Dear Parents, Carers and Friends of Whītau School. Kia ora koutou katoa! Talofa lava! Mālō e lelei! Greetings everyone.

Kia ora te whānau

Our Leadership Team and teaching team were really excited to welcome our students back yesterday and see their happy faces and excitement to be back at school with all of their friends.

An especially warm welcome to New Entrants - to our five New Entrant five year olds who started school yesterday with Mrs Sprosen in Room 3 - Jay-Jay, Abel, Lukin, Zanthe and Nevaniah and to our four New Entrant students who started school yesterday in Room 4 with Ms Gold - Ayden, Lithalia, Mya and Ruby.  How clever you are to be big five year olds at school. Ka pai tamariki!

A huge thank you for your overwhelming trust and support you have given our Leadership team and teaching staff with our Back to School in 2023 processes. We have worked extremely hard to ensure our school systems and processes will continue to provide a happy and safe learning environment for everyone, every day!

Learning Conferences

Thank you for participating in the Learning Conferences and sharing valuable information about your child with their new class teacher. The teachers have really valued meeting with you and your children at the Learning Conferences, learning about your child and setting learning goals for Terms 1 and 2. If you have not had your Learning Conference yet your child’s class teacher is very happy to meet you. Miss Collins or Mr Turner will follow up any uncompleted Learning Conferences before children start learning in classrooms

Next Week

Next Tuesday 07 February at 9.00am we are holding a Whole School Mihi Whākatau to welcome our new students and their whānau. Everyone is welcome to attend. 

The School Day

8.30am - School grounds open and students can arrive in class. Morning Message activities

9.00am - Learning begins in classrooms

10.00am - Daily Fitness and Brain Break - Students eat a sandwich from home

11.00am - Playtime

11.20am - Eating Morning Tea from home in class

12.30pm - Lunchtime Play

1.00pm - Lunch eating in class - Ministry of Education Free Lunch only

1.15pm - Learning in classrooms

2.50pm - Class Reflection Time

3.00pm - End of School Day

3.15pm - School grounds and office close

Student Stationery

All children will require their compulsory student stationery to use in class from next Tuesday please.  If you are yet to pay, you can make a payment of $20.00 per student so your child can receive their stationery and arrange automatic payments for the remaining balance with Mrs Palmer, our Executive Officer. Please phone the School Office to arrange this.

All children in Kōrari: Rooms 12 - 15, are encouraged to have their own pencil case at school please so they can manage their own pencils, pens and colouring pencils.

Water Bottles

A friendly reminder that every student needs to bring their own water bottle to school daily. Unfortunately, we need to keep all of our indoor and outdoor drinking fountains closed as we can not maintain the required standard of cleanliness during the school day.

Attendance

In 2023 the Ministry of Education has a special project in the Tāmai Kahui Ako of schools to have all of our students to school each day and on time for class. We want to make a difference in our students learning and we need all of our students here each and every day at school to make this happen.

As an incentive for our students, we are announcing a weekly attendance and punctuality award to the class or classes with the highest attendance for the previous week. Classes that achieve 100% attendance each week will receive a special treat of an afternoon tea of biscuits to share together. Over the year we will track winning class information and we will have an overall winner. For the year please help each of the classes by ensuring your students are at school every day and before 9.00am.

To advise absences, please phone 389 8112 or text only to 027 758 1467

Teaching Staff for 2023

Senior Leadership Team

    Mrs Sandra Dentice JP - Principal

    Miss Amy Collins - Deputy Principal. Junior School Leader

    Mr Sam Turner - Associate Principal. Senior School Leader

Kākano Team 

    Room 1: Year 0 - Opening Term 4

    Room 2: Year 0 - Opening Term 2

    Room 3: Year 1 - Mrs Rosalie Sprosen 

Kekakai Team

Hāpori Leader - Mrs Samantha Dalton

    Room 4: Year 1 - Ms Sherry Gold

    Room 5: Year 1/2 - Mrs Alison Cox

    Room 6: Year 2 - Mrs Samantha Dalton

    Room 7: Year 2 - Mrs Fiona Laird (Terms 1 and 2)

Karawhā Team

Hāpori Leader - Ms Joyce Maria Soosai

    Room 8: Year 3 - Mrs To'aiga Palamo

    Room 9: Year 3 - Ms Joyce Maria Soosai

    Room 10: Year 3/4 - Miss Lina Ioane

    Room 11: Year 3/4 - Mrs Bryony Bruce

Kōrari Team

Hāpori Leader - Mr Darrin Mitchell

    Room 12: Year 4/5 - Miss Sarah Diedrichs

    Room 13: Year 4/5 - Miss Belinda Walsh

    Room 14: Year 5/6 - Mrs Kelly Heads

    Room 15: Year 5/6 - Mr Darrin Mitchell

Other Teachers

Learning Support Co-ordinator - Mrs Meredith Cassidy

Literacy Intervention Teacher - Mrs Karen An

Classroom Release Teacher - Mr Tim Betts

Classroom Release Teacher - Mrs Janine Gemmell

As always, my office door is open and do feel free to come and see me for any advice, support, or a query.  No question is a silly question! 

Nga mihi nui

Sandra Dentice

Principal | Tumuaki

sandra@whitau.school.nz