| | | | | | Hello everyone,
This is a quick email to first and foremost wish you a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year, but also to update you on our activities over the last week and provide dates and info for the start of next year.
Firstly,
MERRY XMAS TO YOU ALL. Thank you for your continual support over the year. It has been so exciting to have parents back on campus and we are looking forward to fortnightly pod assemblies starting in term 1 and seeing more of you back in the pods and the hall as we share and celebrate children’s learning. We have really enjoyed working with your children this year as it has been such an enthusiatic, engaged group and we have been very proud of their effort and outcomes.
A big thanks to our amazing staff, teachers, teacher aides, office staff, and John our caretaker who have continued to give their all, in yet another challenging year, to create the best learning environment for our children. They certainly deserve their holiday break!
Thanks to the Board of Trustees, particularly our Board Chair, Brendan Hearle, who has been proactive and supportive. We are fortunate to have a strong, positive, and competent Board who have an eye to providing the best for all children, as well as being good employers for our staff. Thanks to you all.
Thanks to the PTA who have done a lot with the children and with activities at school when fundraising opportunities were limited this year. Watch this space as they have wonderful fundraising plans for next year and count on your support.
Today you will receive an email informing you of your child’s teacher and class/pod for next year. We think deeply about this and make informed decisions for children about the best placement.
School starts back Wednesday 1st February. The school office closes today at 3pm and re-opens Monday 30th January. Please email [email protected] to get in touch with us over the Christmas break.
Remember that Pod 2, Pod 1 and the administration block are fenced off for recladding work over the holidays and there are irrigation/landscaping projects underway so ensure your children are supervised if they come to school to play to avoid health and safety issues. |
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Junior Challenge Wānaka - February 17th 2023 Please find below event and entry information regarding Junior Challenge 2023.
The only major change from the last time the event was run is that we start the day with Year 3 to allow Year 1s to get to school and not be too overwhelmed by the excitement of the day ahead.
Date: Friday 17th February
Location: Glendhu Bay
Entry: via google form: https://forms.gle/tqELHzQ98kckFxMu9
Transport: Buses provided to/from school
Bike Transport to/from Glendhu - please indicate if you require this on the google form
Transport Plans will be communicated in early Feb
Event Information can be found at
https://www.challenge-wanaka.com/events/junior-challenge-wanaka/ |
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| OUR LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS AT SCHOOL |
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Inflatable Playground The QLDC inflatable playground was located at school on Thursday 8th December and what fun we all had. Look at these photos...
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Water Fun Tribe Day The weather was perfect for our water fun tribe day. Calm, settled and warm but not too hot. And what a day we had. There were water fights, water slides, water bombs. Water play and games but more importantly their were screams of delight, happy faces, smiles and laughter, camaraderie and excitement. An awesome day was had by all.
Thanks to Wānaka New World for providing iceblocks for everyone on our Tribe day. |
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Pantomime: Super Stan Over fifty Year 5 and 6 students took part in the performance of our senior school panto ‘SUPER STAN’. There was amazing acting, fabulous singing and dancing, superheroes, evil villains, good guys, crumbly old people who used to be super heroes, colourful costuming, great makeup, humour, drama and lots of fun for all. We have such talent at Wānaka Primary School. Thanks to the Pod 8 production team and to all of the staff who helped with props, makeup, costuming, choreography, sound, lighting, special effects etc. Congratulations to all of the actors who produced 90 minutes of a quality performance.
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Junior Xmas Extravaganza We all enjoyed Pod 1 & Room 10’s Xmas Assembly extravaganza on Monday. The children showcased their talents and kept the crowd entertained! We were treated to dancing, singing and total cuteness overload! |
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Christmas Around the World Pod 4 Pod 4 invited parents in to celebrate their Christmas Around the World studies which they presented to their parents before enjoying an international feast.
