SELF REGULATOR

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER

Wednesday 25 May, 2016

Issue 7 2016 PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGES

Inside this issue:

Principal’s Messages

PTA Report

Room 7

Room 14

Community notices

Tasman Drive

Papakura 2113

Phone (09) 298 5410

PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT LATE FOR SCHOOL.

STUDENTS MUST BE IN CLASS BEFORE 8.25AM

office@opaheke.school.nz

www.opaheke.school.nz

Fax (09) 298 0739

STUDENTS TREATED TO A SPECIAL

MATARIKI PRESENTATION

Pita Turei and Riki Bennett have been

contracted by Auckland City Council to

deliver collaborative presentation on

Matariki to schools in the area. On 13 May

they presented to the whole of Opaheke

School.

They were very talented in their storytelling

which was accompanied by traditional Maori

instruments. This was a great start to

Matariki and also provides students with the

inspiration to design their Matariki flag.

HE MATAPUNA ORA

PLAN MATARIKI

CELEBRATION DAY

On the evening of 12 May

parents of Maori students met

to plan ways that Matariki

could be marked over the

coming weeks. It was decided

that starting on week of 6

June the students would

participate in learning

activities in class culminating

in a whole day of celebration

on Friday 10 June. On this

day the students will be in

whanau groups. This enables

the older students to help the

younger ones with the range

of activities they will

participate in.

MORE THAN 100 PARTICIPATE

On Wednesday 11 May the School Councillors ran their final

fundraising activity to raise money for the Give a Little Page in the

the name of Kosta Wolfgram. The page is raising money for research

into the form of cancer which tragically took the life of Kosta.

Disability Day was a huge success with approximately 120 students in

Years 5 to 8 participating. The activity was devised by one of the

students who experienced it on a CISV

camp. Children were given a randomly

selected disability for the day. They

may have been given earmuffs for a

hearing impairment, a blindfold for a

sight impairment, have an arm tied

behind their back or even tied together

with another student in the form of

Siamese twins, some students were

mute and unable to talk.

The students really gained an

insight into those children who face

life every day with a disability.

Students paid $3 to participate.

MEET THE CANDIDATES EVENING

There are 8 candidates who have been

nominated for the Board of Trustees, there-

fore there will be an election. Voting papers

have been sent out. On Tuesday 31 May, at

7.30pm, the candidates will be available to

talk to in the staffroom. We encourage you to

come along to meet the people who may

govern the school over the next 3 years and

help you when casting your vote.

Refreshments will be provided.

Don’t forget to bring

your child’s Windows

8 or Windows 10

device.

The Candidates

Kyla Boyle

Louisa Hunter

Jenn Jury

Gina Kay

Matt Morling

Patrick O’Halloran

Dylan Weymouth

Andrew Wickers

LATENESS TOO HIGH

I plead with parents to please ensure that their children

arrive at school by 8.15am. This gives the children time to

organise themselves for the day before the roll call bell at

8.25am and gives them the best chance to be self

regulators.

Late children also disturb the class which has already

begun.

There were 41 late students on Monday—let’s try and get

this figure down!

MICROSOFT FAMILY

SAFETY

TONIGHT!

We would love to see you at

7pm this evening in the

staffroom.

SELF REGULATOR

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER

Opaheke School Newsletter ©

Opaheke School Netball Results DATE: 14/5/16

Magic vs Karaka Topaz lost 3-1 Players of the Day Sienna-Ri T./Madelline E.

Storm vs Strathallen, won 13-9, Player of the Day - Ezekeil F.

DATE: 21/5/16

FLU SEASON—as many parents already know we have had a recent outbreak of sore

throats and vomiting bugs. With flu season now upon us it is a good time to remind your

children about hand washing. Here's how to scrub those germs away. Teach this routine to

your kids — or better yet, wash your hands together often so they learn how important this

good habit is:

1.Use soap and lather up for about 20 seconds (antibacterial soap isn't necessary — any soap

will do). Make sure you get in between the fingers and under the nails where germs like to

hang out. And don't forget the wrists!

2. Rinse and dry well with a clean towel or hand drier.

Don't underestimate the power of hand washing! The few seconds you spend at the sink

could save you trips to the doctor's office.

Also teach your children to sneeze into the crook of their elbow rather than into their

hands. This stops germs being passed on to items that other children may touch.

