Week 1 Newsletter. Term 4, 2023

Together We Grow – Ka Tupu Kotāhi ai Tātou

Kia ora OVS whanau and caregivers,

Spring is here, daylight saving has started and here we are in the last term of 2024. A warm Ōtāika welcome to all the new students and whanau who started with us this term. It was a pleasure to be able to welcome you into our school with our powhiri. A special big ‘kia ora’ to Matiu Dennison who speaks so eloquently and brings on the manuhiri (visitors) to our kura’s powhiri. Busy is an understatement and Term 4 is already shaping up to be action packed! We start with our World Famous Ag Day, then our performance at the Whangarei kapa Haka festival, the new school Athletics Day, our Xmas Concert, the whole school beach “Pirate Day’ and our new Splash Clash day….phew, I’m exhausted already! Watch this space for all the dates and relevant information. News Flash…Some of this info will be communicated to you through our new HERO sms system which will be a major change to how we report to whanau in 2024. To get everyone ready for this we will be asking you to download and log-in to your own personal HERO app. Instructions on how to do this will be coming home next week with guides and supporting info.

New tamariki (students) to OVS

Welcome to these New OVS Super Stars: Kobie, Maiah, Hasely-Rose, Ryan

_____________________________________________________________

PTA Update

Term 4 Week 1

A big thank you to all our helpers and everyone who came to the Disco last term. The kids had an absolute blast and it was an amazing night.
Fundraising wise we had profit of about $420

Moosies and Juicies
Will be for sale Friday weeks 1, 5, 7, and 9. $2 each.

Ag Day
We’re looking for helpers on the day to to go on a roster to sell food and drink. This is likely to be between 9:30am to 12:30pm.

We’re asking for home baking again this year. Please bring home baking to the table outside room 7 in the morning.

Unfortunately with the costs of groceries our prices had to be a little bit higher for some things to cover costs. We’d love to bring the price down so if anyone grows a lot of lettuce or tomatoes which they could donate please let us know.

Raffle
The raffle will now be drawn at the Christmas Concert. All funds raised will go toward school camps in 2024.

Tickets will be coming home in week 5.

We’re still looking for more sponsorship so if you own or work at a business that would be interested please let us know! This does not have to be a product from the business itself – the business can either purchase a product to donate (hamper/fuel voucher, kids’ scooter etc.) or donate money for the PTA to purchase something suitable.

All options are tax deductible as a sponsorship expense.

It would be great if as a community we could support our sponsors. Thanks to the following businesses:
Golden Bay Cement
New World Regent
Flipout
Brooke Gibson at Ray White
Shoe Pulse
Bunnings

Purchasing
Thanks again for all your ideas from the survey. It’s not looking like we will be able to purchase anything from the list this year after all.
We are committed to funding the classroom grants which allow teachers to buy the ‘nice to haves’. This along with the hall contribution and the new speaker for the school will take up most of the funds raised this year. All raffle funds are tagged to 2024 camp.

__________________________________________________________________________

Sports gear grant

A special shout out to Pub Charities for their support of our school. The PTA and school have secured an amazing $4375 grant, to go toward much needed phys ed and sports equipment.

__________________________________________________________________________

General Election – Polling Booth at school

The General Election will be held this Saturday 14th October.

The school library will be open on this day from 9:00am to 7:00pm for voting. If you would like information regarding the election, please visit:

https://vote.nz/2023-general-election/about/2023-general-election/

__________________________________________________________________________

Ag Day Animals – Final Call

Please ensure your child has registered their animal for Ag Day. If their animal still needs to be registered, please email Robyn at r.drake@otaika.school.nz urgently.

Don’t forget….

___________________________________________________________________________

Teacher Only Day – please note for calendar

The last Ministry of Education ‘Teacher Only Day ‘ for 2023 is scheduled for Friday 20th of October. This is the Friday prior to Labour Weekend. There will be no school or After-School Care for OVS students on this day.

___________________________________________________________________________

Term 4 – Sun-Smart and Swimming Reminder

Term 4 is a Sun-Smart term, please ensure your children have a hat for school. Swimming will commence after labour weekend (depending on temperature)

___________________________________________________________________________

Book Fair!!

Tuesday 24th to Friday 27th October – 8.30am daily

__________________________________________________________________________

Lemonade anyone?

Check it out! One of our super students brought in this Giant Lemon to share with us… wow!

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Property Development Update

Room 4 has shifted into their fabulous new home (the library) for this term, and our building works are now starting on Friday 20th October. These renovations will take the remainder of the term but we are hopeful for completion close to the start of school 2024.

Mr T has also been busy over the break and we now have the new paths shaped up and ready for access to the pool. We have also started scraping the sludge from the playground area and are using this fill to shape our future ‘Pump Track’. As soon as we finish removing the old fill, it new fill will be reinstated to a level that give our students playground access for the remainder of the term.

You may have noticed the our magic trick of the disappearing container? All done with smoke and mirrors and this miraculous disappearance now allows us to move ahead with the new playground development. A massive shout out to BoT member, Gareth Bourke for giving up his day to drive the digger and provide some high excitement as the students got to watch the container being dragged, pulled, rolled and lifted to its new home at the rear of the school! (We would also like to acknowledge community members who provided the digger ad transporting truck, plus Mr T and Sid for there hard work… rocking and rolling!)