Latest Newsletter - West Melton School

West Melton School
Newsletter
743 Weedons Ross Rd
West Melton 7618
Ph: 03 3478 448
Website:
www.westmelton.school.nz
Principal: Sue Jackson
Deputy Principals:
Tracey Riley
Kim Busch
Term Dates
2015
2 Feb – 2 April
20 April – 3 July
20 July – 25 September
12 October – 18 December
Dates to Remember
Term One
Week 3:
Tue 17 Feb - Moa Swimming
Sports 10am – 3pm (pp Thur 19
Feb)
Wed 18 & Thur 19 Feb – Kiwi &
Pukeko Life Education
Week 4:
Mon 23 to Thur 25 Feb – Kiwi &
Pukeko Life Education
Mon 23 & Tue 24 Feb – Leadership
Training for Y7 & 8
Wed 25 Feb - Lincoln Zone
Triathlon
Week 5:
Mon 2 Mar – Kiwi & Pukeko Life
Education
Mon 2 Mar – BoT meeting @ 6pm
Tue 3 Mar – Kiwi Day Camp &
Duathlon
Wed 4 Mar – Pukeko Swimming
Sports (pp Thur 5 Mar)
Thur 5 Mar – Lincoln Zone
Swimming (pp Mon 9 Mar)
Issue 1
12 February 2015
Kia ora koutou e nga matua, e nga whanau - Dear parents /Whanau
Woo hoo another year of learning, fun, playing with friends, connecting with
community, networking with our wider community, making new friends, meeting new
people, welcoming new members of our community, sharing new experiences, facing
exciting challenges, moving out of our comfort zone to challenge ourselves, holding
hands when things get tough, encouraging each other to be the best we can be,
celebrating our successes and achievements and caring for each other!
A very warm welcome back to school and 2015.
A special woo hoo to all our wonderful new learners in all communities who join us from
other schools, communities or countries. A special happy welcome to all learners and
their families who are starting school for the first time.
Kauri Mindi Bosher, Celia Boyle, Ashleigh Bromley, Parker Buckenham, Libby Cochrane,
Alex Cosgriff, Finn Coupland, Olivia Frank, Angel Hulston, William King, Daisy MallinderScott, Ella and Sam McNutt, Eleanor Neale, Zach Parker, Ashlee Pow, Bella Rose, Lewi
Rowlands, Micah Sands, Lily Smith, Jack Snowdon, Ava Taylor, Molly Ujkaj, Sophie
Veitch, Kayla Wallace and Arabella Woodward.
Ngaio welcomes - Ryder Allin, William Cochrane, Pippa Naughton and Oscar Stevenson.
Rimu welcomes- Nash Allin and Aaron Rod.
Ti Kouka welcomes - Isabella Stevenson, Kelly and Noah Rod.
Totara welcomes- Sahara Hinman, Reuben Holden, Tess Jenkins, Campbell Naughton,
Joshua Rod, Issac Franks and Alex Jenkins.
We have had a great start to the year - thank you.
The first week was planned to ease our wonderful learners (including teachers) into
2015. Our first powhiri on Monday was a great opportunity to acknowledge, and to
officially welcome new members of our community. Once again our Kapahaka group
were outstanding!
Our communities - Harakeke, Kauri, Ngaio, Rimu, Ti Kouka, and Totara were ready for
action and spent time last week collaborating and creating their unique community
which they shared on Wednesday evening at ‘Check out our Communities’ meeting.
Teachers spent many hours preparing, and planning to ensure our learners and
community felt welcomed, supported and excited ready for learning. A huge thanks to
all staff, their husbands, fathers, mothers, children, brothers and sisters and extended
family who supported their special family member. Your efforts were appreciated!
Our Community Fun Day celebrated our overarching theme this year of ‘Connecting with
Community’. I hope you have been on the blogs to check out the fun day!
