He Pānui-Wiki Toru, Whānga Tuawha
Gladstone School Newsletter - Week 3 Term 4, 2021. 5/11/21
Te Karere a te Tumuaki (Principal's Message)
Kia ora tātou katoa (Hi/greetings/hello everybody).
What an awesome community we have - massive thanks to Dean Heffernan & crew for collecting the staging from the complex and delivering it to school. Thanks also to Nigel Tomlin, Collis Berryman, Richard Tosswill, Kristjian Klue & comrades for working hard on our soon to be installed artificial cricket pitch & practice nets.
Earlier this week we had a visiting Principals/DP/Learning Support visit from the Upper Hutt cluster of schools. They were looking at literacy & neurodiversity practice in our school. We felt very proud of the feedback from the group - please see this below.
Today is Parihaka Day, an important day in our NZ History. Students have been learning about this day during the week. The refreshed draft NZ Histories curriculum was released during the year and as a school we have made a start on implementing it. From the beginning of 2022 there is an expectation from the Ministry of Education that content will be taught across all NZ schools. If you would like further information about the NZ Histories Curriculum, follow the link below. When COVID levels allow, we will be running a number of community workshops to discuss and explain the refreshed curriculum areas as they are released. In 2022 we can expect English; Maths and Science to have been refreshed & released.
Noho ora mai (stay well, look after yourself),
Belinda Bunny
Athletics with 'Mark the Shark' - Here are Kourarau Showing Us Their Skills
Visiting Upper Hutt Education Group Feedback
"We would like to thank you both and the rest of your staff for not only welcoming us into your Kura and showing us around but for also supporting the visit the way you did.
We were blown away by what we saw in terms of staff commitment and understanding of the structured literacy approach. We would never have known you were only in the first year of your journey. We were amazed by the teacher's knowledge and depth of understanding of this approach. Micaela you were a fantastic tour guide and were great at explaining to us how everything worked together. We did feel like we could ask almost any teacher to show us around and they also would be able to explain competently what was happening and why. This is a credit to the leadership team.
We were also so impressed by our observed student engagement and behaviour. I personally haven't seen anything like it before.
We gained so much by our visit and have lots to take away from it."
Assembly
Thank you to Jake Homes and Tara Tucker for leading a wonderful assembly this week. After 2 short weeks, it was nice to gather together and have a 'proper' assembly. Well done to those students who received either 'Kaitiakitanga' or ' Gladstone School Achievement' certificates. The new achievement certificates can be awarded on any given week, in addition to the strategic focus of that week. This week's certificate recipients are: Sam Tosswill; Archie Ashby; Zoe Cates; Joey Williams; Benji Gardner; Monty Murnane; Jack Anderson; Maia Reid; Mia Gleeson; Henry McKay & Ida Hartley-Meilink.
Certificate Recipients
Rā Whānau (Birthday) People
Whetu o Te Wiki (Start of the Week) Mini-Me's
Haere Ra (Farewell) Mrs Vorster & Mrs Harding
Today we are farewelling Caryn and Tessa, our student teachers. We have loved having both Caryn and Tessa here and they have added such a lot of extra teaching support into Kourarau and Ōnoke. We wish you both well for your futures in the Education Sector.
Thanks so much to our new newsletter sponsor - Kayla Watson. We are very grateful for your support Kayla.
Proudly Sponsored by
BoT News
South Wairarapa & Regional Athletics
As expected, the Regional and South Wairarapa Athletics events have been cancelled. We are working through options for our own Gladstone School Athletics and will communicate these with you next week.
Science In Action In Ruamahanga - Magnetic Forces Focus
Transition Evening - Wed 10th November (Next Week)
We are running 2 transition evenings next Wednesday the 10th of November. Parents and caregivers of Year 3 students are warmly invited and encouraged to come along to school at 5:30pm to meet the Ruamahanga team in preparation for their child moving into Year 4 next year. Year 6 parents and caregivers are invited to meet the Ōnoke team at 6:00pm. Teams will be going through important information about class programmes & organisation for 2022. There will also be an opportunity to ask any questions you may have.
