FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK
Kia ora Koutou,
And just like that, the rain came and the Culvert was finished! At Wainui School we are incredibly thankful and grateful that the cause of our floods last year has already been fixed!! Thank you to Auckland Transport, to Downers and to Hutchinson’s for the amazing work over the summer to enlarge the culvert. We are now able to cope with the storm water that caused the floods last year at school. The Downers workers have finished, and they were so respectful of our busy times for traffic and ensured we all kept safe! The day they finished we saw the heaviest rain we have had for a long time. I, for one, am also pleased to see the rain for my own home and garden – the tanks needed a fill! Our own driveway still needs a bit of work to drain away faster but the Wainui School Board will look at this.
Newsletter focus:
- Powhiri
- Interactive Drumming
- Student Leadership
- Special Golf News
- Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT)
- Swimming
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING
Powhiri – A Powhiri was held last Friday for all of our new families. Thank you to Whaea LeeAnne Wade for supporting our new Whanau and Tamariki. We are so proud of our new student leaders, Phoenix Sweetman-Jones, Daniel Paul and Dayton Rata – alongside Mr Luke Cochrane – who led our Powhiri with mana and confidence!! It was a wonderful chance to chat to parents afterwards at our morning tea. We will have another Powhiri at the beginning of term 2!! Please come along if you missed this one!!
Interactive Drumming – What a great way to start a Monday!! Drumming with Johnny and Kama from “Interactive Drumming” we all enjoyed the great stories and really felt the power of all being able to beat a rhythm on the drum together! As a gift we were presented with 5 new drums. What a treat!
Student Leadership – We have begun our leadership journey for 2024. Each year the power of student voice, the energy of the year 8 leaders and now year 7’s will be joining as well!
We have already planned to have a Cultural Diversity Week (not just a day) in May, MasterChef in term 2 and Wai Factor in term 3. We are keen to improve the Wainui School environment with the Enviro team taking the lead. They will start with improving our recycling and rubbish collection, which as we all know, has changed in Auckland. We also have a year 8 student leader who plans to improve and probably rebuild our school website.
Each week we will bring you snippets of news of what we are doing and some information from the various leaders.
Special Golf News –
Dante Broederlow is proud to be New Zealand’s champion golfer in the 6 years and under bracket!! Wow, we are all so proud of you!! Dante could be picked to play in the United States of America in the World Championships this year!!!
THIS WEEK
Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) – Years 5-8 are sitting in on the core subjects this week. The PAT’s have returned in a new format, on-line. Many of you as parents will remember sitting these tests in March when you were at school. They have been modernised in a digital format and are marked digitally. Please remember these are a snapshot in time, and one way of measuring achievement. The great thing about these tests is they can help define the gaps in learning and enable teachers to plan for the year and ensure learning is focused on the skills and knowledge needed. They are only one tool and therefore not the only assessment measure we use.
Swimming – Our pool is open and we continue to enjoy it! Remember the rain is warm!! Keep bringing your togs to make the most of our pool.
FINALLY
As Miss Ludwig and I finalise the school budgets and wish list for 2024, we remind you that in order to meet all of our planned goals we are counting on your school donations. Our school Board has not increased the school donation. It is still: $200.00 for the first child, $175 for the second child and no more for any further children in your family. Please contribute as soon as you can! It really does help meet our goals. This can be done on Kindo, eftpos, internet banking, and of course paying cash in the office.
Ka kite ano,
Gillian Bray
FOR YOUR CALENDAR
- Thursday 7th March – Yr 5/6 Cricket Zone Day.
- Friday 8th March – Hockey Player deposit due.
- Friday 8th March – Final day for all Winter Sports Registrations.
- Friday 8th March – Kiwi Team Assembly – 2pm.
- Friday 22nd March – Pukeko Team Assembly – 2pm.
- Friday 5th April – Bike-a-thon – NOTE CHANGE OF DATE.
OTHER
Rhythm Interactive Drumming Experience – On Monday the 4th of March all of the students at Wainui School were lucky enough to have the opportunity to participate in the Rhythm Interactive Drumming Experience. This was such a fun and uplifting experience and the students all had a blast. As part of the experience John donated 5 drums and the school has purchased a few more at an amazing rate. We now have a group set of drums and everyone is looking forward to a lesson using them.
Winter Sports
ICAS – We know our students are amazing, so we’re giving them the opportunity to showcase and celebrate their talents in the world-renowned ICAS competition this year. This competition is open to students in Year 4 to 8. Additional information can be found here: ICAS 2024 Info
What is ICAS? – ICAS is an online academic competition that gives students the opportunity to challenge their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing, Spelling Bee, and Digital Technologies.
Every student who participates is celebrated and recognised with a printed certificate in each subject area, and an online results report to track development each year. Top performers are eligible for one of the highly coveted ICAS medals.
To learn more about this year’s exciting ICAS competition, visit: (icasassessments.com/products-icas/)
Lost hat!
SPORTS RESULTS
– email your sports results to Miss Ludwig in the office, exo@wainui.school.nz
Basketball
Wainui Y5/6 Thunder vs Coast Raptors Lost 7-21
