Latest Newsletter

Dear Parents and friends,

I hope you have all  had a safe and happy week. We have a busy few weeks ahead in our lead up to the end of the year.

School Disco

A reminder that entry to our disco for students is by ticket only (available at the school office). Juniors 6:30-7:30 and Seniors from 7:30-8:30.  For safety reasons children will not be allowed to leave the hall until they are collected by an adult. Please help the event run safely and smoothly by not allowing your children to come before the start time for their age group.

We are really looking forward to an awesome day next       Friday with the ‘Star Search’ in the morning followed by the   disco in the evening.

End of Year Events

Please take careful note of the events coming up on the list to the left of this notice. We have lots of great things happening over the next three weeks.

End of Year Clean Up Days

Just to make it 100% clear...It is last day for regular classes on Friday 11th of December but school is open and children are most welcome on our clean-up days (All day Monday  14th and until 12:30 on Tuesday 15th). Attendance on these 2 days is at parents discretion and children coming  should be dropped off and picked up from their regular classrooms as normal. WOOSH are operating as normal on the Monday and from 12:30 on Tuesday 15th.

WALTHAM’S GOT TALENT Following on from our last successful talent quest we are holding another grand  event on Friday 27 November in the school hall.  Starting at 10 a.m. & finishing at 12.30 p.m..   We welcome you all to  come along to watch this amazing talent quest, support those taking part - you will be amazed at the wonderful talent our students have.  This will be an awesome quest and not to be missed. OUR AMAZING ZONE SPORTS TEAM Congratulations to all our amazing zone sports team who competed at the zone sports Hansens Park last week.  Well done to you all for successfully making the team and doing Waltham School proud with great sportsmanship  and behaviour. A  Big thank you to Mr Weaver, Mr Caddie and Mr Deadmarsh for accompanying the team. Reading Book Amnesty This week and next we are having an amnesty to find as many ‘missing’ reading books as we can. There are lots of books missing in action so could you please have a look under beds, on shelves and anywhere else you suspect they could be hiding. Any returned books will be greeted with a huge smile. New Entrants As we  continue to grow it is becoming increasingly important that we know about children approaching 5 years old that may be coming to Waltham School. Please pass this message on to anyone you know with pre-schoolers and just get them to give the office a ring with names and birthdates. Enrolment Zone Due to our continuing growth the Ministry of Education are directing us to have an enrolment zone. The aim of a zone is to ensure a school does not become over crowed with children who do not live in the local area. It does not mean that any          families or students already here would ever have to leave.  There is quite a process of consultation to establish a zone which is now underway. Coming home on Monday will be an official letter worded to tick all the legal boxes. Basically what it all means is that if you would like to  comment on the boundaries of  our proposed zone you can do so by contacting me. This weeks House Winner is…...                                                  HARVEY We hope you all have had a wonderful week. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend with your  family. Kind regards, Gordon Caddie and all the team. Principal

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