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

Cultural Performances 

It is such a busy but rewarding time of the year for our school as we proudly celebrate the wonderful performances by the Pasifika Cultural Group, last Thursday night at the Tamai Pasifika evening at Te Waka Unua School; and the School Kapahaka Cultural Group who performed at the Tūhono Kapahaka Festival in the Christchurch Town Hall last Saturday.

Enjoy the video of our Pasifika performance below and congratulations to Michelle Prasad and Micah Palu who were awarded the Whītau Pasifika Student of the Year Awards. Congratulations to Miss Palamo for her amazing efforts as our Pasifika Tutor.

Tāne Norton and Skylar Nathan capably Introduced our Kapahaka performance and will be awarded their Kapahaka Leader Awards at the Senior School Prizegiving. Enjoy watching the video of the Kapahaka performance. Congratulations to Mrs Bruce for her amazing efforts as our Kapahaka Tutor and many thanks to the parents who helped also.

Condolences

Our School Board and staff were very sad to hear of the sudden passing of our Board Member Jessica Ashwell's partner, Lee Eberhart, last weekend. We are all thinking of Jess and Marley from Room 2 with much aroha at this tragic time.

Online Bullying

It is extremely frustrating and disappointing that this week the Senior Leadership Team has had to work through a series of serious incidences of bullying involving Kōrari students online at home using inappropriate language and photographs on profiles with the school logo on TikTok and Snapchat which are both R13. Please be vigilant as parents and supervise your child's online activity. It is very concerning to view the unacceptable language, sexualised content, level of verbal abuse and threats of violence that some of our students are involved with online out of school hours. 

Canterbury Primary Schools Athletics Sports

Yesterday we had a team of five students who qualified from the Zone Athletics Sports to compete in the Canterbury Primary Schools Athletics Sports - Sulola Asanso, Aaliyah Benns-Upston, Tane Norton, Riley Smith and Lourdaz Timo.

Huge congratulations to

Sulola who came second overall in Canterbury for the Year 6 Girl's Shotput

Lourdaz who came third overall in Canterbury the Year 6 Girl's Shotput

Aaliyah who came first in all of her Parasports events.

We are so very proud of you all!

Book Character Parade

We all had a wonderful time at the Book Character parade last Thursday. Congratulations to the following students with their amazing Book Character costumes. Please enjoy the photos in the Photo Gallery below.

          Kākano    1st: Mereani Leko, R2;  2nd: Fletcher Cooke, R1

          Kehakai   1st: Adriana Connelly-Redrup, R6; 2nd:Joseph Westbury, R5

          Karawhā  1st: Evie McGregor, R8, 2nd equal: Grace Hammond, R8 and Jason Smith, R9

          Kōrari       1st: Emily McGrath, R12; 2nd equal: Naeema Ali, R14, April Nevard, R12

Year 3 and 4 Miniball

Our miniball team gave it their all and played well in the quarter final last Thursday but lost to a better team Bromley who scored lots of goals on the day. Player of the Day was Samuel Cave.

2023 Student Council

I have been delighted with the quality of the letters of application I have received from our current Year 5 students for leadership positions for 2023. Next Monday, Miss Collins, Mr  Turner and I will hold our Student Leader interviews. The Head Boy and Head Girl for 2023 will be announced at the Senior Prizegiving.

Music Performance

Yesterday the Karawhā and Kōrari students were treated to a music performance from the School Choir and all the students who have been learning the recorder this year. Sadly the ukulele students were not able to play as their tutor currently has Covid. 

Here are videos of the performance:

Teacher Graduation

We are so proud to be congratulating Georgia Chapple and To'aiga Palamo who have successfully completed their two years of provisional teacher registration and are ready to become fully registered teachers. Georgia and To'aiga will formally graduate tomorrow evening at an NZEI Ceremony and the Board will present them with a lovely corsage to wear. 

School Photos from PhotoLife are ready to order

Last Friday PhotoLife emailed parents/caregivers their child's unique key code to go online to view and purchase 2022 School Photos. Please check your trash/spam folder if you have not received the email.

The School Office has been provided with a master list of key codes. You can contact us and we can email the key code/s to you. A key code sheet was also sent home if an email address was not provided.

Please note free delivery expires midnight Sunday 4th December (free delivery means your photo order will be sent to the school for your child to bring home after the expiry date). Once free delivery has ended, all orders will be charged for postage and packing and sent to the home address. 

Nga mihi nui

Sandra Dentice

Principal | Tumuaki

sandra@whitau.school.nz