Y3 meeting - in Ruamahanga @ 5:30pm
Y6 meeting - in Ōnoke @ 6:00pm
Please come wearing a face mask and socially distance from each other.
We are loving the work happening in the after school art classes...
Online Auction - starts Saturday the 13th November at 12 noon.
Reminders & Previous Advertisements
Community Scarecrows - Have you made yours yet? 1 week to go.
Advertising is amping up for the community scarecrow drive both in the Wairarapa Times Age and on More FM. What we need now are loads of awesome scarecrows out and about through our district.
Scarecrow prizes:
Main prize (Supreme winner) = 2 nights accommodation at Riversdale for up to 10 people kindly donated by the Dick family and a hamper full of goodies kindly donated by Rival Wealth.
Lucky winner drawn out of a hat prize = $100 Gladstone Inn voucher kindly donated by Gladstone Inn and family goodie bag.
End of Year Prizegiving Cups
Christmas Float Co-ordination - Anyone? & Gladstone Church Christmas Choir
The Gladstone Church is 'watching this space' with regards to having the annual Christmas service and choir. In the meantime, we will be inviting students to be part of this group should they wish to. Please have a talk to your children to see if this is something they are interested in doing. The service is scheduled for Sunday the 19th of December.
Scarecrow Competition, Raffle & Online Auction
Gladstone Scarecrow Competition 2021 “Superstitions”
It’s great to see the scarecrows starting to pop up around the district. Here is the link to enter this year’s competition https://forms.gle/s1De272AqmKpEdJC7 , which can take place under all alert levels. Each scarecrow entry will go in the draw to win a family prize and we will also be awarding an overall supreme winner! Anyone can enter – the more the merrier!
Scarecrow Raffle Tickets
Reminder to return your raffle tickets to school, crediting the FOGS raffle account (12-3290-0004707-50) or sending cash to the School office with the raffle books sold. As always, there will be a prize for the family who sells the most tickets! Please contact Alexandra King on 021 0884 3688 if you would like more tickets to sell. If you are unable to sell the tickets, please return them to the School ASAP.
Scarecrow Auction Items and Prizes
An online auction is currently being set up to open on Saturday the 13th of November. If you know anyone that would like to contribute an auction item or scarecrow prize, please contact Ang Falloon on 0292008196. We need to know about auction items by the 1st of November.
PORTRAIT PRIZE from Esther Bunning | Portrait Artist.
The winner will receive a creative portrait session from the 2020 NZ Professional Photographer of the Year award, Esther Bunning.
The package includes the creative session in the Wairarapa, and also an approx A2 loose unframed print: total value $1150.00
Esther loves to work with you to plan and together you’ll create a portrait session that is a reflection of your loved ones, your favourite locations and tells the story of you.
Her vision and skill results in stunning imagery as beautiful art pieces for your wall.
Upcoming Events, Cancellations, Date Changes & Information
Upcoming Events
- Year 3 & 6 Transition Evening: Wednesday 10th November. Year 3 parents @ 5:30pm; Year 6 parents @ 6:00pm. Invitations have been sent home.
- Times Age Sports Awards: Now Monday 15th November.
- Production: Week 7 of Term 4 (Tues 30th Nov - Thurs 2nd Dec). We may need to film this event if still at alert level 2. We will advise you asap.
- Year 8 Leavers Dinner: Tuesday 14th of December.
- Prizegiving Assembly: Wednesday 15th December 11am. NB. This event will be modified to suit alert level 2 requirements if necessary. Details TBC.
Cancelled Events
- Kapa Haka Festival - Our item will be filmed and shared with you digitally. Date TBA.
- Year 8 Moving On Conference.
Dates Still To Be Confirmed (sometime in Term 4 if alert levels allow).
- Greats & Grands
- Science Technology Roadshow
- Principal's Outing for Term 3 & 4
- Whānau Helpers High Tea
Reminder: Term Dates for 2022
Contact Us
Email: office@gladstone1.school.nz
Website: http://www.gladstone1.school.nz
Location: 1471 Te Whiti Road, Gladstone, New Zealand
Phone: +64 6 372 7601