Kia ora tātou Welcome to the new term.
Digital Fluency The exciting news for Term 3 is that Waitetuna School have 45 new Chromebooks and 5 new Ipads to replace our desktops. This will set us up well for our school wide focus on digital fluency for the next two years. Our digital fluency facilitator Jan-Marie Kellow, will be supporting the Principal, staff and students through this transition. All middle and senior students now have their own emails and are learning to work collaboratively in class using Google Docs. As part of using Chromebooks we are asking all parents to pay a Steps Web fee of $15 per student to give students access to Steps 2, both at school and at home, to further support their learning in literacy. If you pay by direct credit please state child’s name and Steps Web in particulars/reference. For hygiene reasons, students are also encouraged to bring their own headphones or earphones for use when using their allocated Chromebook.
For the last six months our Senior room teacher, Ali McCartie has been studying a Certificate in Masters with a cluster of teachers and school leaders.Her digital fluency/leadership studies involve collaborative and inquiry learning and pedagogy based around learners of the 21st Century. These studies are in line with the digital technology curriculum, which Ali has been gradually introducing into her class for the last year. It has been exciting to see new programmes introduced in the Senior room including Makey Makey, video conferencing and digital brainstorming. She plans to introduce basic programming and simple robotics in Term 4. A huge thank you Ali for developing your learning in this area and sharing it with the students and staff at Waitetuna School. Your new found skills and knowledge are invaluable to our school.
In line with the many updates and developments in computer technology, digital fluency and social media, the Board and myself are currently reviewing our Cyber Safety Policy as well as internet use procedures and student/parent contracts. This will be a Board focus this term. Student Led Conference dates have been adjusted to accommodate the Board meeting in week 3. SLC dates are now Tues 14th and Thurs 16th August. Please fill in interview dates attached and return to school to ensure you get your preferred times. As part of the SLC time, I will be explaining Cyber Safety policy and procedures and asking parents/whanau and students, to sign permission slips for your children to use the internet at school under teacher supervision and to show respect and responsibility with the devices students are allocated with. Please leave enough time (5-10 minutes) to participate in this Cyber Safety review after your child’s Student Led Conference.
Ag Day As explained in the Skool Loop notification, both the Agricultural Day and Group Day have been cancelled this year. Guitar lessons are available again this term. If you are interested in your child beginning lessons, please see Lorna.
The main sports events this term are Rippa Rugby for Seniors and Football (soccer) for year 1 to 4 students. The Senior Room have a Ski Trip this term planned for Wednesday 29th August. This will be one day only (instead of camp). In this way the cost is reduced and in case of bad weather the event can easily be postponed. All students are participating in the Kapa Haka festival held in Te Kowhai later this term. Mariella will be leading our Waitetuna School Kapa Haka and the poi with the girls and Mr Wood will be training the boys in the Haka. We are very fortunate to have such a strong and talented team!!
Ngā mihi Margery