| | | | | | IMPORTANT DATES Term 3Week 5
Pod trials for Wana-Be-A-Star - all week Wednesday 21st August - Maths Parent Information Evening - 5.00 - 6.00pm Thursday 22nd August - EOTC/SNOW Programme - Day 2 Friday 23rd August - Tribe Afternoon Week 6 Thursday 29th August - EOTC/SNOW Programme - Day 3 Friday 30th August - PTA Father's Day Breakfast Friday 30th August - Wana-Be-A-Star Finals Friday 30th August - Pod 4 Assembly 2.15pm - Hall Week 7 Thursday 5th September - EOTC/SNOW Programme - Day 4 Friday 6th September - Teacher Only Day - School Closed Week 8 Monday 9th September - Board of Trustees Meeting - 5.00pm - Staffroom Thursday 12th September - EOTC/SNOW Programme - Day 5 Week 9 POD 3 Swim Week - all week Thursday 19th September - EOTC/SNOW Programme - Postponement day Week 10 POD 4 Swim Week - all week Friday 27th September - Last day of Term 3 IMPORTANT NOTICES
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 9am on Wednesday 4th September.
2024 Mount Aspiring College Enrolments If your child will be attending Mount Aspiring College next year it is now time to let us know by completing an enrolment form. Please click here to access the online form. All online enrolments will be checked and they will get back to you if they have any questions. An acknowledgement will be sent to you in due course and further information regarding term dates etc will be emailed to you during term 4. For all queries please email enrol@mtaspiring.school.nz. |
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Maths - Parent Information Evening - Tomorrow 
Wednesday 21st August:
Parent Information Evening, 5.00 - 6.00pm - Come along to the school hall to hear about how the New Zealand Curriculum has changed, followed by some hands-on activities run by the children. |
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Father's Day Breakfast Tickets for bacon butties, banana bread or toast and spreads can be purchased from the school office (up until Wednesday 28th August, this is the cut off for catering purposes). You can either pay online, with cash or send your child in with some money and they can get them for you! Don't forget to get your raffle tickets too - we have some amazing prizes on offer.
Baking donations - we are in need of some delicious baking to add to our morning. If you are able to help, please let Anna know (annas@wanaka.school.nz). |
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Maths Open Hour - Monday 19th August We had a small group of parents (ranging from 1-6 in each classroom) take advantage of this open maths session.
We are following this up with a parent information session about the teaching and learning of maths at Wānaka Primary School, where you can find out more from the teachers presenting, who are in our maths lead team in the school (one from each pod) and also the leadership team will be there as well for any questions you may have. This is happening tomorrow WEDNESDAY 21st 5-6pm in our school hall.
It will also point out the directions the 'new curriculum', recently announced by Erica Stanford, will be taking and where we stand with this.
MP Visit Waitaki MP Miles Anderson visited school last Wednesday 11-12 noon. He visited a couple of classrooms and also engaged with our Kapa haka and ESOL Dance groups. I managed to share some of my thoughts about the lack of staffing and resourcing, particularly for our learning support students. He also got to see some structured literacy which is part of our reading and writing programmes. I expressed my disappointment about the comments made by a couple of ministers re putting the Arts on a back burner in schools. I believe he enjoyed his time here, even with me rambling on, and the children were keen to tell him all about what they were doing.
ESOL Dance / Shared Lunch Our ESOL performances and a shared lunch with their families was a huge success last week with a large number of our ESOL families enjoying watching their children perform and the networking that happened afterwards. A huge thanks to Suresha Namurunnage who worked with Leah to teach the Sri Lankan dance over a number of weeks and thank you to the parents who came to support their children. Some photos below say it all. Healthy Eating at School Wānaka Primary committed to be a health promoting school many years ago, and as you know our focus this year with health is HEALTHY EATING. We are really disappointed to see some children have fruit juice or something similar in their lunch box and also lollies in lunch boxes are also being spotted by teachers. We promote the drinking of water at school and ask you not to send sweet drinks or lollies along to school. Lollies should be seen as an occasional treat food and not included in playlunch or lunch boxes. Please could you support our healthy eating focus and send along fruit and water instead.
School Based EOTC Activities on Thursdays Day one of our school based programmes went off with a blast. Check out the photos below of some Year 6s completing an EPro8 challenge.
Tribe Afternoon This Friday, 23rd August We invite children to come dressed in their Tribe Colours on Friday as in the afternoon, the Tribes will engage in a battle of Olympian (but fun) proportions.
Ministry of Education's Review of Enrolment Zoning in the Upper Clutha I have been asked a few questions about the Ministry's review of Enrolment Zones. The consultation part of the process closes today and then the Ministry will announce any decisions related to changes of zone. This will not impact on any children currently at Wānaka Primary. Please use this link to find out more about the process.
SCHOOL CLOSED ON FRIDAY 6th SEPTEMBER School will be closed on Friday 6th September for a Ministry of Education allocated Teacher Only Day. |
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Donation of EPro8 Equipment A huge thank you to Robyn Blennerhassett for her donation of a complete set of EPro8 equipment to Wānaka Primary School. Robyn donated the equipment on behalf of her late mother, Jill Blennerhassett, who had a strong history of doing charitable things for both our kura and the whole community.
