The Room 1 students enjoyed a great educational trip to Orana Park recently and arrived back with lots of tales about the various birds and animals that they had seen and learnt about. If you haven’t been into Room 1 recently, pay them a visit, it is such a colourful and vibrant learning area, chock-a-block full of the students’ work thanks to Jane.

Windwhistle School children never fail to amaze me and this was very evident during our EOTC trip to Snowdon Station (see over) and the Room 2 camp expedition to Aoraki Mt Cook. Not only were the Year 5s and 6s very well behaved but they were totally focused on what they were learning/experiencing re. the current themes of ‘The Environment’ and ‘Relating to Others’. From tramping to view the calving glacier up the Hooker Valley; sharing and learning with the local school (12 different cultures – including two Sherpas!); ‘tasting’ 300 year old icebergs on the Tasman Valley Lake; to making tracking traps for pests in the National Park with DOC and ...

What an absolute pleasure and privilege it was to take such interested and well-behaved children to walk the Washpen Falls track on such a stunningly beautiful day recently.  Many thanks to John Oakley, Annabel Tripp and Roy Veronese for their time and help with transporting and supervising the children.  We were made very welcome, as always, by Tom McElrea who answered the children's questions on arrival.   Meeting the members of a wedding party on our walk, who were to be married at the falls the following day, was a real plus....it helped emphasize to the children how the public value being in the natural environment so highly.   Click here to down ...

Dear Parents WOW, what a fantastic camp! Not only were we blessed with glorious weather for most of the time but the fish were jumping too! Our science activities had to adapt to the conditions – rocky beach with lots of crabs and cock-a-bully under every stone to oozing mud and toe-pinching mud-crabs! Thanks to Richard, we had a hand lines for nearly everyone – amazing what a bit of stick and some gut and a hook will attract. Well done, Mrs Mac for organising such a great camp, and to all the mums and dads who contributed with food, transport, meals, cleaning and supporting our Learning Outside the Curriculum camp. Lots of important information, as usual, in this newsle ...

Year 6 Entrepreneurs After all their wonderful fundraising efforts, our Year 6 students got to do the fun parts last week- the donating and the buying! On Wednesday, they went to the Christchurch Riding For the Disabled HQ to deliver $464.40 of their hard earned money. They were warmly welcomed by Jayne Findlay (president) who showed the children around the wonderful facilities, showed them some of the children having their theraputic rides and told them how their money would be used to purchase new bridles and halter ropes for 3 new horses arriving next year. The children were delighted to meet Blokey, a horse we had read about, who Jayne had used to teach a ...

Last Sunday saw the completion of the new tennis court surround fence at the school. Hopefully it will stop all the searching for the balls in the surrounding shrubbery! I would just like to thank all the fathers who helped me so much throughout the project with their effort and enthusiasm (regardless of the weather). Also, thank you to the mothers who held their respective forts while this was all happening. There are now thirteen school families who can proudly say they contributed to Windwhistle School’s most recent development! It is fantastic to see such wonderful community spirit and support for Windwhistle School, upholding a long tr ...

From the ‘Just for Fun’ File ... W.S.G.T. = Windwhistle School's Got Talent - Thursday August 8. Well, what a show! The students at Windwhistle School really do have talent!  The students of Room 2 were the main organisers of this competition and what a really great effort. We had a wonderful introduction from Charlotte, lovely homemade decorations and posters for the event. Thank you to our delightful judges - Oliver, Chloe, Arthur and Stephanie. They did a marvellous job in scoring and providing feedback to each contestant. Thank you to all the parents who came along and provided wonderful audience support. And now to our contesta ...