Newsletter 3 Term 3

Onerahi School Friday 27 September

Te Karere o te Tumuaki/Principal's Message

Kia ora e te Whānau,

Wow, what an amazing term we have had. There has been so much exciting learning going on and the celebrations for Chinese Language Week have been epic. Our tamariki have had a fantastic 3 days of food, performance and experiences. On Tuesday I met with the Consul-General of Japan, Matsui-san and on Thursday evening Whaea Liz, Hannah and myself attended a celebration at the Confucious Institute, as we had been selected as a School of Excellence and I was invited to speak to the national body representatives. What a privilige it was to share the achievements of Onerahi Primary School. Ngā mihi nui to all those involved in the organisation as it was massive.

The holiday break seems to have come around very quickly but I think you will all agree that everybody is ready for a break. We are starting to rise above the sicknesses, enjoying some warmer and sunnier weather and ready for a refresh and regroup. Enjoy a safe and happy holidays and we will see you on October the 14th.

Ngā manaakitanga

AnnMaree MacGregor

Tumuaki Whakahihi / Proud Principal time

Over the past several weeks Grace and I have had the pleasure of having morning tea with the following fabulous students:

Joss Bowling - Rm 7 Jaxon Ostermeyer - Rm 15, Evan Donald and Evie Marrison-Pugh - Rm 5, Viana Revell and Abigail Kehoe - Reorua. Finley Lockie and Hayden Fromont-Bellamy - Rm 17, Kaylee Toki - Rm 10, Alaric Pipe - Rm 22, Tylah Coradine and Clare Morgan - Rm 6, Siobhan Bowling - Reorua, Penelope Eke - Rm 7, Kaia Kelly - Rm 8, Kenisha Witehira and Danielle Meagher - Rm 16.

These tamariki make our school a great place to be through their manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, and manawa reka.

NEST Fun Run

On Tuesday 23 September, lots of little feet took to our fields for our annual junior school fun run.

Ākonga from years 0-2 completed 1, 2, or 3 laps of our school field and we are so proud of the efforts they all made. The smiles on the faces were awesome to see, and it was well supported by many whānau, coming in to cheer on their tamariki. A big thank you to both the Nest teachers for organising this, and their team of helpers from the senior school who led the way, or ran alongside the juniors.

Taking out the top spots were the following students:

New Entrants: 1st = Sena Crisp, 2nd = Harrison Newby, 3rd = Isaac Thompson

Year 1 Boys: 1st = Ben Sands, 2nd = Beau Middleton, 3rd = Joss Bowling

Year 1 Girls: 1st = Zaydia Brittain-Clark, 2nd = Karlei Snowden-Murphy, 3rd = Riley McCaskill Tod

Year 2 Boys: 1st = Jakeb Thompson, 2nd = Kymani Clements, 3rd = Fletcher Stevens

Year 2 Girls: 1st = Jazmine Garz, 2nd = Riley Kemp, 3rd = Levi Neho

Cultural Festival

In the last 2 weeks of Term 3, Onerahi Primary celebrated Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori, and Chinese Language Week. On Wednesday the 25th of September, the school held a cultural festival to celebrate both. There were amazing, graceful and passionate performances by students, activity rotations, and delicious food available. It was wonderful to see so many whānau join us.

We would like to give a big thanks to the staff involved in bringing us a wonderful day, (Hannah, Ling and Whaea Liz, with many assistants) and to our visiting guest performers also, we were delighted to have you with us.

EOTC in Term 3

Many trips outside our kura and in our local community took place over term 3, as weather allowed. We had hikoi te maunga, hikoi te awa (walks up the local mountain - Parihaka, and along the local river - Hatea as well as around our Hatea Loop), a "Captains Run" trip with our local rugby team - the Taniwha, noho marae trips for our Kapa Haka rōpu, trips to the pools and the continuation of Dragonfly Springs experiences.

All these experiences provide many rich learning opportunities for our ākonga. They can connect to our local history, find new ways to move their bodies, connect with local community, local whenua and build knowledge in different areas.

Below is some student voice gathered by students lucky enough to participate in both the Captains Run and the Hikoi te Loop - Tyler Da Silva, Willow Meehan and Elise Baldwin (yr 6).

The Loop Walk

"We got to learn a lot about social studies and the environment (we picked up rubbish to help this as we went), plus cool local community resources when we completed our loop walk. It was important for us to clean up our areas before we moved on. We loved playing at the park when the mahi was done. The experience walking around the loop was fun. We even got iceblocks as a reward for our mahi!"

The Captains Run

"It was a lot of fun, and we could get a lot of people to sign our stuff (posters, crocs - but only in sports mode! - balls, even our necks!). We also got free kids tickets to the weekend game. We met the Taniwha (mascot)"

"He gave me a high five, and I didn't want to wash my hand after" - Willow.

"We had a group hug" - Tyler.

"The kicks we saw seemed to be 30 stories high, they were massive!" - Elise.

"They also kicked the ball into the crowd and we tried to catch. Well done Jacob for catching it. Thanks team for hosting us!"

