***Change in Bus times for 2014***

***Change in Bus times for 2014***

We have received several requests to review the bus route due to the length of time some children are on the bus as well as 2 possible extensions.  I have written to the Ministry of Education and at this time they cannot complete a full review.  They did confirm that both extensions are within their criteria, however there were concerns about the conditions of the road, safe turning points and the time needed to complete the run if they were to be included.

Neither of the extensions are currently viable as adding either would mean the first students would be picked up by 730am and the last drop off would be close to 5pm.  While this is within Ministry of Education’s allowable time frame, I believe it is far too long for young children to be on the bus. 

However, to ensure all children have a more fair time on the bus the morning run will be completed starting in the Kokatahi Valley.  The afternoon run will remain the same.  Tony has provided approximate times for pickups, however these may change slightly.  If you are dropping children off at school next year, please keep in mind that the bus will have to complete a turn in the school car park at about 8:15am.

I will post the map with approximate times on the school blog so that you check times next year.

Sorry for the late notice, but I only received confirmation Tuesday afternoon. 

If you have any questions please email me on principal@kokatahi.school.nz

Have a fun restful summer.

In case you need a laugh

Term four is always busy with the build up to the end of year.  The change in routine at school, changes in the weather, and the full on exhaustion that the children are experiencing after a long year of learning, means everyone is a little less patient and a little more ragged.

So since they say laughter is the best medicine - here's a little clip that might make you laugh. :)

Grandparents Day

A big thanks to all the family and friends who came out to make grandparents day so much fun!  The scarecrows were fantasitc and hopefully some are still surviving in your gardens.

Click here for some Grandparent day photos

Pet Day 2013

What a great job organising pet day!  Well done to Lisa and her fantastic Home and School team who created such a wonderful day.  It was great to see so many fantastic projects and wonderful pets. To see some of the photos click here.
Congratulations to our three winners:

•  Fergus, with his pet calf Diamond 
• Hunter, with her pet dog Boss
• Peter, with his pet hen Missy-no-toe

A big thanks to all the judges who had the hardest job!

• Philip and Helen Cook
• Catherine and Rhona Taft
• Hokitika Veterinary Clinic
• SPCA

and big thanks to the sponsors who also make the day so wonderful

• ANZ bank                                          FMG insurance
• AMI insurance                                    Westland Milk Products
• Gordan Handy Machinery                   Westland Dairy Shed
• Ravensdown                                       Olivers Shoes
• Take Note                                          LIC
• PGG                                                   CRT
• Hellers 

Pet day postponed

Due to the lovely rain today, pet day will be postponed until tomorrow WEDNESDAY 23.  Pet day will be on tomorrow rain or shine.

The bus will run today as normal.

Welcome to term 4!

This year is flying away and what a blustery start to the term!  We have a very short term with lots of events ahead of us as well as all the usual teaching and testing so hopefully we can keep up with it all.

Well-being Game 
There is still time to enter the game and add to your team's points!  Well done Kowhai house team you are doing fantastic!  Let's see if the other houses can catch up!

Pet Day 22 October
The children are excited about the upcoming Pet Day - Please remember, even if your child is not bringing a pet, it is still a school day and they need to attend.  We usually do follow up activities based on Pet Day and it is great for them to be their to support their peers.

Grand Parents Day 1 November
Grandparents, parents, (or stand-ins) are invited to join us for Grandparents Day.  This year we are planning to start about 10am and finish about 12:00ish.  After a welcome from the children and morning tea, we will be working together to construct some child size scarecrows (1 for each family). Please bring alone some old children's clothes and some 'stuffing'  such as New World bags, bubble wrap etc.

We'll do our best to keep you posted on the events through the term!

The Wellbeing Game!

Here is a fun challenge for all families!  It is a great excuse to do some fun things with friends and family and earn some house points!  You earn points in this game by spending time with your family and friends, learning together, giving, connecting, taking notice and being active.

Rata House  Click here to join your team
                 Kowhai House Click here to join your team
                                   Mahoe House Click here to join your team

There is heaps of information on the game site  http://www.thewellbeinggame.org.nz

Pet Day

If you are new to Pet Day below are some examples of Pet Day Posters and projects. These are Year 1-4 examples. Older children are expected to complete a booklet with more detailed information.

Order Reminder

Hi everyone -
Just a quick reminder to have your  Montana bakery orders and money to be returned by this Fri 30th August.  

Please pass the word as we forgot to put it in the newsletter!

BRIDGE CLOSURE

Dear Parents

We are aware that Whites Bridge will be closed tomorrow from 9am until 5pm.

This bridge is on the Kaniere- Kowhitirangi Road between school and Kaniere. 

The School Bus will still run.

If you are inconvenienced by the closure please make arrangements for your children to be collected from school.  Any complaints should be directed to John Bainbridge at the Westland District Council.

Part monkeys

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Challenge continues

Giant puzzles are very puzzling!



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Fun at camp

Nothing like team building in the morning :) all having fun so far


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Welcome Back

Welcome back to term 3.
We have lots of things on this term with year 5/6 camp, Life Ed (Harold) coming to visit, the dental van will be here, and of course lots of learning.
We will be starting afternoon activities later in the term.  This term we will be focusing on arts as part of our prep for the end of year concert.
It will be a fun and exciting term, and will fly past with only 9 weeks until the next holiday.

End of term and Farewell Miss A

What a busy term it has been.  The kids (as usual) have done a great amount of work.  It is always a busy time at the end of term as teachers check up on how the students have gone with their learning, and great to see how many have made great progress!  Keep up the great work!

