Oratia District School Newsletter
Week 9 - 22 September 2022
Message from Ms Linda
Greetings Orātia whānau. On Wednesday afternoon our boys' rugby team took the battle to Henderson Valley School and met with their team for a hard fought match. While the boys did not win the match, the final score did not fully portray the heart and commitment to the game that each player brought. I was shouting from the sidelines feeling very proud of the extended effort given. Well done Orātia, we will have to wait and see what happens in the final game to see who wins the trophy.
Mrs Goldsmith and I went to Christchurch last week for the NZ Principals Federation conference. We got to hear some amazing speakers such as Siouxsie Wiles our pink haired Covid scientist; Scott Robertson head coach of the Crusaders; Kaila Colbin founder and CEO of Boma leadership group; Minister Chris Hipkins and academic Russell Bishop, among others. We also heard from articulate young people about their hopes and dreams for education and were treated to amazing performances from various cultural groups. Both Kath and I felt very privileged to be able to take part in the conference, to have the time to listen to challenging and inspiring speakers and to meet up with colleagues whom we had not seen for a long time.
Next week we have a public holiday on Monday for Queen Elizabeth's memorial day so school will be closed Monday, September 26th. This means our last week of school for Term 3 will be shortened a little. It is hard to believe that we are so close to the end of term, even though at times we have all felt like this term has been a long and hard one. I am sure your children will be ready for a good break and rest from their hard mahi that they have done this term.
October 5, during the holidays, is World Teachers Day. I flag this for you, as I would like to instead celebrate it on Tuesday October 25th once we are back at school. I would love it if you could take the time to show your appreciation of your child's teacher on this day with a small card or note of thanks written by your child if you would like. I am very proud of our team - teachers, teacher aides and support staff who work so hard to make this school a wonderful place for our tamariki, and would love it if you could join me in appreciation too.
Finally I wish to congratulate our new Board of Trustees members:
- Matt Barnett
- Susan Giles
- Edward Cowley
- Joanna Macfarlane
- Christine Wang
- Ben Coenradi (Staff rep)
I welcome them to the role and look forward to getting to know them all better and working with them for the benefit of our students. I sincerely thank our outgoing board members
Jason Lewis, Lisa Boltman, Rachel Friend, Steve Cullen, Leo Foley and Staci Hamlin for all their commitment and hard work on your behalf over the past three years or so. They were an amazing board to work with and I am deeply appreciative of all they did for us through some very tough pandemic years.
Kia kaha, kia atawhai.
Ngā mihi nui, Ms Linda
Friday lunch schedule
Friday 23 September - Subway (order by Thursday night)
Friday 30 September - Pita Pit (order by 9am Friday)
Friday lunches can be ordered on Kindo and will be delivered to your child's classroom at the beginning of lunchtime. Please contact the office to make arrangements to collect lunch orders if your child is absent on the day.
Covid notifications - update
In conjunction with New Zealand's shift to a new, long-term approach to managing Covid-19, we have made the decision to discontinue our practice of communicating to parents and whānau when positive cases of Covid-19 are reported in our classrooms. This decision is supported by the steadily decreasing numbers of positive cases being reported to the school - last week we were only notified of a single case. We will continue to support and maintain protocols of good hand hygiene, ventilation of learning spaces and monitoring students for cold and flu symptoms.
Please do notify the office if your child does become Covid positive so we can record the absence on the roll accordingly.
Profile Reporting - Ero
Te Ara Huarau is the evaluation approach that the Education Review Office (ERO) is using in our school. This a developmental approach to evaluation where ERO and our school work together over time rather than one off reviews that happened previously. Te Ara Huarau is used in most English-medium state and state-integrated schools.
ERO maintains a regular review programme to evaluate and report on the education and care of young people in the schools. Our school worked alongside ERO to write our Profile Report. This type of report will only happen once as part of our initial engagement with Te Ara Huarau. The profile report reflects our strategic goals and a shared evaluation focus one or more areas that are important to us as we work together to improve outcomes for all our learners. ERO, like us, have a strong focus on equity and excellence. Future reporting will show our progress and achievement towards meeting the goals we have set. Public reports like the Profile Report are published on ERO’s website. A Board Assurance Report that shows how we are meeting regulatory and legislative Requirements has also been published.
Tima kakahi performance
Arawhata Motat trips
40 Hour Famine - Update
The link to donate is open until 30 September 2022 so if you are still to donate please click on the link below:
New fluffy friends
A mother duck and her new ducklings are currently calling our school home and can be seen exploring different areas of the school. It would be helpful if you had a chat with your child how important it is to give them space and watch carefully from afar. Thank you.
REMINDERS
Netball Uniforms - please return
PB4L
After the lesson on Monday they were going to be peer mediators for the day. How wonderful to see tamariki learning how students can help each other.
Flippaball this week
Oratia kids out and about
These rugby mad boys had a great time!
COMMUNITY NOTICES
PARENT CORNER
Contact Us
Email: principal@oratia.school.nz
Website: https://www.oratia.school.nz
Location: Shaw Road & West Coast Road, Oratia, Auckland 0604, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 818-6216
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OratiaSchool/