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Farewell To Staff Who Are Leaving WPS We farewelled staff members Carin Hetherington (19 years at WPS on and off), Markus Hermanns (8 years at WPS), Leeanne Preston (18 years at WPS) and Katrina Kreft (27 years at WPS) at an assembly on Tuesday 6th December. Thanks to the four of you for being a valued part of our learning community and making such a difference for our students. We wish you all the best with your next pathway in life. You will be missed! |
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Year 6 Graduation Yesterday We farewelled our 89 Year 6 students yesterday, with speeches to the students and parents from Board Chair, Brendan Hearle and principal, Wendy Bamford. Our Year 6s entertained us and then received their leaving certificates, calculators and year books from Victoria Cotton-Everitt and Annie Cervelli, from the PTA.
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Room 3s Out and About Room 3 have been collecting food for people in need and on Tuesday we dropped off all the food to Community Networks. They were so thankful for the generous donations. We have also been learning all about Grebes this term, so on Wednesday we had a big adventure down to visit the Grebes. We saw lots of Grebes and even a baby on its mother's back!
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Pod 3s Trip to the Dinosaur Park Pod 3 had heaps of fun and loads of parents turned up to celebrate Pod 3s wonderful year of learning. |
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Pod 1 Visit to Enliven The so cute factor struck again as Pod 1 took their Christmas joy to Enliven entertaining them with actions, wonderful singing and just being cute. Go Pod 1. |
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On behalf of everyone at Wānaka Primary School have a great Xmas holiday break and come back to us safe and refreshed in 2023.
Smiles and Xmas hugs,
Wendy B |
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Bringing together feathery friends and exciting new books, the Birds of a Feather Reading Challenge launches today.
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura’s annual reading challenge is native bird-themed this year to send the message: birds of a feather read together!
Launching on December 12, the Birds of a Feather Reading Challenge will run until January 13.
The Reading Challenge is an interactive website. Children aged five and up are invited to register for free and choose a bird team to play for, each named for a native bird including Forest & Bird’s Bird of the Year 2022, the pīwauwau rock wren.
Players log the books they read over the summer, along with a star rating and short review. A ‘readerboard’ keeps track of the teams as they move up and down the rankings accordingly.
Guided by children’s feedback, the Birds of a Feather Reading Challenge features a simplified book-logging system and teams arranged by age groups.
There’s also an analogue option this year, with the addition of a downloadable reading bingo card for summer reading fun away from the computer.
It’s the sixth time the organisation has run such a challenge. This year, there are multiple ways for children to win prizes, and only one is related to reading a large volume of books.
Among the prizes on offer are five memberships to KCC (Kiwi Conservation Club Hakuturi Toa), thanks to support from Forest & Bird. There are lots of books to be won too, including bundles of books about native birds and wildlife as well as chapter books for older readers.
To win a specially-curated set of new books, children can send in a picture of their favourite book or summer reading spot. The top readers in each team will also win Booksellers tokens at the end of the competition.
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura CEO Juliet Blyth says the reading challenge is always a fun way to address the well-documented ‘summer slide’ in learning over the holidays.
“We encourage the whole whānau to get into reading this summer and enjoy books alongside their tamariki in this fun challenge. Reading to and with your children is one of the best ways to grow a reader for life.”
Juliet has tips for bringing more books into our lives for joy and relaxation at a time of year that can be tough.
“We may have been asked to ‘cool our jets’ this summer but you can never read too much, and reading is one of the most accessible activities there is. Sign up at your local library, seek out the nearest little library in your neighbourhood, check out the second-hand shops in your area and your local bookshop and ask for books for Christmas! Reading is one habit you’ll never regret,” she says.
Read NZ is grateful for the generous support of Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club and publishers for the prizes on offer.
Sign up for the Birds of a Feather Reading Challenge by registering at reading-challenge.org.nz.
About Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
Established in 1972, Read NZ Te Pou Muramura has been inspiring readers for 50 years.
As Aotearoa's national agency dedicated to reading for pleasure, it seeks to build a strong reading culture by advocating for the transformative power of reading and its ability to improve social, cultural, and economic outcomes for everyone.
It does this by delivering programmes in schools and communities, including Writers in Schools. www.read-nz.org
Contact
Melissa Wastney
Communications and Engagement Manager
Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
[email protected]
021512100 / 04 9097716 |
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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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