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.

It is very hard to believe that we are halfway through our first term with our family friendly week(Week 6) happening next week. This week is set aside each term to support our staff by halting all meetings before and after school, and to ask our families to try and meet with any of our staff on another week. We encourage our staff to leave school promptly at the close of the days and spend the extra time with their own families. If you have urgent matters to communicate to your teachers please email them and set up a time to talk that fits around this if at all possible.We thank you very much for your support of our team.

You should have received the Term 1 newsletter written by our board of trustees. If you have not received it then please email the office for a copy, or look on the school website where it will be uploaded. Please note that our board meetings are held on Weeks 4 and 9 of each term, and that you are very welcome to attend if you are interested. Contact our board presiding member for information about that at edwardc@oratia.school.nz .

We have a lunchtime disco planned for Friday this week. Entry is a packet or tin of non-perishable goods, as we are gathering items for our big wheelbarrow raffle for the Country Fair. Please send an item along with your child if they are wanting to participate in the disco with DJ Matt! If they have a cowboy hat or vest to wear all the better for our Hoe Down Disco.

Thank you so much for your contributions to the Country Fair that have been coming into the school over the past few weeks. We are still needing 2L plastic milk bottles - please take the stickers off them if you have the time. I have seen the wonderful kayak that has been donated by Jayden Stevenson from Avon Towing as the first prize for the fishing competition, which the 900 milk bottles are all for. All the best with winning that!

We have tickets for our big raffle due to be sent home shortly. Each child has 10 tickets to sell at $2 a ticket, with first prize being a $2000 travel voucher, second prize an $800 prezzy card and third prize a $200 Mitre 10 voucher. These prizes have all been generously donated by Dave from Construction Management Group(CMG). We are blown away by the generosity of these two sponsors and thank them very much.

If you would like to contribute in any way with goods, services or donations, from your company or family, please contact the school office and speak to Michelle. We are very thankful to everyone who has already donated in any way, and especially to our PTA for all their organisation of our White Elephant and Used Clothing stalls. The Country Fair is an enormous undertaking and is made possible by all of your support, so we thank you and look forward to seeing you on March 28.

Take care and stay safe.

Kia kaha, kia atawhai.

Ngā mihi nui, Ms Linda

Book Club has arrived! Your copy of Book Club 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 Sunday 8th March.

Orders are placed online only directly with Scholastic. No cash purchases please

On Tuesday Ruma Rua Tekau participated in the MOTAT Mysteries STEAM Cell, where we put on our detective hats to explore evidence, make predictions, and solve a mystery. Our job was to collect clues, examine the evidence and determine who had committed the crime. We wrote a formal letter to Motat after our wonderful workshops. Here is one from Detective McKim:

Detective McKim

Oratia Police

562 Solve it street

Oratia 0604

Wednesday 4 March

Motat

805 Great North Road

Western Springs

Auckland 1022

To whom it may concern,

We are the lead detectives for the Oratia police station. Detective McKim and Detective Robertson-Reade. We are writing to inform you that one of the five suspects has been arrested for the theft of the Mercury bulb from your premises. As you know this a serious offence as Mercury can cause major side effects and extreme illness. The arrested suspect is called Harland Griffith and we have gathered lots of evidence, like camera footage and finger prints. We have also read text message and podcasts to piece all the evidence together. His trial will be on tomorrow on Thursday 5 March and you are requested to attend.

Yours sincerely

Detective McKim

BRAVO TO BENJI

Benji Holdsworth from room 17 received his Rata Cub Award this week. This award is the highest you can receive at Cub Scouts and Benji was the first cub to receive this award at Oratia Air Cub Scouts. To receive this award Benji had to earn his Bronze, Silver and Gold Cub awards. He also had to complete 4 Better World Projects, 10 Adventure Skills, Community engagement hours plus plan and undertake an Adventurous Journey. Benji said the best part of scouts is earning badges, but he also loves the camps, adventures, outdoor activities, making new connections and gaining confidence. If you think you are interested in possibly joining Oratia Air Scouts, have a chat to Benji in the playground or pop along to the Oratia Settlers Hall on a Monday night at 6:00pm (during school term).

As we prepare for our upcoming Country Fair, we are kindly asking for donations of goods to help support our fair stalls. Contributions would be greatly appreciated and will help make the day a success for all. If you have a business and would like to contribute a prize, voucher or cash donation, we would love to hear from you - michellem@oratia.school.nz

We are collecting Jolly Jars for the school gala. These can have a range of wrapped lollies, small unbroken toys, stickers, hair ties etc. Room 22 students will collect during the day. The class that collects the most Jolly Jars will receive a pizza lunch. photo credit - Isla White Room 22

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

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.