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 ...

Whole School Ski Days: 2nd and 9th of August (BOT funded). These days are classed as a regular school day and students are required to attend as part of our Education Outside The Classroom (EOTC). If one full day is postponed due to weather, it will run on the postponement date of 13th Sept. Parents need to organize transport and carpool amongst themselves. All teachers are involved at Mt Hutt on these two days. There is no School and there is no Bus. This Friday the 2nd August (BOT Funded): Meet: Please be at the main foyer at Mt Hutt by 8.40am and all must sign in with Frances for lift tickets, gear rental tickets AND lesson tickets. All ...

Arrangements for Windwhistle School's ANZAC Ceremony – 11am Friday 19 April at the Glenroy Monument, wet or fine Children come to school as usual. Children are to be neatly dressed please. Children will be given a poppy at school to wear to the ceremony. 10:30am – children travel by school bus to Glenroy Monument. For safety reasons, car parking for parents is at the Glenroy Hall. The school bus will transport parents from the hall to the monument, leaving the hall no later than 10:50am, as the ceremony starts promptly at 11am. Grandparents and other extended family members are very welcome to join us for the ceremony and f ...

Room 1: Kia ora Koutou. As we have 2 short weeks, I will only send home spelling today (Monday) and will test the children on Friday 5th April. Next week we will begin our ANZAC Day topic. We will be remembering family members who have participated in (any) conflict. The children will need the name of one family member for our study. If you have any photos of this person, please send them along to school, I will photocopy them, and return them to you. Ngā mihi. Jane Room 2: ANZAC – Room 2 As part of our ANZAC topic, Room 2 will be digging a trench in the paddock beside the school, in order to think about and develop respect f ...

Wow, what a great learning experience Rick and Jen Daly provided for the Room 2 children recently as the first part of our Social Studies topic, “How Did You Get To Be In My Lunchbox, Mr Sandwich?”, in which we investigate the concept of production. It was a great day for harvesting – a scorcher! A huge thank you to the Daly’s for all their time and organisation and to their staff who all worked so carefully around us. Very much appreciated. We are grateful to Dave and Millie Harper (past school parents), for allowing us on their property. Also, a big thank you to Mel Scott and Moana for providing parent help at short notice. We need to take a short break fro ...

This week we are profiling our Board of Trustees’ members who meet each month to support the school and share the community’s ideas for our school – see end of newsletter. If you would like to consider joining the BoT at mid- year elections in May, please contact Tony Plunkett, our BoT chair – 3186 558. I have also included some information from the Ministry of Education regarding the ‘Key Competencies’ that we are working towards helping your child succeed in. These are recognised as being crucial to support the capabilities for living and lifelong learning.  The New Zealand Curriculum id ...

Though we talk about ANZAC each year with the children, every third year we look at it in more depth. This is one of those years. The culminating activity is the children and staff organising an ANZAC ceremony for the community, which is held at the Glenroy monument. This year's ceremony will be on Friday 19 April (last day of this term) at 11am, wet or fine (or howling gale that nearly blew us off the hill one year! We remained steadfast.). After the ceremony, we have a shared lunch at Windwhistle School, hosting any special guests eg. army personnel. More details will be in newsletters closer to the time - this notice is just advanc ...

Dear Parents It was wonderful this morning during assembly to see all the bright and shining faces back at school and to welcome two of our four new children, Evania (Year 3) and Tahu (Year 1). Stephanie (Year 6) and Trevon (Year 3) start next week after they arrive from their long flight from Sri Lanka. This is just a short ‘Welcome back’ newsletter to advise you of some changes: The newsletter will now be sent home on every 2nd Monday (if you have any notices for it, please email them to Lucy before Monday lunchtime (office@windwhistle.schoolzone.net.nz) I will be teaching on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this year and Kathy Mehrtens, my principal’s release t ...