Welcome
For all future events please
refer to the calendar on the
school website
Please also refer to the school
blogspots: to read about
student achievements, trips,
etc. Also accessed from the
school website.
westmeltonschool.blogspot.nz
moateam.blogspot.co.nz
pukekoteam.blogspot.co.nz
kiwi-team.blogspot.co.nz
We welcome to the school new staff - Tracey Riley first Deputy Principal and Learning
Support Coordinator. Tracey will be deputising for me during the year especially when
the new building commences!
Diane Van der Zwet teaching our year 7 and 8 learners and Rebecca Brook teaching
year 5 and 6 learners in the Totara Community with Mrs McKee.
We also welcome Anna Jenkins and her family who live in West Melton and her children
to our school! Anna is teaching in the Rimu community with Ms McKendry and Mrs
Poulsen. Anna moved down from Hamilton in mid December and will be with us for 2015
whilst Maree O’Boyle is on secondment to the University as a Science advisor to schools.
In the next week or so there will be more information about the school on the website including details around school
communities and roles and responsibilities of the staff to help with orientation!
The school roll is 385 children and up
to 35 staff. We predict we will reach 440
children by December 2015.
We are well placed to cater for this growth
especially in our New Entrant Community (Kauri).
Please feel free to speak to any teachers
to seek clarification if necessary.
New Buildings
Currently the Board are working with BECA who are the project managers for the new build. By the end of this week a
Design and Build team will be confirmed to commence our new two storey Modern Learning Communities (equal to 12
single cell classrooms) due to roll growth and to replace six old classrooms. Also a new Administration block will be built
at the same time -basically we will be building a new school within a school! On the noticeboard outside my office will
be updates on progress and plans for your information. This will also be put on the website for ease of accesability. The
plan is to move into the completed Modern Learning Environment in late January 2016.
The team working with BECA are Corey Woodward (Board Chair), Darren Meyers (Deputy Board Chair) Tracey Riley
(Deputy Principal) and Amanda Fernando (Ministry of Education) and myself. We will also co-opt people with expertise
in various areas to ensure we have considered the best options to meet the needs of our learners and community. We
also have learner representation on this team bringing the learner’s perspective to the Design and Build - Alessandra
Ward - Year 7 and Braiden Andrews Year 8.
There will be further Community Engagement meetings throughout this year especially in the first two terms. Building is
expected to commence in July.
Additional Classrooms for 2015
Unfortunately we are still waiting for 2 portacoms to be brought on site to cater for the growth this year. This process
has been held up by the Selwyn District Council consent processes. We are still hoping for these portacoms to arrive and
be ready for use by the end of February! They will be placed parallel to the Ti Kouka block on the western side of the
playing field.
School Organisation
As part of the Check out our Community Evening some school information has already been shared with you. Below is
information that may also be helpful for you.
Uniforms
All learners are expected to wear the correct school uniform with pride. The uniform was designed with a strong
presence and contribution from the children. This is who we are - our image! Staff have had discussions on logo’s on
shorts and from Monday we expect all clothing to have no logos. All items of uniform can be purchased on site at school
for your convenience. Blue shorts can also be purchased from Farmers and The Warehouse (Schooltex range). We
appreciate your support in this area.
Leadership
Over the last few weeks we have been reviewing the school wide leadership opportunities we provide for our children
especially in the Moa Team. As the school continues to grow, opportunities are presented to review existing
programmes, improve where necessary and implement changes. As mentioned last year Head Learners (students) will
be appointed in the next few weeks. We will be appointing two learners either girls or boys. There will be no deputies.
Whanau Communities
Previously we had four Whanau communities, these have now been increased to six with new names reflecting West
Melton’s history as a result of the 150 celebrations last year. Families will still be together. We will continue with
Whanau days, fun activities, points and leaders. The new Whanau’s and colours are:
Hill – Green, Tricketts – Yellow, Ross – Red, Langdale – Blue, Newton – Orange, Selwyn - Purple
GATES
Please ensure ALL GATES are CLOSED at all times ensuring our children are safe especially at this time of the year!
Thank you.
