Newsletter T1W4
Tuesday 22 February 2022
School Notices
Tēnā koutou katoa (hello everyone),
Welcome to the second school newsletter of the year. Remember you can also access all our newsletters on our School App and website.
School Lunches
The children seem to be really enjoying their new school lunches. Due to Covid issues, Libelle, the provider, would like you to be prepared for the following:
1. Their menu may vary to what is advertised online as they are experiencing high occurrences of disruption throughout their food supply chain. They will ensure that the lunchboxes remain full and nutritionally balanced despite the supply disruptions, and will try to keep them as close to the advertised menu as possible.
2. As or when Omicron gets into our community, the staff at Libelle may have to isolate, and therefore not be able to provide school lunches for a while. We will let you know if this happens, and would like you to be prepared to provide your child(ren)'s lunch if needed at quite short notice.
Libelle apologises for these possible changes, and thank you for your understanding. They are doing their best to keep things running as normally as possible when operating in a pandemic.
Also a reminder that often, there are school lunches left over at the end of the day. These are located in the Blue Chilly Bins on the hall deck and you are most welcome to help yourself.
Lava Lamp
Tee-Pee
Oral Health & Marlborough Dental Clinic (Oral Health Centre)
Healthy kai helps to prevent tooth decay. Please see the Healthy Lunchbox Top Tips image below for Brain Snack and Morning Tea for your tamariki.
Enrol online: Community Oral Health Service - Blenheim - This is the link for the online enrolment for the Marlborough Clinic on the corner of Nelson and McGlauchlan Streets (mobile clinic to Picton, Seddon, Ward, Havelock, Renwick and Murchison) - If you would like paper copies of our enrolment form please contact me. Children should have their teeth checked regularly from the age of 2 years to keep smiles healthy.
School Pool
Our school pool will be closing to key holders from Mon 7 March (not Sun 13 March as stated in the Pool Agreement) as Clive, our wonderful caretaker, will be going on leave for a few weeks. Many thanks to Clive who has spent several hours working on keeping it clean and running over the summer months. A reminder that we are an island nation and Kiwi kids do love their time in the water. This means that water safety and learning to swim is an integral part of our curriculum.
Your child will need their togs every day over the remaining few weeks. This will mean that they get the time in the water to develop confidence and the necessary skills to learn to swim. Of course no child is made to swim if they are cold, or the pool temperature has dropped due to colder weather.
Neighbouring Properties - Drop off and Pick up
In particular please take care at the Whitney Street cul-de-sac which is quite congested during pick-up and drop-off times, even though we are not using the Cul-de-sac gate.
A reminder that we ask for parents to not drive up the school driveway to drop off and pick up their children as it is too busy and extremely unsafe to do so.Thank you.
WSS Behavioural Expectations
Our Behavioural Expectations Matrix is an important part of who we are, how we act, what we say and what we do. We created it because we are a Positive Behaviour For Learning (PB4L) school and need to have high and explicit expectations for our learners.
We refer to it daily and award Tūmeke when we see students living by our values and being Honest, Caring, Respectful, Learners. We want our students to think carefully about how to be Whitney Learners and show honesty, care, and respect in all settings. You might like to follow the same expectations at home.
Updated Bullying Definition
Whitney Street School CURRICULUM
Our goal is for every child and their whānau to be able to talk about our curriculum cover page which outlines what is special about Whitney Street School. Please talk to your children about what the various headings and icons might mean for our kura/school.
The Whitney Way - The Way We Learn (food for thought)
School Gates
Please note that the school gates will be closed just after 9am to ensure the safety of children at school. If your child is late and cannot open the gates, you will need to arrange for someone to open them for your child. Alternatively they could come in the Whitney Street main entrance and come to the office area where we can open the gate for them.
Also while we are in the Red Traffic Light System, the Whitney St Cul-de-Sac gate will remain locked.
Advance Notice of A Staff Only Day on Monday 21 November 2022
Maths Research
COVID -19 Update
Contact Details and App Alert - In our current COVID situation it is really important to ensure that all contact details on our system are up-to-date. We send important information out via our School App and really do rely on our school community having subscribed to the correct groups. If you need help with this please ask a teacher or pop into the office (see instructions further in the email).
Also if your phone, address or email details have changed please let the office know.
Having to Isolate, Close Contacts, etc
If your child is having to isolate and not come to school because they are a close contact or are awaiting a COVID test result please let school know. If you want your child to do some learning from home, you can go on our school website and click 'The Way We Learn' tab, then Online/Home Learning, and finally the Hub Isolation Plan button that your child/ren are in (link here or see photo below).
Please read the information relevant to your child's Hub/Class which explains the learning activities your child/ren can complete. If you have any queries feel free to email the class teacher bearing in mind they may be teaching, so will reply as soon as they get a chance.
Also please note that if your child is a casual contact and you choose to keep your child at home, they will have to be marked as not justified because the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health both recommend students come to school under these circumstances. We understand you may be anxious, so please be aware that school will do everything they can to keep your children in a normal routine, happy, and as safe as possible at school with their friends.You would still be welcome to access the Home Learning if you choose.
You can refer to this document for further information on COVID Protocols and explanations of the various terms. If you need to get tested you can refer to this website for places in Blenheim to go.
If you have any queries or concerns, please contact Cheryl on 027 321 8022.
As you are aware all 5-12 year old children are now eligible for vaccinations. Please note these will not be happening at school and if you want your child(ren) vaccinated you will need to organise this yourselves. You are welcome to contact school for more information about this.
Quick Links
Automatic Payment Option
The Whitney Street School BOT bank details are: 03 0599 0305934 00
Hero
Suggestions Box
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 the 2022 school year.
This is also the way we would like you to inform us of absences. This system streamlines the morning routine for Adele and Michelle so that they can easily see who is away and why.
Please ask the office or your class teacher to help with this if you are unsure of what to do.
PASSWORD: learners
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/
Ngā mihi nui kia koutou katoa (greetings to you all)
Scottish Folk Dancing for 5-18 years of age
We invite you to join us to give Scottish Folk dancing a go tonight, Tuesday 22nd February, from 3.10 – 4.30pm at Whitney Street School Hall.
Scottish Folk dancing is more commonly known as Scottish Country Dancing. The aim is to encourage friendship, fitness, fun, working as a team and building confidence for both girls and boys.
No special dress code is required, we only ask for soft shoes similar to the softness of ballet shoes.
If you are interested could you please email lindaglavin1@gmail.com or heatherrlamb@hotmail.com for more information.
Below link will take you to a group of dancers demonstrating Scottish Dancing.
Trip To Timber Ridge Scottish Country Dance Video (scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com)
Linda and Heather