Wairau Valley School “Managing Successfully in a Complex World” Term 2, Week 10 Friday 5 July 2019

Dear Parents/Caregivers, Kia ora koutou, Message from Principal: Hi everyone, It is the end of term 2, with school holidays commencing next week. Our school roll is currently 44 students and is continuing to rise as we have several more students due to enrol next term, and later in the year. We welcome our new students, and their families, to the school and hope that they enjoy their time here. The recent Board of Trustees Election went very smoothly due to our Returning Officer Jillian Redwood, and also due to the great response from parents who voted. We are thrilled to welcome Hayley Kidd to the Board as a parent elected member and to welcome back Glen Griffiths as a parent elected member along with our MOE appointed members Liz Scherp and Simon Ryan. Thank you to those parents who agreed to be nominated for the Board Election, your support of the school is much appreciated. Katrina White did not put her nomination forward for another term on the Board, due to other commitments. Katrina worked very hard on the Board for a number of years and we will miss her expertise and insight. We are very pleased to advise that the senior classroom will be having some upgrade work done commencing next week. This will involve changing the cloakroom into an extra area for the senior classroom to use. We look forward to showing students this new space next term. Recently we said goodbye to our long-serving bus driver Kevin Little. This was a sad occasion, but the school and parents enjoyed a shared lunch with him on his last day. We wish him well in his retirement and travels. Rachel McConway is our new bus driver, and we are very lucky to have Rachel in this role as she is already familiar with the students and the school. Thank you Rachel for making this such an easy and smooth transition. A new school bike track has now been approved by the Board and plans are being discussed. This exciting new addition to the school field will require community support in the way of donations and helpers. We will be organising a working bee at a later date, so please keep this in mind if you think you may be able to help. Reports are going home with students today, so please look for these in your child’s bag. Regards, Karen O’Donnell

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WAIRAU ROOM Writing We have had a large writing project this term. The class has been focusing on how to use the writing steps, to dig deeper and add more detail to their writing, to edit and recraft what they have written with more independence. To publish this writing the class also had to learn how to illustrate their books. Here is a sneak peek at one that is almost finished, written and illustrated by Will Fowler. All books will be published via Snapfish.

Reading I am thrilled at how quickly the children have responded to our new reading programs, FivePlus and SevenPlus. They are always eager to do reading each day and best of all, I see the results during the guided reading lessons. Both programs really help the children to become more independent readers… it gives them the skills they need.

SevenPlus follows a simple daily routine that the students quickly learn. Students learn how to successfully read increasingly more difficult text as they develop decoding skills and build vocabulary. FivePlus has been crafted to help struggling students in Years 2 and 3 accelerate their learning of early literacy skills so that they can catch up to their peers. Crafted by literacy expert Chuck Marriott, these programs use a simple daily routine to teach skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, encoding and reading fluency.

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Fishtail Room Earth Day Banners This term the senior room submitted work for an Earth Day banner display in Marlborough. Protect Our Species was the theme for this year’s celebrations, drawing attention to the unique plants and animals we have in Aotearoa. Forty banners were printed with student art works,and put on display at the Marlborough Convention Centre. A number of our class submissions were accepted to be printed and displayed. Congratulations to Xyon, Ruby, Willow, Kiarn, Devyka, and Ella.

Learning to Knit This term the senior class have been learning to knit. With the kind help of Rosie, Maureen, Hayley, Caroline Amos and Dawn Rentoul, we have learnt to knit, and fix our knitting. To us, knitting is a fun down-time activity and we can’t wait until Tuesday afternoons. We love knitting and all you can hear in our senior classroom when we do knitting is the clattering of the needles - by Willow Hale. Senior class topics and research this term have included climate change, money and what this means for us ‘from today until we retire’, life during Cook’s voyages to New Zealand, and production practice. Both character writing and geometry and measurement have been fun and challenging. We have started to design ideas for a school banner to represent our school in the Tuia 250 Celebrations that will take place at the end of the year in Picton.

A very warm welcome to Phineas and Alex

who joined us this term.

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2019 Liz Scherp (Chairperson, MOE appointed)

Karen O’Donnell (Principal) Simon Ryan (MOE appointed) Glen Griffiths (Parent elected) Hayley Kidd (Parent elected)

Lisa Bond (Staff Rep, Board Secretary)

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NOTICES

Wairau Valley Playgroup has changed from Monday to Thursday mornings at 10am at the Community Hall

Everyone welcome! If you or anyone you know has under 5’s please join us we would love to

see some new faces Any questions contact Hayley 5722923

Technology Centre Dates for 2019 (Afternoon bus delayed by 15 minutes)

Term 3: 22 July 29 July 5 Aug 12 Aug 19 Aug 30 Aug (Friday -Tech Challenge)

Term 4: 30 Oct (Wed) 6 Nov (Wed) 11 Nov 18 Nov 25 Nov 29 Nov (Yr6) 2 Dec

2019 Term Dates: Wairau Valley School Valued Sponsorship

Term 3: 22 July— 27 September Term 4: 14 October— 13 December

Kind regards, Karen O’Donnell (principal@wairauvalley.school.nz) Lisa McDonald (lisa.mcdonald@wairauvalley.school.nz) Briar Meek (briar@wairauvalley.school.nz) Phone: 5722 715 Fax: 5722 748 Website: www.wairauvalley.school.nz

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