Newsletter 1 Term 1

Kia Ora,

The year has started off very smoothly, and it is great to see how settled and happy the children are, back at school. If you have been through the office you will have noticed a few changes. I hope that the new automatic doors make it easier for you to access the office space. Staff are enjoying a much needed upgrade of the staffroom facilities. We have recently communicated information about how we will respond to Covid as it arises in our community. Please take the time to read this information carefully and if you have any questions, please talk to us. The plans for managing Covid are designed to keep school open as much as possible. With that in mind, it is essential that all whanāu who come onsite are wearing a fitted mask. This health and safety measure is to keep our staff and tamariki safe. We appreciate the commitment to this by most whanāu. Please don't be offended if you are asked to wear your mask. We will all be doing the best we can and appreciate your support and patience. Meanwhile, there are lots of exciting experiences happening for our tamariki and it's a joy to hear the laughter and fun bringing our school to life each day.

Ngā Manaakitanga

AnnMaree MacGregor

Principal

We are delighted to welcome 58 new students to our kura so far this year. Not only a brand new cohort of New Entrants students, starting their primary school journey but also a number of students across other year levels who have joined our school whanau. We are pleased to have you and your family join our Onerahi Primary community and wish you all the best in your learning this year.

We also welcomed to our teaching team this year Miss Phoebe Scrivener in Rm 3 and Matua Kyle Hobson in Rm 15. We are delighted to have you both join us. A warm welcome back to Gail Green who is teaching in room 16.

Our Learning Support team has also grown this year, and we'd like to say a warm welcome to Nina Porter-Auld, Renee Haag and Tanyka Canning-Crutcher.

Principal - AnnMaree MacGregor

Deputy Principal - Danny Hamilton

Deputy Principal - Grace Williams

Learning Support Co-Ordinator - Karen Johnsen

Reading Recovery Team - Debbie Sayer, Bev Maconaghie, Miriam Burgess

CRT and Garden to Table Facilitaor - Bridget Pickford

Better Start Literacy Facilitator - Clare Spicer

TEAM 1:

Rm 1 - Yr 4/5 - Gareth Blithe

Rm 2 - Yr 6 - Liz Thompson/Michelle Murphy

Rm 3 - Yr 3/4 - Phoebe Scrivener

Rm 5 - Yr 5/6 - Meredith McInnes

Rm 6 - Yr 3 - Bev Haigh

THE NEST:

Rm 7 - Yr 1/2 - Philippa Todd

Rm 8 - New Entrants - Matt Te Maro Seymour

Rm 9 - New Entrants - Lorelei Dela Cruz

Rm 18 - Yr 2 - Sue Carppe

Rm 19 - Yr 1/2 - Sue Hewett

Rm 21 - Yr 2 - Tessa Herbert

Rm 22 - Yr 2 - Shari Dearn

Team 3:

Rm 12 - Yr 5/6 - Chloe Peters

Rm 13 - Yr 4/5 - Elly McInnes

Rm 14 - Yr 3 - Alysha Mitchell-Panoho

Rm 15 - Yr 4 - Kyle Hobson

Rm 16 - Yr 5/6 - Gail Green

Rm 17 - Yr 3/4 - Jade Grant

Administration Team - Anne-Marie Wilson, Carol Luiten, Kirsty Oliver, Lana Jennings

Property Team - Edwin Dela Cruz, Bill Tebbutt, Candace Stevenson

Learning Support Assistants - Anna Duval-Peterson, Daina Carter, Cherie Kewene-Edmonds, Heather Francis, Liz Moon, Loren Pederson, Nina Porter-Auld, Renee Haag, Sarah Hall, Shan Morris, Tanyka Canning-Crutcher, Viv Watkins, Wendy Jeffery

Language Learning Assistant - Hannah He

We would like to remind parents to ensure their children know any after school plans before they come along each day. While we understand that sometimes urgent situations arise, and there is a need to communicate, we are currently being flooded by phonecalls in the afternoon asking for messages to be passed on. With classes out and about in the school during the day, this is not always possible. Our office take care but cannot take responsibility for ensuring your message gets through.

We would also like to remind families that school starts at 9am and ends at 3pm. Please make every effort to have your children to school on time, and avoid picking them up early unless it is absolutely necessary.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Our school is located on a very busy main road. On Church Street, we have a dedicated pedestrian crossing, patrolled each day before and after school by our responsible road patrollers and their adult support. We ask that if you or your tamariki need to cross Church Street in the morning and afternoon, in the interests of safety please use the crossing. We also ask that if you are dropping students off, always encourage them to exit your vehicle curb-side rather than road-side. We also suggest that if you are needing to perform a u-turn outside the school, a better option would be to turn into Pine Park Road, and use the end of the cul - de - sac to turn around.

