I will miss you when I'm gone.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful farewell messages and gifts.  It has been a wonderful 8 3/4 years teaching and learning in this community.  I will miss this corner of the world.  

Take care, Ms McLellan

(in case the video of the children's performance doesn't work- here's a link https://flic.kr/p/G8QcLQ )

Board of Trustee Elections

Next term there will be Board of Trustee elections. Please take a look at this 3 minute video for an overview of how the Board of Trustees works and why we need your involvement.

http://resources.nzsta.org.nz/videos/becomeatrustee/html5video.html

Pet day inspiration

I know pet day is a long way off, but I saw this and thought what a great challenge for students bringing chickens!

Welcome to 2016

We are off to a scorching start this year... this picture shows the temperature in the office which is usually freezing.   So the children have come back keen to learn and catch up with their friends and swim all day!  

We are certainly seeing some children struggling with the heat.  Please ensure that your child has a water bottle or encourage them to visit the fountain regularly. Sun hats are also essential this term.  Even when it's not this hot, they must be worn during term 1 and 4.  We know how hard it can be to sleep in this heat, but please do your best to keep your child's room a suitable temperature so they are well rested to cope with a full school day.

Once it cools down a little (I can't believe I've said that) and we have settled back into our routines we are looking forward to an exciting year of learning with the students!

I hope you have had a great summer and are enjoying your peaceful days now that the children are back at school! 

Have a Merry Christmas!

We hope you all have had a great year. It has been busy, but fun with lots of adventures. Thanks for all the great comments about this year's concert- the children definitely were awesome performers! In case you didn't make it to the parade, our mini Kokatahi Band members looked great and were able to join the band singing I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts for a big crowd!

Leadership Award

Leadership Award The Kokatahi-Kowhitirangi board of trustees would like to announce an inaugural annual Leadership Award to be presented to a Year 6 leaver who demonstrates leadership both in the classroom, at school and beyond into the community. We are looking to recognize a young leader who is dedicated by volunteering their time to help and support others, who helps themselves and others to do the right thing, who shows initiative, is responsible, who motivates others to achieve, is a great communicator and lead their peers and others. We would like to call upon you, the members of the Kokatahi Kowhitirangi community to nominate a Year 6 leader for this award, as you see, hear and experience what these students have and are achieving through their leadership. You can nominate the following Year 6 leaders in a number of ways. Via email to Sarah Jackson larix1@xtra.co.nz, call Sarah on 755 8382, or if you wish to remain anonymous - place your nomination in the letterbox at Kokatahi-Kowhitirangi School (Upper Kokatahi Rd), anytime before 5pm, December 8 2015. Please include the name of the young leader who you wish to nominate, and a brief reason of why you nominate this student. Staff, parents, students at Kokatahi-Kowhitirangi School, and the community are able to nominate a student for this award. The year 6 students eligible for this award are- Lachlan Baird Lauren Burden Nate Croy Sophie Lange Ava Little George Monk Leila Nolan Charlotte Smith Portia Wyatt This award will be presented at the end of year prizegiving/concert.

When should children start school?

When is it best for children to start school is one of the topics the Ministry of Education are seeking feedback on in their current consultation.  New Zealand is somewhat unique in that we currently have an extremely flexible starting policy.  Despite the fact we have the option to start children between the ages of 5 and 6, most kiwi kids start shortly after they turn five.  But is that best?

Stanford University has just published a study on that very topic.  Here is a quick read article about their findings.

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WooHoo!

Have you heard the news?? Well the Hoiho Class have been working on a Wet Coast Challenge this year. The whole school was involved in aspects of the process, but the Hoiho Class have been gathering information, getting input from other students, trialing ideas, and generally creating awesomeness!

We also had some help from IPENZ and Transpower who run the Neighbourhood Engineering Awards.  They put us in touch with Tate Bradley and Elena De Goldi, who are local engineers and volunteer consultants for this project.  It was great having experts to help with the technical aspects - so a huge thanks to Tate and Elena!

We put our learning into a portfolio and entered the awards.

here is the link to our portfolio   here is the teacher's report     here is the engineer's report


We found out today that we won a merit award!  Woohoo!  and the prize (which was unexpected) is $1250 for the school!

I'm so proud of the learning that the class have done through this project!  I can't wait for the debate on what to spend the winnings on!

Our construction isn’t quite finished but when it is we will make a new post to show you how it turned out.  If it turns out really well the Kokatahi Café have said we can set it up in their garden so everyone can see it!  We aim to have it up and running at the Kokatahi Café before the end of the school year (Dec 11^th).  So the next time you are there, please stop by to see the final product.

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Our final design

Our design under construction

Newsletter

NO Newsletter this week.

Keep your eyes peeled for next week's newsletter. There will be information about the End of Year Concert!

Pet day is on!

Don't let last night's rain fool you!  Pet day is on today!

Make sure you bring a rain jacket and gumboots - Should be a great day :)