Kia ora koutou e te whānau,

Autumn is with us and the mornings are becoming cooler, however, we are still having sunny days more often than not!

Soon we will be out training for our School Cross Country, learning about ANZAC Day and looking forward to Easter, while behind the scenes a band of parents will be preparing for our annual fundraising event ‘The Waiau School Trail Ride’.

This year our Trail Ride weekend is the first weekend in Term 2 (29/30th April). This is such a successful fundraiser because our school community and the wider local community come together to support this initiative. This will be the 24th Trail Ride Weekend we have run. Our children benefit directly from the funds raised and last week our Noho Marae experience was living proof of this. You can read more on our visit to Kaikōura later in this newsletter.

Pencil the dates in now and keep an eye out for communication about the Trail Ride. You should have received a volunteer form that was emailed to you recently.

Looking forward to catching up with you on Monday at our Student Goal Setting meetings. Please click this link if you haven’t already booked in.

Mā te wā

See you soon,

Megan

Waiau School has remained open on the day of the strike because we were able to staff with non union teaching staff.

Why are Teachers and Principals striking? Here is a brief summary, as the industrial action will impact many staff, Whānau and students across the country.

The NZEI (the only union for primary teachers) has identified four areas to improve in this round of negotiations for our triennial collective contract - 1) the crisis in education; 2) time and workload; 3) salary and relativities issues; and 4) career development.

Issue #1 involves the fact that schools are struggling to attract and retain great teachers. There is also a drop in the number of people choosing to train as teachers. The retention rate for teachers beyond five years is very low. This year Waiau School has seen the effect of issue 1 when advertising for a full time, permanent position.

Issue #2 Primary teachers have one hour of release time per week (taken as a Classroom Release Day twice a term) as compared to five hours each week for a secondary teacher.

Issue #3 Genuine pay parity for primary teachers. Officially we have parity for our teachers across both sectors, however in the secondary setting, schools have many more Management Units (MUs), per teacher, and they are worth $1,000 more than they are in the primary setting. Management Units are generated on the size of the school roll. They also have Middle Management Allowances (MMAs) each worth $1,000, that do not even exist in the primary setting. Because of this, secondary teachers have significant advantages in pay that primary teachers do not have.

Issue #4 looks at the capacity for teachers with additional skills to be recognised for them e.g. skills in Te Ao Māori, Pasifika education and special needs. This also delves into the issues of making principal positions in smaller schools desirable, as currently, people in leadership in large primary schools take a pay cut to lead a smaller school.

The Tumuaki/Principal sector has 2 unions. NZEI is striking, PPCB is not. Both unions are seeking parity with principals in the secondary sector. Another key claim is a significant injection of remuneration into U1 and U2 principalships, so they are given higher status than senior leadership in larger primary schools.

Did you know that 60% of all principals in Aotearoa | NZ are in their first five years of principalship, and an enormous number of schools have had more than one Tumuaki in the past five years. A significant proportion of principals do not make it to, or beyond five years in the role. Can you imagine if the health sector's medical workforce were this inexperienced? The education sector is on the edge of a crisis, and it needs to be addressed now, despite the challenging economic environment we find ourselves in as a country.

Definitely food for thought.

I’d like to acknowledge Jen Rodgers for her wording of the issues we are seeking to resolve.

Junior swimming has come to an end and our senior class are in the final throes of completing their O'Malley Cup Water Safety challenges.

We are so fortunate to have such a fabulous community pool right on our doorstep. A huge thank you to the Pool Committee and the team of volunteers who work tirelessly to ensure our Waiau Pool is fully operational.

We will acknowledge the huge input that Caroline has with our School swimming delivery at our end of Term Hui. We are very appreciative of the time, dedication and advice that Caroline shares with students and staff.

Over the course of term 1 it has been great to see the confidence and development of skills in all of our tamariki, from our youngest to our older students.

Hurunui Swimming Sports Results

Congratulations to our 8 senior students who represented our school at the recent Hurunui Swimming Sports, held up in Hanmer.

