Kia ora Waitetuna Whaanau,
Welcome to Jade who has joined us in the Senior room. His family have come from Orini. It is great to have you in the Waitetuna Valley.
Pink Shirt day - there were clear messages emphasised on Pink Shirt day. ‘Everybody has a
voice’ is one. Children were reminded that they can say ‘No’ to bullies and to speak up if they think this is happening to them or to someone else.
Football tournament - well done to our year 1-4 students for giving it their very best at the tournament and thank you Whaea Robyn, Miss Cate and parents for taking the students to this event. Well done also to our senior students who went to the tournament and did some of the refereeing.
Visit with Barbara Kruiger - I was invited on Monday to National MP Barbara Kruiger’s Office and National’s Spokesperson for Education was also there. They were interested to hear about how challenging it is to get funding to support students with learning difficulties. I was
also able to discuss how inequitable the system is with distribution of Learning Support Coordinators(LSC). Additional funding for a LSC in our school would allow us
to employ part of a teacher to support teachers, parents and students with best meeting students with additional learning needs. I brought up the bus transport issue also
(and thanks Mike Moss for also working with the Ministry on this).
Waitetuna Way this week goes to - Jethro & Talullah for Respect: Showing respect by actively listening to others.
The four schools in our area - Waitetuna, Te Uku, Te Mata and Raglan Area School can now call ourselves a Kaahui Ako. This is a Ministry initiative and when formalised should allow us to access another pool of funding for Teacher PLD and for supporting students. With the four schools all working together this is allowing us to trial a Learning support delivery model called Te Rito. I will share more about this. As a Kaahui Ako we will continue
to push for funding to gain a learning support coordinator.
Te Uku Windfarm 10 year anniversary next Thursday will be attended by our senior room. We are very excited to be able to take our seniors to this. The permission slip for this must be returned by Monday please.
Advertising opportunities - Imagine your business logo on our school newsletter. This newsletter also goes on our school website which has a large number of visitors to it. For $50 a term this is a very good deal for advertising. Spread the word to other local businesses too. Let Amanda know if you are interested.
Digital technologies development continues to go from strength to strength.
Jan-Marie Kellow, our digital technologies facilitator, is seen above
demonstrating simple circuits using Makey Makey system which can create
piano tunes. Teachers and students are understanding how this tool can be
used in so many ways to enhance learning. Taiporo is using ‘Scratch’ to
develop his coding understanding further.
Here is some student voice on our Digital technologies learning - Makey
Makey - I learnt that playdough works in an electrical circuit. A circuit has to
be a circle. - Ryder
It was exciting and interesting playing with the Makey Makey. If you hold
hands in the circuit it still works and a thick pencil can work too. - Ned
Well done to our Year 6 - Eco-warriors in training - on Wednesday they began
planting native seeds.
Upcoming dates reminder:
Samoan Language week is week 5.
Te Uku Wind Farm 10 year anniversary - Senior room to attend - 3 June
BOT Meetings - 15 June - 5.30pm
National Young Leaders Day - Year 7 and 8
students - 16 June
Waikato Museum - whole school - 17 June
Tough Guy/Gal challenge - 24 June
Staff Only Day - 28 June
Ki-o-rahi tournament - 2 July
Olympic ambassador visiting us - 5 July - 9.15am
Have a great weekend.
Ngaa mihi nui, Amanda and staff.