Waikari School Newsletter

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,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter. I must say it is really nice having a long weekend towards the end of term, especially considering how busy this term has been. We've had a lot of visitors popping into the school recently, and they consistently remark on the atmosphere, culture, and friendliness of our students and teachers. Often, people can't believe how polite, respectful, and considerate the students at Waikari are. It's moments like these that make us all proud to be a part of Waikari School.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Board has appointed Zoe De Groot as a teacher in Kea Class, starting in Term 2. Zoe will be teaching in Kea from Tuesday to Friday, while Miss Todd will teach in Kea on Mondays and will continue to teach in Weka on Fridays.

Zoe grew up in Tuahiwi and still resides there. She previously taught at Ohoka School for five years, departing at the end of 2023 to spend some time traveling (she is currently in Japan). Zoe excels in relationship building and is excited to work in a small school where relationships with children and whānau are valued and respected. She also possesses strengths in te reo and tikanga Māori, which both staff and students will be eager to learn from. Please note that we will be having a small mihi whakatau to welcome Zoe and new students to our school on Tuesday, 30th April (the first Tuesday of term 2) at 9:00 a.m., and whānau are more than welcome to attend.

Recently, Kerry and I attended a Maths course and a course with Tuahiwi Education. These were both rich learning opportunities for Kerry and I. Included in the newsletter is a maths challenge we learnt. See if you are able to solve it at home over the holidays.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the working bee tomorrow. Please read the information further down or the Hero post if you are attending.

Once again, thanks for all your continued support.

Ngā Mihi Nui,

Phoebe Todd

Principal | Tuamaki

Waikari School

On Wednesday we all travelled back in time to an age of dinosaurs and creatures that are never to be seen again. Local amateur paleontologist Mr Love guided us to view some very exciting fossils that exist right in our own backyard - the Waipara River bed. As well as learning a lot from our guide we also got a little bit wet navigating our way up the riverbed - but that was half the fun.

Have you noticed the big changes to the front of the school?

Mrs Lydon has embarked on a final art project with the children before she rides off into the sunset. The mural, a fun and colourful kura - which symbolises nature, new life, growth and strength. We are looking forward to witnessing the final product.

The children at Waikari School have been looking forward to Harold's visits for many years, and this year certainly didn't disappoint.

The whole school looked at 'Food and Nutrition', and what our bodies need and don't need to keep our different systems working properly.

The Yr 7-8 children also looked at Social Media and the different forms of peer pressure surrounding this.

Weird and whacky kitchen science has continued to be a focus in both classrooms - not only is it full of fun facts but the results are extremely tasty.

The Wekas were looking at how different ingredients react when combined causing all sorts of reactions like; bubbles, gasses, changing colours, swirling patterns.

Keas had to keep a close eye on some pikelets, watching as the bubbles appeared then popped, indicating it was time to turn.

Part of the writing focus this term has been looking at screen-play writing. The Keas practiced taking parts of their writing and turning it into a screen-play. They discovered that writing for actors to read is very different than writing dialogue in a narrative.

The process was really interesting from watching a short video (no speech), to writing a narrative to represent the story line and then finally turning it into a screenplay. To finish off their journey with turning their stories into their own play/movie they created billboard posters of their up-coming production.

The Keas have also been looking at re-crafting and re-writing the well known poem 'Owl and the Pussy Cat' by turning it into a modern day version. They were able to look at the pace and rhythm of how the sentences flow and found this could be achieved by doing syllable counts.

The Foal and the Crocodile

The Foal and the Crocodile went to mars

In a wonderful sky-blue plane

They took a guitar, and jam filled jars

Along with a small red train

The Foal looked up to stars above

And sang to the small guitar

‘O lovely Crocy, O Crocy, my love,

What a wonderful Crocy you are,

You are,

You are,

What a wonderful Crocy you are!’

Crocy said to the Foal, ‘You beautiful doll,

How lovingly sweet you sing!

Yes! We’ll have a marriage, fly away in our carriage!

But what will we use for a ring?’

They flew away for 1 year and 3 days,

To the land where the silver fern grows

And there in the woods a brown kiwi stood

With a ring at the tip of his nose

His nose,

His nose,

With a ring at the tip of his nose.

‘Dear Kiwi, would you trade your ring for a bell that dings?’

And the Kiwi said ‘I will.’

So they took it away and got married the next day

By the Chicken that lives by the hill

They dined on some spam, and ate bits ham,

Which they ate with a shiny silver spoon.

And hand in hand, on the golden sand

They danced under the light of the moon,

The moon,

The moon,

They danced under the light of the moon.

By Te-Atawhai

Our Student Leaders organised an Easter Egg Hunt for tamariki. Thanks to Lisa Barton for donating some eggs. We all had to play a unique 'spot the difference' version of our Easter Egg Hunt. It was great fun!

Congratulations to Lotti & Max who represented Waikari at the Canterbury Swimming Champs.

Congratulations to Shakaiyah who recently competed in the South Island Boxing Champs and won the under 50kg division. Tū meke - Awesome!

