Waikari School Newsletter

Confident, Curious & Respectful Kids

Email: principal@waikari.school.nz
Website: https://waikari.school.nz
Location: 23 Princes Street, Waikari, New Zealand
Phone: (03)314 4250

Kia ora e te whānau,

What an eventful two weeks it has been! It seems that each day brings new excitement and activity to Waikari School. A hearty congratulations is in order for all the students who participated in the Waikari & Greta Valley Swimming Sports, as well as the Hurunui Swimming Sports. We've been thoroughly impressed by students achievement and sportsmanship. A special acknowledgment is owed to Kerry Florance for her exceptional organisation of these events, and to all the caregivers who helped with transportation and timekeeping. Without your support these events wouldn't be possible.

On a bittersweet note, I must share with the broader school community that Debra Lydon has made the decision to retire at the end of Term 1. Over her 16 years at Waikari School, Debra has consistently exemplified dedication, passion, and creativity. She has had a huge impact on our school community as she has touched many children through her innovative teaching methods and inspirational art classes.

In recognition of Debra's remarkable contributions, we will be hosting a farewell afternoon on April 12th at 2pm, coinciding with the last day of Term 1. This will be an opportunity for us to celebrate Debra's contributions to our school community. The Board is actively advertising the senior room position and is committed to finding the ideal candidate to fill this role.

A round of applause to all the students who have diligently contributed to filling the Perseverance Jar. The student leaders are eagerly planning their reward, scheduled for Friday at the Hawarden Pool. Rewarding the entire school for their positive choices, kind words, and caring nature aligns with our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) Behaviour Management Policy, which fosters a positive classroom and school environment.

Be sure to continue reading the newsletter to stay informed about the exciting learning activities happening in our classrooms and upcoming events.

Ngā Mihi Nui,

Phoebe Todd

Principal | Tuamaki

Waikari School

Students can wear mufti on Friday and bring their own pool toys. At lunchtime (after eating) we will be heading to the Hawarden Domain for a play and a swim in the pool. We will be back at school by 3pm. Students will be transported in the Bus and teacher cars.

Kea Class will be heading to the FourSquare as part of our food and nutrition inquiry. Students will be transported by the Bus and teachers. Miss Todd, Caryn and Mrs Lydon will attend.

All teachers from the Hurunui District are heading to Hamner Springs. We have a guest speaker coming to talk to us about trauma informed education.

More info to come

Last week Will, Macy, Tom, James, Shakaiyah, Fergus, Max and Nico went off to the Hurunui Cricket Festival at the Scargill Domain organised by North Canterbury Cricket.

