Oratia District School Newsletter
Week 1 - 20 October 2022
Message from Mrs Goldsmith and Mr Moncur
Fakaalofa lahi atu!
Welcome back to school for term 4! Week 1 kicked off with celebrating Niuean language and our Pasifika girls are playing a key role in the teaching of dance and useful phrases. We have an exciting term planned throughout the school, including a number of events. A couple to note are our Grandparents/Nature By Design (Aka Flower Show), athletics day, Senior Prizegiving and our new Year 6 Graduate Dinner. Please look out for emails from your child’s class teacher for more details of happenings. It is great to see the pool is ready to go, especially as our weather begins to heat up. Speaking of heat and sunshine, please could you remind your child to bring their wide brimmed hats, to keep them safe out in the sun. We do not encourage caps as they do not protect the ears and neck.
On Monday we welcomed our new Board of Trustees members, students, staff and whānau at our Pōwhiri. It was lovely to see everyone together for this occasion and to meet together.
Our new bathrooms behind Room 13 & 14 are now open and wow, they look amazing. We have four unisex toilet cubicles and one large mobility friendly bathroom. The taps even have warm water!
The new junior playground is taking shape and we can hear the excitement brewing out in the playground as it nears its completion. Our caretaker has been able to re-purpose and use some of the old parts elsewhere in the school.
The accessibility modifications continue to happen around the school. The builders are currently working in front of rooms 1 - 4 and have now removed the gardens and concrete area. The plan is to have easier and level passage into each room through these front doors, to the tiger turf and junior playground. Our sandpit has also been modified for easier access. We thank you for your patience with the current limited access via the back of these rooms, but know that when completed, this will provide the easy accessibility that it should.
We are eagerly looking forward to tonight’s Pasifika fono, sharing food and engaging in dialogue with those who can make it. Our discussion will be informed by the Tapasā framework which brings a Pasifika lens to our teaching and learning. The first one was held in 2020 and it’s been rewarding to see the ideas of our aiga, fanau and kāinga which have been incorporated into our local school curriculum.
Ngā mihi nui, Kath & Matt
Oratia whānau survey
Kia ora parents and whānau,
Orātia District School is currently engaging in a platform for change called Rongohia te Hau facilitated by Poutama Pounamu based out of the University of Waikato. As part of our strategic plan, this involves using a set of tools to ask questions such as 'how is teaching being done and how is learning experienced across our school?' and 'what do students and/or whānau think of this?'. The evidence gathered is used to determine how our school can develop our teaching and learning to make more of a difference for our Māori students.
To accompany the student and teacher voice that we have collected thus far, we would also value input from yourselves as whānau and school community. This online survey (link below) seeks to understand what the whānau of Māori students and non-Māori students are saying about their tamariki's teaching and learning experiences.
We acknowledge and apologise for the short time to complete this; the survey closes this Friday 21st October. Your contribution is very much appreciated.
Ngā mihi,
Matt Moncur
Class swimming
Superstar Writer Enda Buchanan from Lone Kauri School
Do you ever wonder what's knocking at the door? Don't you hear the creaking of the floor boards in the house? Well, that's what this story is about.
Don't you ever wonder why you talk to yourself? Just listen and you will see.
When time first began, a creature lurked in the dark waiting to be awoken from the shadow that it lived in. For it was the first being of the universe.
20,000,000,000,000 years later it was the humans. That's why there's knocking at the door and the creak of the floor-boards galore.
Update from Garden to Table
Garden to Table have been busy moving some of our vegetable garden to our school orchard. As part of our learning about pollinators we have found that our fruit trees would benefit from planting companion plants underneath to help with pollination and to attract beneficial insects which predate the non-beneficial insects. We were fortunate this year to receive a donation from Infinet Cloud Solutions Ltd which was used to purchased children's bee suits and railway sleepers to create some more garden beds.
We are hoping that next year we can organise a beekeeper to come in and work with us so that we can have some bee hives at school. We also received a 'Love Your Neighbourhood funding grant' that allowed us to create more railway sleeper beds.
Yesterday room 12 enjoyed starting the planting in these beds with corn and we planted strawberry popcorn, glass gem popcorn and yellow eating corn. We're looking forward to that pop corn next year!
Māori Whānau Focus Rōpū Hui next week
Our Whānau Focus Rōpū Hui is on next Thursday 27 October 3.10pm - 3.55 pm in the staff room.
We have 3 important items that we want to make sure you are part of the decision making process for. What should we Keep doing, Start doing, Stop doing in relation to:
- Student Reports (what do you want included/excluded, what format)
We could use this google form to capture you thoughts
- Assessment Practices - What should this look like? What should we assess and how?
- 2023 Planning - What priorities would you like us to take to our Leadership Planning Day
We really hope you can join us. If you know of other whānau that would like to be part of this discussion please feel free to invite them to join us.
We have also created an evening zoom session 6.30pm - 7.30pm if you are unable to join our afternoon hui.
If you have any queries please contact Teena Cains on teenac@oratia.school.nz.
Potiki Playground
We are very excited as our new playground is nearing the end of it's construction! We hope to have a grand opening next Thursday.
Oratia Kids out and about
Some of our Girls Rugby team members Keana, Ella, and Milly went to see the Black Ferns play at the Rugby World Cup recently. They really enjoyed the live experience and even got to meet some of the players after the game and take photos!
REMINDERS
Phones and smart watches
Our school has a policy of no phones or smart watches in the classroom. If you child needs to bring one of these to school please ask them to drop it in to the office where it will be safely stored until the end of the school day.
Lucky Book Orders - Issue 7
This is the LAST lucky book order for the year and the cut off date is 4th November.
All books will be processed in batches and delivered to your child's classroom when they arrive.
School hours
A reminder that our drop-off time for children in the mornings is from 8.30am. The time prior to 8.30am is for teachers to work on their planning and set up for the day. This means that there is no supervision for children at school prior to 8.30am. If you need to drop children off earlier, please book them in to OKK by contacting Sisi on 021 0829 0794.
Lost Property at the office
Shoes found
COMMUNITY NOTICES
Playball West Auckland
Playball is an introduction to eight different sports, Football, Basketball, Netball, Cricket, Baseball, Tennis, Hockey and Rugby.
For all Year 1, 2 and 3 students:
Our aim is not to create superstars, but rather to provide children with the opportunity to develop a host of necessary social, educational and personal skills by giving children competence in sport.
Playball is taking final enrolments for term four and will commence on Monday the 31st of October from 3:15pm-4:00pm and will run for 7 weeks every Monday. We will be limiting spaces to 36 children for term three
Ask about a free trial today. To enrol your child/children please sign up online
https://www.playballkids.com/parent-zone/basket_bookings.php?classid=50105
Uniforms for sale
Bruce McLaren: Full girls size 12 Bruce Mac uniform (small year 7), some items only worn for 1 week (short and a polo shirt), rest is brand new. Includes parka, fleece, 2 polos, skort, PE shorts and top, bucket hat. $200 for the lot. Not for sale separately.
St Dominics Skort size 8, St Doms Shirt size 6
$55 for both items.
Please contact Kristin on 021 369 364 if you're interested.
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/