Wānaka Primary School Newsletter for Term 4 Week 1

Newsletter Term 4 Week 1

15th October 2024

IN THIS NEWSLETTER

IMPORTANT DATES

Term 4
Week 1
Thursday 17th October - AWE Orchestra Performance - 1pm
Week 2
Tuesday 22nd October - Year 6 Camp Week - all week
Tuesday 22nd October - Year 5 Camp Meeting 5pm - Rm 24 Pod 6 -
All Year 5 parents welcome
Wednesday 23rd October - Central Lakes Polyfest - Queenstown Events Centre
Week 3
Year 4 Camp Week
Monday 28th October - Labour Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
Week 4
Pod 2 Swim Week - all week
Tuesday 5th November - Year 5 Camp - all week
Wednesday 6th November - Year 3 camp - 1st group
Thursday 7th November - Year 3 camp - 2nd group
Week 5
Friday 15th November - TEACHER ONLY DAY - School is closed for instruction
Week 6
Book Week - all week
Week 7
Tuesday 26th November - End of Year Parent Deep Dives
Friday 29th November - End of Year Reports emailed out
Week 8
Tuesday 3rd December - Parent Teacher Conferences
Wednesday 4th December - Parent Teacher Conferences
(booking system to be set up for these)
Week 9
Tuesday 10th December - Matinee Performance of Pantomime
Wednesday 11th December - Evening Performance of Pantomime
Friday 13th December - Wendy's Farewell
Week 10
Monday 16th December - Tribe Water Fun afternoon
Tuesday 17th December - Year 6 Graduation Assembly 1pm
Wednesday 18th December - Last day of school 2024

Term 1, 2025
Monday 3rd February - First day for students 2025

IMPORTANT NOTICES

Year 5 Camp Meeting

The Year 5 Camp Meeting is at 5pm on Tuesday 22nd October in Room 24, Pod 6. All Year 5 parents are invited to attend.

Friday 1st November is Gum Boot Friday!

Children are asked to come to school in their flashiest gumboots and bring a gold coin donation to donate to 'I Am Hope', a charity supporting little people with big feelings. Don't have gum boots? No worries - just wear whatever you like, decorate your feet even but please remember a gold coin for this important charity.

Click on this link to find out more

FROM THE BOARD

Principal Appointment at Wānaka Primary School

I have the pleasure in announcing that Wānaka Primary School's new Principal to start at the beginning of 2025 will be Rob Rush.

Rob Rush is currently the Principal at Clearview Primary at Rolleston in Christchurch and he is excited to be coming to lead Wānaka Primary School. He comes with a wealth of experience with over two decades in the education sector in New Zealand.

Rob has both been a Teacher and Principal of several schools in both the North and South Island and is a keen mountain biker and multisport athlete so will fit in well to our community.

The Board had an enormous amount of applications for the Principal role, in fact it was double the normal response rate in New Zealand. We had applicants from all over New Zealand and overseas which is testament to the hard work that all of the teaching staff and management have put into this school, hence making it known as one of the best schools in New Zealand.

The Board would like to formally welcome Rob to the Wānaka community and we look forward to working with him from 2025 onwards.

Brendan Hearle
Board Chairperson

CURRICULUM COMMENT

Welcome Back Everyone

Welcome back to term 4 everyone. I am writing my newsletter update from Tampere in Finland, where 20 of my New Zealand colleagues and a couple of Australian colleagues are about to start our visit to schools in the area to find out about their systemic and operational strengths. We start with hearing from the University and academics and perhaps a politician, then tomorrow we have a look around the schools for the rest of the week.

Our local principals Tania Pringle (Hāwea Flat) and Jodie Howard (Take Kārara) are here on the school tours as well, along with principals Sarah Graham from Alexandra and Anna Harrison from Goldfields School in Cromwell. We took a few days to travel to Helsinki and then on to Tampere yesterday as we stopped over in Dubai, went to Rovaniemi in Lapland where we stayed in igloos, and to visit Santa of course on behalf of all the children in our Central Otago Schools, (and it snowed whilst we were there) and we also spent a day in Tallinn. That has been our wellbeing part of the break. Now we are rolling up our sleeves and finding out more about why Finland is seen as a successful education system. I will reveal all when I get back Wednesday next week.

We have an amazing Term 4 coming up with camps, Kapa haka performances, the Year 6 pantomime 'The Pirates of the Curry Bean' being staged in week 9, swimming, and of course with it being my final term with our amazing children and staff I am going to savour every day of being in my happy place. The Board has appointed a new principal and having met him and 'done my homework', I think Rob will be a great fit for Wānaka Primary School and so I can happily leave my happy place in his hands and that of the leadership team and staff. Mind you I am going to feel so strange this term as the year end approaches so I may need lots of hugs and smiles to help me get through the term.

