| | | | | | IMPORTANT DATES Term 4
Week 4
Tues 31 Oct - Fri 3 Nov - Year 5 Camp - Camp Columba
Wed 1 Nov - Thurs 2 Nov - Year 3 Camp
Friday 3rd November - Gumboot Friday - Gold coin donation
Week 5
Pod 2 Swimming Week
Wednesday 8th November - School Disco
Week 6
Tuesday 14th November - Netsafe Parents Workshop - 7-8.30pm - Hall
Wednesday 15th November - COPSSA Triathlon
Friday 17th November - Tribe Afternoon
Week 7
Wednesday 22nd November - COPSSA Orienteering
Week 8
Tuesday 28th November - Parents Deep Dive 11-12.30pm,1.30-3pm or 4-5pm
Friday 1st December - Pod 2 Assembly - 2.15pm - Hall
Friday 1st December - Reports sent home
Week 9
Wednesday 6th December - Matinee Pantomime Performance - 1pm
Thursday 7th December - Evening Pantomime Performance - 6pm
Week 10
Tuesday 12th December - Tribe Water Fun Afternoon
Wednesday 13th December - Year 6 Leavers Graduation Assembly
Friday 15th December - Last day of school for 2023 - school closes 3pm
Term 1 2024
Wednesday 31st January - First day of Term 1, 2024
IMPORTANT NOTICES Gumboot Friday This Friday is Gumboot Friday. Wear your best pair of wellies and bring a gold coin - all proceeds will go towards helping improve the well-being of young Kiwis.
For more information about the charity, head here.
Leaving Wānaka Primary School If your child / children are leaving WPS at the end of this term and you have not yet advised the office, can you please do so as soon as possible as we will be starting to plan classes for 2024 soon. If your child is in Year 6 and leaving to attend MAC, there is no need to contact us. However, if your Year 6 child will be attending a different school, please advise us of this. Netsafe Workshop for Parents |
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The countdown is on for the WPS Disco...8 sleeps to go!
$2 entry at the door. Parents please drop your child/children off outside at the main entrance, where one of our disco helpers will welcome them in. We are asking parents, if you are not already designated as a helper, to not go into the hall. Please pick up your children at the finish times below from the tennis courts beside the hall. No children can leave the hall until their dance time is finished. This drop off and pick up zone allows us to move one group out quickly so we can move the next group in. Having extra parents in the mix just makes it too hard.
 Bring your best dance moves
Prizes are up for grabs |
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Scholastic Book Fair - 3 weeks to go There are 3 weeks to go until our annual SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR. A percentage of the proceeds go straight back into our school library so it's a win win for everybody. This is a great opportunity to do some Christmas shopping.
This year it is on Monday 20th November - Friday 24th November. Mark the date on your calendars now. I will be calling out for parent help before and after school closer to the time. |
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Board Buzz
The second to last Board Meeting for the year took place last night.
Melissa McFarlane and Francis Jasper the Board's newly elected Trustees were welcomed. They both bring with them a wealth of knowledge and will continue to be valued members of the Board.
Francis presented to the Board the Strategic Directions Consultation Session that was offered to parents last week. The presentation will be shared on the school website for parents to have access to if they were unable to attend the meetings.
Wendy shared the Draft Strategic Plan, Annual Plan and PLD Plan and the Trustees have been asked to review the plans and provide feedback.
Points to note from Wendy's Principal's Report included the length of the school year with the last day being Friday 15th December. We will start the new year on Wednesday 31st January 2024. There will be four Teacher Only Days being Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th January, Friday 31st May (King's Birthday weekend) and Friday 11th November. Board members were updated with property matters.
Francis presented the Financial Reports for August/September and we are tracking along nicely for this stage of the year.
The last Board Meeting for the year is scheduled for Monday 27th November, 5pm in the School Staffroom.
Brendan Hearle
Board Chair |
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Our Year 5s off to camp There were big smiles, nerves, excitement and anticipation as the Year 5s arrived at school and then headed out to the buses. One young lady told me it was more exciting than Christmas. They will have a ball as Camp Columba is a great place for a busy, adventure based camp. We look forward to welcoming them back, exhausted and happy on Friday.
