THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER SELF REGULATOR

Tasman Drive

Papakura 2113

Phone (09) 298 5410

office@opaheke.school.nz

www.opaheke.school.nz

Fax (09) 298 0739

Thank you to all the children who are punctual for school.

Please ensure your child is in school for 8:25am. The side gates will be closed at this time. We encourage punctuality in order for students to

be in and settled, ready for learning.

CONTACT US

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGES

Issue 7 2018

Wednesday 23 May, 2018

NATIONAL YOUNG LEADERS DAY

School Councillors, Wednesday 9 May

Written by Councillor, Tanisha K.

Thank you so much to the PTA for all of

the support you showed us by paying for

all of our entry fees. We really enjoyed it,

it was so much fun and nice that we could

go and learn how to think like a leader.

My favourite speaker was Riley Hathaway

and how she was sharing about her

journey. She used to be terrified of the sea

and sharks and now she swims with them.

I also had fun watching Vince Harder

perform with William Wairu, it was

amazing. So one last time, thank you all

so much.

HARMONY DAY

Harmony Day acknowledges and

celebrates the many cultures which are

represented at Opaheke School.

The students were able to participate in 3

different activities throughout the day.

They were in whãnau groups, so younger

and older students were in the same

group and siblings were also in the same

group. The students and teachers always

enjoy this day.

Many thanks to the parents who helped

out with activities.

(more photos on page 2)

You are invited ….

Maori Term 2 HUI,

and SUPPER

TUESDAY 5 June

6.00PM—7.15PM

Staffroom

QUEEN’S

BIRTHDAY

MONDAY 4

JUNE

SCHOOL

CLOSED

Room 3 Trip

On Thursday the

17th of May,

Room 3 went on

a Class Field

Trip to visit the

historical sites

around the Waikato area.

The first place we went to was

Papakura Museum and then we went to

Queens Redoubt in Pokeno. The next

place we went to was the Mercer

Museum which had a gun turret outside

of it. We travelled to Whangamarino

Redoubt and had a 15 minute bushwalk

to get to the top of the hill. The last

place we went to was the Rangiriri Pa,

where there were totem poles and

trenches about a meter deep. Matua

Moko spoke to our class about the

significance

of Rangiriri

and its

special

place in our

history.

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER SELF REGULATOR

.

OPAHEKE SCHOOL NETBALL CLUB RESULTS 5th May Stars vs Strathallan Ocean Lost 22-1 POD Kayla Storm vs TG Kowhai Lost 4-16 POD Shyah Magic result not recorded POD Peyton Thunder vs TG Rata lost 10-0 POD Maria 12 May Magic vs Hunua Springs result not recorded POD Yahzini Stars vs PR14 Lost 13-0 POD Kyla Storm vs Strathallan Gold Lost 16-3 POD Hannah Thunder vs Rewa Jnrs Lost 17-1 POD Alexus Lightning result not recorded POD Ivanka 19 May Storm vs Ardmore Aces 19-15 lost POD Carys Magic vs Marlin Mystics result not recorded POD Leah Lightning result not recorded POD Cindy Stars –bye

Class, Netball Team, and Councillor

photographs These will be taken on Thursday 14 June. All

photos must be pre-paid. Your child has been

given an envelope with his/her name on it to

bring home and if you wish to order a photo

of your child please return the envelope with

payment before Wednesday 13th June (this

will be the final day for payment). If you wish

to order a netball team photo or a Councillor

photo please ask your child to get a further

order envelope from the office. All children

will be included in the photos whether they

order or not. ONE ENVELOPE MUST BE

RETURNED FOR EACH CHILD’S ORDER.

Thank you.

SPORTS WRAP UP More photos from Harmony Day

11.05.18

Some of our girls with two of the Northern Stars

players who came and visited at PNC last weekend

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN NOW TEXT YOUR

CHILD’S ABSENCE USING SKOOL LOOP?

Simply click on Absentee on the first screen of

Opaheke Skool Loop. Then select Send SMS.

