Newsletter T1W9

What lovely autumn days we are having which really lift everyone’s spirits. School seems to be very settled and the children are all working hard and behaving well, living the ‘Whitney Way’. This has been very apparent due to the many comments we have received recently about how nice our school and students are, so you should all be very proud of your children.

It has been an extremely fulfilling Term 1 with lots of learning taking place. Some highlights have been our Kiwi Can programme; having a drama specialist work with the Wairau and Omaka Learning Hubs; kapa haka; Juno the therapy dog working alongside students; and education outside the classroom activities including the Omaka Learning Hub trips to Te Hora Marae at Canvastown this week, and the Wairau Learning Hub visiting places of historical interest in Blenheim next week. We have had several PE and sports opportunities this term including the Hot Shot Tennis programme, cricket skills, basketball skills, and of course our swimming PE programme. The Ōpaoa Hub has also been focusing on athletics skills while the other two hubs are moving on to gymnastics. The Maths and Literacy programmes have continued as usual on a daily basis and the Inquiry Learning (including other curriculum areas e.g. visual art, Social Sciences, etc) has been based around He Tangata - Community. Overall a very busy term, and that’s just the children! Property has also been very exciting with the all-weather turf now operational and getting well used, as well as the Block A upgrade well underway.

As this is our last newsletter for the term we would like to wish you a happy Easter and holiday break. School resumes again on Wednesday 26 April.

Don't forget to come along for our Community Breakfast on the last day of term. See details in the image.

Next term the library will be closed as we use the space for another New Entrant room while Rooms 1- 4 are being upgraded. Classes will have books for the children to read but they will not be bringing them home so we encourage you to use the town library. Our school library will be operational again in Term 4 - all going to plan!

The next PSG meeting will be the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 4 April at 6pm in the staffroom. We would love to see you there as we are always on the lookout for new PSG members. Please come along by yourself, or with a friend, if you are interested or would like to join.

Our two swimmers who represented our school at the recent Marlborough Primary Schools’ Swimming Sports did extremely well with both of them getting into the finals of their respective events (Molly - freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke; Herbie - freestyle and breaststroke) and Molly gaining 4th Overall Year 6 Girl. Their placings were as follows:

• Molly Holtrop - 2nd in Breaststroke, 4th in Backstroke & 6th Freestyle which gained her 4th Overall Year 6 Girl.
• Herbie Hodson - 4th in Year 6 Boys’ Breaststroke.

Thanks also to Herbie’s dad, Dylan Hodson, for his help on the day.

Please note that Term 2 starts on Wednesday 26 April which is the day after ANZAC Day.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

The Whitney Street School Staff

If your Whitney Street School daughter has her period, she is eligible for two packs of free period products per month. These will be available to her when you let Christee Dalzell know via email (dalzell@whitneystreet.school.nz), by leaving a wee note on her desk or by contacting the school office.

Hopefully, this initiative is utilised really well by our Whitney kōtiro/girls! We have figured out a system where the students are able to easily access these in an inconspicuous way.

This is a brilliant way to save money on the grocery bill so please take advantage of it.

If you have any questions, please feel free to pop in and talk to Christee.

Our school calendar is often filled with trips and events and sometimes the dates and details change. The BEST place to keep an eye on what is happening is on the school App in the calendar section.

We encourage all parents to download our school app from the Playstore or Apple Store, as we find this the most effective way of sending out Alerts to parents/caregivers. You can also access a wealth of information from the app as it has links to the school calendar, newsletters, etc.

Please subscribe to Alerts from the classes/groups that your child belongs to. If you want to subscribe to groups later on, you can do this via the ‘Alerts Subscriptions’ which is in the Menu (top left). Please do this to ensure you are subscribed to the classes and Teams that your child or children are in for this school year.

This is also the way we would like you to inform us of absences. This system streamlines the morning routine for Tanya and Michelle so that they can easily see who is away and why.

Please click here to download the School App.

If you haven't done so already, please have a go at downloading the Hero App which shows your child’s achievement, progress and learning goals. The instructions are here or you can type hero.linc-ed.com/parents into your browser. It really is very important that you access this information about your child so you are able to be involved in their education as much as possible.

Do you have any suggestions for us at Whitney Street School? In the school office, there is a 'Suggestion Box' that is checked regularly. Or click here to email it.

We highly recommend setting up an automatic payment to help pay for things like stationery at the beginning of the year, uniform items and camps. It's a great way to help plan your budget and spread the cost of more expensive things. $5 or $10 a week is way more manageable than a large lump sum! Use your child's first initial and last name as a reference.

The Whitney Street School BOT bank details are: 03 0599 0305934 00

Are you after a professionally stitched name on a piece of uniform? Click here to find out more or text/phone 0211001228, or email embroidastitch@gmail.com

Email: principal@whitneystreet.school.nz
Website: https://whitneystreet.school.nz
Location: Whitney Street, Blenheim, New Zealand
Phone: +64 3 578 3028
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhitneyStreetSchool/

Junior Aces 1 (5 & 6 year olds) 3.30-4.10pm

Junior Aces 2 (7 & 8 year olds) 4.10-4.50pm

Junior Aces 3 (9 & 10 year olds) 4.50-5.30pm

Junior Aces Pros (11-13 year olds) 5.30-6.10pm

Bookings now open for our Term 2 Junior Aces coaching program on Monday afternoons at The Marlborough Tennis Club (Pollard Park).

Start date Monday 24th April

Bookings available online www.inspiretennis.co.nz or email reilly@inspiretennis.co.nz

Reilly Quirk
Inspire Tennis
reilly@inspiretennis.co.nz
0274225448

Kia ora,

My name is Andrew Mills, and I am on the Science Engagement team at Tūhura Otago Museum in Dunedin. I’m writing to introduce our space science roadshow, Tūhura Tuarangi – Aotearoa in Space, which will be coming to Blenheim from March 29th - April 1st.

The showcase (https://otagomuseum.nz/spaceshowcase) is packed with hands-on interactives to play, build, launch, and explode with the whole family. Visitors can try their hand at building a satellite, flying a spaceplane, or seeing how they can create energy out of water. They'll be able to get up close with a four-billion-year-old meteorite and hold part of a secret Russian space craft.

We will be based at the Marlborough Girls' College Hall from Wednesday March 29th and open to the public each afternoon from 4-6pm with our big community day on Saturday April 1st from 10am-3pm. This showcase is very popular with primary-aged kids and their whānau, and the feedback we have received is that we should let all of the primary schools in the area know so they can pass on the message to their school communities.

All ages are welcome to attend, there are fun things to interact with and explore for the whole whānau.

If you were keen to advertise this to your school community, I've added a poster below. I've also attached a little map showing where the hall is located for visitors that are not sure.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions at all!

Ngā mihi nui,

Andrew Mills

Andrew.Mills@otagomuseum.nz

I just wanted to remind you all of the NBL Pre-Season Basketball Game we are hosting on Saturday 1 April 2023 at the Stadium. The main game is the Nelson Giants playing the Wellington Saints and tip-off is at 2:30pm. Prior to that we have our local Marlborough Magic team playing ABC Nelson in the curtain raiser from 12pm.

This is a great chance for Blenheim to see some top class basketball action. Tickets are just $10 per person - to see both games and pre-schoolers are free.

We would love it if you could share this with your school community.

Many thanks

Kind regards,

Vicki Gifford

Marlborough Basketball Association

P 03 577 8300

C 027 376 7017