FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK
Kia ora Koutou,
Warm welcome to you all and special welcome to our newest family Jurgen Bezuidenhout (Yr 5) and Dieter Bezuidenhout (Yr 3), and their Mum and Dad to Wainui School. Originally from South Africa, the Bezuidenhout family have been living on the Coast for a number of years and now have chosen to come to Wainui School. Welcome to Jackson Mallon our newest 5 year old and Tony Zhao (Yr 1), we look forward to getting to know you and your families.
WHATS BEEN HAPPENING
Website Upgrade – Have you noticed we have a new website? Check it out and tell us what you think of the functionality and the new look and layout.
ICAS – What is ICAS testing? ICAS is an independent, skills-based assessment program which recognises and rewards student achievement. ICAS is unique, being the most comprehensive generally available suite of academic assessments for primary and secondary school students. The assessments comprise eight Digital Technologies tests, eleven English tests, eleven Maths tests, eleven Science tests, six Spelling tests and ten Writing tests.
For more than 30 years, Educational Assessment Australia (EAA) has continuously improved and enhanced ICAS. A new ICAS test is developed annually for each subject in each year level. All ICAS tests are reviewed by experienced teachers to ensure that they accurately assess students’ skills and are relevant to what they are learning at school. Some schools use ICAS as a psychometric test to better understand what students can and can’t do at a point in time and track learning as students’ progress from year to year. Other schools use ICAS results as a component of a student’s overall academic achievement for the year and, still others use ICAS as a placement test. Each test is sat at the student’s school and is invigilated by teachers under normal examination conditions.
Administration Guidelines are provided to the schools with the ICAS papers to ensure that the same conditions are afforded to all students sitting ICAS.
Over one million student entries are accepted from over 6,300 schools in Australia and New Zealand annually. In addition, students from over 20 countries including Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the USA participate in ICAS each year.
Who sits these at Wainui School? – We administer the test here but regard it as a parental choice for your child. Not all children need or thrive on an external testing situation but for some children they love the experience and like to see how they perform academically. It also costs to sit the test, not a huge amount but it still costs. If you would like to know more feel welcome to talk to myself, Mrs Taylor or Mr Irvine about the tests as they may be something you wish your child to participate in next year.
How did we do at Wainui? – Very well!! If you sit a test there are various levels of achievement you can get a certificate for, Participation, Credit, Distinction and Higher Distinction (top 1%). We had some outstanding results to share and I congratulate these people. We presented these certificates at last Friday’s school Assembly.
Cricket – All classes are enjoying participating in the cricket programme, delivered by Ramesh Lakmal of Hibiscus Coast Cricket. This will run over 7 weeks and takes place every Wednesday. It began two weeks ago and will conclude in Week 9, the last week of the term. Ramesh Lakmal is a former professional cricket player, who played international cricket for Sri Lanka. We are all enjoying having a professional cricketer join us and like his enthusiasm for the game. A huge thank you to Zac Browne Hale for organising this for everyone. Zac is a school councillor, a passionate cricket player himself and wanted to share his love of the game of cricket and foster cricket again for everyone else.
THIS WEEK
EOTC Week Kiwi Team – Is all week this week!! The Kiwi team (year 3&4) are all participating in activities that do not involve the usual classroom based learning. They will be out in our bush participating in team building, thinking, creating and developing friendships. The team are visiting Cue Haven over the first two days, a very special 24 hectare farm located 70 kms north west of downtown Auckland and overlooking the Kaipara Harbour. The owners are turning it into a New Zealand native forest to create a haven for plant and bird life and a nature reserve for future generations to enjoy. Wainui School have developed a lovely relationship with the owners Thomas & Mahrukh Stazyk and enjoy visiting this wonderful place. Go to https://cuehaven.com for more information.
Senior School Athletics Friday 17th November – This year we have split the school athletics into senior and junior as we are now a school of nearly 300 children. The senior school is once again at Sinclair Park, Kaukapakapa. We are looking forward to a fine dry day to enable all the running, jumping and throwing to occur in the best possible conditions. Do come down and support your children, there will be a BBQ run by the school cycle team. A notice has been sent home, thanks to those who have completed the tear-off slip and brought their bus money in. If you haven’t yet, please bring in your slip and bus money to either the teacher or the office.
