Term 3, Week 7 2/9/2024 - 6/9/2024
From the Principal's Desk
Greetings Parents, Caregivers and Whanau, Week 7, Friday 6th September 2024
In light of the recent passing of Kiingi Tuheitia and the tangihanga being this Thursday, we wanted to send our sympathy, condolences and Aroha to Ngāti Hei iwi and wider whanau in the motu. After further consultation with other schools/teachers and our community, we have decided that it is best to go ahead with the Cultural Festival. We will ensure we acknowledge the passing of Kīngi Tūheitia, whānau pani and the nationwide mourning. We will pay homage to his leadership and service in the whaikorero and during the day. We are continuing with the other kura to Whangamata for Thursday's cultural festival. Mauri ora!
Kaphaka and Cultural Festival
This week we have had our final practices for the kapahaka group for the Cultural festival in Whangamata. A huge thanks to Whaea Lucy and her team who put in a huge amount of extra hours to lead our kura, Maui tahi, Mauri ora!
School Timetable
We have made a slight adjustment to the daily school hours. The school day will now start at 8.55am and finish at 2.55pm. This adjustment has been made to work in with the bus timetable and make the transition smoother.
Enrolment Scheme
We (the teaching team) are going through the process of organsing classes for 2025 - placement of students. We will have 7 classes and we are working on the best possible balance for each class. As we have predicted the roll to sit around 150 students for the next few years we do have spaces for students that might be out of our enrolment scheme area. If interested in coming to our school please request an enrollment pack from the office. If you are out of the zone you would then go into a ballot system for the spaces we have. This process is explained further below and can be found on our website - whenuakite.school.nz
Communication and updates from the school
At the moment we communicate to parents and the community via the website, emails/phone calls, skoolloop App, Hero, Schoolzine (newsletter) and also send paper copies home. We will be looking at how we can streamline all these processes. We now have over 130 subscribers on the Skoolloop App and we are keen to get more parents signed up. We are happy to help if you need support to download from the App Store, please check in with Donna. We will be moving away from paper copies in term 4
Nga mihi, Gary Veysi, Principal Whenuakite School -principal@whenuakite.school.nz
Enrolment Scheme
Kapahaka
A huge congratulations to everyone on an outstanding performance at the Whangamata Cultural Festival yesterday. Our students were amazing both on the stage and off and showed tuakana teina with the older leaders supporting the younger children. Huge amounts of Whanau came along to support. It was a fabulous day filled with an amazing wairua. Our support crew back at school everyone had a fun filled day also. Thank you to all the students who made us all so proud. A massive thank you to Lucy our driving force who oversaw every part of our Kapa haka effort, tu meke! A huge thank you also to Chris, Paige, Viv, Briar, Helena, Kristen, Jan, Karin and everyone else who contributed in so many ways.
Excellence in Being a K.I.T.E Kid Awards
Certificates presented to: -
- Room 1 - Billie Harrison, Daisy Land
- Room 2 - Hailey Hert, Benji Norriss
- Room 3 - Sparrow Sheriff, Brock Norriss
- Room 4 - Luke Graham, Ari Hopkins
- Room 5 - Pounamu Shelford-Woodcock, Kaia Tuinier
- Room 6 -Riley James-Rameka, Jesse Barnes
- Room 7 - Farai Gray, Owen Sims
Principal Award - Florence - for your beautifully written story "once upon a Penguin". Lovely work.
- Aurelia - for great effort and enthusiasm practicing Kapahaka and singing.
Yummy Stickers
Supporting others in need
Sports Corner
Sailing and Kayaking
On Wednesday 18th and 25th of September 3 - 5 pm., we will be running the modules for adults/parents for the Sailing and Kayaking Programme – To get these programmes started again we need parent volunteers to run in term 4. More information to follow for the students (Year 5-8) learning theory at school and the practical sailing at Flaxmill Bay. We see this as a senior school activity – Year 5-8.
In the Activity Room
3pm - Welcome/intros (No previous experience needed to be involved)
Explain the purpose, aim and goals of the New Zealand Schools Water Wise programme and why we need to run programmes like this. This is totally an optional extra activity and will be - "Challenge by Choice!"
Pre-requisites needed for the Adults - Completing the 2 Modules and Police vets, Health and Safety, Risk Assessment Management - RAMS.
Please RSVP to - principal@whenuakite.school.nz
Kind Regards from Mr Veysi and Mr Harwood.
Karate
Counties Shotokan Karate
Congratulations to all who participated in the tournament last weekend - you all did yourselves proud with your achievements and etiquette. We came home with some great results!
Kassi, Luke and Hugo got 1st in Junior team kata.
Kassi also got 1st in kata and kumite.
Hugo achieved 3rd in kumite.
Lettie achieved 3rd in kata.
Vyper achieved 3rd in kumite.
Our adults did well too - Rachel got 2nd in kata and kumite, and Jake got 2nd in kumite.
Sensei Steve won the Veterans men’s kata.
A great day was had by all and some awesome karate skills were shared.
Well done guys! Next goal - grading!
Cross Country
The following children attended cross country and had a great day.
Vyper Hamilton, Alex McLean, Isla Fogerty, Charlie Bahr, Reiver Wallace, Noa Jensen, Digby Palmer
Ruby Bougen, Israel Matson, River Sims, Jesse Barnes, Ana Van Beynen, Kahu Gemmell
They all did us proud with Noa and Kahu coming 1st and River 4th.
Up and coming events
Property Updates
We have building projects that are funded by MOE that need to be completed now and we apologise for any inconvenience. The Learning Support Coordinator space next to the staffroom is well underway. Please be aware when you come into school to keep clear of these areas for safety.
Week 8 Go the Boys!
Monday 9th of September - AIMS Games Football team start the tournament
Week 9 - 10
Ngā iti Kahurangi property project: Improving classrooms in small or remote schools. Ngā iti Kahurangi is the te reo name for the programme. The name directly translates to “small and highly-valued treasures”. The Ngā Iti Kahurangi programme starts in week 9 in our school and seeks to improve lighting, noise levels, temperature, energy efficiency and comfort.