Whatawhata School News

Kia ora e hoa

We had such an awesome time at our School Ag Day. It was wonderful to see so many animals here and to see the efforts of our children in their flower arranging and rock art. Our children did us proud in showing us how kind and responsible they were.  A number of our children also attended the Group Day at Ngahinapouri School where they took competing to the next level. Despite the wild conditions they did us proud once again!

As you know next Tuesday is a teacher only day here at school. We have been working hard preparing for this to make the most of the day. Our purpose is to leave that day with a clear set of pathways for our children in both the Learning Areas (such as English, Maths and The Arts) and in those competencies that will serve children will for life (that you shared ideas for through our PB4L surveys earlier this year). We've been looking at our Guiding Principles this week to ensure we are focused on what you, our community, said was most important. This will make sure our curriculum is just right for us. Thanks in advance for your support for this day.

Much of this week has been starting to prepare for 2020. We have done a lot of work on what it means to be a teacher at Whatawhata School and the support that our teachers need to be able to do the best possible job. We are now looking at our teaching teams for 2020 and our projected numbers before we start to assign children to classes. We've also continued our work on our Reo Rua (bilingual learning) class - see more below. 

This week we welcomed Shae into Te Pihinga and Digger into Te Raakau. Great to have you here as part of the Whatawhata community and the school kids!

We look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday - remember the school is closed for Labour Day on Monday and Teacher Only day on Tuesday

Aroha nui, Matt Stockton

Six of our awesome children and their animals recently took part in filming for the "Fanimals" show on TV2. Fanimals is an animal education show featuring Kiwi kids who are nuts about animals, rescued pets finding new homes and more. 

We're very excited to say that these will be broadcast on TV2 at 4.05pm on Wednesday 31st October and Wednesday 6th November. It's also available OnDemand here: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/fanimals

Our mihi whakatau is TOMORROW. All of our newer whaanau will have received invites this week to this day where we welcome all our children, whaanau and staff to the Whatawhata family who have joined us over the last two terms. 

We really hope everyone can come along at 1.30pm to be officially welcomed by us all. We will have a short, informal get together afterwards in Te Raakau. If you have younger children and other family members we’d love for them to come along too.

In the event of bad weather we will call it off by 9.30 and will send messages via Facebook and SkoolBag.

We've been a bit quiet of late in regards to the proposed bilingual learning class that we are hoping to open from the start of 2020. We've been busy in the background interviewing and working with the Ministry of Education and things are looking really promising!

After the survey results earlier in the year we have confirmed that the class will start with around 20 children in the middle school years,  learning will ultimately be in equal amounts Maaori and English, and that we need to start with the very basics of reo Maaori and build from there. 

We are now looking to confirm children that would like to be part of this class. We still have to confirm the year range for the class but if your child will be in years 3 to 6 this opportunity is for them. Once we have the names and numbers we will then confirm which years will be part of the first class based on the biggest numbers. We will also be making contact with our Maaori whaanau. 

There is a lot of development work to be done with the whaanau of these children and with our hapu to work together to build relationships and design the curriculum and all this is yet to come.  

Find the link here https://forms.gle/5cKtN5GM1he5Ar5P6

Or email Matt matts@whatawhata.school.nz

Our Whatawhata Whaanau PTA have set up a lunch roster at school to prepare and provide lunches for those children at school who do not have one or to help children who need a bit more. To help with this the  Te Raakau children have set up a roster where they will give up their lunchtimes to make the food for these children. We are so grateful to both the PTA and Te Raakau for making such a difference. Many thanks!

By now you should have all recieved the link to view and purchase class and individual photos. We hope you're really pleased with how great they look and by the great prices too. Remember a part of every sale goes towards the school and its fundraising goal of improving our outdoor learning and play spaces. 

If you have any questions at all in regards to these please contact support@photopilot.co.nz

We're excited to announce that we have the official go-ahead from the Ministry of Social Development to expand after school care to cater for more children. If you are wanting to enrol your child into after school care please email Warren warrenw@whatawhata.school.nz 

The Board of Trustees has approved a teacher only day for Tuesday 29th October 2019. This is the day after Labour Day. 

Staff will be using the day to start to redevelop our school curriculum to ensure it is relevant for our our vision and guiding principles, that is supports the latest thinking about effective teaching and learning, that all our current staff have an input and that we are consistent in our approaches and expectations. The last time we did this was 5 years ago so it is well overdue. 

This day is part of the recent agreement between the teachers union and the government. This means this day will not need to be made up.

Thanks in advance for your support.