| | | | | | IMPORTANT DATES Term 4
Week 8
Tuesday 28th November - Parents Deep Dive 11-12.30pm,1.30-3pm or 4-5pm
Wednesday 29th November - COPSSA Orienteering in Alexandra
Friday 1st December - Year 6 Transition Visit to MAC - 9-12noon
Friday 1st December - Pod 2 Assembly - earlier start - 2pm - Hall
Friday 1st December - Reports sent home
Week 9
Monday 4th December - Pod 2 singing at Enliven 1.30-2.30pm
Tuesday 5th December - Panto Dress Rehearsal (school performance for all students) - 10am
Tuesday 5th December - Kapa Haka performing at Citizenship Ceremony - 1pm
Wednesday 6th December - Matinee Pantomime Performance - 1pm
Wednesday 6th December Butterfields Loop walk for Rooms 5 and 7
Thursday 7th December - Pod Shift (Pods 3, 6 and 8) Parent help urgently needed
Thursday 7th December - Butterfields Loop walk for Rooms 6 and 8
Thursday 7th December - Pod 4 trip to Domini Park
Thursday 7th December - Year 5 Student Leadership Training
Thursday 7th December - Evening Pantomime Performance - 6pm
Week 10
Monday 11th December - Pod Shift (Pods 1, 2 and 4) Parent help urgently needed
Monday 11th December - Year 6 Leadership Celebration afternoon
Tuesday 12th December - Tribe Water Fun Afternoon
Wednesday 13th December - Senior Kapa Haka Morning Tea to farewell Mary-Anne at Take Kārara - 10am
Wednesday 13th December - Year 6 Leavers Graduation Assembly - 1pm
Thursday 14th December - Farewell Assembly for Kerry Guise and Jo Roberts - 2pm. Everyone is welcome.
Friday 15th December - Last day of school for 2023 - school closes 3pm - buses are running.
Term 1 2024
Week 1
Wednesday 31st January - First day of Term 1, 2024
Week 2
Monday 5th February - school open
Tuesday 6th February - Waitangi Day - school closed
IMPORTANT NOTICES
Reporting to Parents
This week our student reporting has begun. Today (Tuesday) we have started with our student-led conferences, this will be followed by Teacher Reports later in the week. Students who have only started at Wānaka Primary School over the past 2 terms will not receive a written report. Please book a time in the coming weeks with your child's teacher to discuss your child's progress. Reports will be emailed to parents and they will also be uploaded to the Caregiver Portal on Edge. For details on the Caregiver Portal please look at our school website link under communication. If you are having trouble logging in please email Jason - jasonc@wanaka.school.nz If you have any queries about your child's report please email your class teacher next week.
Year 6 Graduation Assembly
A warm invitation is extended to parents/caregivers of our Y6 students who are graduating at the end of the term.
This will take place on Wednesday 13th December, at 1pm in our school hall. We look forward to seeing you there. WPS Sports Tops Amnesty Please have a check at home to see if you have one of these lying around as we are missing a large number of them. Please return to the school office.
Tribe Water Fun Afternoon Our last tribe day will be a fun water day! Children will have the opportunity to play water games, have a go on a water slide and have a water gun fight to name but a few activities. We will also have some dry activities planned for those who would rather not get as wet :)
When: Tuesday 12th December
Where: All over school
MUST bring: togs (including a t-shirt or rash vest to cover shoulders), towel, brimmed hat, sunscreen
Can bring: water gun, water shoes / trainers that would be ok to get wet
Lost and Found Property A bank note was found and handed in at last week's book fair. If you lost money at the book fair please come and see us at the office to claim. Please come to the office to claim your belongings before Friday 1st December, it will all then be taken to Wastebusters. Click here to see the collection of lost property we have in the office. 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 have started planning classes for 2024. |
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TERM 1 2024 begins on Wednesday 31st January
Students are requested to assemble outside their allocated Pods by 9.00am – dressed in full uniform, including a sunhat.
- Pod 1 – Year 1
- Pod 2 – Years 1 & 2
- Pod 3 – Years 3 & 4
- Pod 4 – Years 3 & 4
- Pod 6 – Years 5 & 6
- Pod 7 – Years 5 & 6
Parents will be notified of their child's teacher and classroom in the last week of this term. New enrolments are welcome at 10.00am on Tuesday 30th January to complete enrolment and participate in a tour of the school. Please check the Wānaka Primary School website for zoning information. Those outside of the Wānaka Primary School zone, should contact Te Kura O Take Kārara. Stationery lists are available on the school website. Stationery should be brought to school on Wednesday 31st January. |
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Star Warts - The Umpire Strikes Back  Tickets available to purchase from the school office |
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Board Buzz The final Board Meeting for 2023 was held last night. Wendy presented and spoke to her report, Francis assured the Board that we are currently sitting in a good financial position and Karina gave a pleasing Health & Safety Report whereby we have had no severe events happen within the school grounds. As the Board now stands there is a casual vacancy for 1 parent representative and this is explained below. The Board wishes the students, school community and staff
a safe and happy Christmas and New Year |
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WPS Board Casual Vacancy for a Parent Representative A casual vacancy has occurred on the school board for an elected parent representative.
