FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK
Kia ora Koutou, Nihau
Thank you to everyone who attended our “Back to School Night” last Thursday!! This is one of the ways we begin our journey with you as parents this year. Wainui School believes in a partnership, working together and to be the very best we can be!! We have put information boards together with all sorts of information for the year from the School goals and Charter, to music tutors and the Fish Philosophy that is complementing our 5R’s this year. These can still be seen at the back of the hall and we will leave these there until Friday after the first whole school Assembly. If you haven’t met the class teacher, seen your child’s classroom or let them show you around, please do come in and say hello.
This is the introduction, to the year. Learning Conversations will be in week 8: Monday 25th March & 26th March!! This is the time we really discuss the years learning goals and more details around achievement, aspirations and what we are doing. Further information will come out closer to the date.
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
Swimming!! – Yes, we have all been using the pool as much as we can to improve water safety, confidence and of course learn to swim or improve our swimming. BUT we have an issue with our pool. Sadly the filter is not coping with the numbers using the pool. The filter does not like the hair, sunscreen, or the sand and dust that gets in there. We will have swimming caps available at the cost price of $3.00 in the office. We need to wear our caps, please. This will be mandatory from Monday otherwise we will need to close the pool more frequently.
Mr. Lee is trying really hard to keep the pool in working order but with this long extreme heat, the pool needs topping up with water as it evaporates so fast – this is not easy for us.
We are all loving cooling off in the water. Please help by getting a cap (named). Swimming goggles also need to be named as we have a small pile of “Lost” ones already.
THIS WEEK
Welcome – To 9 students and their teachers from “Peking Elementary School” in Beijing. These students are with us for one week, this is a new trial for us. There are three students in each of the Tui team classes as they are 10 and 11 years old. The students also have a block with Mrs. Taylor to learn English and to ensure they are happy and integrated into the programmes here. We welcomed the group with a small powhiri, it is fantastic our kapa haka group are so confident early in the year to perform this ritual, we were very proud of the group again this year. We look forward to getting to know a little about Chinese culture and sharing our learning over the week.
Attendance, Absence and “Late” Tracking of students – We have found it necessary to review our attendance, absence, and lateness tracking procedures.
Today we have introduced what we think will be tighter procedures for everyone to ensure the office staff of Miss Ludwig and Mrs De Cort can only follow up anyone unaccounted for when they have to. They are very committed to doing this correctly but it doesn’t need to happen if we all follow the correct procedures. We needed to ensure this was all completed between 9.10 and 9.30am.
Please read carefully:
Absentee Tracking
Morning Procedures
- 8.55am First bell (two bells) – all students and teachers in class.
- Bell is rung by office staff.
- Roll taken by teacher/ reliever by 9.05am (10 minutes).
- 9.10am Bell (one bell) is rung by office staff.
- LATE arrivals must report to the office for a LATE PASS. The “Late Pass” indicates to the teacher that the office has marked the roll with an “L” for Late.
NB: Repeated “Lateness”, (repeated being 4 or more within a short period), will be followed up with an email/ letter from the Principal.
Each case is different though, the Principal will be alerted by the teacher as to who it is, why and the dates of being late.
Afternoon Procedures
1. Bell rings at 2.55pm.
2. Students years 1-4 are walked down to the hall and the bus shelter by teachers.
Students year 5-8 independently go to the hall for the bus or to the bus shelter area ready to be picked up.
3. Students are not to run down the road/ hill to the carpark if a parent is not sighted. We do prefer parents to pick children up from the bus shelter for safety. Older children are able to walk down once a parent/ caregiver has been sighted. There is a teacher, usually a senior manager stationed at the top of the pathway by the bus shelter. The buses have been moved over and are parking further round the island to enable a clearer vision to occur. This seems to be improving the flow of traffic.
Football Open Day – Hibiscus Coast Football Club will be at school tomorrow, Thursday 20th February for a “have-a-go open day” to show us how to play football and various football drills. This is for the whole school, years 1 – 8.
COMING UP
BOT Meeting – The first meeting for the year is next Wednesday 27th February at 6.30pm in the staffroom.
School Swimming Sports – Friday 1st March for Years 5-8 at Waitoki School pool and Friday 22nd March for Years 1-4. Details to come.
FINALLY
FOWS (Friends of Wainui School) – Have just completed their first year as the revamped PTA!! They are ready to go again after an outstanding year raising over $42,000 in 2018!! It would be great to have more join this group to help “share the workload”. Think about this for this year, give a few hours a month, or at an event to help and maybe we could make even more funds for the school. This group also has lots of fun!!
FOWS Meeting – The first meeting for the year is Wednesday 20th February at 7.00pm in the staffroom.
Ka kite ano,
Gillian Bray
OTHER
Congratulations to Emily Dixon and Rosie Gulik of The Dance Floor. Both girls achieved High Merits in their Grade 1 RAD Ballet exams. Well done girls!
Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon – We will be registering for the Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon the same as we did last year, to make it easier for everyone involved. All registrations will be done online at home. To ensure your child has a place in the tryathlon you will need to register before Thursday 21st March.
Here are some instructions on how to register your child:
- Go to https://tryathlon.co.nz/
- Click ‘register’ and choose Hibiscus Coast- 24th March
- Fill in all your child’s details
- When entering your child’s school, click ‘link to school’ as we have registered Wainui Primary School and can easily keep track of children that will be attending (you can also win prizes by doing this)
- Make your payment online
If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at school (Totara Class) or via email, Maddy Taylor [email protected]
FOR YOUR CALENDAR
- Wednesday 20th February – Football Open Day.
- Wednesday 20th February – FOWs Meeting – Staffroom – 7pm.
- Friday 22nd February – Takahe Assembly – 9.15am.
- Wednesday 27th February – BOT Meeting – 6.30pm.
- Friday 1st March – Yr 5-8 Swimming Sports – Waitoki School Pool.
- Friday 22nd March – Yr 1-4 Swimming Sports.
- Monday 25th – Friday 29th March – Book Week.
- Wednesday 3rd – Friday 5th April – Yr5/6 Camp.
COMMUNITY