Administration requests
Where possible, we would prefer payment (other than uniform or stationery sales) to be made by direct credit into the
school bank account: 12 3441 0011112 000 to reduce cash handling in the office. Please ensure that you make clear
reference to your child’s first name, surname and what the payment is for when you make your bank transfer.
Lanyards
As the school roll grows sometimes it is hard to identify who the staff are. To this end, all staff have been issued with
lanyards with West Melton School on which will hopefully help you locate any staff at school!
Car Parking
Thank you to all drivers who have shown responsibility and courtesy when dropping off or picking up children. Of utmost
importance is keeping all our community members safe. Keep up the safe driving!
School Website www.westmelton.school.nz
All information is located on our website. We continue to receive many positive comments on our website from parents
and professionals - so we know it is a great communication tool. Leadership set all the dates for 2015 at their seminar
in January so you can book and plan well in advance if your child has an event/s.
The calendar on the website is updated regularly although, sometimes changes have to be made to dates set in
January… a good idea to check in advance and regularly (TAPA - Think, Act, Plan Ahead)
Professional Learning Development (PLD)
All teachers are involved in a 20 week course in terms 1 and 2 on either Modern Learning Environments/Practice and
Pedagogy, Modern learning Curriculum, Empowering E-Learning Leaders facilitated by Core Education, or other related
PLD pertaining to our journey. Staff meetings have always been focused around PLD. These meetings are now held on
Mondays 3:20 - 5pm. Therefore we would appreciate appointments to meet staff, are made on alternative days to
enable them to be great self managers!
Communication
We annually review our Communication Strategy 2015-2019 and continue to work hard and improve on communication
internally, with our school and wider community. This strategy is our guiding document which we refer to on a regular
basis. It supports the Charter and Strategic Plan. Two areas of major focus this year are - less interruptions to learning
during the day and notices and information sharing with our community. Please refer to the information shared in this
newsletter. It is very important that we have your current or preferred email address/contacts as most, if not all
communications will, where possible be sent electronically. This is to save the environment, efficiency of work time
and working smarter.
This year all school communications will be via the School Links website where this newsletter is sent from. This will
enable you to:
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Receive time critical two-way txt and email alerts for all general communications such as school closures,
sport cancellations and emergencies.
Receive newsletters and general notices online.
Notify the school of your child’s absence 24/7.
Next Steps
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We will activate your new School-links account.
You will have received an email confirmation with a temporary login and password to gain access to our
school portal. We suggest you change your password to something meaningful to yourself and keep it secure.
Go onto our school portal at www.school-links.org.nz and login using your Username and Password.
Please check your contact details are correct by clicking on the “My Profile” link at the top of the page. Click
“Edit My Profile” on the right- hand side of the page. Now update your details.
If you are unable to access School Links please let the office know so we can arrange for hard copies to be sent home.
Twitter
Do you read the Tweets on our school website, and have you seen the WMS Blog? These are another two ways in which
we communicate with our community. When we Tweet, messages appear on the homepage of our school website.
We use Twitter as a cost effective way of getting messages out to our school community. You don’t need to become a
Twitter addict to get access to this service, you don’t even need to be a twitter user! Tweets are short messages which
can be sent as – daily event reminders, urgent updates/postponements/cancellations or info on late running
buses/class trips/ sudden changes of plan.
To get messages sent to your phone
1. Text follow WstMeltonSchool to 8987
2. You are now in business! You should receive a confirmation text message as well as our last tweet.
To stop texts:
Send OFF@WstMeltonSchool to 8987
You might like to get all texts all of the time, or only activate this service when your child is out on a school trip. It is
up to you.
You can still see all Tweets on the front page of www.westmelton.school.nz and on our school facebook page.
Scholastic Book Orders
A reminder that ALL Scholastic Book orders are due in by 3:15pm on Monday 16th February.
Moa Sports Information
Parent Help for Moa Sporting Events - Many thanks, to those of you who already offer your valuable time.
Throughout the year, Moa students are able to participate in a huge and varied sporting programme. Each term we ask
for parent help to run these events. Without your support some of these events would not be able to go ahead.
