Volunteers needed: Road Patrol Supervisor – Wednesday mornings and/or Thursday afternoons on Eltham Road

Tēnā koutou

We are in need of Road Patrol supervisors for both Wednesday mornings and Thursday afternoons on Eltham Road. If you think that you or another responsible adult (such as a grandparent) would be able to lend a hand for 30 minutes a week on either of these days, please send an email to Christee. Please note: these roads may be unsupervised until we can organise supervisors. 

dalzell@whitneystreet.school.nz 

Many thanks! 

Christee— All Contacts —

Attn Whitney St School Pool Key Holders – please note that the pool will be closed on Christmas Day & Boxing Day. Merry Christmas to all.

And the winner of The Whitney Way Award is…

Kaea Kaimoana.

Check out the video here.

For the full blurb about the amazing Kaea, this can be found on our Facebook page.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays – Take 2 with correct lunches link sorry.

Tomorrow is our official last morning of school. We encourage students to stay home as it is basically a cleaning-up day. However they are still welcome to come to school, and if so please collect them at 12:05pm.

We still have approximately 50 students whose Healthy Lunches form has not been completed. Please do this asap as we need to know of any dietary requirements to send to Libelle. If you do not complete the form we will take it that you want to opt into the lunches and your child has no allergies, etc.

Have a safe, happy and relaxing summer holiday break, and all the best to our Year 6 leavers.

Mere Kirihimete from Whitney Street School.

Old Chromebooks available to our community

Good evening whānau.

We have some Chromebooks that have reached the end of their school life that would be good in the hands of some of our whānau/tamariki. The vast majority are 2016 Acer Chromebooks, in used but good condition and most importantly, still work – they were in classrooms up until last week.

If you would like one, Mr A will be in the office from 8:30am tomorrow (Wednesday 15th Dec) with these Chromebooks. We are asking that you pay a donation to the school for the Chromebook which we will then put towards new Chromebooks next year.

At this stage, Chromebooks will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis and will be limited to one per family. We can certainly have a waiting list system if a family wishes to purchase more than one and if there are some leftover.

It is important to note that although these Chromebooks still work perfectly fine, they are at the end of their life. More can be read about this at this link. It’s likely that these Chromebooks will last for another couple of years but may become vulnerable if security flaws are discovered in Chrome versions. Once sold, the Chromebooks will be the sole responsibility of the owner and no technical support will be offered from the school.

If you feel confident sending your child to the office on your behalf, that is fine. Please remember COVID-19 protocols regarding scanning in and social distancing if coming to the office.

School Lunches 2022 – Urgent Action Required Please

Kia ora everyone,

As you are aware in 2022 we will be changing lunch providers to ‘Lunch by Libelle’. We require you to complete this form for all children returning in 2022 by the end of term at the latest if you haven’t already.

Libelle need to know numbers of children and any dietary requirements asap. Please contact Cheryl on 027 321 8022 if you would like any more information.

Thank you,

Cheryl

— All Contacts —

Reports Home Today

Hello everyone,

Today your child(ren) will be bringing home their End of Year School Report.  Please check in their bags for this. The Report, along with your child’s Reading, Writing and Maths goals on Hero, is intended to provide you and your child with information about their learning, progress and achievement. We hope you enjoy reading them together.

There will also be a 2022 Class Placement Letter which includes additional information about 2022 start of year dates, stationery, Setting Up for Success Meetings, 2022 camps, etc.

Some reports are being posted today, and others are available to collect at the office as requested. 

Have a nice weekend.

Cheryl.

School Board December Meeting Update

Board Summary Notes for Meeting held on Wednesday 8th December 2021

Kia ora koutou,

Cheryl talked the Board through the End of Year Summary Data for 2021 and Ministry of Education Target Student Reporting.  These reports can be viewed in the minutes of this meeting, which are saved on the school website https://whitneystreet.school.nz/board-of-trustees/

We reviewed school admissions and withdrawal data (students joining or leaving our school) and noted 91 new enrolments and 18 students departing through the 2021 school year.  Total student numbers reached an all-time high of 401 near the beginning of Term 4, ending the school year with 398 students.

Our Presiding Member, Kate McEntee, presented her brief report.  Highlights included congratulations to Christee Dalzell on her appointment as an ‘Across School Lead’ for Piritahi Kahui Ako (Blenheim’s Community of Learning).

We discussed the Principal’s Report, approving additional spending to recarpet Block C (Rooms 7-12).  With the school pool ready for use, the board approved key holders responsibilities and updated the Health & Safety guidelines to include and refer to the government’s COVID-19 Protection Framework.  In staff management matters, the Board noted Helen Macfarlane’s NZEI Graduation, and leaving acknowledgements for Liz Ives, Michelle Roughan, Rachael Pottinger and Jodie Lovell.

To our Year 6 students in their final year, we wish you well for the future and that ‘The Whitney Way’ (ko te ara o Witini) has provided a strong foundation for lifelong learning.  To our school whānau whānui – ngā mihi o te Kirihimete mo te Tau Hou, best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.  We wish you and your whānau a peaceful holiday, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you refreshed for the 2022 year.

Felicity Spencer

Whitney Street School Board

Lights of Marlborough – adapted silent auction

The Lights Over Marlborough’s adapted silent auction is now live on the Lights Over Marlborough Facebook page. Bidding closes at 9pm tomorrow. Please support our PSG and tamariki by helping us to fundraise!

Lights Over Marlborough Facebook Page

Job Opportunity with Libelle

Kia ora everyone,

Please see this poster if you are interested in a 7am – 4pm job during the school term working with Libelle to deliver the Lunches in Schools next year.

Vaccine Pass required for adults at Summer Football League

Junior Summer Football Team Contacts

As you are all aware, NZ moves in to the orange traffic light system from today and this of course impacts on our junior summer football.

Please get the below message out to all your players/parents…

All parents will now need to show their vaccine passport on entry to the park if they want to watch their child.  Both entrances at Maxwell Rd and Alabama Rd will have staff on the gates checking passports, and strictly no passport = no entry to the park.

We have no option but to go with the mandate for summer football. If we don’t, we can’t run it.  Max numbers for people in one gathering at orange are now reduced to 50, and as you will know… there is always a lot more than 50 people in one area.

Most people should be aware that this would be the case, so hopefully people understand this is the law/govt rules for most things in life from here on in.

Missing Scooter

My scooter is completely black, including the handlebars. It has a metalic rainbow appearance.

It has one faded pink hair tie and a ripped white sticker on the front of the scooter.

It went missing two days ago.

If you have seen or know of the whereabouts of this scooter, please contact Rubyanne in Room 3.

Thank you!

All Raffle Tickets (SOLD & UNSOLD) are due at school by Wednesday 1 December please

Due to the cancellation of Lights Over Marlborough, the PSG is running a chocolate/ mystery bottle raffle. Tickets are $1 each and your child brought them home approximately 2 weeks ago.
 
Each student is asked to please sell 10 tickets and there will be 1 draw per classroom. Each class draw will have 5 prizes and some spot prizes so lots of chances to win!
Tickets need to be returned to school (sold or unsold) by Wednesday 1 Dec for the draw to be held on Friday 3 December in each class.

Thank you.

School Lunches 2022 – change of provider ACTION REQUIRED please

Kia ora everyone,
In 2022 we will be changing lunch providers to ‘Lunch by Libelle’ in the hope of providing some more variety for the children. Although a few of the lunches are similar to what we are currently receiving, Libelle have a lot more options and work on a 4-week roster with nothing repeated in that time. Attached is a sample 4 week menu and you can view more on their website here under the Menu tab. They also hope to provide two hot lunches per week during Terms 2 and 3.
We would like as many children as possible to opt back into the lunches programme and need you to complete this form by next Friday 3 December for every child in your family at school (apart from Year 6’s who will be moving onto intermediate) so we can update our records ready for the start of the new school year.  As usual you will still need to supply brain snack and morning tea. 
Please contact Cheryl on 027 321 8022 if you would like any more information.
Thank you.

View PDF

Summer Football Starts this Week

Reminder: Summer Football starts this Wednesday 24th November. The full draw and details will be coming home with your child on Tuesday.

School CLOSED tomorrow (Monday 22 Nov)

Kia ora everyone,

Just a reminder that school is closed for a Staff Only Day tomorrow Monday 22 Nov. 

Weetbix Tryathlon 2022! Enter via the following link. Nelson 20 March. https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=44542&G=141943

Tyres to give away

If anyone would like, (or know of others who would like), tyres leftover from the playground project please let Cheryl know by this Friday (027 321 8022 or principal@whitneystreet.school.nz). Tractor tyres make great sandpits or raised gardens, and truck and car tyres can be turned into funky outdoor or indoor furniture. Look up Recycled Tyre Furniture on Pintrest for ideas. 

School Raffle

Due to the cancellation of Lights Over Marlborough, the PSG is running a chocolate/ mystery bottle raffle. Tickets are $1 each and your child(ren) will be bringing them home today.

Each student is asked to please sell 10 tickets and there will be 1 draw per classroom. Each class draw will have 5 prizes and some spot prizes so lots of chances to win!

Tickets need to be returned to school (sold or unsold) by Wednesday 1 Dec for the draw to be held on Friday 3 December in each class.

Thank you.

Alert Level 2 Reminders

Morena everyone,

A gentle reminder to please remember that under Level 2 restrictions children need to go home straight after school, which means they are not to play on the playground (even though it is very tempting with it looking so wonderful). Parents/caregivers are asked to stay outside the school grounds unless necessary eg to see the teacher, go to the office, or pick up a new entrant child. In these situations please sign in at the gates and please remember to wear a mask. If you have a mask exemption we would appreciate you bringing evidence of it.

Thank you for your understanding in these matters.

Cheryl 

Our start date for Term 4 Summer Football has now changed to Wednesday 24th November.

We will run for 4 weeks instead of 5:

Wednesday 24th November

Wednesday 1st December

Wednesday 8th December

Wednesday 15th December

A message from Marlborough Football

The reason behind this is because unfortunately due to the new COVID guidelines the rules have changed on us since the last time we ran summer football, and we have now been told we have to split all our fields in to 3 different areas at A&P Park and have more staff set up in different areas to help guide players / parents to the right place, and we need to hire portaloos for each area/bubble of people to use. 

We have of course incurred some extra expenses to make this happen, and we didn’t want to increase the cost on teams, so we have instead decreased the competition by one week.