Together We Grow Ka Tupu Kotāhi ai Tātou
Kia ora Whanau and caregivers,
Hard to believe we are already half way through the term and equally hard to believe we have just had 3 fine days in a row! Helping bring the sunshine to our kura were our new students, Sasha, Tilly, Mahalia, Neveah and Charlotte. A warm OVS welcome to you and your whanau.
Star Spot – Celebrating Student Learning.
Each newsletter we will now be including our awesome R.U.R.U winners from our last assemblies. A huge OVS congratulations to our R.U.R.U award winners for this week.
Elijah and Aurorah are being acknowledged for their outstanding attitudes to learning and for displaying our special R.U.R.U values – Respect-Unique-Resilience and Up to Me!
R.U.R.U – Did you know?
The mascot for our school values is ‘Mrs RURU’. She can be often found in the office and definitely at every assembly where she presides over and supports our fantastic student learning and values awards. In Māori tradition it is believed that the Ruru can act as kaitiaki or guardian and have the power to protect, warn and advise.
While its high piercing ‘quee’ call can also spell bad news, its normal ‘more-pork’ call means that good news is on its way.
Writing Focus
As part of our literacy focus in 2023 are excited to have introduced across the year 4-6 classes, the new ‘online’ Writer’s ToolboxTM writing system. This incredible writing tool is in addition to our current Writers Toolbox work and supports the on-going development of explicit writing skills and measurable performance for every year level. It is considered one of the worlds most powerful writing tools and has been developed in NZ, backed by over 20 years of educational research. While it is new to our school this term we are already seeing an impact. We will be holding a PIE evening ( parent information evening) to introduce the programme next term, but in the interim your child is able to login from home. Get them to jump on and give you a tour of what they have discovered so far.
Did you know there are 12 sentence types? We will feature ‘one’ each newsletter starting with the “Simple Sentence” and working up to the more complex.
A ‘Simple Sentence’ begins with the subject (a name, a place, he, she, it, they, we, I, etc.) and says something interesting about that subject. Simple Sentences are great, but don’t overuse them.
A very steep pathway led up to the castle.
Enid Blyton, Five Have a Wonderful Time
You can learn more about the Writers Toolbox here if you are interested: https://www.wtbox.com/features
Attendance – Time to start a conversation, time for a reset!
As a principal, a key element of my role is to analyse strengths and areas of concern within a school. From that analysis we then set out with the Board of Trustees to develop strategic initiatives to both build on those strengths and address the concerns.
Coming out of two disrupted covid years, one of our initial foci for 2023 was ‘attendance’ and getting back to normal. Unfortunately our analysis of attendance data in term one shows us that our student attendance is ‘way below’ expected levels, with only 22% of our students attending regularly. This data is highly concerning and we would now like to invite our school whanau to be part of the conversation around this low level of attendance, and its effect on your child’s learning. The school will be looking at strategies around engaging further on this topic but attendance starts with you our whanau and ensuring students are at school. In the interim if the school can help in any way with your child’s attendance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
“The hills are alive…with the sound of music” – courtesy of FERN ENERGY!
…Well maybe not quite yet, but soon!
Room 7 got a special visit from from Fern Energy this week when they delivered our new guitars, bags, tuner and ukelele. This initiative is part of their desire to give back to communities, and our school was the lucky recipient of a music package that was voted on and selected by our students. They can’t wait to start practicing and then ‘rock out’ a few tunes to our students and community. Watch this space!
Oops…pretty blurry photo.
Calling all old farm bits ‘n pieces…we need you!
Otaika Valley School is not only the best kept secret in town, but also our very own ‘little bit of country.’
In keeping with the country feel we are looking to theme our gardens and walls with some old ‘farming and country’ treasures. If you have any old mossy gates, saws, rusty implements, horse collars, scales, pulleys, wheels or anything you think would fit, please get in touch…we would love to hear from you and we collect!
Ps. Top of the wish list would be an old tractor!
Teacher Strike
Please note for your calendar that the Primary Teacher Union has been unable to find agreement with the Ministry of Education and has scheduled strike action for Wednesday 31st May. This will be confirmed on Sunday should a settlement not be achieved this week.
Winter Sports
The Year 5&6 Winter sports day is also scheduled for Wed, 31st May. This sports day will be postponed should the strike go ahead. A huge thank you to all parents and caregivers who have put their names forward to assist.
Dates to remember :
Storylines National Story Tour at OVS – 30th May
Year 5&6 WinterSports Day – 31st May
TAS Jazz band performance at OVS – 7th June
BoT meeting:Wednesday 21st June
Think and be Me – student health programme performance- 26th June
Matariki Community Night: Wednesday 28th of June
Kapa Haka festival: Thursday 29th of June
End of term 2: Friday 30th of June
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