| | | | | | IMPORTANT DATES Term 1 2024
Week 4
Pod 1 - Swimming all week
Tuesday 20th February - Parent Welcome Picnic and Jump Jam - 5.00pm
Week 5
Pod 6 - Swimming all week
Thursday 29th February - Athletics (Years 3-6)
Friday 1st March - Athletics (Years 3-6)
Week 6
Pod 7 - Swimming all week
Tuesday 5th March - Tutus on Tour Performance - Lake Wānaka Centre
Thursday 7th March - Upper Clutha Athletics
Friday 8th March - Ballet Workshops with RNZ Ballet
Friday 8th March - Pod 6 Assembly 2.15pm - Hall
Week 7
Friday 15th March - Pod 7 Assembly 2.15pm - Hall
Week 8
Monday 18th March - Life Education Trust with Harold the Giraffe here until 5th April
Monday 18th March - Board of Trustees Meeting - 5pm - Staffroom
Wednesday 20th March - Author Visit - Steve Mushin - 1.30pm
Week 9
Monday 25th March - Otago Anniversary - School Closed
Wednesday 27th March - COPSSA Athletics (Years 5&6)
Friday 29th March - Good Friday - School Closed
Week 10
Monday 1st April - Easter Monday - School Closed
Tuesday 2nd April - Easter Tuesday - School Closed
Wednesday 3rd April - Top Bike (Year 6)
Friday 5th April - Life Education Trust with Harold the Giraffe last day
Friday 5th April - GRIP Student Leadership Training
Week 11
Friday 12th April - Pod 4 Assembly 2.15pm - Hall
Friday 12th April - Last Day of Term 1 - School Finishes at 3pm
Term 2
Week 1
Monday 29th April - First Day of Term 2
Monday 29th April - School Photos
Tuesday 30th April - Thursday 2nd May - EPro8 Challenge
IMPORTANT NOTICES
Challenge Wānaka Lost Property
All bikes have been returned and need to be collected from the courts by the end of this week please.
All other lost property is now at the Rec Centre for the next 2 weeks. Any requests for lost property need to be sent to Penny - penny.batchelor@qldc.govt.nz. It will be held until Monday 5th March. It will then be taken to Wastebusters. |
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School Furniture and Paver Sale |
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Last Night's Board Meeting The Board had their first meeting for the year last night. Tom Syben was welcomed as our new Board Member. Tom owns businesses in town and on the Coast, is involved in the community as a volunteer with the Fire Brigade and is keen to be a part of our school board. He was elected by selection and will remain on the board until the next triennial elections in 2025.
Jason, Jennie and Leah presented their reports on student achievement, maths surveys and Learning Support. Wendy's comprehensive report followed covering projects that had been completed in the holidays and projects on the go. Grants are being sought for new Kapa Haka uniforms and equipment to assist some of our ORS students.
The next Board Meeting is scheduled for Monday 18th March. |
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2024 Annual School Fees Activity Fee The annual activity fee is $60.00 per child for 2024. This is a compulsory fee which covers extra-curricular costs, such as those incurred by bringing visiting performers/specialists to Wānaka, for example, sports coaches, dance/music/drama performances and special events. Collecting this annual fee avoids the time consuming exercise of collecting 450 plus entry fees each time there is a performance or activity. The $60.00 payment is required by 20th February 2024. Please make your payment as soon as possible, as participation in such
activities is on a user pays basis.
School Donation for 2024 Since 2010, the Ministry of Education has frozen core funding to schools. This has increased the reliance on receiving a donation from parents to adequately staff and resource the school.
Your donation assists the Board to fund items or activities that the Ministry of Education do not fund, for example: Specialist Music (e.g. band, instrumental) Extension programmes Kapa Haka Programmes Digital Technology Specialised equipment for the classrooms School Shows (e.g. Pantomimes) Unfortunately, Wānaka Primary only receives the bare minimum in operational funding due to the school being a Decile 10 as determined by the Ministry of Education, hence the donations received truly make a difference to your child’s experience at Wānaka Primary School.
The suggested School Donation is $150.00 per child for 2024. Tax deductible receipts are issued for all donations.
Payment of the Activity Fee and School Donation can be made by:
Direct Credit to Wānaka Primary School – account 02-0673-0023784-001
Eftpos (cheque or savings no credit) available at the school office
Cash – please ensure you provide your child’s name and room number with payment
Brendan Hearle
Board Chair
Wanaka Primary School Board of Trustees |
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Challenge What a fabulous day was had by all. Perfect weather, a super duper event and happy children and teachers as the day flowed so well. Everyone came back feeling they had been challenged and also had fun.
Parent Voice Meetings Thanks to those parents (62%) who turned up last week to connect with teachers and tell them about their children. There have been others of you who have turned up prior, in the last week or so, and others will pop in this week. Tonight at the Welcome to 2024 Picnic/Jump Off is another opportunity to connect with your child's classroom teacher if you haven't already. We are delighted with the response to these and this will serve to set up a positive learning relationship between parents, families and the school.