Next week the Year 6s are off to camp in Dunedin and will be kept busy with a full and varied camp programme including an overnight stay in the museum this year. Some of our Year 5 and 4 students in the Kapa haka group are taking part in the Central Lakes Polyfest. Anne will no doubt be drilling them daily this week to get them ready for the performance at the Queenstown Event Centre. And it is now all go for practising the pantomime as we move from script reading to working with the dramatic and musical conventions. We have some great actors stepping up to showcase their talents.

The Ministry of Education has asked our Year 1 teachers to trial the 'new' phonics test to inform their future decisions about what needs changing in this test before it is nationally introduced in 2025. This will be happening over the next week or so and we will all be interested in seeing first hand what this is going to look like.

Finishing off the Makerspaces areas

The plastic blinds to protect the Makerspace areas will be installed this term, as we gratefully received funding from the WPS Fun Run, Central Lakes Trust and the Otago Community Trust, (and hopefully still awaiting news of Lotteries funding). The cost of the blinds and installation is around $34,000. We need these units shelved as well, preferably with us only having to pay for the shelving materials. So if there are any dads or mums out there who have the skills and time to help us install shelves into our 6 Makerspace storage sheds please let us know. Is there a company/business/social club out there who could organise this for us? It wouldn't take long and it would be great to get the shelves in so we can start purchasing our equipment and materials for our makerspaces activities.

Sunhats

A reminder that sun hats are compulsory over term 4 and must be worn whenever the children are outside learning or playing. No caps please, the hat must protect the ears and neck. This rule also applies on sports days and camps. Sunsafe hats only. Also please ensure your child has their sunscreen on when they come to school in the morning and has their own supply in their bag. Teachers will prompt children to apply their own sunscreen as needed.

Well done Room 1 for all having your sunsafe hats ready.

Also a reminder that water bottles need to be brought along and we ask that no sweet drinks are sent to school. We noticed this happening more and more earlier in the year and remind you we do focus on healthy eating and drinking and ask that sugary foods and drinks are left at home.

Pod One is Filling up

Marj is moving out of her literacy support role and taking on our last new entrant class this term. She is teaching in Room 3 in Pod 1 and had 15 children start yesterday with the next intake arriving at the beginning of Week 6 this term.

Children with Allergies

We have several children enrolled at Wānaka Primary School who have potentially life-threatening allergies to both eggs and all nuts. Whilst the children are aware of the need not to share any food or drink - and all staff are informed of their medical condition - it would be helpful if all parents could consider not sending food to school with their children which contain egg or peanut butter fillings or nuts of any kind.

This is a request for your support and understanding to help us minimise the likelihood of an adverse reaction for some of our more vulnerable children.
Thank you.

SCHOOL NOTICES

New to MAC Information Evening

ESOL Snow Experience

At the end of Term 3, Jason and Leah took 9 of our ESOL (English as a Second/Other Language) students up to Cardrona to have a chance to play in the snow. For most of this group, it was the first time they had been up to the ski area. For some of the students, it was the first time they had seen snow!

Leah, Jason and the ESOL students went up the chondola, hiked to the summit, threw snowballs at each other, had lunch and hot chocolate in the snow, enjoying this amazing environment in our community that was so new and foreign to these children. On the way home more than half the group were asleep in the minivan by the time the van had got to the bottom of the ski field road! Thank you to Cardrona for hosting us and letting our ESOL students experience more of the special environment in which we live. This was a wonderful way to develop language as well as experience.

Hato Hone St John Regional Youth Competitions

Congratulations Riley Syben

Riley competed with Daisy Speak in the pairs competition. This involved competing in First Aid Trauma, Healthcare, Written test, Communication, and drill. They took out places in most of their events and finished an amazing 2nd overall for the South Island.

Riley also was awarded the Novice award, which is given to a cadet who is competing for the first time and amplifies the values of Hato Hone St John.

Scholastic Book Club/Loop Instructions

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.

Or click on the image below to order:

Orders will close at 9am Thursday 31st October.

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 are open to new learning opportunities and challenging ourselves'.

LIBRARY NEWS

Lock in the Date 18th - 22nd November

5 weeks to go!

Our annual book fair is coming up in week 6.
This is our biggest fundraiser for our school library.
This is a great time to do some Christmas shopping!

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/