COMING UP
Junior School Athletics Friday 1st December – This year Wainui Junior School Athletics Day will be held at school. This will involve all children Year 1 to Year 4. Mr Eysink has done a great job of marking the field and we are looking forward to a great day. We will start soon after 9am and the sprints will be held in the afternoon. We welcome parents to come and support their children or help with some of the activities.
A few things to remember:
- Students can wear their school house colours to compete in. Shoes may be worn.
- Your child will need warm clothing, morning tea and lunch, water bottle, sunscreen and hat.
- Refreshments – sausage sizzle, juicies, baking, tea and coffee will be available for sale.
- If you would like to bring a picnic please do.
FINALLY
This week our value of focus is Resilience. This is the one we will focus on for the next two weeks and celebrate at the next whole school assembly. Athletics is a great time to practice being resilient, giving the races a go, but not always being able to win. School is a great place to build, practice and foster resilience. Did you know we have a Resilience Institute https://resiliencei.com based in Auckland? I have been fortunate to hear Dr. Sven Hanse and Declan Scott talk a number of times, they talk about resilience as the learned ability to demonstrate: Bounce, Courage, Creativity, Connection.
Round Taupo Cycle Race Team – If you have been up early over the last two weekends and some evenings after school, you might have spotted a group of cyclists around the Wainui roads often led by Mr Irvine. This is the year 7&8 team of girls, Neve, Haruka, Jessie, MacKenzie and Reilly with their Dads and, yes, myself and Mrs Taylor. We have two weeks left to go before the annual round Taupo race. All of the team are in line to do half of round Taupo 80km’s. Last weekend we had a stopover at Passionberry for an icecream and were treated to a wonderful box of strawberries from Fiona McIntyre, thank you!!
Urgently Needed – A roofer to help with some repairs to our roof and gutters after the “short, sharp” thunder, lightning and hail storm this morning! If you can help out, please contact the office on 09 420 5127, thank you.
Ka kite ano,
Gillian Bray
OTHER
SPORTS RESULTS
Touch
Wainui Raiders Yr1/2 vs Silverdale Tigers. Draw: 5 – 5. POD: Hamish Fincham.
Remember to email your sports results to Miss Ludwig in the office, [email protected]
CERTIFICATES
At the last assembly, the following students received certificates for “Relational”.
- Kauri: Taine Bracken, Jessie Brothers. Writing: Anna Christian.
- Kahikatea: Xanthe Poninghaus, Rita Straka. Writing: Charlie Wallace-Pram.
- Miro: Aidan Boardman, Zac Tinsel. Writing: Hannah Garside.
- Rimu: Daniel Manning, Jade Smidt. Writing: Maddie Ditchburn.
- Matai: Matthew Grieve, Marley Straka. Writing: Tommy Rossiter.
- Totara: Iziah Brown, Dusty Pullen. Writing: Connor Lloyd-Read.
- Nikau: Dieter Bezuidenhout, Grace Wallace-Pram. Writing: Logan McDermid-Venter.
- Kowhai: McKayla McMaster, Noah Moss. Writing: Logan Grey.
- Kohekohe: Taya Hawken, Ayden Krynauw. Writing: Tamati Bayer.
- Pukatea: Emily Coupe, Cade Mumby. Writing: Sophie Colquhoun.
- Karaka: Mikayla Houghton, Alice Jones. Writing: Nate Morgan.
- Puriri: Soul Dixon, Kayden Le. Writing: Summer Starr.
Our amazing Hellyer Cup Winners were Tripp Glasgow (Puriri), Lilly-Rose Deery (Karaka), Oscar Price (Pukatea) and Katie Boe (Kohekohe).
FOR YOUR CALENDAR
- Tuesday 14th November – BOT Meeting.
- Tuesday 14th – Friday 17th November – EOTC Yr3/4 Week.
- Friday 17th November – Senior School Athletics – Sinclair Park.
- Thursday, 23rd of November – Netball 2018 Meeting – 3.15pm, Staffroom.
- Tuesday 28th November – Interschool Athletics.
- Thursday 30th November – Tu Maia Festival.
- Friday 1st December – Junior School Athletics – At school.
