Newsletter T4W8
6th December
School Notices
Hello everyone,
Welcome to the last newsletter of the year - hasn't time flown! We’ve had a really busy year and achieved so much to be proud of as a school. Some of the highlights have been: Matariki morning activities; the Y5/6 Teapot Valley Camp; the Y4 Pine Valley Camp; the Taylor Hub Kaipupu Point trips; the school Disco; community breakfasts; our Pasifika group meeting most Fridays and performing at the Pasifika Festival; Lights Over Marlborough; the Kapa haka performances; the Kiwi Can programme; lots of sporting and arts activities; the Dances for Schools Curriculum programme; Fundamental Skills; and last but not least - lots of learning across the curriculum including the inquiry learning context of ‘Ka Mua, Ka Muri - Walking backwards into the future’. The children (and teachers) deserve a well earned rest after all that learning!
This year has had its challenges again, with covid and sickness, and a flow on effect of this has been some staffing issues at times, i.e. classes having to be split for the odd day or part day. We have really appreciated your understanding when this has happened.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support of the school and your children over the past year. It is much appreciated, as together we can make a difference in your children’s lives.
At the end of this term we say farewell to a few members of our superstar staff:
Gabby Clarke-Cox has only been with us this term as a teacher-aide but has fitted right in to our team and made a valuable contribution. Gabby is going to be continuing on with her study.
Jodie Lovell took up the Room 6 NE teacher position in June. It's been great having Jodie back at Whitney Street School. We look forward to hearing what she is up to next and hope to see her back again sometime in the future.
Rachel Earle has only been with us for a short while but wow, we’ve been lucky to have her in Room 1 while Miss Shearer has been on maternity leave. We wish her well with her future teaching career.
Debbie van der Gulik stepped into the Room 18 maternity position in April. What a smooth transition for all involved. Good luck in your future teaching career Debbie and thanks for all your contributions to R18 and the Ōpaoa Hub.
Stef Ellis has been with us as a NE teacher over the last 18 months and has fitted into our team so well. Best wishes to Stef as she takes up a position at Blenheim School. They are very lucky to have her!
Ashleigh Murphy has been a wonderful teacher-aide with us since the beginning of 2020. She is leaving to welcome a new member into her family. We cannot wait to meet her new ‘bundle of joy’.
Carla Taylor came to us as a parent of Kobi, and we soon discovered her teaching skills. What a find! Carla has been a specialist Ors Teacher for the past six and a half years at Whitney Street School and is going to continue working with some of these students as they move on to Marlborough Girls College.
Rina Pinker came to us in 2015 working to support Bailey and the McKenzie whānau. Her special contributions include helping to write and pull together the Whitney Street School Pūrakau and various other artistic endeavours. Rina is off to explore other talents (of which there are many in her repertoire).
We really are rather lucky at Whitney Street School to have such a supportive staff and these eight, with their lovely smiles and positive attitudes will be greatly missed. To all of these amazing people, we THANK YOU!
School Roll in 2023
With almost 80 students leaving us at the end of the year to go to intermediate schools and having the restrictions of a school zone over the past 5 years, our roll will drop to around 300 students at the start of next year. This has also meant a drop in staffing of two class teachers, and we will start the year with 13 classrooms.
Class Placement Letters 2022 and Transition Visits for 2022
Next Monday your child(ren) will bring home a letter stating what class they will be in next year. Please note that, although we hope this will not be the case, the classes may be subject to change, depending on whether we get unexpected enrolments over the holidays. Next Tuesday the children will be visiting their new room and teacher for 2023 for part of the day in order to make the transition for them easier at the start of next year. They will get to meet their new teacher, their new classmates and see the room they will most likely be in.
Dance Curriculum
Last week and this week, we have had our fabulous ‘Dances for Schools’ programme happening. Mark from ‘Dance Curriculum’ has been taking each class daily for a 30 minute lesson. This culminates this Friday in an exciting energetic performance. Parents/whānau are most welcome to come and watch their child perform their dances in the hall at the times listed below. It is lovely to see children who sometimes keep a lower profile academically, shine during dance.
Performance 1 - 10:30 - 11:00 am
Rooms 3, 4 and half of Room 8
Rooms 11 and 12
Rooms 5, 6 and 7
Performance 2 - 11:30am - 12:00pm
Room 1, 2 and half of Room 8
Rooms 9 and 10
Room 17 and 18
Room 15 and 16
End of Year Leavers' Hui / Assembly - Wed 14 Dec
We will be holding our End of Year Leavers’ Hui / Assembly on Wednesday 14 December. As we have a large number (78) of Year 6’s moving onto intermediate, they will not all fit on the stage in our school hall, so we have booked the Richmond View School Auditorium. Please see the information about this Hui in the section below.
Year 6 Leavers Dinner
Invitations for our Year 6 students to attend their graduation dinner have been sent out. The date for this event is set for Wednesday 14 December from 5:30pm - 9:40pm.
Swimming Pool Keys
Clive is getting the pool ready to open before the Christmas holidays. If the weather permits, and the pool is operational as we are getting some maintenance completed, we will open it up and be able to have class lessons/ free swims sometime next week.
Limited swimming pool keys can be ordered from Adele in the office. They cost $50 for the season, and the pool should be available for keyholders use from 12 December.
