Kia ora, Talofa lava, hello!

Welcome back to another awesome year of working together. We are so excited to have spent the past two days re-connecting and meeting with you and your tamariki/children at Personal Learning Plan meetings.

A very warm (official) welcome to our new teacher Todd Williamson who is well known to our children and whānau. Todd will be teaching in Room 8 and has interests in music and Te Reo Māori. Todd completed a teaching placement here in Nick’s room and was also a regular reliever in the latter part of 2019.

A special welcome also to three new Teacher Aides we have working with us this year - Megan Watson, Virginia Van Arendonk and Lucas Hickok. We are fortunate to have highly skilled people complementing our highly skilled teaching and admin team. We also welcome back Julie, Wendy, Tara and Wayne who will be teaching in our school every week. We are fortunate to have teachers working in our classrooms who are passionate, dedicated, experienced and known to our children and community. Congratulations to Justin Hickey who has been appointed as the Across School Teacher Role – Evaluative Processes with an initial focus on (teacher) kaiako practice that evaluates the impact on ākonga outcomes. Justin will be released this year to work across our six primary schools, Cashmere High School and twenty nine Early Childhood Centres. Our Board of Trustees are working hard on our submission for the Cashmere High School proposed Zone changes. We want to emphasise to you all that as a school we support the choices of our students and parents to attend the high school of their choice and that we work closely to ensure smooth transitions to high school for all of our Year 8 students. We have positive and strong relationships with all of the high schools in our local area and we will continue to work closely with them all, for the benefit of our students. Our overarching theme for this year is COMMUNITY and this term our main focus /theme is Whanaungatanga/Belonging. We will be asking our students and ourselves: What is a community? What is my community / my communities? What is your/our role in the community and as community members? As well as our key areas of Numeracy and Literacy, the other specific curriculum focus for this term is PE & Health. We look forward to seeing many of you at our full school pōwhiri at 9.15am this Friday on the lower astro turf. Ngā mihi, Sally

ŌPĀWA SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Term 1, Week 1

5th February 2020

30 Ford Road, Christchurch

Telephone: 332 6374

Cell: 022 319 1181

Email: admin@opawa.school.nz

Website: www.opawa.school.nz

2020 TERM DATES

Classes begin 5th Feb Wed

Waitangi Day 6th Feb

End of Term 1 9th Apr

Good Friday 10th Apr

Anzac Day 27th Apr

Term 2 28th Apr-Jul 3rd

Teacher Only Day 28th April

Term 3 20th Jul-25th Sep

Term 4 12th Oct-16th Dec

DATES FOR THE DIARY

Government School Donation Scheme

The Government recently announced its School Donations Scheme, where schools will get an additional $150 per

student if they no longer ask for donations to cover the costs of delivering curriculum related activities. After careful

consideration the Ōpāwa School Board intends to ‘opt in’ to this scheme for 2020. This will mean that parents will no

longer be asked to pay for:

Curriculum based activities and visits eg: swimming lessons, arts, visiting shows.

However we will be able, and will need to, ask for:

Donations towards the cost of running overnight school camps Payment of costs for non-curriculum events eg: specialist sports events, technology take home component,

Voluntary School donation:

If families/whānau or any other organisations want to give a donation, GST is not payable and donation tax credits can be claimed.

We plan to communicate clearly about the actual cost of all events, so that you can choose to help if you wish! As has

always been the case we can only provide opportunities for our children when we have enough money to do so!

Further information is available via this link https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/publications/budget-

2019/government-introduces-donations-scheme-for-decile-1-7-schools/.

Additional Teacher Only Day The Community of Learning collectively decided that Tuesday 28th April 2020 will be a joint Teacher only day.

and Ōpāwa School 2020

Last year twelve of our tama completed the mentoring programme with Bros for Change in Term One.

This year, we have the opportunity for 10 more Year 5-8 tama / boys to join the programme for Term

one.

Come along on Tuesday 11 Feb at 5.30pm – 6.30pm at Ōpāwa School to meet Jaye and his team from

Bros for Change and hear about the programme. This programme is paid for and supported by Ōpāwa

School in collaboration with Bros for Change. The programme includes:

Life skills, reality therapy, productive activity, mental and physical wellbeing, Mentoring from a Māori

perspective.

