“Challenge to achieve and grow.”

Hīkina te mānuka, kia tutuki, kia tipu

Kia ora e ngā whānau,

It was a busy week with two separate opportunities for our parents and caregivers to join us in school to acknowledge and share student successes. The first being our start-of-year conferences and the second being our Team Swimming Sports. Thanks to the parents who attended these events. The finals for the competitive events were held earlier this week with our representative team being finalized in preparation for the interschool swimming sports tomorrow, Friday 14 March.

Your child’s conference last week provided valuable time to discuss your aspirations for your child and hear from their teacher how they are settling into 2025 routines. Please be proactive and keep this communication open should you have questions or information to share with us that will support your child here at school. Our WIS staff will also be proactive communicating with you should we notice something that we would like to discuss and/or share with you.

Our Unique and Tailor Made WIS Curriculum

As we dive into the new term, I wanted to take a moment to highlight our unique WIS Curriculum, which is tailored to respond to the needs of our emerging adolescents.

At WIS, we are immensely proud of our curriculum, which is designed to recognize and cater to the rapid physical and social development of our students. We understand that adolescence is a crucial period of growth, where students become increasingly socially aware and encounter more complex curriculum contexts. Our dedicated and experienced staff are committed to supporting our students through this journey.

Our curriculum places a strong emphasis on fostering positive relationships with both adults and peers, as we believe these relationships are vital for the holistic development of our students. These relationships are the foundation to ensure students feel connected and a sense of belonging to the WIS learning community. We provide a wide range of opportunities for students to be actively involved and engaged in authentic and meaningful learning experiences.

You will have heard in the media that there is a national focus on reading, writing and mathematics. We are pleased to say that our curriculum supports this focus. Daily, our students engage in core subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics, alongside other key learning areas including health and physical education, languages, science, social studies, technology, and the arts. While we provide focused lessons in reading, writing, and mathematics, we also integrate these essential skills into other learning areas. This integration enhances the relevance and applicability of these skills in real-world contexts.

This term, we have kicked off with a special focus on “Tū Hono”. Tū Hono has proven to be an effective tool in building a positive learning culture within each homeroom. It centers around fostering positive relationships, making connections with others by sharing past and new experiences together, and promoting a deeper understanding of one another.

In the previous newsletter I shared some of the extracurricular opportunities on offer and said I would share some sporting opportunities available to your child in this newsletter. Jemma is our dedicated sports administrator and can be found most times in the Sports Office, which is in our school library and is open Tuesday - Friday 8.30am - 1.30pm.

Here is a summarized list of what is already underway.

Ten volleyball teams participate in the Wednesday Spikers Competition
Four team in the Wednesday 3v3 basketball competition at Nayland
College
Friday Night Rippa started back 28 February with games being played at Tahuna Playing Fields from 4:30 pm onwards
Last Friday a group of students were invited to participate in a workshop faciliated by members of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. It was a pleasure to welcome back one of our past students, Jordana Arnold, as a member of the company.

Year 8s will be familiar with last year’s Summer Tournament and will support our Year 7s to sign up for their preferred sport. This is a fun filled day of trying a new sport/game, held at Saxton Field for all sports, except Orienteering which is at Rabbit Island, on Friday 21st March. Students that want to be involved can still sign up. We have many different sports to choose from, Orienteering, Volleyball, Tabloid Games, Frisbee Golf, Turbo Touch, Ki O Rahi to name a few.

If you think your child needs extra encouragement to sign up, please let your child’s teacher know and they will be able to assist with this.

WIS Netball Muster

WIS Netball Musters are how we form our teams here at WIS. All the girls/boys will sign up and have a run at 2 different positions on the court. We try to get all students out at least twice. Once the Muster is complete, Jemma and the team will put up squads and have call back the following Saturday where they can have a closer look with smaller numbers, then teams will be put up. We use independent selectors at this muster as well. We do not mix the Yr8 and Yr7 unless we are short in numbers.

Dates: Saturday 22nd and 29th March.

Times: Yr7 9.30am - 11am & Yr8 11.30am - 1pm,

Please follow this link to register for Muster

https://forms.office.com/r/UfmfWz5i3K

Earlier this week we held our first fire drill. This is a practice to ensure everyone at school knows what to do in the unlikely case of an emergency. For us this involves all staff and students making their way sensibly to the back field near the Waimea College netball courts and lining up in their homerooms. Teachers are expected to talk their classes through the expectations prior to the drill. I am pleased to say that this drill went without incident, and everyone followed and met expectations.

Our driveway continues to be overused during morning drop off and afternoon pick up times. As previously said, we are restricting this use to parents who are dropping off and picking up students involved in camps. Unfortunately, our two-minute parks outside the school on Salisbury Road were removed two years ago with the TDC encouraging us to encourage parents to drop off and pick up their children using the side streets rather than the driveway. For parents who are using the driveway during camp drop-offs and pick-ups please adhere to the 10 km speed limit.

The next newsletter will be emailed out on Thursday 27 March. This is the week of the Tu Tāngata Team camps – all the best for those and thanks to the parents who are helping to make this possible.

Have a great fortnight!

Justine

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