Together We Grow  – Ka Tupu Kotāhi ai Tātou

Kia ora koutou OVS Whanau and Caregivers,

Welcome Back to School!

We’re excited to welcome everyone back for another fun-filled term! We have a jam-packed schedule of activities and events lined up, so mark your calendars for all the excitement ahead.

Next week, we’ll kick things off with our annual Ag and Flower Show Day – a perfect opportunity for students to showcase their creativity and love for nature.  Please refer to the special edition newsletter that was sent out earlier this week for more details.  Classes will be open for viewing by our community in the morning.  See the timetable below for approximate timings for the day.  We are all crossing our fingers for fine weather this year! 

Later in our term , we have lots of exciting events such as the kapa haka day for our KH group at Whangarei Primary School.  We also have an end of year Beach Day planned, where students can enjoy some fun in the sun. Don’t forget about our RURU fun Wet and Wild Day, promising plenty of splashes and smiles!

With all these exciting events, this term will be a great one for making memories. Plus, at the end of the term, families will receive student reports, highlighting all the wonderful progress made throughout the year. 

Here’s to a fantastic term ahead!

 

Ngā mihi

 

Heidi Nieddu

 

Dates for your calendar 

Term 4

21st – 24th October – Book fair in our library
23rd October – Making day for AG day

24th October – Ag and flowershow day

25th October TOD – teachers attending PD around the new curriculum
28 October – Labour Day (Public Holiday)

4th November – Orders close for calendar art

7th November – Central Day at Barge Park

8th November – Athletics Day at Maungakaramea School

27th November – Harold and Life ed come to visit

28th November – Whangarei Primary School Kapa Haka festival

6th December – Whole school beach day 

11th December – Kai and Carols

12th December – Year 6 fun day

13th December – Library Pool Party 

17th December – RURU fun day – Wet and wild! 

18th December – Last day of school.   

 

Star Spot – Celebrating Student Learning @ OVS

Every week at assembly we celebrate super OVS students, and this week’s shout out is to say a huge congratulations to our R.U.R.U award winners from the last two assemblies.

Well done to Asher from week 10.

 

 

Week 1’s super star students were Te Wairua and Aria

 

 

 

Star Spot – New students.

 We would like to offer a warm welcome to our two new students this week!  We hope that your learning journey at Ōtāika Valley School is a fun filled, happy, and the most amazing adventure for you, Mason and Aidan! 

 

Term 4 – Hats and swimming

As you are no doubt aware, Term 4 is a time for our tamariki to be wearing hats.  We have a ‘No hat – play in the shade’ policy.  This means that if your child forgets to bring a hat they are only able to play in certain shaded areas of our school.  Please remind your child to put their hat in their bag.  As the days heat up, layers of named clothing are also must.  

Another exciting part of Term 4 is swimming! Mr. T is keeping a close eye on the pool temperature, and as soon as it reaches the ideal level, classes will be diving in for daily swimming sessions. Just like reading and writing, swimming is an important part of our curriculum, helping students develop essential skills and stay active.

 

After School Care

Our numbers in after school care are continuing to grow and after school care is becoming quite full  – please make sure you have organised your days with Robyn in advance.   In order to make sure we are correctly staffed, we need a day’s notice if you are needing to cancel your child’s place in ASC.  Thank you 

 

 Niuean Language week 

This week the amazing Darcie has been working on extending all of our language capabilities with Niuean Language week.  At assembly today our whole school was lucky enough to experience a wonderful dance that some of our students had been practicing in their own time with Darcie.   

Timetable for Ag day

 Here is the proposed timetable for our Ag and Flwoershow day on Thursday next week.  Please note, all timings are approximate after 9am.  

Before 9am 

• – Animals set up on the field
• – Baking ( to be sold) is put outside R3 and 4 
• – Decorated cakes are displayed in R4

9am       

• Children with animals are in class for the roll.  Then they make their way to the field 
• Children without animals stay in their classes.  

9.15am  

• Classes start to move from room to room.  Only 1 class in a room at a time. 
• Once all rooms have been viewed then classes quietly make their way to the field to watch the judging.  
• Children without animals are expected to watch the judging quietly, supporting their peers who have animals. 