OR

You can send a regular text to this number:

02108952913

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER SELF REGULATOR

PTA NEWS

It’s time to get to work on the Opaheke School Carnival for this year! The date is set

for Friday 2 November. We are looking for people to help out with the

organisation of the Carnival this year. The Carnival is heaps of fun and really

rewarding!! If you are keen to get involved, please email Claire Hart at

candbhart@xtra.co.nz. We are also looking for environmentally conscious people who

may be willing to help on a carnival sub-committee. The thoughts/goals around this

sub-committee are to reduce and minimise waste at the carnival, perhaps help

source cost-effective alternatives to reduce our plastic waste at the carnival, and encourage

recycling/upcycling - anything to help look after Papatuanuku (our Earth Mother). Any fresh

ideas are welcome! If you are interested in helping with this please contact either Estelle

Mulholland <elmo.1970@hotmail.com> or Claire Hart <candbhart@xtra.co.nz>. Many thanks in

advance!

All teaching staff have a Paid Union Meeting (PUM) on Monday 18th June as part of their Collective

Agreement negotiations. We are asking that you collect your child early at 12.00pm, to go home at

lunch on Monday 18th June. We are hoping that this will give you enough time to sort appropriate

supervision. Most of our teaching staff are union members and entitled to attend this meeting. There will

only be a limited number of remaining teachers left to supervise any children that cannot be picked up at

12.00pm. So we ask that you mark this date in your diary now to make arrangements.

We do not like to cause an inconvenience, however you will understand for health and safety reasons we

cannot have a few teachers supervising 600 students.

Early next week we will send out a separate notice asking parents to fill out the electronic Microsoft Form

or paper return slip to indicate whether you can pick up your child or if your child needs supervision until

2.25pm. Note that after school care and the bus will still run at the usual time.

EARLY NOTIFICATION OF PAID UNION MEETING FOR TEACHERS—MONDAY 18 JUNE

Learning Conferences for children in years 3—8 will be held on

Wednesday 4 July from 1pm.

Notices regarding bookings for these will be sent home soon. Please note that school

will finish at 12.30pm on this day.

Worrying signs for Education in New Zealand

Teacher recruitment data shows there is a crisis looming in education. The number of

people enrolling in teacher education courses is declining, 40% of new teachers leave the

profession in their first five years and more experienced teachers are leaving before

retirement. Many Principals are choosing to leave the profession early as well. In addition

to this increased housing costs in Auckland has meant it is difficult to retain or attract

teachers to the region.

Fortunately our school has been affected only moderately, but nationwide the availability

of teachers is declining.

This is not good news for your child/children. We all want well trained, skilled, passionate

teachers in every classroom. Children also need high quality relieving teachers, skilled,

energetic Principals and competent support staff. Our school has these now, but we worry

that if nation-wide trends continue, Opaheke will be impacted by the shortage.

Over the next few months teachers and principals will be negotiating our new

employment agreements. We will be focusing on improvements to attract and retain the

best and brightest teachers to work with our children. That means competitive pay, but

also freeing up teachers and principals from paperwork and compliance, so that they have

more time to focus on every child’s learning. Please support us in trying to improve the

profession, because if we can do that, we’ll achieve an improved education for your child.

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER SELF REGULATOR

Room 21—Year 3 & 4

Our schoolwide focus this term in Inquiry is Well-being. We have developed this theme in

Science as we have been exploring ways to keep ourselves healthy. We have made some

interesting discoveries. One especially interesting experiment we have worked through was

to discover which surfaces in our school had the most bacteria and would therefore

produce the most mould.

Our Mouldy Bread Experiment

We wanted to find out what surface has the most bacteria in Opaheke School. We wiped bread on different surfaces like the flying fox and the seat outside Room 21. We touched bread with clean hands and dirty hands. We left the bread for about five nights then we checked the bread and did a report. We found out that the outside seat had the most bacteria. I was really surprised about it because I thought that the bathroom door handle and the dirty hands would have the most bacteria. Something else surprised me as well. The clean hands had more bacteria than the dirty hands. by Izzy O.

As part of our Literacy programme we have been writing Procedures. We read and wrote

about how to make Dream Catchers.

How to Make a Dream Catcher You will need a soft bendy twig, tape, scissors, wool, beads and feathers. First we bend a soft bendy twig into a circle and tape the ends together. Next we cut a really long piece of wool. Tie it with a knot and cover the bendy twig with the wool. After that we cut more wool and make a web pattern. After that we cut two pieces of wool and tie them at the top and bottom. The bottom is for the beads and the feathers. The top is for hanging. by Colleen E.

Harmony Day is an important day in the Opaheke School Calendar and this took place on

May 11th.

Harmony Day

On Friday the whole school went to the courts to line up for Harmony Day. We got into groups and Harlem and I were in the same group. When the whole school were in groups my group went to Room 6. First we did lanterns, then we went to Room 4 and made frogs, fish, bunnies and dogs. We then went to Room 1 where we made a worry doll. After we made worry dolls we went to the Assembly. After the Assembly we all went to our own classroom then went home. by Colby D.