The following students represented Waikari School at the Hurunui Swimming Sports: Emily A, Emily R, Khanoa, Aiden, Ethan, Rosie, Amelia, Max, Fergus, Te Atawhai, Maddison, Nico, Shakaiyah, Lotti, Macy, Tom and Will. We are so proud of their efforts and displaying the Waikari PRIDE Values while competing.

~~~~STOP PRESS~~~~

Well Done Waikari Swimmers!!! You were truly awesome. A fantastic group of kids who competed at the Hurunui Swimming Sports yesterday and showed our School PRIDE values 100%. We are so proud of you all.

Thank you to all the parents who helped with transport and timing. Your ongoing support is appreciated by us all.

Here are the results from today for the 25m non-competitive races and the 50m competitive races.

All the best to Max and Lotti who will be competing at the Canterbury Swimming Sports later in the term.

25m Open Butterfly: 1st Max, 3rd Macy

100m Open Medley: 4th Macy

25m Freestyle: Yr 7 Girls 3rd Te Atawhai, Yr 8 Girls 2nd Shakaiyah

50m Freestyle: Yr 6 Boys 2nd Max, Yr 8 Girls 1st Lotti, Yr 8 Boys 3rd Tom

25m Backstroke: Yr 7 Girls 3rd Te Atawhai, Yr 8 Girls 3rd Shakaiyah

50m Backstroke: Yr 6 Boys 1st Max, 4th Fergus, Yr 6 Girls 4th Amelia, Yr 7 Boys 3rd Nico, Yr 8 Girls 1st Lotti, 4th Macy

25m Breaststroke: Yr 5 Boys 4th Aiden, Yr 7 Girls 3rd Shakaiyah

50m Breaststroke: Yr 6 Boys 1st Max, 4th Fergus, Yr 7 Girls 2nd Maddison, Yr 7 Boys 3rd Nico, Yr 8 Girls 1st Lotti, 3rd Macy

4 x 50m Relay: Yr 5 Boys small schools 2nd, Yr 7 Girls small schools 2nd, Yr 6 Boys small schools 1st

Year 5 & 6 Mixed 25m Medley Relay - 2nd

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The Wekas wrote some amazing recounts of our trip to Amberley for the swimming sports. Check out this excellent example from Breanna below.

What a fantastic day we had at Agri-Kids. Our 3 teams participated and worked really hard at each station. At the end of their round, we had two teams on the leaderboard and by the end of the preliminary rounds we had one team going through to the finals. Congratulations to Macy, James and Te-Atawhai in the Klever Keas who went through to participate in the finals. They put in a top notch effort and come in 4th overall - just pipped at the post for going to Nationals. Well done to the Krazy Keas (Rosie, Manaaki and Shakaiyah) who came 8th overall and the Kool Keas (Will, Nico and Tom) who placed 12th overall. This was out of 32 teams competing on the day - so we are proud of all of them. Huge thanks to Mrs Lydon and Caryn for giving up their Saturday to take the kids to AgriKids.

Last week we had Karli from Food For Thought come to visit to teach us about all types foods. She explained about the different properties in foods and what they help our bodies with. The children looked at packaging examples to identify the healthy and not healthy aspects and how packaging can be misleading.

We will be going on a visit to a local supermarket next week to find out more about food and nutrition.

Thoughts about the programme from the children:

• She was really good and made us think about what we should eat, and what we should only sometimes eat - Will.
• Karli made us think differently about the food we eat and how it affects our bodies. We learned about how sugary a lot of the drinks are - James.
• Karli told us that e2 has the most sugar - Odin.
• It was really cool. She said the best drink that she showed us was the Primo milk drink - Karmani.

Over the last couple of weeks the school has been running a colouring competition in the library during the lunch break. This great idea came from one of our students who arranged and put together the resources, prizes and the judging. A big thank you to Maddison who organised and ran the competition.

The results are:

Year 1 - 2 Charlotte Andrews

Year 3 - 4 Bridie Butters

Year 5 - 6 Ethan Brice

Year 7 - 8 Macy Oberholzer

Do you know how to conserve energy if you fall into deep water or a rapid flow?

The whole school went to Hawarden Pool last week to simulate some scenarios that could happen when doing water activities. It was a cold day, so this added to the reality of what a situation could be like. Ask your child to tell you about a few ways to stay safe when out doing water activities.

The children have been investigating Kitchen Science, and what better way to learn than to make something yummy of course.

Keas decided to transform some squishy bananas into delectable choc-chip and banana muffins. They can't actually tell you if they tasted good because they decided to gift little surprise bundles of the yummy goodness to some lucky locals, but the smell coming from the staff room while they were cooking was scrumptious.

The Wekas created tasty smoothies using different fruits. They say that the proof is in the pudding, well, judging by the video we think that the proof is in the smiles. We think they must have been really really good smoothies.

