Week 1 Term 2 Panui

Email: office@witherlea.school.nz
Website: https://witherlea.school.nz
Location: 214-216 Weld Street, Witherlea, Blenheim 7201, New Zealand
Phone: 64 (03) 578 5568
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/witherleablenheim

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Greetings to you all.

Welcome back to term 2, especially to our new students.

Firstly a big thank you to the Molony family who kindly came in over Easter weekend and removed a section of unnecessary internal fencing. This is an exciting first step in improving access around the school.

We have an action packed term lined up with the Gymnastics Festival, Fundamental Skills Programme, Choir Festival, Jumping June, School Cross Country and Swimming Sports and the continuation of our STEM, Kapa Haka, Jump Jam and Edible Gardens programmes. Keep an eye out for further details on classroom programmes and school events via Seesaw and the School App.

The short week has provided a great opportunity for a mini unit on Anzac Day, where students can recognise things in their lives that they are thankful for and learn some important lessons from the past to guide them in shaping a better future.

Our learning pillar for term 2 is Hauora (Wellbeing). Teams are exploring this concept through the following lenses:

Ferns (Year 0-2) - Learning about Healthy Eating and practising Mindfulness.

Kowhai (Year 3-4) - Using the design process to develop games to engage people in healthy movement.

Kauri (Year 5-6) - Exploring wellbeing through musical expression. Students will collaboratively develop bands, create marketing material, write songs and apply financial literacy skills to plan a tour.

All classes will spend 10 hours this term working with Mr Roberston to learn about forces and build simple machines using levers, pulleys, wheels, wedges, gears and incline planes. The Kauri students will extend this learning by taking part in a school based EPro 8 challenge to test their problem solving skills and knowledge of engineering principles.

Teachers will be busy with assessment and moderation processes to inform the mid year reports which you will receive in the last week of term.

It was great to have a strong turn out of support for the Friends of Witherlea meeting last night. This enthusiastic group of parents will provide an American Hotdog option for lunch next Wednesday for children. Order forms will be sent home tonight and all profits will go towards the Pastoral Care fund to ensure the inclusion of all students in school activities. Unfortunately students in Room 9, 10 and 11 will not be able to order a Hotdog due to being offsite with the fundamentals programme.

Stuart Smith, our local MP, will visit Witherlea on Monday and attend assembly and have a tour of the school. I am keen to use this opportunity to highlight some local successes and advocate for better funding to support the inclusion of the increasing number of students who require additional support due to high and complex needs. Ministry funding hasn’t kept up with demand and too many children are not getting the right support to achieve success in the classroom and boards cannot afford to meet the significant shortfall. Learning Support needs a significant cash injection via new investment or the reprioritisation of existing funding allocation.

Keep an eye out in the local newspapers for community consultation on school enrolment schemes and a review of traffic management around schools.

Ngā manaakitanaga

Symon Beattie

Principal

Seesaw and School App

Seesaw is becoming one of our primary resources for connection between home and school and gives us the ability to show the learning for each child. It is like an ongoing record of learning, progress and achievement.

School App is our notification system and it integrates with our Newsletter and/or important updates for our community. It has our calendar, Links, where important newsletters or information are stored, a button to go to the Sports Hub and will be the way we notify the community of emergencies. You can also notify us of your child's absence on this app.

Please ensure that you have both of these platforms up and running for Term Two. The school app can be downloaded from your phone app store (search for School Apps NZ). Once you have downloaded the app, it will prompt you to enter the name of your school. You will need to then click on the menu button (top left of the screen) and select 'alert subscription' and select the groups/classes that you would like to see alerts from. Even if you already have the school app, you will need to change the alert subscription if your child has changed classroom.

For Seesaw, your child's teacher will contact you with details of how to join.

We wish to welcome these new students and their families and whānau to our school and community;

Ben R, Lily M, Benji W, Saskia-Rose C, Macklin F, Ollie F

Welcome to School Certificates are given out at our assembly on a Monday morning at 9am.

Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Fair Shoutouts

Congratulations to these students who have displayed one or all of our school behaviour expectations and are a model to others;

KOWHAI TEAM

Darcy A - Being kind towards your classmates and making sure others are ready for their own learning. You're an awesome allround student

Tayla K - The way that you live and breathe our school motto. You are incredibly kind to everyone you show fairness and you show u to school each day ready to learn. You make our place a fun place to be. Keep it up!

KAURI TEAM

Alex H - Alex, you always treat your classmates and teachers in such a kind, thoughtful and respectful way. We are so lucky to have you in Room 16!

The awards are for recognition in displaying and modelling our school motto and values; Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Fair.

All school photo orders will be sent home this week, orders are due back by the 12th of May. Please ensure sample photo is still on the order form when it is returned as this is needed to process your order. If you have any questions please contact the office.

We have a second-hand uniform shop available at school. Please get in touch with the office if you would like to purchase anything.

Prices are:

• $5 tops and shorts
• $10 polar fleece

We are always grateful for any clean, tidy uniforms to sell, these can be dropped off at the school office.

Congratulations to the Year 5 & 6 Witherlea Warriors who won their finals game. Amazing effort from all players.

Congratulations to both of our Witherlea School Volleyball teams who won their finals game at the end of the season. A great result for all and for our school. Ka pai te mahi.

April Holiday Camp @ Curious Cove

Enrolments are now open for our holiday camp @ Curious Cove in the upcoming April holidays.

Visit our website to complete an online enrolment form.

April Junior Special – Mon 17th – Fri 21st April for ages 8 – 11 yrs. Cost is $200