Well done to our Waikari children who competed at the Hurunui Duathlon. For a small school we certainly shine when we are out and about.

Congratulations to the following children:

Year 6 Boys: 1st Fergus

Year 7 Girls: 1st Maddison

Year 7 Boys: 2nd Nico

Year 8 Girls: 2nd Macy

Year 8 Boys: 2nd Tom

Huge thanks to FAST for their fundraising effort for the Raffle, thanks so much to everyone who brought a ticket, without your support we wouldn't be able to have the same support in our classrooms.

How many numbers of the number square can you cross out.

• You can only use these 3 numbers 3 3 5
• You need to make number sentences (equations) and cross out the answers.

e.g. 3+3+5= 11 (I would cross 11 out). 3x5-3 = 12 (I would cross off 12)

Miss Todd will hand out some squares, and bring them back... the winning family might receive a prize.

Congratulations to the following certificate winners:

• Millie, Manaaki & Tom for showing respect and kindness when on a device or interacting with others at school.
• John, Emily & Zara for showing responsibility when using a device.
• Charlotte & Macy for being responsible when on a device.
• Mille & Maddison - Learning from their mistakes and undipping themselves.

• Recently we have been talking about digital safety at in Flocktimes. We have been discussing how we are responsible and show respect when working or playing online. See the posters below to understand the main points that we have been discussing.
  

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

We are looking forward to our school working bee on Friday 5th April 2pm-5pm, followed by a BBQ (provided) & BYO.

We ask if you have the following to please bring them along with you:

• Buckets
• Scrubbing brushes
• Shovels
• WheelBarrows
• Brooms (soft ones)
• Shovels
• Rakes
• Gardening gloves
• Tools (if your a handy person)

Jobs include (but not limited to), scrubbing the Learning Support Space & mural, weeding the native garden, cleaning out the pool area, wheelbarrowing bark onto the playground and rock climbing wall.

Child Supervision

• Due to the health & safety risk, we ask that only those children who's parents attend the working bee can be on school site after 3pm.
• Children & preschoolers who are participating are parents responsibility.
• We do have some child friendly activities such as scrubbing the mural, and shovelling bark.
• Please note there will be tractors and trailers on site collecting garden waste so be careful.

Thanks heaps for all your support it is much appreciated.

Waikari School Board

PS Make sure you come and go into the draw to win a family pass to the Hamner Pools.

Username: waikari

Password: pride

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

Please note that recently the Board had to review our school Cellphone Policy to align with the new government regulations. We understand that there may be specific reasons for an exemptions to this policy, therefore if you require one please put that in writing to the Board. Please see policy below:

Cellphones and Other Personal Digital Devices

A personal digital device is any privately owned digital device that is not part of any school-approved Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programme.

Waikari School does not recommend that students bring personal digital devices to the school. These are not necessary to have during the day. However, we understand that some parents like their children to have a device to communicate with them after school.

We discuss the school rules about personal digital devices at the beginning of the year, and throughout the year as needed. Any changes to our school rules are communicated to students and our school community.

Parent/Caregiver and student responsibilities

If a parent/caregiver needs to contact their child urgently during the day, they should call the office.

If a student brings a personal digital device to our school, the following guidelines apply:

• The school does not accept responsibility for lost, damaged, or stolen personal digital devices brought to the school but investigates any issues as appropriate.
• Students must hand in their device to the office at the start of the day, and can collect it at the end of the day.
• If personal digital devices are used for a learning activity, this is at the discretion of the teacher, and their use is supervised by school staff.

Students may take certain digital devices on EOTC activities, but should check whether their device is allowed before the activity commences. These guidelines and other relevant school policies apply.

Students are expected to follow our Digital Technology and Online Safety policy when using personal digital devices on school property or the school network.

• Friday April 5th - School Working Bee
• Monday 8th April - Teeball/Softball Tournament
• Friday 12th April - End of Term 1 - Mrs Lydon leaving afternoon 2pm

• Monday 29th April - Term 2 starts
• Tuesday 21st May - Waikari School Cross Country
• Tuesday 28th May - Hurunui Cross Country
• Monday 3rd June - Kings Birthday School Closed
• Wednesday 5th June - National Young Leaders Day - Student Leaders
• Friday 7th June - Teacher Only Day
• Friday 28th June - Matariki Weekend (school closed)
• Friday 5th July - End of Term 2

Kia Ora

We are reaching out looking for any Year 4 players that may be interested in playing rugby this year to top up our team. We need a couple more to allow for subs and sickness.

This is a new grade, only 8 aside, open to all Y4 players, Y5 Girls can play down and if you have any Y5 brand new boys to rugby we could apply to dispensate.

Please let your Y4 tamariki know we are on the hunt and to get in contact if they are keen.

Kind regards,

Amberley Rugby Football Club

This Rotary Fundraiser allows schools to apply for a grant to help students get ready for school success, i.e. helping purchase stationery, school camps and other events and activities. If you want to purchase some bulbs download the attached PDF.