Welcome to 2022,

We hope you have enjoyed the summer break. What a wild mix of weather including challenging humidity. As Board members our focus this year will be on the Health and Well-being of our students and staff. We also have some well awaited projects yet to be completed (due to supply delays... we all know why), such as our canopy outside block 4 to provide that all important shade we desperately need.

This year our Board of Trustees election will be held in September so please feel free to talk to any of the current board members to find out what is involved and consider contributing to our school by putting your hand up for election.

We are all looking forward to finding our new normal, and will be doing our best in the circumstances we are presented with. At this time we ask that our students, families, and staff observe the guidelines of the school and please keep safe.

Take care

Board of Trustees

Onerahi Primary School

Kia Ora,

It has been wonderful to welcome students back to the school library this week. The library has been full every break time which has been wonderful to see.
The library is looking beautiful after a refresh of new carpet and a coat of paint over the summer holidays. The shelves are back up and full of fabulous books for tamariki to explore. Library books have started to go home. If any library books have resurfaced over the holidays please send them back to school for everyone to enjoy.

Nga Mihi

Kirsty Oliver

Librarian and Resource Co-Ordinator

Onerahi Primary has partnered with Samantha and Hani (dog) from Canine Friends Pet Therapy who will be coming to school for 2 hours each Tuesday to read with students. We are hoping to develop this further once more dogs are trained for this purpose.

Our Learning Support Co-Ordinator Karen Johnsen, will be developing a dedicated sensory room in 2022, as an engaging and soothing place for students to head to when the need arises.

To furnish the room we are on the lookout for donations of items such as a rocking chair, buttons, ribbons, beads and a new beanbag and beans. If you have any of these you are able to donate please contact Karen on email at karen.j@onerahi.school.nz.

We'd like to give a big shout out to parents and children who collected Yummy Stickers in 2021.

Through your efforts Onerahi Primary have been given $459 to spend on free sports gear. We'd like to remind you to keep collecting in 2022. If you would like a sheet to put stickers on, pop into the office.

For those of you thinking ahead to the winter months, for your growing tamariki, there is a large stock in various sizes of second hand school jumpers available at the moment, in good or great condition. These are available for just $10 each - a real bargain!

There is also a large stock of donated navy blue/black shorts/pants/skirts in a range of sizes, for just $5 each.

We have school polo shirts in stock also, stocks of different sizes vary. Just $5 each.

We always welcome donations of second hand uniform, which can then go on to a new home for a small cost. Funds raised from the sales of these goes towards the supply of items formerly supplied by the PTA, such as sunblock, nit solution, visits from the Life Education trust.

• Monday 14 March - New Entrants Cohort Entry date
• Wednesday 09 - Tuesday 22 March - Life Education Trust Caravan learning
• Thursday 14 April - Last day of Term 1
• Friday 15 April - Good Friday
• Monday 02 May - First day of Term 2
• Monday 06 June - Queens Birthday
• Tuesday 07 June - New Entrants Cohort Entry date
• Thursday 23 June - Accord Staff Only Day
• Friday 24 June - Matariki Holiday

The final accord staff only day for 2022 will be held on Thursday the 23rd of June, prior to the national Matariki holiday. These days have been important staff development opportunities and we thank you all for your support and understanding.

Summer

The sun can burn quickly and easily at this time of year and sunblock is encouraged. A reminder to all parents that in Term 1 and Term 4, hats are compulsory while our tamariki are outside. We would like all of these items to be clearly named so they can be returned to your children should they be left behind. Each term we do a last call for found property to be claimed or it is donated.

SCHOOL HOURS

School gates open 8:15am

School begins 9.00am

1st Play Break 11:00-11:30am

2nd Play Break 1:30-2:00pm

School finishes 3.00pm

School gates close 3:15pm

There are two eating breaks within the day, taken at times that suit each class. Please ask your child's teacher when their times are.

Medication: If your child requires medication be brought to or kept at school, please be aware that due to health and safety concerns, this must be kept secure in the school sick bay. It is not to be kept in children’s schoolbags during the day. This is to protect the safety of not only the child requiring the medication but also all other students. All medication requires an accompanying permission/approval form signed by their parent or caregiver. This includes epi-pens for allergy management, inhalers for asthma or any other medication your child requires on a short-term or as needed basis.

Email: office@onerahi.school.nz
Website: https://www.onerahi.school.nz/
Location: Onerahi Primary School Church Street, Onerahi, Whangārei 0110, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 436 0521
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onerahischool