Class Placements Thank you for the information you have given us about your child with regard to class placement. This year we seem to have a lot of students being asked by parents who they want to be with, without a rationale for the request. Please be aware that just giving us a teacher's name as your child's preferred choice, does not mean this will happen next year. We make decisions around the best fit from what we know about the child's learning style, emotional needs and match this with the teacher's teaching style and other children we may have already in that room, or others we have deliberately placed with that teacher. Do not build up your child's expectations, or your own, as placement with a teacher and a cohort of children is a very complex process. The process is very rigorous as the staff spend a lot of time with this looking at peer and teacher matches/conflicts and then the leadership team go through the lists again to make sure we have learning, behaviour, and social emotional needs factored in and no one teacher is overloaded.
Cupcakes, Birthday Cakes... Other sugary stuff and party invitations
We appreciate that parents want to help their children celebrate their birthdays by sending along cakes and lollipops for the whole class, but this is happening too often, as much as 2-3 times a week in some classes. It also seems to be a bit of a competition with the kids, if one does it the others feel they should too.
We politely request, that as schools try to keep sweet things as an occasional treat as part of our healthy eating message, that parents DO NOT send along birthday treats to classes as it has just become too much.
Our teachers are also being approached to give out birthday party invitations and/or the children are giving these out at school. This becomes quite a drama for those who are not invited. Please email out your invitations or give them to your child's friends outside of school as giving them out at school can disrupt a school day with tears and disappointment etc. Teachers will not be distributing these on your behalf so please don't ask.
Please Shut Gates When You Enter and Exit School We have a couple of our younger students who may leave the school grounds if they see a gate open. We are getting new 1.8m fences and gates in the Christmas holidays, which are the required heights for schools now. Our current gates do not latch properly as they have been stood and swung on over the last 13 years which is why the Ministry are upgrading our fence line, from the staff carpark by the hall, right around to the Board owned classrooms at the top of Koru Way. We only have to take more care with these faulty gates for another 6 weeks, so if you see a gate open please close it.
School Discos - Wednesday 8th September Thank you to the team of mums who have organised the school disco, lead by Andrena. Please note that parents have already volunteered to be helpers and will be wearing a fluoro vest at the Disco. Due to the large numbers of children we are expecting we are asking parents to drop off children outside the front entrance to the hall and to collect them from the tennis court area. If we have large numbers of extra parents flooding into the hall with their children this creates chaos, especially when one disco is following on from the other. There will be an adult waiting to greet children as they arrive outside the main entrance and also an adult waiting with the children who are to be picked up, on the courts. Please drop off and pick up promptly.
Rooms 6, 7 and 8 are swimming all of next week Please remember to check that your child has their swim gear every day. |
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WPS Community Pantry Please find our Community Pantry outside the school office. |
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Wānaka Trail Ride The Wānaka Trail Ride have announced next year’s event will not be going ahead, as two of the three farms where the ride is held are no longer able to provide access. We want to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has volunteered their time and energy to enable the ride to happen since it started in 2015. We couldn't have done it without you and thank you for joining us - what an amazing bunch of people we have had involved and what an epic event we created. Thank you and for more information please see the media release online here. 
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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: 'We are open to new learning opportunities and challenging ourselves - we are brave!' |
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Crumbs and Confetti Fundraiser |
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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.  Quote of the Week  |
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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 |
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The Amazing Cardboard Boat Race |
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The Central Otago Regional Orchestra |
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Calm Minds Parent Group Helping your anxious or distressed child |
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| Annual Upper Clutha Angling Club 'Take A Kid Fishing Day' Sunday 26th November 2023 Supervised fishing, free BBQ lunch, competitions This event for 8-10 year olds is organised by the Upper Clutha Angling Club and supported by Otago Fish and Game. Venue is a pond beside Mount Barker Road, that has recently been stocked with hungry trout. To date we have always been able to catch fish! Please click here for more information Enrolment forms are available here or from the school office |
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The Youth Volunteer Awards |
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Alpha Challenge - Kids Event |
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Local School’s Cardrona Bike Park Pass Sort your summer for only $149 with a Local School’s Cardrona Bike Park Pass. This is the best opportunity to level up your riding with Cardrona’s unbeatable trail progression and skill-building areas. Don't miss out on summer adventures on your bike. Grab your pass now, email us at info@cardrona.com, call us on 0800 440 800. |
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Pioneer Energy Ltd - 100 Years of Power On the 23rd of March 2024 Pioneer Energy are going to be holding an event in Roxburgh to celebrate the turning on of Electric Power in the Teviot Valley 100 years ago (Actual date was 27th March 1924).
As part of these celebrations, they are holding an Energy Transformation Competition and an Energy Photography Competition open to children in Central Otago to enter.
Please click here for an outline of the different competition categories.
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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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