ŌRĀTIA DISTRICT SCHOOL - NEWSLETTER

Week 2 - Thursday 01 August 2024

MESSAGE FROM MS LINDA

Tēnā koutou katoa. Nau mai ki te whānau o te Ōrātia. Malo e lelei. Zdravo. Talofa lava. Kia orana. Ni hao. Namaste. Kamusta. Greetings Ōrātia whānau.

Our next school board meeting will be happening on August 12, and one of the items on the agenda will be discussion of the final report written by our ERO partner. It was a very positive report, and once the board have accepted it formally then we will place it on the school website so that you can all have access to it. I will be able to give you a summary of the report in my newsletter blurb after our board meeting.

Starting next week we will have Mrs Norie Inoue and her two children visiting us from Japan on a cultural exchange. They will be a part of our school community for three weeks. Mrs Inoue is a teacher in Japan, and while here, will be working in our classrooms teaching Japanese culture, language, calligraphy and origami. We look forward to welcoming her to our kura.

Please note we have our whānau hui on August 15, 6.30pm start. All families are welcome to attend. We will have cultural performances to start the time and then a chance for us to talk and gather some feedback from you all. More information will follow so please save the date.

Thank you so much to anyone who has taken the time to fill in our parent survey and give us your feedback. We want to make Ōrātia School the best it can be and value your input as part of that process. You will be able to view the results of the survey at our whānau hui if that is of interest to you.

A reminder to check the public calendar on our website for upcoming events and things like Teacher Only Days etc. We aim to have all our important dates in well ahead of time so you can make plans. Our newsletter highlights upcoming dates also, but usually only for the next couple of months ahead.

Take care and stay safe.

Kia kaha, kia atawhai.

Ngā mihi nui, Ms Linda

100 DAYS OF SCHOOL BY ROOM 12

On Tuesday this week, Room 12 students celebrated 100 days of school for 2024. They have been counting each day on their 100's frame and using tally marks. They did lots of fun activities based on 100. Some children bought a collection of 100 things from home and some made 100 piece collections of school supplies. They wrote about what their life would be like in 100 years and they also considered what they are smarter at now, after 100 days. They wrote a shared acrostic poem with the words "One Hundred Days". They played games that involved making the number 100 and investigated number bonds to 100. It was fun x 100!

CAREERS ON THE COUCH

Last week our DP's introduced "Careers on the Couch" to our Tuakana syndicate. This new initiative will happen each fortnight with a number of different guests who will speak about their careers, what it involves, what it took to get there and answer any questions that the students may have. Thank you to our first guests last week, Joelle a Nail Technician and Dr Matt a Scientist. We hope to inspire our students to dream big and know that there is something out there for everyone!

GET AHEAD OF MEASLES

Measles is a highly infectious airborne virus which affects both children and adults. It can be life threatening and around one in ten people with measles will need hospital treatment. The Ministry of Health review of the 2019 measles outbreak found that not enough New Zealanders are immunized against measles, which means there is a very high risk of an outbreak.

The best protection against measles is two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine – free for all young people aged 18 and under in New Zealand and all adults over the age of 18 who are eligible for free New Zealand healthcare.
The first symptoms of measles are fever, cough, runny nose and sore red eyes, followed by a red or dark pink rash typically starting on the face or behind the ears three days after the first symptoms before moving down the body. If you observe these symptoms, please contact your healthcare provider or Healthline on 0800 611 116 immediately.

TUAKANA MOTAT TRIP

On Monday this week our Tuakana students continued their communication learning with a trip to MOTAT. Getting outside the classroom to learn is always a nice change for our students and a good opportunity for important hands on learning in a new environment.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB - TE KARAPU PUKAPUKA

Issue #5 catalogues are being delivered to classes this week.

Check your child's bag to ensure you got a copy, if not feel free to flick me an email - jessicak@oratia.school.nz.

They have a fantastic promotion to get up to 3 FREE books with this issue!

All sales directly benefit our school library, so thank you in advance for any purchases made, as this enables us to purchase new resources for our library. Orders are made directly with Scholastic (via the link below) and delivered to the school for your child to collect. Please place your orders by FRIDAY 9TH AUGUST.

https://mybookclub.scholastic.co.nz/Parent/Login.aspx

SCHOOL LIBRARY TOY DONATIONS

If you've had a clear out over the holidays and have unwanted toys to donate, the school library is looking for donations of good quality toys to add to their play area especially for these rainy day lunchtimes! They are looking for toys like barbie dolls, a dollhouse, lego or duplo, toy cars and action figures. If you have any unwanted items like these we would love to take them off your hands!

Any queries feel free to email jessicak@oratia.school.nz.

LOST JEWELLRY

We have had two women's rings handed in recently, so if you have lost a ring, please get in touch with the school office on 818 6216 with a description.