News from the Principal - Week 1
Kia ora te whānau
After a relaxing holidays with a mixed bag of lovely Autumn days and lots of rain, especially at night, we are back into the routines of school days for Term 2.
Staff Only Day 'Learning to take us places...'
On Monday at our Staff Only Day, we welcomed Sir Ian Taylor to speak with the staff of Whītau, Bromley, Linwood Avenue and Te Waka Schools about his journey as a Maori learner and his creation of the Mātauranga - Land of Voyagers resource for our Aotearoa Histories Curriculum.
Sir Ian shared with us that he believes that the story of how people arrived in Aotearoa is one of the greatest adventures the world has ever seen! So he has used innovation to create the Mātauranga resource which embraces Science, The Arts and Technology. Check out the great resource at
https://maatauranga.co.nz/index01.html
Miss Collins lead our staff in the NZ Curriculum refresh. The Ministry is two years into a six-year programme to refresh The New Zealand Curriculum. The refreshed curriculum will support every ākonga (learner) to experience success in their learning. It will give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and will be inclusive, clear about the learning that matters and easy to use from year 0 to year 13. The refreshed curriculum content is being developed and released in phases and schools have until the beginning of 2027 to start using the fully refreshed curriculum. The first stage of the refresh took effect at the start of 2023 and the new Aotearoa New Zealand histories content is now required to be taught in all schools.
COVID and RAT Tests
Unfortunately COVID is back in our school community with vengeance! We have a staff member currently absent with COVID and several students. Tomorrow every child in our school will bring home a carton of RAT tests that I was able to order late last term. Please be vigilant and if your child is feeling unwell with a sore throat, cough, headache or aching, please be preventative and keep them home from school and give them a COVID test. Rest assured we are implementing all our COVID procedures in classrooms with open windows for good ventilation, a dehumidifier in most classrooms, regular hand sanitising and voluntary mask wearing.
Swimming
Daily Swimming for all students in Karawhā and Kōrari, Rooms 8 - 15 is well underway, completely funded by the School Board. Swimming is an integral part of the NZ Curriculum so only students who have a medical certificate will be permitted not to participate. Do take the time to come along and watch your children's lessons. The Principals Swim Challenge will be held in Term 4.
Cross Country
All classes have commenced training for the School Cross Country in Week 3. Mrs Heads has organised a 'Round Around the South Island' class competition, so classes are recording their daily laps as they train.
Year 5 and 6 School Camp at Living Springs
- All camp payments must be completed on Monday 01 May so we can confirm our numbers with Living Springs
- The Parent Camp meeting is at 5pm tonight in Rooms 14 and 15.
Library Books
Miss Diedrichs, our Teacher with responsibility for Library, class teachers and I are extremely concerned about the increasing number of new and near new library books that are either missing, not returned to school or have been returned in an unusable damaged state - torn, wet, mouldy or drawn on. Families will have to be invoiced for missing or damaged books and these invoices will need to be paid for your child to be able to borrow further library books.
Please support your child with a library bag - their Duffy book bag or last year's reading folder to put their library book in and ensure library books are kept away from food, drinks and out of reach of preschoolers.
PLEASE CHECK YOUR HOME FOR LIBRARY BOOKS AND READING BOOKS AND RETURN THEM TO THE SCHOOL OFFICE ASAP.
Whītau School Education Review Office School Review
This morning I had the initial meeting with our school's ERO Evaluation Partner, Carole Clarke. We spent a couple of hours together for me to share all about our wonderful school and Carole to share the process of the ERO review over the next six months. Carole enjoyed a tour of the school with me and she was really impressed with our beautiful, calm learning environments and our focused student leaners. Her next visit with be in Week 9 of this term when she will met with Presiding Member Robbie Woodward and I to review our schools' compliance, health and safety and attendance. I look forward to sharing our successes with Carole and identifying the future improvement focus for our school.
Nga mihi nui
Sandra Dentice
Principal | Tumuaki
sandra@whitau.school.nz