Last Day of Term
The last day of Term is Thursday 15 December and school will close at 12:05pm. This is basically a clean up day so parents are welcome (and encouraged) to keep their children at home.
Wet and Wild
This Friday we have our fabulous Wet and Wild Day run by our Kiwican leaders. Each class will have a session on either Thursday or Friday. Please check the information further below in this newsletter, or in the app alert that was sent on Monday, as to what your child will need to bring.
Have a fabulous summer break with your families and we look forward to seeing you back again in the new year. To families who are finishing their association with Whitney Street School we wish you well as you move on to other schools . And finally good luck to all our Y6 leavers.
E te whānau - Our family
Me nga hoa - Our friends
E mihi ana - we are forever thankful
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
The Whitney Street School Staff
Learning Progress
The teachers have recently assessed students ready for their End of Year Reports which you will receive this Friday. As a school, we keep track of progress over time to ensure we are constantly reflecting on our practice and making a difference to student learning. We were really pleased with this year’s achievement results and the steady progress students have made over the past 5 years as can be seen in the graph above.
Teachers undertake regular professional development to improve their teaching practice and the results of this can be seen in our student data. Over the past few years we have focussed on professional development in the areas of Maths, Positive Behaviour for Learning, Cultural Responsiveness, and Structured Reading.
When your child brings their reports home this week, take the time to celebrate their learning progress with them. Also remember to log in to Hero to see their Reading, Writing and Maths achievement and progress. As a school we are very proud of how hard everyone is working and the progress we have all made together as a team including students, whānau, teachers, and support staff.
Library Books
Please take the time to hunt for any school library books that need to be returned. It is very important that these are brought back to school as soon as possible so we can stock our new library space over the holidays.
Office Hours during the Holidays
The office will be open for stationery and uniform sales on:
Monday 23 January 9am - 3:30pm
Wednesday 25 January - 1pm - 6pm
Friday 27 January 8am - 3:30pm
Monday 30 January 9am - 3:30pm
If you are away on the above dates, please let Adele in the office know and we can arrange a time that suits (a text message can be sent to the school cell phone 0272857865). We don't recommend leaving these purchases until the first day of term.
2023 Term and Holiday Dates
In order for you to start planning ahead, below are the Term and holiday dates for next year. Please note that all primary schools in Marlborough have decided to start on the same day.
Term 1
Mon 30 Jan - Thurs 6 April
Mon 6 Feb - Waitangi Day
Easter occurs in the holidays
Term 2
Mon 24 April - Friday 30 June
Tues 25 April - Anzac Day
Mon 5 June - King’s Birthday
Matariki occurs in the holidays
Term 3
Mon 17 July - Fri 22 Sept
Term 4
Mon 9 Oct - Fri 15 Dec
Mon 23 Oct - Labour day
Mon 30 Oct - Marlborough Anniversary Day
Mon 20 Nov - Staff Only Day
School Uniform Donations
The beginning of the year can be an expensive time for whānau, so we like to offer second hand uniforms. If your child is leaving Whitney Street, we would welcome any donations of school uniform items that we can then pass on to others.
Healthy School Lunches - Ka Ora, Ka Ako 2023
We are lucky to be continuing with the free Healthy School Lunches again next year, and Libelle will continue to be our provider. We will let Libelle know that those children who opted out of lunches this year will not require them next year. If you would like your child to opt back into the lunches next year, please let the office know. Also if your child has developed any new allergies that we are not aware of.
We are proud to share...
Look at Us!
What a talented bunch we are. Look at how well our students did in the recent Marlborough School Athletic sports.
Sunsmart
Summer is just around the corner. Please remember that we are a Sunsmart School and the children need to be wearing a wide-brimmed school hat during morning tea and lunch times this term. Hats are available to purchase from the office at a cost of $9. If children do not have a hat they will be restricted as to where they can play.
Whitney Street Cul de-sac
Our Whitney Street neighbours are asking that you please don't use their verge/driveways for turning around or parking. Many thanks
The Kiwican Corner
The Kiwi Can Team Would Love To Hear From You!
The Kiwi Can team have put together a couple of very quick questions about your child/family's experience of Kiwi Can - and they genuinely would love to hear what you have to say.
Just a few questions, which will only take a few minutes!
You can find it via this link: www.bit.ly/KCWhanau2022
Repeated (but important!) School Notices
Free Period Products for Girls
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.
Merino School Jumpers
Kia Ora Whitney St whānau,
I am passionate about my children wearing natural fibres and have been putting through orders for merino jumpers for the last couple of years. I try to put through two orders a year at the start of the year and at the end of term 3. I use True Fleece, https://www.truefleece.co.nz/collections/kids-tops/products/kids-coast-quarter-zip.
I need at least four jumpers to go ahead with the order. If you would like to see what the jumpers are like, the school office has one or you can see me personally.
The cost will be slightly reduced from the website price and will be $80 per jumper.
If you could please contact me at frithcromb@gmail.com and let me know of your interest.
Thank you!
Frith Valk
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.
Download our school App
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.
Hero
Suggestions Box
Automatic Payment Option
The Whitney Street School BOT bank details are: 03 0599 0305934 00
Embroid a Stitch (Previously known as Pretty Things Embroidery)
Contact Us
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/