| | | | | | IMPORTANT DATES
Term 1
Week 7
Friday 20th March - Royal Jelly Show - Cancelled
Friday 20th March - Pod 6 & 7 Assembly - Cancelled
Week 8
Monday 23rd March - Otago Anniversary Day - School Closed
Tuesday 24th March - Upper Clutha Athletics - Years 4-6 - Cancelled
Wednesday 25th March - Scholastic Book Orders Close 3pm
Friday 27th March - Pod 8 Assembly - Cancelled
Saturday 28th March - Wanaka Trail Ride - Cancelled
Week 9
Monday 30th March - BOT Meeting - 5pm - School Staffroom
Wednesday 1st April - Central Otago Athletics - Cancelled
Week 10
Tuesday 7th April - WPS Junior Athletics - Years 1-3 - Cancelled
Thursday 9th April - Pod 4 Assembly - Cancelled
Thursday 9th April - Last Day of Term 1
Friday 10th April - Easter Friday
Term 2
Week 1
Tuesday 28th April - First Day of Term 2
Friday 1st May - PTA Mother's Day Movie Night
Week 2
Saturday 9th May - PTA Ski Sale
Week 3
Wednesday 13th May - PTA Dinner Meeting
IMPORTANT NOTICES Scholastic Book Orders The latest Scholastic brochure is now available from classrooms.
If you wish to place an order, please follow the directions on the inside back page using 'Option 1 Credit Card'. If your order is a GIFT, please select GIFT Option, otherwise all orders are distributed to students.
Orders will close at 3pm on Wednesday 25th March.
NO CASH ORDERS ARE ACCEPTED. |
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Situation Vacant - School Office Assistant Wānaka Primary School is seeking a new staff member to join the administration team. This is a term time only role that would suit a parent with school aged children. Hours are from 9.00am – 2.30pm – every day except Wednesday. Key tasks include – reception duties, monitoring and recording student attendance and compiling and publishing the school newsletter.
A full job description is available by contacting Melissa Booth at [email protected].
Applications close Sunday, 29 March 2020. |
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Covid-19 Virus Update Please see the latest MoE notice to schools - click here.
In response to this notice, the following activities have been cancelled until further notice: Upper Clutha Athletics Central Otago Athletics The Central Otago Netball and Rugby Tournament held in Alexandra WPS Junior Athletics - Years 1-3 School and Pod Assemblies The Royal Jelly Show While it is disappointing to have to do this, the decision to cancel these events is in the best interests of our children, parents and school community. We also have an important obligation to help slow the spread of Coronavirus in NZ.
We have supplied toilet soap at all sink areas, in toilets and in the awhina area. Teachers will focus on hand washing and how to keep each other healthy. Proper hand washing technique will be taught, soapy hands and washing until they sing Happy Birthday through twice is recommended as the best way to ensure germ free hands. If you wish your child to use hand sanitiser, please send this to school for your child to use. Teachers have been provided with antibacterial wipes to clean door handles and tables as required and we have requested that our cleaners wipe down all hard surface areas thoroughly. Teachers will organise for children to go in groups to wash their hands before eating and will remind children about washing hands after toileting and playing in the playground. WE WOULD APPRECIATE YOU REINFORCING THESE BEHAVIOURS AT HOME. Please keep children at home if they are unwell and only let them return when they are fully recovered. Staff have been given the same message.
We are currently following the Ministry of Health's and the Ministry of Education's guidelines. There are no plans to close schools at this stage and the Ministry have asked us to consider ways of delivering learning programmes to children digitally in the unlikely case that we are forced to close. We will send updates via email as we receive them.
Our STEPS programme is available to all students; the Board have paid for a licence for each child. This would be an excellent resource if we are forced to close, however, we encourage as many as possible to use this wonderful programme to enhance spelling, language and writing skills that we work on in the classroom.
Teachers Only Day We had 60 teachers from our Upper Clutha Schools work together yesterday on New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL). We explored the Global Competencies and revisited what Deep Learning looks like, with a focus on the critical thinking competency and Learning Design. Margot from CORE Education was our key presenter with many of our WPS teachers leading workshops. Thanks to Jennie (who also helped design the day), Anna, Anne, Kerry, Leeanne and Katie who each presented so well. It was great having Holy Family, Hawea Flat, Take Kārara and MAC Year 7/8 teachers work together...we are so lucky to have teachers in all of our schools who are so passionate and dedicated to providing high quality learning for our children.
Writing Moderation Kerry and I will be busy implementing a writing task over the next week or so with all children Year 2 and up, and we will moderate each child's piece of writing with teachers and provide a report for the Board and the newsletter about the outcomes of this exercise. This will give us an idea of what the strengths and needs are in deeper features (such as style, structure and language used) and surface features (such as spelling and punctuation). Teachers will also share the moderation comments and next learning/teaching steps with children. These will be available for parents to check as they will be filed in their writing or publications work books. We hope to have this process finished by the end of term.