Class/ Netball Teams/Councillor photographs will be taken on Wednesday 8 June. All photos must be

pre-paid. Your child has been given an envelope with his/her name on it to bring home and if you wish to

order a photo of your child please return the envelope with payment before Wednesday 8 June (this will be

the final day for payment). Please make sure you have the correct money in the envelope, we do not have

change in the office, and Photolife do not give change out. If you wish to order a netball team photo or a

Councillor photo please ask your child to get a further order envelope from the office. All children will be

included in the photos whether they order or not. ONE ENVELOPE MUST BE RETURNED FOR EACH

CHILD’S ORDER. Thank you.

YOUNG ENGINEERS

On Friday May 20, Xach, Charlotte, Abby and myself

went to the Devonport Naval Base because we had

been selected to represent Opaheke School in an ‘Aqua-

bot’ competition. This experience was all thanks to us

being part of The Young Engineers Club.

We learnt about how the aqua-bots worked in real life

situations and how to trim the buoyancy. We were able

to compare our robot to the AUT aqua-bot in the pool,

which was a massive privilege.

The day was an unforgettable experience involving

working with your team, using the aqua-bot with skill (by

the end of the day) and of course having fun.

In the afternoon we also got to go for a tour around

HMNZS Te Mana frigate.

It was cool because we

got to see how the people

controlled the ship, how

they defended

themselves and much

more.

So all in all the day was

awesome, and we would

do it again any day!

A REMINDER: REQUESTS FOR STUDENT ABSENCE

Please note than in accordance with the Education Act a

student must attend schools they are enrolled in every day.

Valid reasons for absence are for medical reasons or

bereavement.

Requests for absence outside this must be made in writing to

the Principal ahead of time. When I receive a request I will

write back to parents with my response.

Thank you to your co-operation in this matter.

A BIG THANK YOU TO THE PTA

The latest donation from the PTA helped the school to buy or

contribute to the following:

Netball Fees

National Young Leaders Day

Robotix Expansion Kits

Pads for Basketball Goals

Bean Bags & Cushions for Library

Coin Counter

Lego Equipment

I-tunes Credit

SELF REGULATOR

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER

Opaheke School Newsletter ©

PTA UPDATE—

Calling all parents, grandparents and extended family……..The Opaheke School PTA is responsible for running

the rosters for a number of activities at the school that we need your help with. We are always looking for helpers to

join the rosters for the following :

School lunches – collating orders. On a Tuesday or Friday morning in school staffroom for approximately an hour

from 8.30am. Involves marking off orders and counting out change. Preschoolers are welcome.

Supervising Road Patrols – we always need helpers to watch over the road patrollers (especially on Opaheke Rd).

takes less than half an hour and even if you can only do one day every couple of weeks we can make that work. This

is vital to the safety of our kids and we always struggle to get people to help on these rosters.

We need someone to take over the Hell Pizza Distribution – this is usually the 2nd Wednesday of term 2, 3 and 4. takes

around an hour from 12pm.

We would really like more people to join the PTA. For the past year the average attendance at our meetings of parents

is 6 or less. It would be great if some more people would come along and bring their ideas and enthusiasm to our

meetings – you find out a lot about what is happening in the school and you also get to have a say in what the PTA

funds for the school. We meet on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 7pm in the staffroom. If you would like to come

along to the next meeting on the 18th of May we would love to see you there. If any of this sounds like you or maybe

someone you know and you would like more information on any of these activities please contact the school office.

Thanks Kirsty Johnson PTA Chairperson

Carnival 2016!!! - We are starting to put together the carnival for this year and would love your input. The first

thing we will be doing is sending out requests for sponsorship. We have quite a database from previous years, but it

is always great to try some new sponsors. If you have any ideas of businesses and organisations that we could ap-

proach, could you please let me know? Just email Claire Hart, candbhart@xtra.co.nz. If you would like to be involved

in organising the carnival or have any ideas please let me know too!!

MOUNTAIN CELEBRATION

Although it wasn’t a particularly nice day weather wise on Thursday 12 May the students still got involved

in a day to celebrate the teams being named after Aucklands Mountain peaks. There were lots of cupcakes

made in the shape of mountains and even more very creative artwork. All the classrooms have banners with

the name of their Mountain. From now on the teams will be referred to by their mountain names;

Mangawhau, Maungakeikei, Rangitoto and Maungarei.

At lunchtime the students were able to play in all areas of the school grounds. This was a request of the

school councillors for this day.