So, if you have an hour or two spare, are a parent/caregiver, uncle, auntie or grandparent please consider ticking the
box next time the yellow sporting notice comes home.
Transport - Transport to sporting events will be by bus if at all possible this year. This usually averages between $7 $10 per student.
Sport Uniforms - Upon your child being fortunate enough to be selected for zones, they will be required to wear the
West Melton School sport uniform. This is owned by the PTA and charged out at a flat rate of $5. This covers jacket,
top & shorts. All uniforms need to be returned in the condition they were supplied i.e. cleaned and dry.
Sponsorship Required
At West Melton we take pride in our Learners and Teachers achievements. One way we celebrate this is through our
Achievement Board which is displayed on the wall of the Totara Block, outside the front entrance. This is seen by
parents and caregivers of our children as well as the wider West Melton community. It is a fantastic way to get local
businesses noticed. Each display costs $500 and will last for approximately 6 weeks. As part of our community we are
asking if anyone would consider sponsoring this.
Your sponsorship will be acknowledged in several ways. We would place your name and logo on the board, as well as a
thank you in our school newsletter encouraging our school community to support your business. Please contact Rita at
[email protected] if you are interested!
Outside of School Achievements
Has your child competed in competitions outside the school environment? Or have they been selected for a regional
team? Or do they belong to a club? Have they achieved fantastic results? Horse riding, motor-cross, dance, tennis,
athletics, surfing or arts, we love to celebrate them in our newsletter and blog. Drop a line to
[email protected] with details of their achievement (date, where, what, etc.) plus a photo.
City to Surf
Violin Tuition
Clear your calendar for the Sunday 22nd
March! It's the annual city to surf and you can
enter through the school, friends and family
are encouraged to participate too. We have a
special price of $15 with every $5 going
towards the school.
Violin tuition is available at West Melton School on
Thursday afternoons both during and after school from
5 years and upwards. The Malvern School of Music has
suitably sized violins for hire. Please contact Pauline
Sewell for more information.
03-3178110, 0273791689 or [email protected]
There are two distances for the run or walk,
6km and 14km. There will be a sign up sheet
in the office and in LC 1 & 2.
Guitar & Ukulele Lessons
If you have any questions please email Kerry
Poulsen at [email protected]
Limited Spaces Enrol Early for 2015
Please contact David Morris, Guitar Tutor
Phone: 359-6685 or 021 1853806
PTA – Buskers Festival
The West Melton School PTA would like to thank of the Buskers Festival helpers for their time at the
Buskers Festival. We are pleased to say we raised $11,000! This money will be going towards future
purchases for your children.
We are always looking for helpers so if you are interested in joining the PTA please don't hesitate to
contact one of the PTA members or come along to one of our meetings (which are on the school
calendar).
The Christmas Wonderland is something which is often discussed; this is a massive event and requires
commitment from a core team of people. Such a team would quite probably run alongside the PTA. Just
putting the feelers out there - if you or someone you know is interested in joining or managing such a
team could you please contact Jeanette Neal ([email protected]) or Lisa Douglas
([email protected]).
COMMUNITY NOTICES
On our school website under Notices –
Community Notices, you will find further
information on the following community
activities and groups.
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City to Surf
Subway Lunch-on-Line
Brigit’s Swim School
Act2 Drama Stars Course
Anna Lee School of Dance
Selwyn Parenting Network
Selwyn United Football Club
Starship Mobile Phones Appeal
West Melton Rugby Club
West Melton Before and After School Care
Recovery Matters – Red Cross Community
Workshops
Malvern School of Music
Children’s Day – Wigram Airforce Museum
South Island Field Days
West Melton School has been
offered another fundraising
opportunity. This is to pick up
rubbish at the end of each day of
the South Island Field Days, at
Kirwee. We are supplied with
gloves and rubbish bags and this
is a great fundraiser for the
children to join in and usually
takes about an hour. The dates
are 25-27 March. Please contact
Nikki Edge 027 537 1156
or [email protected] if
you can help.