| | | | | | IMPORTANT DATES Term 3
Week 6
Thursday 27th August - EOTC / SNOW Programme - Day 3
Friday 28th August - Pod 3 Assembly - online whilst in Level 2
Week 7
Wednesday 2nd September - WPS Cross Country Event (further info below)
Thursday 3rd September - EOTC / SNOW Programme - Day 4
Friday 4th September - Father's Day Breakfast - to be confirmed
Friday 4th September - WPS Cross Country Postponement Date
Week 8
Monday 7th September - BOT meeting 5:00pm - Staffroom
Tuesday 8th September - Upper Clutha Cross Country
Wednesday 9th September - Wig Wednesday (further info in School Notices)
Thursday 10th September - EOTC / SNOW Programme - Day 5
Friday 11th September - Pod 1 Assembly
Week 9
Māori Language week
Swim week - Pod 5
Week 10
Swim week - Pod 6
Friday 25th September - Last Day of Term 3
Term 4
Week 1
Monday 12th October - First Day of Term 4
Wednesday 14th October - PTA meeting
Thursday 15th October - Shake Out
Week 2
Friday 23rd October - Pod 8 Assembly
IMPORTANT NOTICES
Merino School Jerseys
Our order for the merino school jerseys has arrived - all sizes are well stocked. Please pop into the office to purchase.
After School Pick Up in the Dental Clinic Car Park Please be patient when you come to pick children up after school from the Dental Clinic car park. It is very busy between 3.00 - 3.10pm and Claire and Kerry do their best to move cars and buses through whilst keeping pedestrians safe. Please help them by following their directions and when walking to your cars remember to use the footpath and crossing. |
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School Buses 2020 We are delighted to advise that the MoE have revised their initial decision of no school buses for WPS as from the end of this year.
The revised plan now states the following: 'Students who were enrolled and attending WPS on or before the last day of term 4 2019, and were eligible for STA (School Transport Assistance), but would now not be, due to the opening of Te Kura o Take Kārara, will have their eligibility grandparented out if they wish to continue at WPS. In short, these children are eligible for bus travel.' We have identified 8 families who have had a new entrant start during 2020 and unfortunately this revised plan does not include these 8 children. These families have all been contacted and we will keep you up-to-date as more information comes to hand.
If you are unsure if your family has been affected, please contact either Wendy or Katrina for clarification.
Mid Year Reporting Thank you to the 70 families who have responded already. We would like to see another 100 plus parents complete the survey before the end of this week, as the feedback is helpful to refining our systems.
I would like to make a comment here about how crucial the partnership of parents and school is in a child's learning journey. We aim to provide more formal opportunities for parent/teacher/student connections each term, as well as encouraging parents to take advantage of our open door philosophy and contact a teacher whenever you need to find out information about class activities or your child's progress.
We have a Complaints Procedure which you can find here. It requests that any communication or complaint is first addressed to the classroom teacher or to the person the issue is with. If you do not feel satisfied please then talk to the pod leader. If you do not feel the situation has been sorted, please feel free to contact the leadership team - Kerry (Pod 7 & 8), Jennie (Pod 5 & 6), and Jason (Pods 1, 2, 3 & 4). Then you are welcome to contact me directly.
We have parents who email the leadership team or myself before the teachers or pod leaders know of the concern - it is best if the parent discusses the issue with those closest to the student first.
Also please do see us directly and not use social media. We have had a parent post a message on Facebook about our mid year reporting process which was disappointing, as this parent has NOT been in touch with any staff and did not partake in the mid year reporting processes. To make a negative comment without participating in the student reporting or teacher interview, does not give this parent the credentials to give their opinion, and expressing it in the way they did is not conducive to building a home school partnership. If you have an issue or just want to get some information see us first!
If you did like the mid year reporting process and actually went through the whole process, we would LOVE you to complete our survey as often with surveys the dissatisfied customer will complete it rather than the happy customer. We would love to see another 100 plus parents do the survey before the end of this week to give us viable statistics in our analysis.
Emergency Drills Over the following weeks we will be holding our emergency drills. We held the fire drill yesterday, with the earthquake and lockdown drills being the next ones to practice. The children are told,'this is a drill', and we practice each at least once a term. Please talk with your children about how these drills would work at home if there is a fire, etc.
Level 2 COVID Currently we are still at Level 2 and Auckland may be back at Level 2 soon. We have had enquiries from relocating families and have asked anyone coming from Auckland to ensure that a negative COVID test for the family is provided. We have protocols in place at school and new families will be made aware of these. Our focus is to keep our kids and ourselves safe from this virus.
The Ministry of Health has advised that for the rest of the country Alert Level 2 continues with a greater focus on face coverings when out and about. So for any school gatherings we hold at school we are urging parents to take this advice. I am also encouraging staff to consider facemasks when out in big groups and mixing where physical distancing is not possible.