SELF REGULATOR

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER

We have been setting mathematics goals.

We have been setting writing goals.

In Room 7 we have been focusing on Rangitoto. We had to get a partner and do a poster on Rangitoto for the mountain celebration. We have been doing this for about five days. On our poster we had to put the five learning dispositions, Challenge Taker, Collaborator, Thinker, Innovator and Self-Regulator. We did this so that our poster could be ready for the mountain celebration to celebrate all the mountains in our school. By Carys

This term Room 7 have been learning about our mountain, Rangitoto. Everyone got into groups of two or three and researched the mountain. After a couple of days, posters were up and ready for other classes to come and see them. Opaheke school also had our mountain celebration on Thursday 12th of May. By Scarlett

We worked in groups to record our ideas about our topic on hexagons then we organised our thoughts to groups of

similar things.

SELF REGULATOR

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER

Room 14 We are one of two New Entrant classes and we have

fun when we learn. Every day we do lots of different things to help us

learn. We are part of the Maungakiekie Team.

We are learning about ‘People who help us in our Community’ and we had

a surprise visitor. The firemen talked to us about how to keep ourselves

safe when there is a fire. We know that fires are dangerous and we have

learned what to do to keep ourselves safe.

We use lots of different equipment to help us learn. We match the length

of the rods to make a picture, we talk about the colours of the rods, we

count the rods, we compare size and we measure

length. We work together so we can talk about our

learning.

We are learning the letter names and the letter sounds because this helps

us learn to read and write. We practise every day. We always start

alphabet time by talking about what we are learning and why we are

learning this. It is very important for us to talk about our learning.

We like construction time. When we work together we

are talking about what we plan to do, we discover how

things work, and we negotiate with each other. These

are all skills that are very important with all our

learning.

We are learning to count on from the biggest number. We toss the bean-

bag and then choose someone to count on from that number. This is one

of our favourite maths activities at the moment.

SELF REGULATOR

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER

Opaheke School Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Thur 26 May National Young Leaders Day

Tues 31 May Cyber Safety Show, ICAS Science Test

Tues 31 May BOT Meet the Candidates evening 7.30pm

ICAS Science Test

Wed 8 June Class and Netball Team photos taken,

Thu 9 June BOT Elections Counted

Fri 10 June Matariki Celebration Day

Mon 13 June ICAS Writing Test

Tues 14 June Remote Control Day

TERM DATES FOR 2016

Term 2: Monday 2 May—Friday 8 July (Queens Birthday: Monday 6 June)

Term 3: Monday 25 July—Friday 23 September

Term 4: Monday 10 October—Friday 16 December (Labour Day: Monday 24 October)

Assembly Certificates:

Teamwork

16 May 23 May

R1 Jorja L. Herendeen T.

R2 Jessica F. Debra P.

R3 Luke J.

R4 Bryce P. Lucas R.

R5 Kurtis G. Hope C.

R6 Isabella H. Kaylee N.

R7 Samantha N. Nicole F.

R8 .Matthew M. Henry L.

R9

R10 Prun W. Harrison H.

R11 Pipiana H. Zoe M.

R12 Jaxen H.

R13 Taylah B. . Hurricane W.

R14 Rylan B. Lavynder T.

R15 Mila T. Cohen C.

R16 Logan P. Antonella P.

R17 Moko-Iti K. Jason Z.

R19 Erin R. Jordyn E.

R20 Lara W. Olivia P.

R21 Alyesha S. Aiden D.

R22 Wairua C. Caleb B.

R23 Cohen T.

R24 Briahn T.

R25 Dylan B. Carlos E.

R26 Ruby R. Cyrus M.

Teamwork

(This is the focus for STAR certificates this term)

Welcome to the following students who have started at Opaheke

School since the last newsletter: Nuku and Dhruva R13, Marcia

R14

‘The FLASH BANG SCIENCE clubs for children aged 7yrs+ will be running term 2 classes in Waiuku, Pukekohe and Nathan Homestead, Manurewa week commencing 24th May. Holiday workshops will also be up on our website very soon. For more information check out: www.flashbangscienceclub.co.nz, admin@flashbangscienceclub.co.nz or ph. 0297 712 923.’

Below: Photos from the fire departments

talk to Maungakiekie about fire safety.

Below: Students from Room 11 show their mountain art of Maungakeikei.