End of Year Calendar

With the term quickly zooming past we thought we would send home the following dates for the remainder of the year. Many of these have been published previously but could I draw your attention to a change of day for our Final Assembly which is now on Thursday 10^th December at 11am.

School Diary

Canterbury Anniversary Show Day  (All Schools Closed)	Friday 13th November
Helpers Morning Tea	Tuesday 1st December 11am Staffroom
Junior School Picnic	Wednesday 2nd December
Senior School Picnic to Spencer Park	Tuesday 8th December
End of Year Assembly	Thursday 10th December 11am in the Hall
Final Day of Regular Classes End of Year Reports Home	Friday 11th December
Clean-up Days (school open and students welcome)	Monday 14th December (normal hours) Tuesday 15th December (school closed at 12:30pm) Woosh opens at 12:30pm for enrolled students

Latest news and events

Labour Day	Monday 26th October
Junior Trip to Museum	28th & 29th October
Athletics Day	6th November
Show Day	13th November
Junior Picnic	2nd December
END OF YEAR ASSEMBLY	11TH DECEMBER Last day of regular classes
CLEAN UP DAYS School still open-children welcome	Monday and Tuesday (13th/14th December)
SCHOOL CLOSED	12.30 P.M. Tuesday 15th Dec

School Diary

                      Term Events List

Dear Parents and friends,

Term 4 is now in full swing.

Thanks so much to all of you who have helped us out so much this term by remembering to text or phone in before your child is sick or absent for any reason. Our text is 027 379 3137 or landline 379 3137. Thanks also for ensuring children do not arrive at school before 8:30am. These two things save us hours of office time and help get the day off to a safe and happy start. It is very much appreciated.

Last week our Year 6, 7 and 8 Students went on their amazing annual outdoor education adventure. This year we spent 3 days at Wainui Camp on the beautiful Akaroa Harbour.      Activity sessions included High Ropes, Kayaking, Orienteering, and Search and Rescue. We had a ball and learnt heaps. One of my personal highlights were the hours we also got to ‘hang out’ on a beautiful beach, paddle, skim stones and    explore the rock pools. This time was a lovely reminder of just how lucky we are to live in New Zealand and have such easy access to our environment.  Our senior students were once again a wonderful and happy bunch of children who ‘did us proud’.

This Tuesday I took 8 keen Year 6 cricketers to a ‘Hooked on Cricket’ Day at Hagley Park. Each school team was given a member of the Canterbury Kings Cricket Team as  their coach for the day (thanks to Ronnie Hira). We won 2 out of three of our games finishing in 3rd place. This was awesome considering my coaching efforts pre-tournament were       limited to the ten minutes we waited out on the grass for the bus to pick us up! In fact I was so impressed with the teams enthusiasm, talent and team work I have decided to enter a team in to the Year 6 schools competition which starts soon and we will have games on some Thursday or Friday afternoons. I will keep you posted as the draws come out.

Thanks for all of your amazing support,

Gordon

Welcome to Term 4

A warm welcome to Term 4 at Waltham School.

A special welcome to our new families and we trust you settle in well and are warmly welcomed into our school community. Please do not hesitate to call any of us here at school if you have a question or if we can help in any way.

Seniors (Year 6,7 and 8) are off on camp to Wainui this Wednesday. I am very excited about being able to join in with this fabulous bunch of children and staff on camp again this year.

Our new building will be arriving 'piece by piece' over the course of this week. It will be very exciting to see see this happen! We hope to have the new building ready for classes early in the new year, and following that the major renovations and changes to our 'old' classroom blocks will take place. The existing blocks will be renovated one at a time to allow us to keep operating 'as normal' through 2016.
I will be holding some more parent information sessions soon to keep you all up to date with our 'new look school'.

We are sorting out sunhats this week to ensure everyone has one. A reminder that it is school policy that all children need to be wearing a school sunhat when outside for an extended period during Terms 1 and 4. Please discourage your children from bringing their own caps to school this term to help us have all children in uniform hats.

Thanks for all of your support as we look forward to a very busy and exciting term.