A big thanks to all the parents who have helped make this term awesome!  We've had great support with coaches for winter sport and parent helps and fundraising etc etc.  We are a very lucky school to have so many parents who are able to help our students out.

Farewell to Miss A.  We all appreciate your wonderful work with the students.  Best wishes for your future adventures. I'm sure we will see you again!

I hope all the children and their families have a wonderful winter break.
See you all on Monday July 29th!

Technical Problems??

Some of you have had problems opening the newsletter posted on the blog lately. Try these hints - they should help. 1. When logging on to the internet use Google Chrome as your browser instead of Internet Explorer. 2. When you get on to the Internet clear you browsing history. Let us know if you continue to have problems....

Rippa Rugby

Well done to our year 5 & 6 students who played Rippa Rugby today.  Everyone played really well and it was great to have so many parents here to support our players.  Next week the games will be played at St Mary's school.

Keep up the great work!

Raffle Tickets

Please check your child's school bag today for a page of raffle tickets to sell.

Thanks on behalf of Home and School :)

School Photos

Please note: School Photos will now be taken on Thursday 20^th June.

Rippa Rugby

This Friday at Kokatahi School. The Year 5 and 6 students will be playing games against Hokitika Primary and St Mary’s schools. Games start at 12:30pm.  There will be a sausage sizzle ($2) and Muffins ($1) for sale. Come along and support our team!

School Photos

Please let Jane in the office know if you would like a photo of your children together on School Photo Day Tuesday 18th June. 

Westland District Council Invite

We've been asked to pass this on to parents and the wider community.  The council will be hosting a public consultation meeting at the Kokatahi Hall on Tuesday June 11th at 7pm.

Click here to see the full size poster.

Cross Country in Ross

The weather was fantastic for the Cross Country in Ross!  The kids did a fantastic job running around the lake, through the stream and mud!  Thanks to Ross School for organising the day. :)

Click here to see more photos.
If you have photos from the day that you would like to share, please send them to school and we will add them too!

An Olympic visitor

Juliette Haigh came to visit us.  She won heaps of gold medals and the bronze Olympic medal for coxless pair rowing in 2012.

The Olympic village was like a small town.  There was a tent for eating in that was bigger than our school field.  She was born in Auckland.  She started rowing when she was 14.  She has been rowing for 16 years.

Her rowing skiff is 10 metres long.  The oars are 3 metres long.  She uses one and her partner uses one.

In her first Olympic race she fell out!  She thought about all the people all over the world who were watching.  But... she got back in and finished the race.  The audience gave them a standing ovation.  The audience were very impressed that they didn't give up and in their next race they came second, and qualified for the final race.  

Juliette is retired from rowing and she is going on to have more exciting adventures.  

First Aid Kits

First Aid Kit orders and money need to be back at the office by Monday 20th May please. Remember there is a $20 Take Note Voucher for the family who sells the most!!

Uniform List

If you are looking for the uniform list, it has been added in the tab just above this post.
Click on the information tab, and you'll see links to the 2013 information booklet as well as the uniform list.
Let us know if you have any trouble accessing the documents.

Run Jump Throw VoiceThread

The Hoiho Class are learning how to use VoiceThread.  This is a Web 2.0 tool that allows us to create slide shows that the students can add comments to.  Comments can be made by adding text, voice recordings or videos.  We will be using this next term as well.  Here is one we started about our Run Jump Throw day.

Almost the holidays!

What a busy term!  12 weeks feels like a very long time and the children are feeling it too.  We have had a little chat about trying extra hard this week to be patient with our friends as everyone is tired and a little more sensitive than usual.

Thanks to all the parents who have helped make term 1 a success.  The kids have done some great learning and we are looking forward to a fresh start next term.

If you are looking for some kid friendly news stories, click the picture below.  It will take you to Kiwi Kids News.  This site has NZ and internationally based news, some funny stories and interesting games and videos.

We're being blogged about!

Check out Belinda's Blog where she is sharing about our success with her tutorial :)

Swimming at Ross

Thanks Ross School for hosting another great swimming day :)

It was really fun to have Kumara School there as well.  There were lots of exciting races and laughs through the day and all the children did really well.

Special thanks to Fleur who was our parent in the final relay and had a such a strong finish.

The total points earned by each school was divided by the number of children from each school.  This made a close finish with Ross School scoring an average of 4 points, Kumara School scoring an average of 4.51 and Kokatahi-Kowhitirangi School earning 4.8!!!  Less than a point between us!

Bring a comfy seat to assembly on Friday... there will be lots of certificates to hand out for swimming.

Great work!

Week 5 already!

Wow!  Term is flying past with such great weather.  The children are having a great time in the pool and a great time learning.  Here is some art the Hoiho Class have been working on.  Not only did they learn about mixing colours, this task was a great challenge for listening carefully to instructions! Inside the circles the students wrote characteristics they want to have when they are older.

This project was inspired by Belinda Fireman and her art tutorial.  Click here to see her blog. The art will be on display in the school office and library
 :)

Welcome Back!

We hope you had a fun summer with lots of good adventures.  It is hard to believe that we are back into school already.
Thanks to the parents who were able to stop in at the end of term 4 and help with cleaning up and sorting out resources!  It was really great knowing that had been done.
A big thanks to all the parents and helpers who have been busy getting things ready over the summer too - and those who were able to help at the Kumara Races.

We are looking forward to another great year with fun learning for the children.