XXXXXWADESTOWN SCHOOL Community Newsletter Principal: Sally Barrett Website: www.wadestown.school.nz Thursday, 5 December 2019 Dear Parents A warm welcome to the following new students and their families who have joined us recently at Wadestown School: Jude Curtis Room 1 and Hudson Maharaj Room 1. Thank You from Sally I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to all the Wadestown School Community who have emailed me, sent cards or called in to see me personally since announcing my retirement recently. The messages from parents and students have been very special to read and will be treasured by both my husband Bill and I in the years to come. Thank you so much parents and students for your thoughtfulness and lovely messages conveyed in such a special way. News from the Pohutukawa Team - Year 1 & 2 Teachers have introduced coding to students using the Scratch Junior programme on ipads. Students have had lots of fun working together to create scenes with characters and actions. They have learnt basic steps in coding such as: moving to the right, left, up, down, hiding and they know how to add sound effects and loops. Room 0 presented their recent assembly on what they had learnt in Scratch. Pohutukawa Team have thoroughly enjoyed their introduction to Scratch and can't wait to learn more! Summer Fruits Poems from Room 0, describing summer fruits Year 7/8 Impromptu Speech Prize-winners The Year 7 & 8 speech competition was on Friday and Monday and it was full of excitement, shaky nerves and many amazing speakers. My prepared speech was on food of the future, and I got first place, but there were so many other inspiring and hilarious speeches. The day ended with so many remarkable memories and everyone present was such a good audience. All the students in Year 7 & 8 wrote a speech and just that fact alone was amazing. By Eva Roberts Year 7 & 8 Impromptu Speech and Prepared Speech place getters Epro8 Challenge Earlier this term Wadestown School entered two teams into the Year 7/ & 8 Epro8 Challenge. Both teams made it into the Grand Final. Over the span of two and a half hours, the students were tasked to plan, build and edit various contraptions consisting of versatile materials and electronic components. A total of 8 students competed and were split into two teams which both qualified for the semi-finals (one first and one third). At the semi-finals, the two teams competed in a similar competition and had the same result, a team consisting of Lilah Hu, Daphne Ranta, Jesse Rumball-Smith and Tom Winfield placed first and in third place: Sam Bennett, George Morley, Fergus Palmer and Millie Aislabie. The Grand Final was exciting, fun and challenging. The two Wadestown Teams frantically designed and made different machines and structures, from building e-scooters to making a navigation system. There was a wide range of challenges and you always surprise yourself with what you are able to make. We were so pleased to get into the Grand Final. Both teams performed really well in the final- Wadestown Jazz came 8th and Wadestown Buliders came 10th. By Daphne Ranta and Sam Bennett Year 7 & 8 EPro8 Teams in action at the Grand Final at Raroa Intermediate on 28 November Year 7 Beach Clean Up – 7th November This year, the Year 8 Environment Team organised a Year 7 beach clean up as part of our climate change topic. When we got to Petone Beach, the leaders put us into teams and gave us a part of the beach to clean up. It was a very enjoyable experience and it was also good to know that we were doing it, not because we were forced to, but because we were helping the environment on behalf of our school. We found lots of plastic and many other weird things. It is quite disappointing to know how much plastic there was at Petone Beach. We were at the beach for 3 hours and due to how much plastic we found, we were very busy for the whole time. Hopefully we can do beach clean ups more often and even in our spare time. To end the day, we went to Petone Park where we played and had a picnic. As an extra bonus, we got Ice blocks! Overall, the day was fun and very successful. By Sienna Candy, Ellie MacAvoy and Milly McLaren. From the Sports Field Regional Athletics – 4th December Yr 8 Girls: Winners and the Year 6 Girls: 2nd place in their Relay Competitions at the Regional Athletics. Participating in Regional Athletics was a thrilling experience for those students who were selected. Wadestown School displayed great sportsmanship and had a brilliant attitude throughout the day. Everyone tried their hardest and it was really fun