Gordon

A new week

Swimming

This week is week 1 of our swimming programme. It is so exciting to see all of our students being able to take part in a full programme of swimming lessons. In previous years the progress that each child was able to make was awesome, and I am sure this year will be no different. We are very lucky to have the great facilities and staff at Pioneer Pool at our disposal for the next two weeks. I am also looking forward to spending lots of time down at the pool to help, support and see all of the progress being made.
Thanks to all of the families who were able to make the $10 donation towards transport and also for the support to keep those togs and towels at school ready to go each day.

Year 5 Camp

Last week our Year 5 Students had an amazing three days away at Living Springs. A huge thank you  to Martin Weaver (Teacher in Charge) and Sylvia Koppes (Teacher Aide Support). Without them the camp just couldn't have happened. I was lucky enough to be able to accompany them for the full trip and enjoy the experience along with our wonderful students. It really was one of the best organised, fun and rewarding camps I have ever been on. A huge thank you  to the brilliant children too!

Have a great week everybody!

Gordon Caddie

Welcome to Term 3

It was a frosty start this morning but so great to see all the smiling faces back at school for the new term. I have already had the pleasure of chatting to many families about their 'holiday adventures'. Some of you did some amazing things and some (like me) stayed very close to home.

Term 3 promises to be awesome. The weather starts to warm up, things get lighter and brighter, and before we know it we'll be washing the sunhats ready for another Summer!

Some upcoming dates and events you may like to pop on the calendar...

Next 4 Friday afternoons: Friday Hagley Sport continues as for last term

Wednesday July 29th 12pm:  Schools' Winter Sports Tournament (selected Year 5-8 students)

19th-21st August: Year 5 Outdoor Education Camp to Living Springs (detailed note home to Year 5's soon)
                                        (Year 6-8 Camp in Term 4)

31st-August: Two weeks of swimming lessons at Pioneer Pool (Whole School)

Property Updates:

Meetings with architects, builders and the Ministry of Education are in 'full swing' as we approach the first physical signs of our major property developments and extensions. Next week I would like to offer more opportunities for parents and friends to be part of this process. I will send a note home (and post here) the days and times of these meetings shortly.

Have a great week and stay 'tuned in' to this space for updated information as it comes to hand.

Gordon Caddie

Drama Production Week

This week is our long awaited Drama Production. Ticketing info. went out twice last week. The basics are that tickets are $5 each and available from the school office for both the 10:30am and 6:30pm shows on Thursday. Please be aware that once the tickets are 'sold out' there is nothing we can do to squeeze extras in due to hall fire restrictions.

The logistics for the evening show may vary slightly from class to class so please keep an eye out for arrangements that will come home over the next few days. Most students will be required to meet in their classrooms around 6pm on Thursday evening and will need to be picked up from classrooms following the show about 7:45pm.

Just in case you missed it here is a slightly edited and updated version of last weeks notice.

                     “  Timeless Treasures”

                                  a school wide production

Dear Parents/Caregivers and Families,

As you will be aware we are currently preparing for Thursday's whole school drama production.  This is a very exciting chance to see all of our pupils involved in a large scale performance. The show will be a celebration of our learning and will involve singing, dancing, acting and visual arts. There are a strictly limited number of seats in the hall for each show and entry will be by ticket only.  There will not be door sales on the day so you must pre-purchase tickets.

Ticket sales for each show will be on a ‘first in first served’ basis so please get yours as soon as you can. If you are able to attend our morning 10:30am performance we urge you to select this show as we anticipate not being able to meet the demand for evening tickets.

To help cover our costs for extra staging, lighting and costumes tickets are $5.00 each and are available from the school office or by filling out the attached order.    If the show you wish to attend is sold out prior to processing your order form we will contact you to see if another show time is possible.  If not, a full refund will be given.

Please return the following form to the office or pop in ‘in person’ as soon as you can.