George Lott Y4 Boys Backstroke 6th, Y4 Boys Freestyle 5th

Becca Anderson Y4 Girls Backstroke 2nd, Y4 Girls Freestyle 7th

Evie Pinckney Y5 Girls Backstroke 5th, Y5 Girls Freestyle 3rd

Miah Thomas Y6 Girls Backstroke 4th, Y6 Girls Breaststroke 3rd, Y6 Girls Freestyle 3rd

Anikalee Leggett Y6 Girls Backstroke 7th, Y6 Girls Freestyle 6th

Henry Lott Y6 Boys Backstroke 4th, Y6 Boys Freestyle 2nd

Noah Pemberton Y6 Boys Breaststroke 2nd, Y6 Boys Backstroke 2nd

Frank Anderson Y6 Boys Freestyle 3rd, Y6 Boys Breaststroke 4th

Last Wednesday we all bundled into cars and headed off to Kaikōura to visit Takahanga Marae. We were fortunate to join up with the Waiau Playcentre whānau who had also made the same journey. Altogether we were welcomed onto the Marae by means of a Pōwhiri in the Wharenui Maru Kaitātea. It was a formal occasion and our tamariki were very respectful manuhiri (visitors). Benji was our kaikōrero and he spoke with sincerity. Our older girls responded to the Karanga as we entered the Marae grounds. We are so proud of our tamariki and it was lovely having our parents and the Playcentre group join in on this experience. Our kai at the conclusion of the Pōwhiri was spectacular.

We are unable to share any photos of the Pōwhiri as it took place within the meeting house and photos are not allowed in that space, however, we have many photos of our tamariki learning within the beautiful marae grounds.

We made observational sketches, modelling with clay, learned about the Taiaha and Patu, the history of the Wharenui carvings, practiced our Pepeha/mihi and then on Thursday morning we got to explore the mini museum ‘Whare Taonga” on site.

The students and parents all coped with communal sleeping arrangements. The connection we have made and continue to foster with the manawhenua of Takahanga Marae is growing in strength with each visit. It was great to have the support and engagement from our three Te Tai o Marokuru team members, Courtney, Miriama and Aroha and also Chevy, Peke and Parata from Takahanga.

On Thursday we split up and explored Fyffe House- Susie and Ann led us through age specific lessons about Whaling and Sealing, another important part of our history. Then students enjoyed the hands on activities and we seem to have a few strong harpoon throwers within our school!

The other location that we visited was the Kaikōura Museum. Thanks to Te Awhina and Steph for making this visit worthwhile and engaging. Wonderful learning happens when students can interact with genuine artefacts of the past.

Finally, we headed off to the SouthBay trypots to enjoy our picnic lunch, have a quick exploration of the rockpools and appreciate all that we had experienced in our 2 day whirlwind trip.

A huge thank you to all of the adults that have helped make this excursion possible. We appreciate your help, whether it be in organising, transporting and assisting throughout the trip. We hope you enjoyed your 2023 Waiau School Kaikōura trip as much as our staff and students did.

This week Room 1 received some very special mail. Marie Black had written a lovely card and sent the school a New Zealand Picture book ‘Moonlight Mission‘. This was all because our Room 1 artists in conjunction with Mrs Brett had entered their awesome observational drawings of our Mayor wearing her Mayoral Chain in the recent Amuri A&P Show.

Room 1 did cricket skills with Liam from Canterbury Cricket today.

First we learnt some tricks to do with the ball, like passing the ball round our legs. Then we practiced catching and throwing the cricket ball to ourselves and our partners. Next we played paper, scissors, rock which was lots of fun! We finished by having a game where we got to bat the ball off a tee and the fielder had to try and get us out. We had an incredible time!

• Dental Van Visiting - 20-22 March
  

• Hurunui Duathlon Hanmer - Tuesday, March 21(pp March 22)

• Autumn Working Bee - Friday 24th March

• Assembly Friday, March 17⋅2:30 – 3:00pm

• Board Meeting Wednesday, March 29⋅7:30pm

• Assembly Friday, March 31⋅2:30 – 3:00pm

• Teeball/Softball Tournaments - Monday, April 3 (pp April 5)

• Term 1 Ends - Thursday, April 6, 2023

• Term 2 Begins - Monday, April 24, 2023

• ANZAC Day (School Closed) - Tuesday, April 25, 2023

• Trailride Weekend - April 29 – 30, 2023

• Teachers Only Day- Monday May 1st.