving and enhancing our environment. Established by the United Nations in 1972, World Environment Day serves as a global platform for fostering environmental action and engaging communities in sustainable living. This year, the theme for World Environment Day is 'Journey to a Greener Future', focusing on the collective effort required to protect our planet and ensure a more sustainable future for all.

WPS Honey

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.

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

HEALTH SNIPPETS

When to Keep Your Child at Home

When your child:

Has signs of being unwell i.e. grizzly, unsettled, listless or tired
Has a high temperature or appears very hot
Is complaining of, or appears to have a sore tummy, throat or ears
Has a continuous cough
Should be at home if has had diarrhoea and vomiting within the last 48 hours
Has weeping, red eyes and/or a yellow discharge around the eyes
Has broken skin sores
Has become ill with a communicable disease e.g. measles, chicken pox

If you are unsure, call your Doctor or Healthline for free health advice: 0800 611 116. Please inform school if your child is going to be kept home due to illness.

Child health snippets kindly provided by our local Public Health Nurse.

COMMUNITY NOTICES