Attendance and Getting to School Before the First Bell at 8.55am Last year's attendance data was back to its pre-Covid high levels so well done everyone. Remember that your children need to be at school every day it is open for instruction, to benefit their learning in all areas. Of course if they are unwell they need to stay at home.
The school cannot be held responsible for days of missed instruction or any effect this may have on children's learning. We do not provide extra work or special programmes for days not present at school. This includes if children attend programmes such as One Day School, or external ski programmes and any private tutoring, music or dance lessons or exams etc. Teachers always try to fill gaps, and teach what the children need as next learning steps, but cannot be accountable for lost instructional opportunities from a day when the child was not present.
Farewell Teresa our Terrific T.A. Teresa, one of our awesome Teacher Aides (or teacher angels!!!) is moving on to greener pastures (literally) and taking on a career change, after 21 years at Wānaka Primary School. What will we do without her wacky sense of humour and the laughter that she incites? She has worked with children with higher needs, and also worked with groups on our STEPS programme. She is an expert at Lego Club and also our Numicon maths programme just to name a few of the talents we will miss. The kids love her as do the staff. Teresa will be missed, however, we can still head down to the golf club, her new workplace, to catch up with her. The staff are having a farewell morning tea for Teresa tomorrow.
Swimming Underway Pod 1 kicked off their swimming instruction sessions yesterday, with Pod 6 swimming next week and Pod 7 the week after. We are able to take 22 students down to the swimming pool thanks to our minivans, however teachers will be looking for parents to help transport children as well, so get in touch with your child's teacher if you can help with this.
Wānaka Primary School Run, Jump, Throw Athletics Our school athletics involve all children in Year 3 through to Year 6 this year and take place on our school field on Thursday 29th February and spill over onto Friday 1st March as well. Further information about the activities and the timing of these will be sent home to you in the next day or two. So watch out for this.
The PTA will have a BBQ sausage ($2), 'no sugar' cans of drink ($2) and ice blocks ($1) for sale, $5 for all three, at lunchtime on Thursday as a school fundraiser. Please send along the correct change if possible and as always it's best in an envelope, especially for our younger students, they can pass over to the parent helpers, with what the child is buying written on the outside. This stops coins being lost in bags or on the ground.
The PTA are also looking for helpers to cook the BBQ sausages etc. If you can help for an hour on Thursday, either between 11am and 12noon or between 12noon and 1pm, please offer your help by clicking on this link. We will need at least 5-6 helpers for each time slot to support Annie, our PTA BBQ fundraising Queen (go you Annie!).
Wānaka Show Art All classes are creating artworks to be displayed at the Wānaka Show. I love seeing what each class comes up with.
It's been another fantastic week here at WPS. Thanks for your ongoing support of your children and our staff, as they lead their busy lives at school learning and living our values and global competencies. |
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Seasons for Growth Please click here for a brochure
We intend to run the Seasons for Growth programme in term 2.
Please use this link to register. |
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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: 'I wear the correct uniform with pride'. |
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WPS Netball 2024
Registrations for the 2024 netball season will open NEXT WEEK! Please look for the registration link in next week's newsletter. |
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WPS Produce Stand We have produce available, for a small donation, on our Garden to Table produce stand outside the office. You are also welcome to donate your surplus veggies from your garden. |
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Library News Click the image below to view our wonderful Library Webapp.
It has been wonderful seeing all the children back in the library and as eager to get books out as they were last year. Please feel free to email me if you want to ask anything related to books and your child's reading interests in our school library. Digital and Audio Resources Borrow box is an amazing resource which you can have free access to for digital reading and audio resources for your children. Click on the image below to look at the amazing range. You need a QLDC library membership (which is free) to borrow.
BookHub BookHub is an relatively new NZ based website where you can search for books you want to buy online from NZ based booksellers rather than from overseas sites.
Obviously I support local booksellers as well but if you are an online shopper I fully support supporting NZ businesses before the likes of Amazon who charge exorbitant shipping fees. Click on the icon or this link : https://bookhub.co.nz/
Quote of the Week
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When to Keep Your Child at Home
When your child: Has signs of being unwell i.e. grizzly, unsettled, listless or tired Has a high temperature or appears very hot Is complaining of, or appears to have a sore tummy, throat or ears Has a continuous cough Should be at home if has had diarrhoea and vomiting within the last 48 hours Has weeping, red eyes and/or a yellow discharge around the eyes Has broken skin sores Has become ill with a communicable disease e.g. measles, chicken pox If you are unsure, call your Doctor or Healthline for free health advice: 0800 611 116. Please inform school if your child is going to be kept home. |
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Financial Wellbeing Workshop |
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Jennian Homes Junior Trail Run |
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Wānaka Preschool Sustainable Gala |
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Wānaka A&P Show
wanakashow.co.nz |
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Food For Love Charity Auction |
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Upper Clutha Rugby Club Registrations |
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Football Registration Open |
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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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