Probable Timeline – Term one

Week 2 11 February 5.30pm – meet and greet with Bros at Ōpāwa School

Weeks 3 and 4 Bros visit whānau of those boys who are interested in being in the programme

Boys are selected / paper work is completed – whānau, kura and Bros decide

together who will participate

Week 5 Camp is March 2-5th possibly in Kaikoura

Weeks 6/7/8/9 Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday offsite with the Bros

Week 10 Overnight to Hanmer followed by Graduation on April 8 or 9 at Ōpāwa School

Any questions, please contact Sally in the school office – (03) 3326374 or email me at

sally@opawa.school.nz or for more information please visit: https://www.brosforchange.com/

Ngā mihi,

Sally (Tumuaki / Principal)

Our three suppliers of our uniform are:

The Warehouse, Eastgate

Mainland Uniforms, 189 Peterborough Street, City, Telephone 377-6771

Little One, 4/132 Opawa Road, (second hand uniforms)

Uniform/Dress Students are expected and encouraged to take pride in their general appearance.

Our uniform is available from: Mainland Uniforms, 189 Peterborough Street - Telephone 377-6771

The Warehouse, Eastgate

Secondhand uniforms are sold at a local shop called ‘little one; which is located at 132 Opawa Road.

Please see http://www.opawa.school.nz/uniform.html for the full Ōpāwa School uniform.

The uniform should be clean, tidy and named.

Only the long sleeved Ōpāwa School undergarment (gunmetal grey) should be visible under the Ōpāwa polo shirt.

Socks/tights - plain navy, black or white.

Shoes must be black, brown or predominantly white trainers, leather shoes or sandals.

School sun hats must be worn in Terms 1 and 4. Plain black or beige bucket/wide brimmed hat or cap.

No nail polish and/or makeup to be worn at school.

Coloured hair is not appropriate.

Hair accessories: plain black, nave or orange headbands, ties, ribbons, bows or clips. Ties, ribbons, bows or clips to be no longer than 8cm in diameter.

Drawing on skin and tattoo transfers are not acceptable.

One piece swimming togs are recommended.

No jewellery should be worn except watches and ear studs or sleepers. No other earrings. Any other jewellery, including rings and necklaces can be a safety hazard and are not to be worn at school. All jewellery must be removed for sport. Variations due to cultural or religious beliefs are allowed on written request from parents/caregivers.

The final decision on all matters relating to the uniform resides with the principal

School Community Swim - 2020

Year 3-8

Dear Parents/Caregivers

On Tuesday 11th February, weather permitting, Rooms 7 - 19 will be visiting Waltham Pool for a swim. This day is

a great chance for all students to connect and build relationships within our school community. The hydroslide

will not be available for our students to use.

All students will be walking down to Waltham Pool with their classroom teacher at 11am. Please let the classroom

teacher know if you are able to walk down to the park with them.

The swimming session for our school takes place from 11.30-2.30pm. Students will need to wear school uniform,

have their school hat, sunscreen, towel, togs, goggles (if needed), a good lunch and a bottle of water. The

children will not be able to purchase things from the pool shop. Please ensure that ALL belongings are named.

Parents are more than welcome to meet us there and join us for lunch. This event was paid for as part of the

beginning of year costs. Parents will need to pay for themselves.

If you decide to take your student home from the pool, their classroom teacher MUST be advised, to ensure

that all children are accounted for before we walk back. If you are picking up your child from the pool, please be

aware that you may only take your own children, unless their classroom teacher has been advised prior to the

event.

Kind regards

Caroline, Amy, Justin, Nick, Kate, Verity, Maria, Rach and Todd

148 Main Rd, Redcliffs Christchurch

Shay from Moa Kids preschool, will be starting classes in in the 2nd week of Term 1, February

2020, on both Mondays and Wednesdays. For children aged 4yrs to 11yrs.

Times for Mondays and Wednesdays: 3.20pm – 4.15pm & 4.20pm – 5.20pm.

There will be a couple of fun filled days in January where you are welcome to come and join in.

Please see our Facebook page: Braveheart Performing Arts for more information.