Mathex 2024

On Tuesday the 10th of September, Onerahi Primary held it's annual in-school Mathex tournament. There was a healthy amount of competition in all year levels, and a lot of support loud and proud on the sidelines. Congratulations to the following victorious classrooms:

Room 10 - Y1

Room 19 - Y2

Room 17 - Y3

Room 15 - Y4

Room 3 - Y5

Reorua - Y6

The new teachers took on the LSA's and the victorious team from ReoRua in our hotly contested "Staff Vs Students", our wrap up event. This year the ReoRua team was victorious! The cheers were louder than ever. Well done students!

Board By-Election

Kia Ora,

We have received a resignation from a board member, resulting in a By-Election to be held this year. Have you thought about joining us? Drop a line to boardoftrustees@onerahi.school.nz if you have any questions.

Please see below for the important dates to note:

Wednesday 16 October - Close Main roll

Friday 18 October - Call for Nominations

Monday 04 November - Supplementary roll closes

Wednesday 06 November - Nominations close

Wednesday 13 November - Voting papers issued

Friday 13 December - Election Day

Monday 16 December - Postal vote closes

Tuesday 17 December - Votes counted

Wednesday 18 December - Election results announced

Could we ask that if you have changed your email address, or think we may not have one recorded for you, could you update us at the office? office@onerahi.school.nz. The nomination forms will be emailed out where possible.

Nga mihi

Lana Jennings

Returning Officer

Found Property

We have an overabundance of found property at the moment! Are you missing shoes, socks, jumpers or other assorted clothing? Maybe your lunchbox or drinkbottle went walkabout? Come check out the stash in Rm 23's foyer, you may be able to be reunited! It is a lot easier to locate items when they are named.

Keeping our students safe when arriving and departing school

Whānau , please help us work together to support our wonderful road patrollers. We remind you all that the speed limit outside our kura is reduced to 40km/hr and when our signs are out, you must stop. We are still seeing a number of dangerous driving behaviours outside our school, including exceeding the speed limit, turning into and/or blocking the staff driveway and obscuring the view of our patrollers by parking on yellow lines. We respectfully ask that when crossing yourself or your tamariki on Church St or Raumati Ave, you do so at our pedestrian crossing and patrolled area. This sets a good example for our tamariki, on safe road crossings.

Senior leadership and the Board are currently working with the council to establish a safe travel plan. More information will come out in due course.

2nd hand Uniform

We are still a bit light on most of our secondhand uniform supplies. As soon as it comes in, it tends to quickly find a new home. If your child has outgrown their uniform and you have no further need of it, please feel free to drop it in to the school office. The sales of these help the school purchase additional items that our former PTA used to supply, such as sunscreen, etc.

Honey

We still have a great stock of honey available for purchase at the school office. Honey has been kindly donated by our partner beekeepers - Tahi honey, and we have further been gifted larger sized jars of Honeyeater honey - also from local Pataua hives. The honey is priced amazingly from $5 per jar to $20 (the big 1 kg jars) so why not pop in and pick some up.

Tino rā nui/Important Dates

Monday 14 October - First day of Term 4
Wednesday 16 October - Kiwi Rail Safety visit
Wednesday 23 October - Touch tournament at Parua Bay School
Thursday 24 October - Big Shake out (nationwide Earthquake drill)
Monday 28 October - Labour Day
Friday 15 November - Senior School Athletics day
18-20 November - ReoRua Camp
Tuesday 26 November - School Colour Fun Run
Wednesday 27 November - Te Whanga Festival
27-28 November - Middle team Camp
Wednesday 4 December - WPSSA year 5 & 6 school athletics day
Thursday 5 December - NEST beach trip
Friday 6 December - NEST camp school day
Mon 09-Wed 11 December - Rms 3-6 Senior Camp at Chosen Valley
Wednesday 18 December - Last day of school 2024

Reminders/Ngā manatu

SPRING

Spring is here! Just a reminder to you all that in terms 1 and 4, it is compulsory for our students to wear a hat when outdoors. If they do not come with a hat during this term, they will be unable to play outdoors in play break. This is in keeping with our sun safe policy.

SCHOOL HOURS

8:15am School gates open to students and whanau

9:00am School begins

11:00-11:30am 1st Play Break

1:30-2:00pm 2nd Play Break

3:00pm School finishes

3:15pm School gates close

There are two eating breaks within the day, taken at times that suit each class. Please ask your child's teacher when their times are. We would like to remind all whānau that during school hours, your child is expected to be present and learning. Where possible, we ask that appointments be scheduled outside of school hours, so as not to impact on your child's learning. We also ask that every effort is made to arrive at school in time for learning at 9am.

Our Website

IMPORTANT NOTICES/TINO PANUI NUI

Medication: If your child requires medication to be brought or kept at school, please be aware that due to health and safety concerns, this must be kept secure in the school sick bay. It is not to be kept in children’s schoolbags during the day. This is to protect the safety of not only the child requiring the medication but also all other students. All medication requires an accompanying permission/approval form signed by their parent or caregiver. This includes epi-pens for allergy management, inhalers for asthma or any other medication your child requires on a short-term or as needed basis.