Ko te Mana te Mea Nui Honour Above All

Ruapehu Road, Waiouru Issue 1 May 9th 2013

Ph 06-3876860 Fax 06-3876129 Email office@waiouru.school.nz Web www.waiouru.school.nz

Kia Ora Koutou,

Welcome back everyone. I hope you all managed to get away and have a lovely break with your kids. I had a quiet time with my dodgy leg catching up on paperwork and boring office jobs, but I did manage to attend the Waiouru Dawn Parade in camp on ANZAC day. I think I was a bit lucky as I got tucked away inside the WMTF building with my crutches and cast and didn't get rained on with the rest of the crowd. It was an excellent service and I am so pleased that our students were able to join in and contribute to the ceremony. Today I am very pleased to welcome six new students to our school, Hunter Cross (Cullen's little brother), Te Taumata Nelio, Jeshua Keen, and the Reid Family: Kennedy, Ethan and Jorja. Welcome to Waiouru. We are so pleased to have you join our little community and I hope you have plenty of firewood :-) This term we finally get our Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) connected. This will now mean that our students will be able to take full advantage of online learning tools through our up and coming new school website and our new classroom blogs. I have been blogging with kids for several years now and have experienced nothing but positive outcomes for both students and families. I wish that I had been more forward thinking and collected evidence because I was always so amazed and how student achievement, in literacy especially, improved drastically in such a short time when they engaged in class blogs. If you are interested in seeing a classroom blog in action I suggest you check out the Russell Street School website and my former school website www.pukeokahu.school.nz We will be using this term to up-skill our teachers and develop safe and appropriate guidelines for online behaviour. In the past I have had parents approach me with concerns about having their children online, in particular around publishing photos and their learning. I can assure you all that all online content on our website and classroom blogs will be actively monitored by me. Teachers will have full control over what goes on classroom blogs and can and will monitor all student interactions on the blogs. All photos and videos of students will be appropriate and in aid of student learning and achievement (It is really no different to being featured in a newspaper article). I guess we must all consider that in today's reality, learning to be online is now a part of everyday life. We here at Waiouru School have committed to providing a safe and monitored space where our children can learn to be online in a safe and appropriate way. We will scaffold them and actively teach them Cyber Safety practices so that when they leave us they will know how to act appropriately online. If you do have any concerns or questions, please come and see me and we can talk about it. We will also respect your decision if you do not want your child's photo or learning to be on our school website or class blogs. Please speak to your classroom teacher or myself to let us know if this is your choice. The Habits of Mind. During the term break our teaching staff attended a two day course based on Art Costa's 16 Habits of Mind. A "Habit of Mind" means having a disposition towards behaving intelligently when confronted with problems. You can read about them more here: http://www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com/ Anyway, have a great weekend, Ka kite ano Marama

Waiouru School Ski Team Meeting We would like to put forward a ski team in term three, if you are interested in your child participating there will be a meeting on Thursday 16th May at 5pm in the school staffroom. We will discuss expectations, costs, transport, gear etc. Dates to Remember: Term dates 2013 Term 2 Monday 6 May Friday 12 July Term 3 Monday 29 July Friday 27 September Term 4 Monday 14 October Friday 13th December Public Holidays Queens Birthday Monday 3 June Labour Day Monday 28 October Other Dates to remember 31st May School Triathlon 20th - 21st June Waiouru School Science Fair 2nd - 6th September Life Education Truck 22nd November Teachers only day 29th November Waiouru School Prize Giving 13th December Last day of school

NINJUTSU: There will be no Ninjutsu this term Tuck Shop Tuesdays - Fridays (no orders on Mondays) New menu for term two
McCain mini pizza $2.50 Vegetarian pasta pottle $4.00 Chicken wrap $2.00 Spaghetti long boat (savourie) $2.00 Watties fruit pottle $1.50 Twist juice $1.00 Biscuit (homemade) $1.00 Order from Kerry at the school office before 9.30am Lunches are provided by Twinstacks on the Main Road. If you forget to order your child's lunch feel free to call into Twinstacks before 12pm and place your order with them. Please note: you are able to order your child anything you like from Twinstacks to be delivered with the school lunches.

Congratulations to Kelly Fogden on her engagement to Dean Hudson. They will be getting married next March