KIA ORA KOUTOU Welcome to the 2018 school year. It has been lovely to see some familiar and new faces in our hub over the past couple of days. All three classes in our hub are a combination of Year 5 and Year 6 children. Each class has an equal mix of abilities and will start with around 30 students. For the first couple of weeks we will be working mainly in our home bases. Our focus will be getting to know one another, establishing and reconnecting our relationships. From here we will be moving across the hub for reading and mathematics. Children will be grouped based on social needs and academic ability. We always explain to the children these groups are not set in concrete; just like groups in a class taught by one teacher. Some of the reasons groups may change could be to do with interests, passion projects, strengths and areas of next steps in their learning. But who do I contact? Your child’s home base teacher is still the first port of call. Even if your child is not being taught by their home base teacher for a particular subject they will have an understanding of learning journey and where they are heading. They can always direct you to another staff member if needed. STAFFING Ōtākaro 1 Renée Kake Ōtākaro 2 Rachel Kelly (Monday, Tuesday & Fridays) & Jodi Archbold (Wednesdays & Thursdays) Ōtākaro 3 Sam Pelham Teacher Aides Kylie Ellis & Wendy Blackmun We welcome back Ros Tippen to Ōtākaro hub. Ros will be providing Renee’s leadership release on Thursdays. Olivia Hanson will continue in her role of releasing Sam. OUR BIG BACKYARD Our Big Backyard is the school wide inquiry theme for the first part of the year. We aim to give students the opportunity to explore the way children live in our community and in the wider New Zealand. We will be looking at organisations in the country that help others. We will encourage the children to ‘be the change they want to see in the world’ through critically thinking, questioning and researching. HOME FUN & READING DAILY The expectations are to complete reading, basic facts and spelling each day. Children read a personal book each night (suggested 20 minutes). Basic facts need to be practised by children also. From week 3 their sounds alive lists will be shared to their google account. Even if their book is left at school they will be able to have access to their words via the internet at home. A home fun sheet will be sent home each week except for the last week of this term. From time to time we hear, “there was no home fun this week.” This is usually not the case as our school sets home fun every week except for the first and last week of term. Children are expected to bring their own book to school each day. The first ten minutes of our reading lessons consists of personal reading. The book they bring along should be able to sustain them for this time and we encourage children to be reading chapter books suited to their level. The following lists are always full of great reads and a number of these books can be found at our school and local libraries https://www.whitcoulls.co.nz/top-listings/kids-top-50 www.noted.co.nz/culture/books/the-50-best-books-for-kids-in-2017 STUDENT COUNCIL Children wanting to be a part of the student council need to prepare a short speech to be presented in front of their home base. From here the students will vote for who they think are the most suitable children for this role. Each home base has two children representing them on the student council. The children have decided that speeches will be presented on Thursday 15th February. SPORT Most terms we compete in a local sports competition on a Friday afternoon (12:45 - 3pm). This term’s sports are rippa rugby, kiwi volley, futsal, softball and cricket. All sports travel to Hagley via bus with the exception of cricket. Cricket is either held at St Albans or the opposition’s school. Children will soon be trialling for these teams. It is very important that they listen carefully to the daily notices for information regarding sports. Those who do not participate in the teams competition will participate in a Sports programme at school. If you are interested in coaching any of the summer sports team or would like to know more please contact Jodi or email [email protected] CAMP This year all Year 5/6 classes will be having their annual camp in Hanmer Springs during Term 4. More information will be sent home soon about dates and costs. AQUATICS We will continue to make use of our school pool as a part of our aquatics programme. A copy of our timetable is on the home page and notices page of our blog. Next week we will be participating in the Aquagym programme. Water activities are not covered by your blanket permission agreement. A separate permission form and information has be sent home with your child and these need to be returned a.s.a.p. MANAGING SELF One of the key competencies in our curriculum is managing self. This plays a pivotal role in the senior area of the school. In Year 5/6 we are assisting with transitioning your child to intermediate. There are a number of ways your child can develop these skills such as:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION The school app, website and our hub blog are your first ports of call to find all important information. Our blog is updated regularly and we encourage all to check this www.otakaro2018.weebly.com BYOD We use devices to support the learning programmes we offer at school each day. We would appreciate those children who have access to a device and parental permission to bring it to school each day. We support any device although our preferred devices are iPads (ideally with bluetooth keyboards). Devices must be charged at home please. Children who wish to bring a device to school need to complete a BYOD permission form. We have a robust filtering system that ensures we are keeping our children safe while they are using devices at school. Our Board of Trustees continues to provide devices for those children unable to bring along their own. If you have any questions regarding BYOD please feel free to chat to Sam. Big Day Out We are currently in the process of organising our big day out and we will be placing more information on our blog shortly. We will be traveling to and from Spencer Park. We require at least four adult helpers from each home base to provide transport along with supervision. If you are available on Tuesday 20th February from 9:30am - 2:30pm please email Renée. Learning Information Evening Our learning information evening will be held tomorrow, Wednesday 7th February at 6:30pm, and we invite all to attend. We are all extremely excited about what 2018 has to offer for your child. As always feel free to pop in, email or call; Renée [email protected] Rachel [email protected] Jodi [email protected] Sam [email protected] Comments are closed.
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