FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK
Kia ora Koutou,
Haere Mai and a very warm welcome back to term 2!! It literally is, beautiful, sunny, and warm to begin the term!! Lovely to stand at the drop-off area and see so many happy smiling faces return to school. The staff are well prepared and so looking forward to what we hope will be a more normal uninterrupted term at school at Orange Level. Today over 90% of us returned to school, as far as we are aware there are no families in our community with COVID at the moment, the holidays were definitely a circuit breaker. We do ask if you can still keep us informed if your child does contract COVID as we can then take steps to ensure others keep safe and we can further mitigate the spread.
The focus of this week’s newsletter:
- Big welcome to these new families
- Powhiri – Friday 6th May
- Garden to Table and Tech subjects, Hard Tech, Soft Tech, Food tech, specialist Art, robotics
- Bike a – thon round-up!!!
- Holiday Property update
- Itinerant Music lessons are starting
- Enrolment Scheme Proposal Consultation closes 5th May
This week:
- Big welcome to all our new families.
- Powhiri Friday 6th May 9:30 start. All families both brand new and those that perhaps started last year but haven’t been welcomed over the past few years due to COVID are welcome to attend and be a part of the official Powhiri. Please RSVP as this helps plan the catering as we finish with a cup of tea and kai in the staffroom and hall. Format: All families to be welcomed, meet on the new concrete at the entranceway of the school. You will be led in.
- Garden to Table, Hard to Tech, Soft Tech, Food Tech, Specialist Art, and robotics all start for our seniors this week. We welcome Graeme Irving to school each week on this day. Graeme is an ART specialist teacher, and has taught art for the last few years at Orewa College we are thrilled to have his expertise snd passion. Please ensure your child has shoes each Wednesday and hair tied up to be safe in these specialist subjects. We are very firm with our expectations.COVID Protection Framework at Orange: please skip this if you have already seen it but it is important for us to ensure everyone is informed of the latest requirements in school. We continue to thank you for the respect you have always shown us as we navigate the pandemic and the continued journey that we hope will end soon.
- Bike a – thon round-up!!! Total raised $25,000 (maybe a little bit more!!). What a fabulous day we ended term 1 with!! Made so special as unexpectedly we had moved into Orange Level enabling us to hold our event even more easily!! The students all had so much fun cycling, completing as many laps as they could of the bike track or those on scooters found the new concrete fantastic for scooters!! Equally as wonderful was the amount of money we raised, just so fantastic and hard to believe but just amazing. Thank you everyone for your support, special thank you to FOWS chief Bike- a-thon organiser, and driver Tania Cummack-Ledger what a fantastic effort Tania!! Special thank you again to Simone du Bernard Harcourts Cooper & Co for her support and generous sponsorship. Here is a photo of Felix Latham who won the overall prize well done.
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- Itinerant Music lessons are starting Welcome back to Ross Hutchison [email protected] or ph 027 3507544. Guitar, drumming and keyboard teacher it has been such a long time since you have been able to come on site!! Ross has a few spaces if you wish to have lessons, he is picking up a few of Maria O’Flaherty’s music pupils as well. Maria is unable to teach still due to an accident earlier in the year. These lessons are paid for by you as a family to the music teacher but held within school time.
- Enrolment Scheme Proposal Consultation closes 5th May – Please have your say, here is the link to the Home page of our website https://wainui.school.nz/
WHAT else will be HAPPENING?
- Assemblies – Now we are in Orange Level we can have full assemblies inside and outside!! The staff have all agreed on having less full assemblies but more time for some team assemblies and full school events.
Three full school assemblies will be held each term. These are led by our Year 8 leaders but each team has a focus and will present 3 Hellyer cups for this term. These assemblies will be live on ZOOM
- 27 May Takahe & Tui team focus
- 17 June Pukeko team focus
- 8 July Kiwi team focus
We will have 3 in-house ZOOM assemblies we will present certificates and share other achievements, these will be led by our year 8 leaders, and a live link will be available.
- Pink Shirt Day will be celebrated with Constable Bryan leading the way as the ambassador for Pink Shirt Day on Friday 20th May.
- Matariki will be celebrated on Friday 24th June information will come closer to the date.
FINALLY
Thank you to Mr. Irvine, Sunny Odedra and Harry Browne Hale, and the Allen family for your leadership and inclusion for us all at the ANZAC ceremony at the Upper Waiwera Cenotaph.
In the future to do feel free to attend I have included some artwork and a few more photos of this day.
Ka kite ano,
Gillian Bray
FOR YOUR CALENDAR
- Friday 6th May – Powhiri to welcome new staff and families – 9.30am – 10.00am followed by morning tea
- Thursday 12th May – Photo Day
- Friday 27th May – Whole School Assembly – 2.00pm – 3.00pm
- Monday 6th June – Queens Birthday – Public Holiday – No School Today
OTHER
Photo Day – It will soon be time for your photos again and your photo day is on Thursday 12th May.
COMMUNITY