EPro8 is engineering equipment that we use with children to teach them not just technology and mathematics skills, but creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. Our school previously owned 3 EPro8 sets and having this additional set will make the equipment even more enjoyable to use in classrooms. In fact, it is already being put to good use during our school based EOTC programme. Thanks so much Robyn, your kind donation has been very well-received.
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P.E. with Mt Aspiring College Each year, we are fortunate to have a group of senior students from MAC come and work with some of our WPS students on a tailor-designed physical education programme. This year, the programme is being run with students from Pod 7.
The lessons, which run for one hour per week over a period of 5 weeks, have a strong focus on teamwork and collaboration as well as a wide range of different sports skills. We have been extremely fortunate to have such good weather for the first 2 sessions.
Wānaka Primary School would like to thank MAC teacher, Vicky Brown, and her students for running such an enjoyable, well-organised programme. Our kids love taking part. |
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School Camps 2024 - Terms 4 
Payment details:
Online to Wānaka Primary School Account No: 02-0673-0023784-001
OR
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 or Lucy as soon as possible. Payment can be made in instalments. |
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WPS Netball 2025 Meeting - All Welcome Please come along and join the WPS Netball Committee at a casual meeting about the 2025 season on Monday 2nd September, 6-7pm at Hello Ranger. Year 2 parents who are planning on registering their Year 3 child to play netball next year are welcome.
The WPS Netball Committee would also like to thank the Year 6 parents who have helped over the years with coaching and managing. As some of the current committee members have children moving onto MAC next year, we require a few more members to arrange the 2025 season, for more info please email wpsnetballers@gmail.com. |
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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: 'I can identify my strengths and be proud of who I am' Kei te poho kererū ahua - I am proud |
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Enviro Group - EOTC As part of our Enviro activity for EOTC, the Year 5 children took part in planting native shrubs and trees with Jo Guest, Kris and Chrissi from Te Kākano. This is part of the rejuvenation of the pathway behind Pods 4 and 5 which Debbie Kaye (our wonderful Teacher Aide and Enviro ambassador) has been working on over the past two terms. The children felt a real sense of pride and ownership as they carefully prepared the ground and planted each plant. Many thanks to Adam Dowsett for the time he spent digging holes in preparation for the work. There are lots more plants to go in so get in touch with Debbie (debbiek@wanaka.school.nz) or Sharon (sharonp@wanaka.school.nz) if you are keen to help. |
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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  |
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Kiwi Junior League Festival |
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Wānaka Cricket Club - Junior Cricket For further information than what is outlined below, please visit our website, and our Facebook page for updates. www.wanakacricketclub.co.nz WANAKA JUNIOR CRICKET CLUB junior@wanakacricketclub.co.nz
School Year 1-2
This will be a non-hard ball skills and game based sessions appropriate to the age group, Further information and registration details will be communicated via our FB page, on our Website, and by email during Term 3.
School Year 3-4 not wanting to play hard ball
This will be a non-hard ball skills and game based sessions appropriate to the age group, held during the week by Otago Country Cricket facilitators. Further information and registration details will be communicated via our FB page, school newsletters, on our Website, and by email during Term 3.
School Year 4-8 Hardball Saturday Competition
The pre-registration form (link via QR Code, or our website) is for players who are in school Years 4 - 8, who want to play within the Saturday Divisional Grades (Div 1, 2, & 3) hard ball competition, with training during the week. This form is for the club to attain probable numbers in the Divisional Grades for the upcoming season, so that we can move forward early in our planning of teams, Coaches, and pre-season trainings. |
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Central Lakes Polyfest T-Shirt Design Competition  T-Shirt Design Entries click HERE |
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WoolOn Creative Fashion Event |
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| PRESENTS
UPPER CLUTHA SCHOOLS – SKI & SNOWBOARD RACE
2024 Tuesday 17th SEPTEMBER (postponement day Wednesday 18th)
Registrations for this event are open NOW!
Close STRICTLY THURSDAY 12th Sep 4pm
(NO late registrations can be accepted).
NO MIXED DISCIPLINES – EITHER SKI OR SNOWBOARD TEAMS ONLY
SEE LINK BELOW TO REGISTER & PLEASE READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY |
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Fundraising Raffle Former WPS student Priya White (15) made the move to Christchurch at the start of the year to undertake full time dance training at the Anneliese Gilberd Academy, whilst completing her academic studies via the National Correspondence School. As you can imagine costs for her training have increased considerably since moving and Priya has contributed to her dance costs since she was 11. She is now holding a raffle with a difference, with some fabulous prizes donated by Shotover Jet, AJ Hackett Bungy, Basecamp Adventures and Rubys Cinema. She'd be really grateful for any support you can offer. View available ticket numbers via this link and email gillianwhite949@gmail.com or text 021 500 394 to confirm your preferred number. Thank you. |
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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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