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

Kia ora te whānau

What a beautiful week of Spring weather it has been!  It is awesome to see the students active outside in the sun for their daily Fitness activities and playing with all the sports equipment available from the Play Box located outside Room 7 at playtime and lunchtime.

The Rangiora Artisan Bakery is so very generous to our school.  This week we were delivered the most amazing scrumptious muffins for every child to have for a morning tea treat.  Teachers have taken super photos of the classes enjoying eating the muffins and we are going to make a photo collage to send to the staff to say THANK YOU FROM WHĪTAU!  I have very strong connections to Rangiora having lived there for 50 years and I am so thankful for this ongoing support from Rangiora for our school community. 

Market Day for 'I am a Consumer' Inquiry Learning

Next Thursday from 9.10am - 10.00am we are holding our Term 3 learning celebration in the form of a Market Day in and around the School Hall.  Stalls will be set up for the children to purchase the amazing market goods they have produced in their weekly workshops.

This will be an amazing real life learning experience for all of the students.  They will come along with their hard earned money in their handcrafted wallets and money boxes and have to work out what they can afford to buy and not spend all their money at one stall!  An older buddy will support the younger children and there is plenty of items for all. 

Learn more about our Market Day next Thursday in this video when our children are going shopping with the money they earned from working.

Whānau are very welcome to join us for this special occasion.  However, we do ask that you please let your child work with their buddy to complete their trading and just observe 'on the side'. 

'Fortnite'

We are extremely concerned that many of our students are being allowed to play the game Fortnite, which is an R13 online game, at home.  These students are often bringing the offensive behaviours and inappropriate language they use in the game into the school playground.  We have even recently been having to deal with fighting breaking out in the playground by groups of children!  Playing Fortnite encourages the use of swearing, physical fighting and violence, talking to strangers and racism.  Children's brains are not well enough developed to distinguish between fantasy and reality and addiction to the Fortnite game easily occurs.  This week I had a six year old tell me he was addicted to the game and played it for hours every day! 

September Gold Awards

Next Tuesday is our Gold Awards Learning Celebration and we warmly welcome whānau to join us.  We loved having our whole school back together for School Assembly on Monday.  It has been such a long time since we have been all together and to be able to sing!

NZPF Conference

I really valued and enjoyed the amazing professional learning opportunities given to me by our School Board at the NZ Principal's Conference last week.  It was also great to catch up with lots of colleagues at the Cantabrian's Dinner.  At my Wellbeing/Hauroa activity, I participated in creating Masterchef Canapes at the Riverside Kitchen - Onion Bhajis, Pea and Broad Bean Crostini, Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Filo Baskets and Pork and Ginger Dumplings.  They were all delicious! 

The final speaker at the conference was Scott Robinson who shared with us his journey as the Crusaders coach and the inspiration of his storytelling style in his coaching, inspiring players to get on his ship and to not have to walk the plank!  He uses the shortest poem ever written, 'Me, We' as his inspiration.

                                 ME - Mindfulness and Execution

                                 WE - Work Ethic and Enjoyment

I was delighted to be the lucky winner of the draw for the 'Tuatai o le Moana - Wayfinders of the Ocean' prize box of Pasifika treasures to share with our school.

Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day 

Next Monday our school will be closed for the memorial day.  I shared with the children at assembly on Monday that when the Queen and Prince Phillip came to visit Christchurch in February 1963,  lots of schools gathered in Lancaster Park to wave to them as they were driven around in an open toped car.  For those of us who didn't live in cities, we had to rely on photographs as not many families had a TV back then.  Every school child in New Zealand received a letter from the Queen and I was fascinated by both her photograph and her signature!  Please enjoy reading the letter in the photo gallery below.

Principal's Awards

Congratulations to Shantelle Prasad and Jayce Skinner from room 9 for their amazing improvement in their Handwriting.  Ka pai tamariki!  Please enjoy their lovely photos in the photo gallery.

Friendly Reminders

• Being at School on time ready to learn at 9am - This morning we have had over 20 students having to come into the School Office to sign in because they are late for school, some as late as 10.10am.  That is a huge amount of disruption both for the School Office and for every classroom's learning!  Please show our school values of being respectful and being responsible by supporting your children to be at school ready to learn at 9am. 

• Swimming 
  • All children will be participating in daily swimming lessons at Te Pou Toetoe next term. 
  • Junior Daily Swimming Lessons - Kākano and Kehakai: Week 1 only
  • Senior Daily Swimming Lessons - Karawhā and Kōrari: Weeks 1 and 2
  • Students with long hair should wear a cap to help keep their hair dry - no hairdryers are allowed at school thank you.
  • Whānau are welcome to come to the pool to watch the lessons.  We will issue the timetable next week
  • Sorry, we cannot take parents on the buses to swimming.

• School Raffle - Our raffle will be drawn next Wednesday 28 September. Please return all sold butts and money and unsold books to the School Office asap.

Nga mihi nui 

Sandra Dentice

Principal | Tumuaki

sandra@whitau.school.nz