competing against other schools from all around Wellington. Best of all it was great to see Wadestown School do so well especially in the relays. Congratulations also to the following students: Poppy Healy: 2nd 1500m, 3rd 200m, 4th 100m Nate Hough: 2nd 60m Dash, 2nd 100m Dash Charlie Cowan: 3rd High Jump Sam Bulbulia Smart: 6th High Jump Cate Howard: 5th High Jump Lucy Pottinger: 9th 100m, 6th 200m Ashton Lilley: 16th High Jump Lucy Kavanagh: 3rd High Jump Harry Kavanagh: 4th Vortex Sophia Paviour-Smith: 3rd 150m Relay Results: 1st Year 8 Girls Relay Lucy Pottinger, Rosa Stanley, Tori Angus and Poppy Healy (Absent: Kate Chandler) 2nd Year 6 Girls Relay Sophia Paviour-Smith, Izzy Ismail-Sanders, Jess Haldane, Iris Edwards By Tori Angus Touch Rugby Year 7 & 8 Girls Touch Rugby Team ‘Wadestown Wurzels’ and Year 5 & 6 Boys Touch Rugby Team ‘Wadestown Warriors’ – both winners of Term 4 Wellington Schools Touch Rugby Competition In Term 4, Wadestown School entered the Wellington Touch Rugby Competition. The teams that Wadestown entered were a Year 3&4 mixed team, a Year 5&6 boys team and a Year 7&8 girls team. It was played at Wakefield Park every Wednesday after school. Wadestown School can be very proud of the placings with the Year 7&8 girls and the Year 5&6 boys both winning their division and the Year 3&4 mixed team also doing a great job, coming in 4th in their division. 2019 was a very successful year for the Wadestown Touch Rugby teams and on behalf of all the Touch Rugby players we would like to thank Mr Nick Julian, Mr John Griffiths and Mrs Gwyn Bareta for their sideline support. This includes putting together team practices and taking the teams down to Wakefield Park each week. We would also like to thank the parents for supporting us all and also driving the students there and back to Touch Rugby every Wednesday when required. By Rosa Stanley News from the Library In the last week of term, all returning students (Weld St and Rose St) have the opportunity to borrow up to 20 books from the Rose St Library for summer reading. The books will be due back by Friday 7th February 2020. Students will be given a Summer Reading Programme bag to transport the books and a list of the titles they have borrowed. A permission form will come home with your child in week 9 16th – 20th December. Please bring the form along to the Library when you select your summer reading. The Library will be open for this purpose on Monday 16th, Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th December between 3.00 and 4.00 pm. …….PTA Update Staff End of Year Christmas Gifts Every year the Wadestown School PTA acknowledges the hard working Principal, Teaching Team, Administration Staff and our Caretaker and Cleaners. We like to give each member of the team a Christmas gift to thank them for the outstanding contribution they make to our children’s education. If parents would like to make a financial contribution to a gift for each staff member, the PTA would gratefully accept any donation you may wish to make. All donations can be made to: Wadestown School PTA Account 12-3140-0348889-00 reference: Staff Gift Please note the final day for making a Christmas gift donation will be 13th December 2019. ____ Second Hand Uniform Sale: 27th & 28th January 2020 Prior to school opening in Term One 2020, the Wadestown School PTA hold their annual Second Hand Uniform Sale in the Rose Street Library. The PTA are looking for 3 or 4 volunteers to organise and manage next year’s event. Volunteers are urgently required and will need to be available for 2 - 3 hours on Monday 27th January 2020 to prepare the donated items and again on Tuesday 28th January 2020 between 10.00 am and 12.00 pm for the purchase of second hand uniforms by parents. If you would like to offer your assistance for 1 or 2 of these days, please contact Sarah Kavanagh on [email protected] no later than 9th December 2019. Your support of this annual initiative is greatly appreciated. Further details of this event will be emailed to parents prior to the end of the school year. _____ 2019 Wadestown School Yearbook The PTA would like to sincerely thank Victoria Smith and her team of volunteers who have worked so hard to produce a wonderful record of the 2019 school year. All Year 8 students leaving Wadestown School will be presented with their Yearbook free of charge at the Year 8 Leavers Dinner on Friday 13th December. The 2019 School Yearbook will be available to purchase from Monday 16th December at a cost of $15.00/copy and a sample copy will be on display in the Rose Street office foyer.