On a Friday's during our Math's lessons the Wekas have been learning about capacity and volume. Today Emily turned into a witch and made some serious magical potions! We're talking invisibility potion, super strength potion, and even a flying potion - it sure was fun making Caryn drink the potion. We had to follow recipes and use all sorts of stuff to measure, like small cups, medium cups, and even measuring cylinders to measure precise amounts like 20mL and 30mL. The ingredients we used were straight out of a fantasy tale: Trolls Bogies, Dragons Blood, Unicorn Sweat, and Teardrops from a Fairy. Don’t forget to ask Emily later and find out if her potions actually did the trick!

Congratulation to those students who recieved Certificates are our Assembly last week.

Macy, Lotti and Rayan who received the Principal Award. Macy and Lotti received it for teaching swimming to others in their own time. Rayan was acknowledged for consistently showing the PRIDE values.

Odin, Rayan and Shakaiyah all received certificates for showing how they were able to get out of 'The Dip' and back into some great learning.

Week 6 Certificates went to Bridie & Shakaiyah who were awarded certificates for always telling the truth.

• This week in Flocktime we discussed how we show Perseverance when we discussed: Being in the Dip is a good thing.

  • We talked about how failing is one of the first steps of learning. If we are in the Dip we are learning.

  • We discussed how reflecting on our mistakes helps us to learn, and if we keep trying we will succeed.

  
  

Absences

• If your child is not going to be at school please contact the school before 9:00am. This can now also be done through the HERO app.

School Bank Account

• Automatic payments are also welcome (weekly & fortnightly) and our Student Management system can also handle Payments in Advance.

Office Hours

• School office will be manned by Caryn from 9.00-9:30 and 1:30-3:00

Break Times

• 10:45-11:10 Morning Tea
• 12:45-1:20 Lunch

Waikari School uses SchoolDocs to maintain a comprehensive, up-to-date set of policies and procedures online. These policies and procedures follow guidelines and legislation and best practice, and have been tailored for our school.
Policies being reviewed this term are:

Te Triti o Waitagi

Board Responsibility

Parent Involvement

Communicating with Parents

Community Conduct Expectations

School Planning & Reporting

Reporting to Parents on Student Achievement

You can use the SchoolDocs website to participate in a review. https://waikari.schooldocs.co.nz/Logon.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f

Username: waikari

Password: pride

We as a B.O.T really value your feedback.

• Thursday 7th March - Haorld - Life Education Visit
• Thursday 14th March - Kea Class Supermarket Visit
• Friday 15th March - Kahui Ako Teacher Only Day
• Wednesday 28th March - Hurunui Duathlon
• Friday 29th March - Good Friday - School Closed
• Monday & Tuesday 1st-2nd April - Easter Monday & Tuesday - School Closed
• Friday April 5th - School Working Bee
• Monday 8th April - Teeball/Softball Tournament
• Friday 12th April - End of Term 1 - Mrs Lydon leaving afternoon 2pm

ShareWaste is downloaded as an app on your phone, connecting people who wish to recycle their food scraps and other organics with their neighbours or people nearby who are already composting, worm-farming or keeping farm animals.

It is used nationwide.

Kelly Northover of Kells Kitchen in Amberley uses the app to tell customers when she has coffee grinds available, which people take away for free and use for their gardens, or even making body scrubs and soaps.

“We always have coffee grinds to give away, about 60 kilograms a week.”

Northover encourages more people to use it, whether they want to dispose of or use items, adding that cardboard will be the next feature she’ll add to the app to giveaway.

“It’s just about getting the service out there.”

Hurunui District Council’s Waste Minimisation Educator Serina Linton discovered ShareWaste when she was on holiday in Tasman, seeing a display at the Nelson market.

Always keen to minimise waste wherever she is in New Zealand, Linton now uses the app on holiday to responsibly get rid of the family’s food waste from their house bus. She uses the app to look up drop off locations nearby.

“It’s so simple to load up, and so easy to use.”

Both women agreed it’s a great way to meet people in your neighbourhood, or in other parts of New Zealand.

To learn more about ShareWaste, visit Hurunui District Council’s website and refer to ‘Food Waste Recycling’ - https://www.hurunui.govt.nz/property-rates/rubbish...

A copy of the Waikari - Hawarden Halls Feasibility Report conducted by XYST on behalf of the Hurunui District Council is in the school office if you would like to take a look at this. The Hurunui Community Committee can now discuss the findings from this study.