Waltham School Production Team

   “Timeless Treasures”  -   drama production ticket order form                 

I wish to purchase tickets for the following show and have included the appropriate payment.

o   Tickets for the 10.30 a.m. show on Thursday 25^th June

o    Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. show on Thursday 25^th June

Total number of tickets    o  x $5.00 =      $ ………………………………   payment enclosed.

Name:    ……………………………………………………..      Contact Phone No: …………………………………….

Signed : ………………………………………………………………. (please check you have selected which show!)

Please return to office as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.  We will send tickets home when processed or be in contact if the show is ‘sold out’ and other arrangements need to be discussed.

Latest Newsletter 5th June

To all Parents and Caregivers,

It has been an absolute pleasure to meet and enrol many new families over the past few weeks.

Next week and the week after we are running a series of  after school chats so teachers can share how they are working together this year with the ‘class next door’. I will also chat about some of the exciting building improvements and extensions that are happening over the next 18 months. Please see the more detailed information later in this newsletter for more details.

                         

School House System

As you may know we divide our school in to 4 ‘Houses’ and use this system to promote fun, healthy competition, leadership and positive reinforcement. Our ‘Houses’ are named after prominent historical figures from our past school community. In the following newsletters I will share with you a little about these people.

Harvey:

 

Named after Mr C Harvey who was a member of the school committee from 1894 to 1902, then elected chairman until his resignation in 1921. His most notable undertaking during this time was the building of the swimming pool which opened in 1906 and also many fundraising projects.

 SPORTS NEWS

Many Year 5-8 Students are now involved in  Friday sports. We have Football, Rugby and Netball teams travelling by bus to this competition. That’s of course when the weather cooperates, unlike today!

Games  are held in  South Hagley Park and all start at 1:15pm

Please feel free to come and support your child’s team. Parking is very limited around the park  so be prepared for a bit of a walk. The office has a copy of the game location map so please feel free to come in and ask for a copy. Alternatively please feel free to ring on Thursday afternoon or early Friday morning and we can direct you to where the teams are playing. On occasion (such as today) games may be postponed or teams may have a bye so if in doubt please ring to check first.

Parent Information Meetings

Over the next two weeks we will be holding several informal meetings to share with interested parents more information about how classes at our school are working   together in ‘collaborative teams’ to provide an awesome learning environment for our kids. I am also keen to pass on some more information about our upcoming building extensions and renovations– We are currently working with the   architects and it is very exciting!

Each collaborative team will have their meeting at  a separate time so that those of you who have more than one child can attend all relevant sessions. We plan to keep       sessions to 30 minutes and children are welcome to stay and play.

                                             Parent Information Sessions 

Wednesday 10th Sarah Mauchline/Michelle Topp (Rooms 3 and 4) 2:50-3:30 pm

Thursday 11th Janine Tarawhiti/Jill Hubbard (Rooms 1 and Library) 9:00-9:30am

Monday  15th  Rochelle Atherton/Craig Gault (Rooms 9 and 10) 2:50-3:30 pm

Wednesday 17th Martin Weaver/ Andrea Darling/Irene Wheeler (Rooms 6 and 7)

2:50-3:30 pm

 Reminder about our hot lunches

Our hot lunch Fridays are going really well and will continue for the rest of the term.

Please remember to put the item for heating or toasting in a separate container with your child’s name on it.

Items will be collected  first thing in the morning from the classrooms.

A huge thanks to  Diane for talking the lead with this.

Community Notices

COMMUNITY NOTICES

WOOSH

Waltham Out of School Hours runs Before and After and Holiday  Programmes for primary school aged children.  WOOSH runs out of the Waltham School Hall.  Come over and visit or phone Darcy on 374-5227 (leave message) for more information.

PLAYGROUP

For children aged 0-5 years old.  Pop down to our school hall on a Tuesday morning from 9.30 a.m. to mid-day.

Come meet other young parents and have a chat over a cuppa or during the winter some hot soup,  while your young ones are also having an  enjoyable time.  School hall has been safety checked.  For further information you can ring the Waltham  Community  Cottage 9422173.

On behalf of all the Team here at Waltham School I wish you all the very best for a safe and happy weekend.

Gordon Caddie

Principal