ORATIA SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

MESSAGE FROM MS LINDA

Tēnā koutou katoa. Nau mai ki te whānau o te Oratia. Talofa lava. Malo e lelei. Zdravo. Ni hao. Namaste. Kamusta. Greetings Oratia whānau and families.

Welcome back to school everyone. We are so happy to have you all with us again. The break looks to have done us all good as I see relaxed and happy children coming through the gates, and our teachers have all said how much they valued the non-contact time to recharge after such a busy first term. The Country Fair was a real success with excellent attendance from our school and the wider community.We are still paying a few invoices as they come in but the overall figure that we raised was around $28,000. Thank you so much to everyone that contributed to this awesome fundraising amount. We will be using this money to pay off the final debt on the middle school playground. The final cost of that playground was around $200,000 so it has taken many years of fundraising to achieve its installation and payment.

Term 2 is eleven weeks long with Anzac Day(Monday, April 27) and King's Birthday weekend(Monday, June 1) in the mix. The day after King's Birthday is going to be a Staff Only Day where the staff will be working on the Maths curriculum. So, take note that Tuesday June 2nd school is not open for instruction, and you will also need to organise supervision for your children that day.

We will be beginning rehearsals this term for our Term 3 school production 'Bottled Up'. Congratulations to all the students who were given main parts in the play, and all our students will be featuring in some way in the production, so we are sure you will all want to come and see it.

Mid-year school reports will be coming out at the end of the term. There are a number of changes to the way the government is asking us to report to parents, as part of the curriculum review, and so we are going to host a parent information evening towards the second half of the term. Keep an eye out for the date once we have published it.

Take care and stay safe.

Kia kaha, kia atawhai.

Ngā mihi nui, Ms Linda

ANZAC ASSEMBLY - FRIDAY 24th APRIL, 10am

We warmly invite you to join us for our ANZAC assembly tomorrow morning. This will be a special time for our school community to come together to remember and honour those who have served.

We would love to see you there.

Rua (6) from Lone Kauri wrote an amazing ANZAC Day poem.

Book Club -- Issue 3 has arrived! Your copy of the Book Club catalogue should have come home in your child's school bag last week! It's packed with hundreds of books from just $3. If you didn't receive it, you can grab a copy from the library.

Did you know that every purchase you make on Book Club earns our school 15% of the order value in Scholastic Rewards? We use these to purchase more books and educational resources for the school. It all helps! The closing date for orders is Thursday 30th April.

Please note: these can not be paid for at the office.

Kiwi English, Mathematics and Science Competitions

There is the upcoming opportunity for Year 5 and Year 6 students to compete in the Kiwi Competitions, offered by the University of Canterbury. These skill-based competitions take place annually and are designed by New Zealand teachers for New Zealand students, closely aligned to the New Zealand Curriculum.

Each test is $10 and you can register your student on Kindo (closing date 8th May) for any or all of these, depending on their interest. You can find out more information at www.canterbury.ac.nz/cam/. Students receive a certificate and a prize will be awarded to the top student nationally. Parents will receive an individual student report of their child's performance. The tests are administered at school, under exam conditions, near the end of Term 2. Contact Matt Moncur for questions or queries: matthewm@oratia.school.nz.

Online Safety Hub for Parents and Whānau

Through our use of Linewise internet safety products, we have access to an Online Safety Hub for parents and whānau. You will also find a link to a safety app for parents, called Qustodio.

This short video (can you embed this video in the newsletter?) explains what the Online Safety Hub can offer. For more information, please contact Matt Moncur at matthewm@oratia.school.nz

Health Statement Consultation

We are currently inviting feedback on our health statement, which details how health is taught at Oratia District School as part of the Health and Physical Education Curriculum. This comes as part of our two yearly review process, guided by the Education and Training Act 2020. Please follow this link to find out more and have your say.

We would love to gain as many responses as we can. We have extended the survey for one week longer and will close it on Thursday 2nd April. Thank you in advance for your contribution to tailoring this statement for our school's future teaching and learning. We very much appreciate those of you who have already given feedback.

POLICY TO REVIEW!

This term, the scheduled review focuses on behaviour management, staff wellbeing and safety. For more information about the review, go to the Current Review tab at the top of your SchoolDocs site. A summary is provided below.