The board has decided to fill the vacancy by selection.
If 10% or more of eligible voters on the school roll ask the Board, within 28 days of this notice being published, to hold a by-election to fill the vacancy, then a by-election will be held.
Request for a by-election should be sent to:
Brendan Hearle
Board Chair
Wanaka Primary School Board
bot@wanaka.school.nz
or 7 Ironside Drive, Wanaka
by: 29th December 2023 |
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Kapa Haka Performing at Citizenship Ceremony Tuesday 5th December at 1pm We are so excited to be asked to perform at the upcoming citizenship ceremony on Tuesday the 5th December. Please note this is only for Year 6 Kapa Haka students as our numbers are limited. The students will travel by bus on Tuesday afternoon, around 1:00pm to the Lake Wānaka Centre and will return before 3:00pm.
Our Big Move - We Need Your Help! All we want for Xmas is our heavier furniture moved! Can you spare a couple of hours in the morning of 7th December and/or the 11th December? We urgently need 6-12 volunteers each morning for a couple of hours. We can even arrange to open up at 7am if people could help for an hour or so before work. We need muscle and energy to help shift the furniture of 7 pods from one pod to another.
Are there dads and mums or any older MAC students (Year 10 up) who could help? Is there a company or firm out there that could donate a couple of hours of their worker's time for a good cause?
We have already moved all of this furniture around during our reclad, but this time we don't have any builders onsite to help. Please email office@wanaka.school.nz if you can help by the end of this week. Otherwise we will be looking at hiring a removal company to do this and that costs precious funds we could use for our students' learning.
Organisation for 2024 Our organisation of classes and pods is as below: - Pod 1 will start with 2 classes and will build to 4 over the year. NE/Y1 teachers in Pod 1 are Sharon and Charlotte Baldwin. We anticipate we will start up two more new entrant classes over the year in Pod 1.
- Pod 2 will start the year with 2 Year 1/2 classes (Ben and Casey) and 2 Year 2 classes (Megan and Mel Hewson). The older Year 1 students will be placed into Pod 2 to keep class sizes manageable in the Year 1/2 area. Jason will be in touch with parents of these older Year 1 students.
- Pod 3 will start with 3 Y3/4 classes with teachers Lisa, Anne and Kelly.
- Pod 4 will also start with 3 Y3/4 classes with teachers Kylie, Danielle and Robyn.
- Pod 6 will start with 3 Y5/6 classes with Anna, Kath and Moira.
- Pod 7 will start with 4 Y5/6 classes with Karina, Dave, Charlotte Lawrie and Coral.
Marg, Marj and Jen C are continuing with their individual and small group literacy teaching, as well as some classroom release. Kirsty Hendry is training in Reading Recovery next year and so will join Jen, and they will work with 4 students each, every day.
The Leadership Team are myself, Jason and Jennie Croxford and of course Leah, our SENCO (Special Needs Co-ordinator). We have Andrena working 3 days CRT (classroom release time), and Jo Parr working 2 days.
We hope to email you your child's teacher for 2024 in the last week of this term.
More Property Work Over the December/January Holidays Our School Site will be busy again over the Christmas break so please do not send children to play at school unsupervised as there will be extra hazards around and different companies working onsite. - The fence from the Board owned classrooms right through to the bike stands by the hall is being replaced with 1.8 metres of fencing. The QLDC is also extending the cycle way which cuts up by the dental clinic, with the crossing by the dental clinic being reshaped and then up the footpath along the fenceline from the bottom gate to the Board owned classrooms (Kids Club/Holiday programme rooms). There will be lots of equipment and contractors involved in the fencing and bike path projects.
- The hall is having some of it's cladding tidied up and then all the hall will be painted.
- After heavy rainfall, the storage room off the hall is having its leak and ceiling repaired. The Pod 7 teachers office, (where a sprinkler nozzle failed and flooded through the ceiling) is having repairs as well.
- Our Outdoor Learning spaces or Maker Spaces may also be started during this time as well as roof repairs so there will be many people in and around the school.