Otago Anniversary Day A reminder that Monday 23rd March is Otago Anniversary day so school is closed - we all get a sleep in. |
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ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) Thank you to those who were able to meet this morning to see the ESOL learning space and learn about Clair’s exciting new ESOL programme. If you were unable to attend but would like to be a part of some of the cultural activities that will be happening throughout the year, please keep an eye on the newsletter for details. Alternatively, ask your child's class teacher for more information. We are keen to hear from anyone who would like to share knowledge/skills from other cultures that other children, or staff could benefit from. |
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Senior Athletics Results Well done to all those that competed in the senior school athletics.
Listed below are our overall winners.
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Mandarin Class Ni Hao
Our year 5 group of students have now participated in several online Mandarin classes with their Chinese teacher Jessica. Jessica ‘zooms’ into our classroom from China each Tuesday afternoon for half an hour and interacts with the children using a variety of fun activities. Anna and I are learning alongside the children and participating in not just the language but also cultural aspects. The children have the opportunity to continue practising their language skills at home as we all have a log in to the Canvas website where there are lots of great activities to test our skills.
Xie xie
Kerry and Anna |
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Robotics/Digi Club News On a Thursday at lunch time we have a Robotics/Digi Club. Children from year 4 upwards can come along and explore some of the tools we have on offer. Currently the group is working on a Minecraft challenge to ‘Build a Better Future’. This can be any number of things – maybe improving sustainability, reducing pollution or tackling climate change – the choice is theirs! This links directly to Computational Thinking in the Digital Technologies Curriculum. Entries can be found here: https://interfaceonline.co.nz/interface-minecraft-competition-2020-students/ |
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PTA Ski Sale The Annual PTA Ski Sale is scheduled for Saturday 9th May. A Ski Sale Sub-committee meeting is being held this Wednesday 18th March 7pm at Monkey Farm. Anyone that would like to be involved in helping with this event please come along. If you are unable to attend the meeting but would like to be involved please email - [email protected]. |
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Wānaka Trail Ride - Cancelled Many of you have asked and are concerned about whether the ride will be going ahead on Saturday 28th March. Until now we have planned to move ahead with the event, however, in light of the government recommendations on Monday that events over 500 people should be cancelled, we have had to reconsider this position.
As the health and safety of our riders and volunteers is of the utmost importance to us, we regret to advise that the Wānaka Trail Ride will be cancelled this year. A huge amount of time and energy has been put into organising the event and we are devastated the trail ride will not go ahead, but the wheels are moving and plans for 2021 are already in motion.
Many thanks to all the volunteers who have put their time and energy into the ride, to the landowners for their generosity and to all the sponsors and supporters who we will be contacting personally over the coming days.
Until next year - stay safe, wash those hands and see you out there March 2021!
For more information on this decision please refer to this link: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-novel-coronavirus-information-specific-audiences/covid-19-advice-public-events-and-mass-gatherings Photo credit and thanks to Stu Tooley Meantime Images |
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Cardrona / Treble Cone Local School Child Season Pass There will be a dual mountain, unlimited pass available for the 2020 winter season with no black out days. Local Primary School - $125 Local Secondary School - $175 Please go directly to Cardrona corner to purchase the pass. You will need to show the email that the office sent this week which confirms your child's enrolment at Wānaka Primary School. |
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Upper Clutha Junior Rugby Open Night Cancelled In light of the government recommendations that large gatherings should be cancelled, we have made the decision to cancel our Open Night this Thursday evening. For any further information please email [email protected] |
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Wānaka Primary Netball Registrations are now open for all girls and boys keen to play netball. The competition runs for all of term 2 on Saturday mornings at the Wānaka Recreation Centre. Players play in either a year 3/4 or year 5/6 team. Please register your keen netballer via this link: https://www.sporty.co.nz/wanakaprimaryschool/.
Registrations close on Thursday 19th March 2020 and there will be absolutely no late registrations accepted this year.
Wānaka Primary Netball Committee We are in need of new committee members! In particular year 3/4 mums or dads to join the committee to steer the club forward into the future as most of us are parents of senior students and will be leaving the committee at the end of this year. Please email Barb Macandrew on [email protected] for more information. |
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Get Ready for Netball 2020 |
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Wānaka Library - School Holiday Programme |
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Playball - Easter Holiday Programme |
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Art in the Holidays One-day Drawing and Painting workshop for ages 7-12 yrs. With step-by-step instruction children will draw then create a vibrant acrylic painting learning tips and techniques along the way. Fun and focused! Where: St. Johns Rooms Wānaka When: Wednesday 22nd April Time: 10.00am - 3.00pm Cost: $55 For bookings please contact: [email protected] or phone 021 132 7033 |
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Olive Webb Challenging Behaviours |
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Cellists of Otago Concert - Postponed The Wanaka Concert Society’s concert, Cellists of Otago, scheduled for Sunday 29th March, has been postponed until a date yet to be decided. |
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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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