ORATIA DISTRICT SCHOOL - NEWSLETTER

Tēnā koutou katoa. Nau mai ki te whānau o te Oratia. Talofa lava. Malo e lelei. Zdravo. Ni hao. Namaste. Kamusta. Greetings Oratia whānau and families.

What a nice start we have had to this final term of the year. The sun has been shining and the sky is blue. It makes such a difference to our state of mind having sunshine in our day don't you think? Our staff have returned refreshed and thankful for the break. Your children seem to be happy to be back at school amongst their friends, and they tell me that they are ready for lots of learning. With final assessments happening and end of year reports being written this term we are going to be busy and working hard. Term 4 is full of events and activities, so encourage your children to get involved and keep an ear out for announcements for these things.

There are a couple of things on the horizon that will affect the school in various ways. Our school pool is in dire need of a repaint so we are going to do this over the next four to six weeks. It will unfortunately interfere with our regular swimming programme so we apologise for that, but we needed to take advantage of the contractor's availability. We will let you know when the pool is ready for use again.

The other item is the refurbishment of our school hall. This is due to start in Week 5 and will mean the hall is completely wrapped in a protective covering, and will be behind fences and out of bounds for about three terms. Due to the non availability of our hall for next year we have decided to cancel the Country Fair and just have our community picnic instead. This is disappointing for us, but we feel it is a wise decision to make. We will need to find alternative ways to fundraise as the Country Fair has been a good event for us in that space.

Term 4 means we expect all children to be wearing wide brimmed hats at school when outside. Please make sure your child comes to school with such a hat as we will be monitoring this. Finally, Tuesday October 29 (the day after Labour Weekend) is our Staff Only Day. School will be closed for children this day so please make sure you have made arrangements for the care of your children. We will be having professional learning and development around Structured Literacy that day as part of the Ministry of Education's expectations for schools around the nation.

It is lovely to be back with your children.

Take care and stay safe.

Kia kaha, kia atawhai.

Ngā mihi nui, Ms Linda

The Oratia School Athletics is happening next Monday, 21st of October.

Pōtiki will be participating from 9am - 10:20am.

Arawhata and Tuakana will be participating from 10:30am-1:25pm and then again from 2pm.

The inter-school trials will happen on Athletics Day, incorporated into the normal athletics rotation. Any 8-11 year olds can trial. We can't wait to see your kids in their fluro and having fun taking part!

Some of our students had the opportunity to work with Mrs Lewis today creating bird feeders to celebrate Enviro week. They used pine cones, peanut butter and bird seeds. What a fun and educational lunchtime activity!

I went to the Zoo and then I went to Jump. I leaped into the foam pit. At the zoo I saw a poisonous spider hiding under the branch. Another one was under a log.

By Zear Hyland, Room 3

As part of our school Sun Safe Policy, all children are required to wear a wide brimmed hat when outside during term 4. Hats are available to purchase online on Kindo or from the school office at a cost of $18.00 each. Children are welcome to bring their own hat to school as long as it has a wide brim to shade the face and neck.

No Hat = No Play

On Friday afternoon, on the last day of term we had 2 fantastic visitors. Our first visitor was volunteer firefighter and author Matt Owens who wrote the book ‘Swoop’, a heartwarming story about a Magpie that was rescued by Matt, and a beautiful friendship followed. Matt invited his well known author friend

A couple of cases of Chickenpox have been reported at school recently. Please note: Chickenpox is a viral illness. Chickenpox usually starts with one spot, but more spots quickly appear, this can be accompanied by fever, headache, runny nose, cough or feeling very tired. Then a rash starts on the chest and back, and spreads to the face, scalp, arms and legs. The rash can develop all over the body, continues to spread for 3 or 4 days. It is usually very itchy. Chickenpox is highly catching (contagious) and a child is infectious from two days before the rash appears and stays infectious until all the blisters form scabs and are dry. Generally, this takes 7 days. The virus is easily spread when the infected student sneezes or coughs.

Children MUST STAY AWAY FROM SCHOOL while they are infectious. Once all the spots have formed scabs, the person is no longer infectious. Your child may return to school, seven days after the first spots appear, as long as the spots are all scabbed over and dry.

Scholastics Issue #7 is out NOW, with loads of new books and specials this is a real bumper issue!!!

Last day to order is THURSDAY 31st OCTOBER.

New Books at the Library this week, be sure to check out our catalogue from home using the link below or via the Library tab on the Schools website!

Oratia Library Catalogue

Cooking whale is not as simple as you think!

In the holidays a sperm whale washed up along from Karekare Beach by the Pararaha Stream. It was a young female who had just given birth to a calf.

I saw a grey shape on the beach from my house so my mum, my little brother and I went to investigate. When we arrived we saw a sperm whale lying on its side just above the low tide surf. We stayed for a couple of hours in the area, in that time we called a park ranger and the local iwi. Our iwi arrived and gave the whale a blessing. They waited there for two nights with the whale because tohora are a taonga. My family and I went home but came back the next day to discover that the whale had deteriorated severely overnight.

That night I could see from my house that a DOC truck that had been down to have a look at the whale and complete a rescue mission by pulling the whale back over the dunes to the safety of dry sand and protect it from the waves had become stuck. Now the truck was being beaten by the waves instead.

On Tuesday after school I walked down to the beach carpark to see what was happening to the whale. Tangata whenua from other parts of a country, mainly from the Bay of Islands, had travelled to help. They were using HUGE pots to render the whale blubber and cook the oil out of it. I watched as experts exposed the sperm whale's upper teeth. They let me help by scooping out white bits that rose to a surface which was whale fat. We worked late into the night.

The next morning I helped with rendering the spermaciti from the head of the sperm whale. It started off as a solid white looking thing, but, when we melted it down it became a golden liquid clear and pure we then poured it into buckets. We managed to collect about ten buckets full.

This was an amazing experience!

By Noah Walton-Hannay, Room 17/18

Our school pool is currently being repainted which means that it will open a little later than usual this year. We are hoping to open the pool to students and the community from Monday 25th November. Pool passes will be available for purchase from the school office from Monday 4th November at a cost of $130.00 each. Bring on Summer !

Email: principal@oratia.school.nz
Website: https://www.oratia.school.nz
Location: 1 Shaw Road, Oratia, Auckland 0604, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 818-6216
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OratiaSchool/