A School Uniform Reminder Some children are getting a bit scruffy looking and not wearing all items of our school uniform as they should be. We are still seeing boys with 'Ethica' underwear (I am getting old, I had no idea what this was until now!! I still think of blokes underwear as Y-fronts!) poking out from underneath the shorts. As part of the school uniform could you please ensure that there is no way that underwear can protrude beneath the shorts. Keep the trendy underwear for home and the weekend please. Also we are seeing a lot of brightly coloured long socks being worn. It is summer so if socks are being worn please make these short socks and preferably white, navy, black or something neutral, as per our school uniform code, rather than highlighter green and orange.
Key Events at a Glance Over the Next Week Friday 1st December: Year 6 MAC Orientation visit 10 - 12noon
Pod 2 Xmas Assembly - a cute dose of Xmas cheer
Reports emailed home
Monday 4th December: Pod 2 sing at Enliven
Tuesday 5th December: 10am - Panto dress rehearsal (all classes invited)
1 pm - Senior Kapa Haka performing at the QLDC Citizenship Ceremony
Wednesday 6th December: Panto Matinee 1pm. Door sales available at this stage
Thursday 7th December: Panto evening performance 6pm. Door sales available at this stage
Pods 8 and 6 shift to their new pod - parent help urgently required
Enviroschools Silver Damian Foster and Robyn Zink from Enviroschools were welcomed at an assembly last week. Our Kapa Haka group welcomed them in and following that, along with students from our Enviro Group, our Enviro Lead teachers, Debbie, and the Leadership team, a tour of the school was undertaken to review new developments since we were awarded our Bronze a few years ago. We shared kai and after lunch Robyn, Damian, Jo, Debbie, Danielle and Francis Jasper from the Board worked with our Enviro student group to review the things we have been working on. Collaboratively, they decided that Wānaka Primary School deserved to be awarded a silver award for our Enviroschools' projects. We are so proud. Thank you Jo for all the hard work you have invested in our Enviroschools initiatives over the years. Next week is our last newsletter for the year. I will send home my usual Xmas email in the last week of school instead with key dates for the 2024 start of year activities. |
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Beehive For the last two years we have been lucky to have our beehive sponsored jointly by the Radford family and Tiaki Bees. Thank you Radford family and Barna the Beeman! This is a valuable learning resource for our school. Children learn about bees and the important role they play in the natural world. The Garden to Table programme also benefits when we sell honey annually. The money goes back into making the programme more self-sustaining. This year our beehive has grown from two to four supers (levels) so we are hoping for even more honey at the next harvest! But we need your help! Would you consider supporting the beehive? We are looking for extra sponsors to help keep this valuable asset at Wānaka Primary School. Please contact debbiek@wanaka.school.nz for more details. |
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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 take ownership of our learning and behaviour'. |
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COPSSA Triathlon We had 28 awesome athletes represent our school at last week's Triathlon for Central Otago schools, held at the Queenstown Events Centre. Congratulations to all who competed as either a team member or as an individual; we were very proud of your efforts and behaviour, especially those Year 6s who competed for the last time as Wānaka Primary students!
Placings - whoop, whoop! Go Wanaka...
Year 6:
1st Individual Boys - Willis McCarroll
1st Boys Team - Dino Chicken Nuggetts (Oliver Simpson, Arthur Searle, Winston Harper)
3rd Individual Girls - Emily Boswell
Year 5:
2nd Individual Girls - Ally Moir
1st Mixed Team - Extreme Team (Ed Hollows, Riley Garrett, Lara Beams) |
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Congratulations to George Campbell George played the 9 hole under 13s grade at the Wānaka golf competition last weekend. He shot a 44 and won the title of 9 Hole Champ. He is off to Christchurch this weekend for another competition. Good luck George. |
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Junior Challenge Race Information The Junior Challenge is a whole school event for all Wānaka Primary Students from Y1 to Y6. Friday 16th February 2024
Location: Glendhu Bay
Event: Junior Challenge
Compulsory for Wānaka Primary School Students Registration – local Wānaka students – by December 1st 2023
All Wānaka Primary school children must register online via the following link:
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Scholastic Book Fair Thank you to everybody who supported our ANNUAL BOOK FAIR. Once again it was a huge success and it's all for the children as we get a percentage of the profits back which goes straight into books for the school.  Library News Can you please help us by getting your children to return their books by the end of this week as we go into stocktake. Your assistance is appreciated. Quote of the Week  Feel free to email Melissa at any time if you have any questions. |
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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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Central Point Dance Studios Presents The Jungle Book |
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Year 6 Only Drop-In at Kahu Youth |
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Lighting of the Christmas Tree |
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Hawea Christmas Wonderland |
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Project Manawa Consultation |
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Mount Iron Roundabout Update |
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The Incredible Years Parenting Programme |
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Wanaka Kids Club Holiday Programme |
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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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