The MoE has stated that 'Face coverings are not required in schools (teachers and students) and early learning services at any alert level. Any children, young people or teachers who wish to wear face coverings at schools or early learning services may do so if they want to. They are entitled to make this decision and should not be criticised for doing so.'
With the cross country next week we will be asking parents coming to watch, to follow some simple rules so we can keep everyone safe and everyone happy.
For example we are looking at having a parents own area near the finish line and would ask parents to stay within this area and not run around the track as often happens. We request that all adults use physical distancing of 1-2 metres and we urge you to consider wearing or bringing a mask so that if social distancing isn't possible because of the numbers that turn up, you still feel safe.
Everyone needs to login using their COVID App or if this is not possible sign in at reception. TRACING PROCESSES MUST BE FOLLOWED PLEASE. We will have hand sanitising and the COVID app at a table in the parents area.
We want you to feel welcomed at school and at school events as we miss you! But we cannot relax our processes at Level 2 and everyone needs to play the game.
Wendy B |
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Wānaka Primary School Cross Country
Wednesday 2nd September
Postponement: Friday 4th September
Parents are welcome to attend and support students. Because we will still be at alert level two, we will finalise the procedures in next week's newsletter we will need all spectators to follow.
Students are encouraged to wear running clothes in their tribe colours.
All races begin and end on Kelly's Flat.
These times for the start of races are indicative only:
9.45am Year 6 Boys
9.50am Year 6 Girls
10.15am Year 5 Boys
10.20am Year 5 Girls
10.45am Year 4 Boys
10.50am Year 4 Girls
11.15am Year 3 Boys
11.20am Year 3 Girls
11.45am Year 2 Boys
11.50am Year 2 Girls
12.15pm Year 0-1 Boys
12.20pm Year 0-1 Girls
Race distances (approx):
Year 0-1 500m
Year 2 600m
Year 3-4 900m
Year 5-6 1800m
The top ten finishers from the Year five and Year six races will qualify for the Upper Clutha event being held on Tuesday 8th September at the Lake Hawea Holiday Park. |
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Seasons for Growth Seasons for Growth is an innovative grief and loss education program that uses the imagery of the seasons to illustrate the experience of grief. It aims to strengthen the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people (aged 6-18) who are dealing with significant life changes.
Courses will be starting shortly - for more information please see attached brochure. If you think your child would benefit from this please contact Mandy Greer at Central Otago REAP 03 448 6115 or mandy@coreap.org.nz. |
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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 10th September. |
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Wig Wednesday - 9th September Wig Wednesday is being held on 9th September (the week after next). We would love the children to come to school in their tribe colours and sporting a wacky hair-do or wonderous wig for the day. Please could we ask that they also bring a gold coin donation to support The Child Cancer Foundation (you can, if you prefer, donate online at https://wigwednesday.everydayhero.com/nz/wanaka-primary-school).
The afternoon will be spent with our fabulous tribe leaders working on some wiggy wonderfulness :) |
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EOTC Arts Group Over the last two weeks, The Arts group have been looking at making Stop Motion videos. During week one the children had to decide on a message that linked with nature. They created little characters using natural resources and developed props to go with these. In week two they began filming their Stop Motion video using natural spaces within our school as their backdrop. The kids have enjoyed working with other age groups and have been very creative in their ideas. Next week they will be venturing out of school grounds to explore some of our natural scenery. |
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Library News
Click here to view our Library Webapp which also gives access to our eLibrary and lots of useful links, activities and book recommendations. There are also lots of talking stories including ones from Melissa, our librarian.
Feel free to email Melissa at any time if you have any questions.
Erik's Reading Challenge Register here to enter Erik's Reading Challenge
Remember you only have to read 5 books to get a voucher so everybody wins!!! |
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Upper Clutha Schools - Ski and Snowboard Race Update: If you registered last year you can LOGIN using the same details but you must now ADD a MEMBERSHIP for your child in order to register for the event.
This is still free but in order for no charge to be added to your shopping cart: Please ensure you choose ALPINE SKIING from the dropdown menu near the end of adding your child's membership info. Tick the box for non-competitive. Then add membership to your shopping cart and check out. You will still be logged in at this stage and then you can find the event and register from there. Please contact the Snowsports office if you have any major issues. Please note you will receive an email via Snowsports confirming your child's registration. If you do not receive this confirmation or you need any assistance please get in touch with Robyn Millar. |
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Clever Kids Cricket Academy |
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Mindful Parenting - Two Workshops Thursday 17th September, 7.00 -8.30pm at Wānaka Presbyterian Church
and
Friday 18th September, 9.30 - 11.00am at Wānaka Community HUB |
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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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