ŌRĀTIA DISTRICT SCHOOL - NEWSLETTER

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.

After our very busy time last week it is nice to be able to take a quieter approach this week, and a few deep breaths now that our ERO visit has concluded, and we have sent off our feedback to Carol Stoney. We will wait to receive her final report for our kura by the end of the term.

You may have noticed, if you drop your children off at the busbay, that construction work has begun at the front entrance. This is the final stage of the accessibility project we have been working on for the past couple of years. A new ramp is being built to provide wheelchair access, and new steps down into the school that lead past the office will be constructed. If you want more details about the plans, you can have a look at last week's newsletter on our school website, as the drawings were published in that newsletter.

Please note that access to the front entrance is hindered by this construction so please use the junior gate access into school if you are dropping off your children from that side of the busbay. We do not want children walking to the entrance of school via the busbay road, so please make sure that you drop them past the new fencing so they can walk into school on the footpath that side of the busbay. This work may take a month or so to complete.

This coming weekend is a long weekend celebrating the King's birthday on Monday. School is closed that day. The following day is our Teacher Only Day and school is also closed that day. Our teachers and teacher aides will be working on professional learning regarding structured literacy and our school values. Please send your children to school on Wednesday, June 5 for their first day of school next week. I hope you have a great weekend and the weather treats us well.

Take care and stay safe.

Kia kaha, kia atawhai.

Ngā mihi nui, Ms Linda

The Karekare road workers repairing Lone Kauri Road got a nice surprise this week when the students at Lone Kauri School made cards and baked cakes for them. The students really appreciate all the hard work being done to fix their road and are looking forward to having their new road which is expected to be completed soon.

If a student misses one day of school every two weeks, they miss a whole year of school by 16 years of age. As a parent or caregiver, you, alongside our school, play a key role in building strong habits of regular school attendance.

All students are legally required to attend school every day and it is a shared responsibility to make sure students attend and engage in learning from when they first start school. Every day of school matters.

You must let the school know if your child is going to be absent for a day or intends to be absent for a portion of the school term for whatever reason, like a tangi or medical procedure. Family holidays or taking time off for extracurricular activities (not organised by school) are not acceptable reasons for being absent.

If you're struggling at home with getting your child to school, talk to us! Our school is committed to supporting your child to attend school and building a culture that fosters excellent attendance by having:

• School staff who have strong relationships with students and whānau.
• A school culture that recognizes your child and your family for who they are, where they come from and who they want to be.
• A school community that does everything to make sure students are at school, and they are participating, and progressing in their education.
  
  

Student attendance: A guide for parents and caregivers – Ministry of Education

Also a reminder that if your child is absent for any reason we have two ways to report this. The Report an Absence form on the front page of our school website or you can phone 818-6216 and leave a phone message via our Report an Absence option.

We are so proud of all our students who participated in the Zone Cross Country at Henderson Valley Primary last Tuesday 21 May. The kids had a great day despite the rain and we continued our winning streak taking first place overall for the 2nd year running ! Thank you to all the parents who helped on the day. from Miss Hamlin and Matua Ben.

The PB4L focus this week is on Litterless Lunchboxes. Students are being asked to think about how much rubbish they create each day and where that rubbish goes. The aim is for them to bring litterless lunch boxes to school with recyclable containers, to recycle their fruit and vege scraps and to take any rubbish home.

CONGRATULATIONS

Billie from Room 4 is our first student to read 7 books for our Reading challenge. Well done Billie!

She is now ready to head to Hell Pizza and claim her prize of a free kids size pizza. This challenge runs at school until the end of Term 3 so you have plenty of time to make it happen and dive into the world of books! If you need any inspiration of what to read, check out our Library Catalogue to make your wish list of books, and head on in to see Librarian Jess.

A reminder about our reading incentive programme which started this term in conjunction with the 2024 Book Awards and Hell Pizza. Read 7 books and receive a free kids pizza from HELL PIZZA.

"The HELL Reading Challenge is a well-established programme that has been hugely successful in getting tamariki reading and enjoying the pleasures of stories — with the bonus of free pizza rewards! We are very excited to be continuing our partnership with HELL Pizza. Their enthusiasm for children’s reading and generous ongoing commitment is awesome".

Any child interested in participating can come to the Library to see Librarian Jess or go to reception to collect a form. This form is to be filled out at home, then brought into school for Jess to sign once they have read each book.

Each child taking part in the challenge will also have a Pizza Wheel kept in the library for Jess to check off and sign. Once your child has read 7 books they can head into store with their completed Pizza Wheel to grab their FREE PIZZA! This incentive runs till the end of Term 3 so you still have time to get hour forms and earn yourself a Pizza. For more details please click on the link below.

The Book Awards & Hell Reading Challenge

Thanks to those people who donated their used soft toys for the PB4L shop. They are hot property with the shop customers ! So if you are having a clear out over the long weekend please send in any good used soft toys. These can be handed into the office.

Email: principal@oratia.school.nz
Website: https://www.oratia.school.nz
Location: Shaw Road & West Coast Road, Oratia, Auckland 0604, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 818-6216
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OratiaSchool/