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER SELF REGULATOR

ROOM 7—YEAR 5 & 6 It has been a busy start to the term! There has been a lot going on in Room 7, here a few reflections from students to explain what has been happening. Our Class:

In Rm 7 we have a class treaty that everyone must follow, we created this so that we can have a happy learning environment where everyone feels valued. The class runs smoothly because of this treaty. We have most of the work we need to do put on our OneNote, which we can access in the content library in our reading, math or writing modelling book (MB). We all use them in the class and they are very helpful because Miss Patel doesn’t have to explain every little bit each session. Ryland T.

Harmony Day

Harmony day celebrates your culture. This is where we come together and celebrate our different cultures and have fun. It is cool because you get to see people dressed up in their cultural clothes. Sometimes even the teachers dress up. On the day you get put in a group and after the teacher has done the roll, we go down to the court. We go to our group number and wait for all of the other classes to come down. When you are down on the court you get an opportunity to see all of the beautiful cultural clothes. Overall Harmony day is really fun and you are exhausted after it. It was a wonderful way to see all the different cultures that are part of our school. Madelline E. Inquiry—Hauora

In term two the Rangitoto team are looking into Hauora. We are learning more about what makes me and how it shapes my life. What is Hauora? Hauora is the four walls of a Whare (house or building). Each wall represents a different part of your well-being. These parts represent your physical well-being, mental and emotional well-being, social well-being and spiritual well-being. Leah G.

Charlies and the War against the Grannies: A Book Review

Charlie and the War Against the Grannies is a story about a boy who wants to get a paper round because he wants to be famous. When he went to ask the kind paper Grannie how to get one, he was squirted viciously in the eyes with Rooster Brand chili sauce. Little did he know this was the beginning of the war! We highly recommend this book for other 10 year olds because it is interesting, funny and it has a convoluted (twists and turns) storyline. Cyrus M. and Kyro D.

Soccer Skills:

The Senior school have been lucky to have a coach come in and teach us Soccer skills. It has been great to learn and practice these skills with our class. This is going to make our lunchtime games so much better. Luke L.

THINKER INNOVATOR COLLABORATOR CHALLENGE TAKER SELF REGULATOR

25 May North Counties Rugby Trials

29 May ICAS Science

30 May Parent Open Afternoon (My Mobile Learning) 1.30—2.30pm

1 June Winter Field Day—Year 7/8 (Save Day 8 June)

4 June Queens Birthday

5 June Maori Hui 6pm—7.15pm

6 June Y5/6 Rippa Rugby Tournament

7 June Counties Boys Tackle (Y7/8)

14 June Class & Team Photos taken

TERM DATES 2018 Term 2—Monday 30 April to Friday 6 July

Term 3—Monday 23 July to Friday 28 September

Term 4—Monday 15 October to Friday 14 December

Opaheke School Newsletter

14 May 21 May

R1 Caira-Jade Nadiah

R2 Jacob Shyah

R3 Aryandeep Iris

R4 Maia Mohkam

R5 Jasmine Kiniasi

R6 Leelee Karmanjit

R7 Dhruv Joseph

R8 Saeus Jayde

R9 Yaris Anthony

R10 Trey John

R11 Macabe Kowhai

R15 Tabitha

R17 Deijhan Te Kuiti

R21 Cohen Isabella

R22 Katie Bhavneet

R23 Sarah Pipiana

R24 Jade Preeyah

R25 Nevaeh

R26 Charlotte Moko-iti

Jnr Hub Aria W Giselle

Snr Hub Trent/Makayla Lily/Calum

RESPECT FOR SELF AND OTHERS is our focus for STAR Certificates this term

IMPORTANT DATES

ASSEMBLY CERTIFICATES

WELCOME TO OPAHEKE SCHOOL THIS TERM

Anraj, Chloe, Grace, John R, John T, Kylemore, Leon, Levi, Sam, Sonja, Taylor A,

Taylor R and Yashvardhan

Well done Mrs

Pryor!

Lynda won this

prize from the

Eeny Meeny

Facebook Page as

a result of being

nominated

initially by

Louana in their

competition for

International

Support Staff day.

OPAHEKE

SCHOOL WILL

CELEBRATE

SUPPORT

STAFF DAY ON

MONDAY

11 JUNE