Wairau Valley School

Dear families/whanau,

Next week is our last week of the term. It has been great watching the children engaged in their learning and beginning to understand what they need to do to improve. This is part of the focus on being able to set personal goals and to become more independent learners. However, we still have a small number of learners who do not realise the importance of homework/home-learning that is needed to consolidate the work done at school.

Homework

Nimmi sets home reading tasks and sometimes spelling and basic facts learning. Katie Herbert sets weekly learning tasks around reading, spelling, improving basic facts, and giving oral presentations. The juniors have reading Monday to Thursday nights. The home learning tasks for the seniors take about 20 minutes, 4 days out of 7, so that students learn to plan their time, this helps ready them for high school requirements. A big plea to families to ensure this work is done.

In term 3, if a student in the senior room decides they are not going to complete the 3 or 4 simple homework tasks (that currently is about 4 learners regularly), I will be asking that they remain after school with me, and that you pick them up from school at 4.15 pm. I do not want this to be a parent battle with their kids, so staying with me on a Tuesday takes the pressure off home.

This is all about creating great work habits, as they move up through school to high school. If any parents/caregivers have issues with home learning, please talk to me.

School Lunches Survey

I sent out a simple survey last week, and it seems, although we would like a lunch scheme, the majority of the children do not like the current food. A big thanks to everyone who replied to the survey. 1% would be impacted negatively if we stopped providing lunches, and 20% somewhat negatively. There were lots of suggestions for alternatives. Currently, I am waiting to hear from the Ministry of Education to ascertain if we can be funded to run our own scheme. Meanwhile, we have set up the pie warmer, so that it is available if a child brings food that needs to be heated. Food would need to come wrapped in tinfoil, with the child's name on the front (there are stickers beside the pie warmer) and then they put their food in when they arrive, and they get their lunch out at 1pm. Currently, I provide apples in the foyer, if they do not have any fruit. Hopefully, we will find a solution that suits everyone.

Our new website will enable me to quickly put up results from surveys. The current site does not provide that capability. The new site will be ready by week 9 I hope.

Board Elections

The Board has appointed Susan Fox as our School Board Election Returning Officer. She will call for nominations early next term. We have set our election date as the 10th September. You will receive candidate profiles and voting papers in August.

School Boards govern the school through policy, and the Principal (on the Board as ex officio) has a responsibility to report to the Board on the day to day management aspects of the school. So, aspects like curriculum, assessment, personnel, health and safety, although day to day, all have policies that sit under a clear policy review framework. It is worthwhile having a look at our school policies.

Website: www.schooldocs.co.nz

USERNAME: wairauvalley

PASSWORD: sunshine

Who reviews our policies?

• All reviews are open to board members, staff, students, and the school community (parents/caregivers/whānau).

• Anyone can review any policy that has a review button. Or go to the review section. We are currently reviewing emergency management systems. We have recently held an earthquake drill and this week we will carry out our fire drill.

If you are thinking of standing for the Board, I must remind you that the Board and school work very much in partnership, as a team. From my observations and experience, where Boards do sometimes fail, is when a Board member has their own agenda that they bring to the governance role. All skills and capabilities support a Board to represent the parent/caregiver body. We need you to put your hand up. It is a 3 year role and our Board will have 4 members elected by the parents and caregivers of current and pre enrolled students.

Property

We have a new tenant coming into the school house at the end of this week. The children are preschoolers. Currently, the Board and I are working on developing a new cyclical maintenance plan. That includes aspects like school painting, annual pest control, carpet cleaning, curtain maintenance, the jobs not carried out by the caretaker who looks after daily maintenance.

A big thanks to Steve for sorting out our pool.

Thanks Bruce for providing the dirt for the kids to make a new bike jump.

Sport

It is so fabulous to see our kids shining in the sports arena. Our netball team is currently top of the table. A big thank you to Andebrook Farm for sponsoring fully our netball skirts and to Bim and Scott MacKenzie for providing the netball bibs. The girls looked fabulous on Saturday.

Welcome to new families

A big welcome to the Ali, Millen and Christian families. It is so lovely to have you in the school.

A reminder that this Friday 20th June is New Zealand’s Matariki Holiday.

Kindest regards

Anne Malcolm

Thursday 26th June 5pm- 5.30pm your children can show families their work, their learning, their classroom. Then at 5.30pm the school Matariki Disco starts. If every family could provide a plate of party food that would be great, eg biscuits, sausage rolls, cheerios. We have sauce and serviettes. Parents/caregivers please feel free to join in. Please, no older children unless they are a past pupil and it is discussed with Mrs Malcolm. This Disco is for the children at school now.

We might have a couple more sessions of Ninja Lines and then it will finish by the end of this term. Children loved it and learned to develop their balance and core skills.

Our year 5 and 6 students also went on the trip with the Wairau Room, while the year 7 and 8 students attended their technology classes. It was so great to meet the birds. It certainly made many of us think about conserving our native birds. The pools were cool too.

In art we have started our cloak portraits. Our cloaks tell stories about us, our likes, our interests and our dreams. In Reading, Writing, and Maths we are working on some of our core skills.

Thursday 19th June - St Johns working with classes. Juniors 1.30pm and seniors 11.30a.m.

Thursday 19th June - Board meeting 4.30pm in the Boardroom.

Friday 20th June - Matariki holiday.

Next week is week 9 - last week of Term 2.

Tuesday 24th June - technology for years 7 & 8.

Thursday 26th June - 5pm-5.30pm Classrooms open to show parents/families class work. 5.30-6.30pm School Matariki Disco.

Friday 27th June - Mrs Malcolm away in Auckland speaking at her old school. Mrs Herbert Principal and she will be running the final principal assembly for Term 2, at 2.15pm in the Chalice Room.

Next newsletter week 1 Term 3.

Term 3 starts 14th July . A 10 week term finishing on 19th September.

July School Holiday Camps @ Curious Cove

Enrolments are now open for our holiday camps in June and July.

Matariki Weekend – Fire & Ice (10 – 14 yrs) Fri 20th – Sun 22nd June, Cost $150

July Fishing Camp (10 – 14 yrs) – Mon 7th – Wed 9th July, Cost $125

July Junior Special Camp (8 -11 yrs) – Mon 30th June – Fri 4th July, Cost $225

Visit our website (www.curiouscove.org) for more information.

Calender

St John in Schools - 19 June

Matariki Holiday - 20 June

Parent Visits to Class - 26 June

School Disco - 26 June

Last Day of Term 2 - 27 June

First Day of Term 3 - 14 July

Reminders

Please remember to call or message the school office if your child is sick.

Students are welcome to arrive at school from 8.15 am.

Please inform the school if you are removing your child from class early.