Kia Ora Friends

Thank you for your support, as always.

It is really humbling to see and hear how much support we have from our parent community. I had to ring a number of parents last week, and every one of them displayed genuine care and concern for children other than their own which just amazed me.

School Photos:

Almost all done. Somehow I managed to delete senior rugby team photos and one Student Council photo, but these will be retaken, and orders completed this week.

I said thanks to our team here last week. Special thanks to Debbie for giving her office and her office staff over to the massive logistical exercise of distributing printed photos.

Special thanks to Rebekah, the artist behind the lens for class, individual and sibling photos. Such a talented lady.

Thanks to Teresa for coordinating order forms and orders and to everyone who did so much to help. Lauren's knowledge of names, for example, was also a big help.

Pay It Forward - Part of Our School Philosophy:

Every class, every year, makes a contribution to either their school, their community, or even the wider world.

I am collecting together a summary of the projects undertaken this year - these are just some of them:

Room 16 and Room 4 organised Pink Shirt Day at WHS. 👚 We printed out posters for each classroom and encouraged everyone to wear pink. Pink Shirt Day promotes anti-bullying and being an upstander and focuses on kindness and identity. We raised $358 as a school for the Mental Health Foundation.

Room 18 wrote stories to collate into a book for Waitakere Gardens Retirement Village as our Pay it Forward project.

Room 31 did the PIF collection of puppy resources for the Paws Restart Rescue 😊

Room 15 children were learning all about animals this term as well as having our very own classroom pet dog Nala; Room 15's choice of Pay it Forward project was easy this year. Room 15 was aware of the financial constraints around this project, so we focused on contributing in a way that won't cost us, or our parents, any money. We decided to make Enrichment toys for the SPCA. We attended an SPCA Webinar to learn all about the importance of Enrichment Toys and how these can bring joy to the animals. We collected materials such as kitchen paper rolls and wool for weeks. Utilising the instructions from the SPCA website, we crafted the toys. We tested some of these on Nala, and we could see first-hand how much she enjoyed the challenge of solving the puzzles. The SPCA was very impressed with our donation and has sent us a certificate of Appreciation for our efforts.

Room 17 promoted Daffodil day this year as our pay it forward. We raised an amazing amount of $1818. This shows how generous our school community is!

Room 24 organised a Cancer Society Fundraiser. They raised over $822 for The Cancer Society. Student Councilors read to our Junior Classes every day after morning tea. This has helped settle the classes, given my councillors extra responsibilities, and to be peer leaders. The feedback I have received from our Junior teachers is all positive. Their children have loved having these Year 6 students visiting them.

Room 26 children took over the upkeep and tidiness of the PE shed. They regularly took the bins out and swept the floor. They pumped up all the balls and did regular general tidying. Every few weeks, they did a sweep of the school for balls.

Room 4 organised World Vision. We discussed as a class the importance of giving when you can to children less fortunate than others. We delivered posters at the start of the year and encouraged children to bring in loose change to donate to World Vision. Every Thursday, we delivered the money box to classes as a reminder, and we collected it every Friday.

Room 13 organised a Book Fair. Room 13 children wrote and illustrated their own books this year. They shared this amazing experience with the Middle and Senior School class, teachers, and Whanau. Parents were invited in the last block, and we heard great feedback from them. Children from other classes were inspired and asked their teachers to write and illustrate their own stories. They borrowed some of our books, and they made their own. A few weeks later, we received an invite from Room 14 to attend their Book Fair. They did a great job, and my kids felt proud. One of Room 14’s children wrote a book called The Stick Man, and he wrote on the cover that it was inspired by Caleb, a student from Room 13.

Room 22 children collected the hundred or so lost school hats outside the staffroom a few weeks ago. We then looked everyone up on Hero, and our class distributed them back to their owners. We’ve got another bunch to do as well.

Rooms 28 and 29 have been looking after the mud kitchen and surrounding area this year. The children have kept this area rubbish free, weeding and rotating the sand and mud for other classes to use.

Room 21 "Pay it Forward" this year was Red Nose Day. We had a lot of fun handing out posters, speaking to classes, and celebrating in red on Friday. We learned how to make cupcake designs out of fondant, which was very exciting! All the winners loved their cupcakes, and so did we! There was a HUGE turnout, and we managed to raise an amazing amount of money for Cure kids.

Room 21 children have also been working on a school mural representing our philosophy of Our Children, Our Land, For Our future. This has been hard to complete due to inconsistent weather patterns though they have made a good start, and Room 21 will continue their work in 2023.

Room 25 children have started to clear our school’s bush of invasive weeds. We have raked up wandering willy, dug out arum lilies, and pulled climbing asparagus and honey-suckle from native trees. We are hoping that by doing this, we will allow the existing native plants that we have in our bush to continue to flourish. We also hope that new native seedlings will start to grow.

Time is running out, and the year is almost over, but there is still so much to do. We will get there, though, because we have such an awesome team ensuring everything comes together.

As always - if you have questions or concerns about anything school-related - email me at macash@mac.com, and I will get back to you asap.

My very best regards to you all,

Ash Maindonald

Principal.

WHS Turtle Photos: