Warrington Wheel-being Way!

         Sun, sun sun, lets hope this weather holds for our WaWa challenge next week. 

We are just about finished the formal assessments of students as part of national standards reporting. For most students this is a non-issue, but for a few the twice yearly assessment reinforces feelings of inadequacy. Teachers now have 9 months to teach and build up the self worth of students to manage another bout of testing in November. It seems children up to the age of 5 and adults both manage to learn without testing. Our ability to learn is based around how we feel about a subject, so with this year's school goals focused on science and writing we have conducted a student attitudinal survey of writing. We are hopeful this survey will give us a greater understanding of why some children do better in writing than others and what we can do about this.

NZ education is going through changing times, standing for the school board is an opportunity to help shape these changes at Warrington. Board meetings can be fun!

WaWa helpers needed to hold a buoy (wetsuit required) for the swimmers or to stand by a cone for the runners and cyclists.

We have received many favourable comments on how good the school is finally looking but we have some finishing off to do around the court and still some areas needing a general tidy up. We are holding a working bee on Saturday the 16th March 9am – 1pm. If you can assist, please let us know or just turn up on the day with wheelbarrows, spades, forks and brooms!

Room 1 students begin their archaeological dig this week and are on the hunt for a garden sieve and pointing trowels. Please let us know if you have any of these.

Summer 2013

 

It's wonderful starting back with the orchard trees laden, the court ready for action and our plantings of veggies and natives all surviving the summer sun.

Big changes for the school this term with board elections and the appointment of a new principal.

Katrina Hurst is teaching part-time in room 1 taking over from Brenda. I have resigned as principal as at the end of term one after applying and winning the permanent principal's release position. This is an unorthodox step to make but I feel that it is time to step aside and let someone else take over the responsibility of the school. Hopefully the students will notice little change as I retain my 2.5 days of teaching each week, this is the part of my teaching principal role that I am passionate about.

WaWa beach triathlon will be on Tuesday 26^th of February starting at 10am. This gives plenty of time to dust off the bikes and get some training runs in along the beach.

Sutton Camp for the year 7/8s is March 4-8 – cost is $110 per student.

An archaeological dig will be happening this term for room 1 students. We will hopefully be finding out what is lurking beneath the soil!

Fair Trade products are available to purchase from the office. Prices are similar to the supermarket but all profit goes to the school.

The Life Education Trust mobile classroom will be here on 27^th and 28^th February. This is a health based programme that will be delivered to all our students.

Our trial crop of quinoa – (keen-wa) continues to grow, we are looking forward to harvesting this interesting plant.

Surf Group on Wednesdays starts next week! We will be leaving school and walking to the north end of the beach to play in the surf with boogie boards – weather and surf conditions dependent. Students interested in this activity will need to see me for further information.

Sunhats – all children will need to be wearing a sunhat for outdoor play on sunny days.

Swimming starts this week so children will need to bring their togs.