10.15 am

• Food is available for purchase from the PTA. 

11 am

• activities for the children are open.  Children have a card that they need to get signed off by the teacher running the activity. 
• Activities will be staggered throughout the day. 
• Please note that we will be running the slippery slide again this year – so togs and a towel are a must! 🙂

1pm

 Whole school will gather on the steps of R6 and 7.  

• Animal dress up parade is held
• Animal Trophies are handed out
• Prizes given to those children whose completed activity card is picked out of the special box
• Decorated cakes – winners are announced.  Cakes are auctioned off.  
• Tidy up time! 

 

Early pick up

We understand that there may be times when you need to pick up your child early from school. If this happens, please remember to sign them out at the office. Recently, we’ve had a few instances where children were picked up without notifying the office or the class teacher, which understandably can cause some concern as we try to ensure everyone’s safety.

Thank you for helping us keep things running smoothly!

Attendance 

As we head into a new term, it is a perfect time to reflect on attendance.  

One of the things we are continuing to focus on this term is student attendance.  We will continue to monitor attendance closely, following our school guidelines.  

If a student misses one day of school every two weeks, they miss more than a whole year of school by 16 years of age. As a parent or caregiver, you, alongside our school, play a key role in building strong habits of regular school attendance.

All students are legally required to attend school every day and it is a shared responsibility to make sure students attend and engage in learning from when they first start school.

You must let the school know if your child is going to be absent or intends to be absent for a portion of the school term for whatever reason, like a tangi or medical procedure.  Family holidays or taking time off for extracurricular activities (not organised by school) are not acceptable reasons for being absent.

 We know that the bugs, coughs, and colds are still lingering in our community. Knowing if your child is well enough to go to school can be tricky at times. Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora have refreshed their guidance for schools and parents to use to help make that call. Check out the Ministry of Education website for more information. If you are still unsure, get in touch with us.

 If you’re struggling at home with getting your child to school, talk to us! Our school is committed to supporting your child to attend school and building a culture that fosters excellent attendance by having:

•   School staff who have strong relationships with students and whānau.  
•   A school culture that recognises your child and your family for who they are, where they come from and who they want to be.
•   A school community that does everything to make sure students are at school, and they are participating, and progressing in their education.

Parents and caregivers can find more information here.

 

Health Curriculum community survey.

All schools in NZ are required to consult with their school community every two years about their health education programmes. Health education is part of the Health and Physical Education learning area. Learning in health is guided by underlying concepts, key areas of learning and the achievement objectives. The purpose of this consultation is to outline the programmes that we are delivering, how we are delivering them and what we see the education needs are, within health, for our students. The last round of consultation was held in Term 1 2021. Since then we have also been involved in Wellbeing initiatives within our school and as part of the Whangarei Kāhui ako. 

Please fill in our Health Curriculum survey by clicking here.

Raffle update – Thank you ! 

Wow!  It has been amazing to see how many businesses and individuals are helping to support our school!  We would like to thank the following businesses…

Bunnings

All Truck Repairs

4 Square Marsden Cove

Event Cinemas Whangarei

NT Engineering

Action Zone

SSP Engineering

Russell Law

North Financial

Wild Rose Photography

Golden Bay

Yovich Engineering

2 Duck’s Contracting 

It looks like it is going to be another amazing raffle!  

 

Student spotlight!

Here is a great poem about our school from Van in R7, who wrote this poem in his own time.  Way to go, Van! 

OVS is a place to learn and play,

And most definitely will make your day.

At OVS students and teachers unite,

And come together and do what’s right. 

Even though OVS is small, it has a big heart

Helping students to become smart. 

Every student a treasure

And we will help them learn with pleasure. 

OVS has a lot to offer, 

Lots and lots, a whole ton. 

Seven classes, a field, two playgrounds,

Two courts, a sandpit and much more fun.

The range of kids in each year is quite vast. 

Some on their first, some on their last. 

I have written this poem to show

That OVS is the best place to be,

Together we Grow.