GRETA VALLEY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
25 June 2014
GRETA VALLEY SCHOOL
A dynamic rural School empowering students
with skills to be future focussed culturally aware
and creative thinkers.
We build SKILLS for SUCCESS!
Dear Parents, Caregivers and friends of the school,
CROSS COUNTRY
Congratulations to Zach and Zara who ran in the
Canterbury Cross Country Championships last week.
The best we have ever managed in the Championship
event is 18th and that was by Max Murray. This year
Zach ran in eighth place in a field of 125 competitors.
Zach is through to the regional competition now and
is training weekly with the Canterbury team. Wow
what an honour you have done yourself and the
school proud. Zara also ran a very creditable 30th
place in her field of 125 other students and we
congratulate her on achieving this result. Well done
you two we are very proud of you.
YOUNG LEADERS
Our leadership students, Beau and Louisa presented
their report on Leadership Camp to the Lions meeting
at Waipara Springs last evening. They presented the
Lions with an award of appreciation for their
sponsorship which was well received. They also did
us proud with their presentation. They are going to
deliver the same presentation to the BOT on
Thursday.
HOMEWORK SURVEY
Year 7 Mathematics group are
conducting a Statistics investigation
about attitude to homework. They
have designed the questionnaire
and would love you to fill it out
tonight and send the form back tomorrow. This is
something you could do with your children around the
dinner table this evening. Have fun. This is an inquiry
related to one of the speech topics about primary
school students doing homework. This is what we
term learning in context.
SCHOOL COUNCIL LUNCH
This Friday 27th is the student council lunch
fundraiser. The last fundraiser was for Ronald
McDonald House. This Friday will be another hot
dog, semi American style lunch with a frankfurter
in bread. Please send your $2.00 along to school in
an envelope with your child's name and order on it.
To have it tomorrow would be great.
ASSEMBLY
Thanks to all those who came to our assembly last
Friday it was very well attended. Our next
assembly is on Friday 4th July at the end of the
term which is next week!
OMIHI PRODUCTION
Our end of term celebration will be this coming
Tuesday when we have been invited to go to the
Omihi School production rehearsal in the
afternoon. We will leave school at 1.00pm to be
there about 1.15pm so that we can be seated for the
rehearsal to begin at 1.30pm. We will take the bus
but as there’s not enough space we will need some
help with transport. If you wish to come along and
join in we’d love to have you with us. I will send
an email message home today for your permission
to take the children on the visit and a request for
transport assistance.
TRANSITION TO SCHOOL
Our ‘Transition to School’ evening held on
Thursday 12th of June was well received. This was
an informative night for preschool parents and
those with younger students who are already at
school. Thanks for the positive feedback about the
evening. We know that those who attended went
away with some great hints on what to do to
prepare children for school and how to deal with
situations as they arise when they first attend.
Thanks for giving of your time to support our
efforts in raising our expectations for student
achievement. Pre-school preparation is vital to
smooth transitioning to school.
Phone 314 3800 - fax 314 3809 - E-Mail: office@gretavalley.school.nz
Please support our sponsors
1
SCHOOL DOCS
If you need to get onto SchoolDocs to check out
our school policies you need to go to
http://gretavalley.schooldocs.co.nz To login to the
parent portal you will need;
User Name, ‘gretavalley’ and password,
‘motunau.’
Lesley Ottey visited the school to talk about
the importance of recycling
SPEECH AND POETRY COMPETITION
The speech and poetry competition was held on
Tuesday 17th June with Lennie Harrison from the
school library committee and her daughter Jasmin
came to judge our poetry and speech competition. The
students did an amazing job presenting their speeches
and the juniors were also fantastic reciting their
poems. Thanks to Lennie and Jasmin who so willingly
gave of their time and to all our students who had the
courage to stand up and deliver their poems and
speeches.
THANK YOU
After the recent cold mornings we would like to
express our thanks to the Jones family for their
donation of firewood. It has been wonderful to have
the fire on warming our senior room which only has
one heat pump that doesn’t cope in the frosty weather.
We are also thankful to the squash club who donated
wood last year that we are also able to use.
If anyone has any pinecones that they could donate to
the school to assist with getting the fires started in the
morning, that would be much appreciated.
We would also like to express our thanks to
‘Mainpower’ who have dropped off a truck load of
mulch and another load of bark chip. Next Friday
afternoon we would like the children to bring along a
small shovel so that we can shift and spread the bark
chip and mulch to our project behind the library and
old admin block. We will do this before assembly or
late morning.
MAORI PROGRAMME MEETING
We also had a meeting for all parents of Maori
students to discuss the achievement of our Maori
students to look at our Maori Programme and any
improvements we could make to it. We have some
professional development coming up for any
interested parents, board members and staff either
next term or the fourth term.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Quit now you’ll never make it!” If you disregard
this advice, you’ll be halfway there!
Reggie Leach
UPCOMING EVENTS
June
26
Board of Trustees Meeting
27
Student Council lunch
July
4
Term 2 Ends
Malin, Sue, Anna, Megan, Yo, Gene and Lou
June
26
Board of Trustees Meeting
27
Student Council lunch
July
4
Assembly -Term 2 Ends
Term 3
21
Term 3 Begins
30
Student Led Conferences
August
4
E AsTTle Training school closing 1.30pm
12
7 Aside Tournament
14
7 Aside PP Date
21
CPIT for Year 7/8 students
25
Education Review Office Visit
28
BOT Meeting
September
9
Kiwi Sport Day
11
Kiwi Sport PP Date
12
Scargill Flower Show
18/19 Life Education Bus Visit
25
School Production Date
26
End of Term
Term 4
13th October Friday 19th
December
SCHOOL WEBSITE
Have you checked out our school website? We have
had some professional development on this and it is
now up to date and running. Go to
www.gretavalleyschool.com
Check out the class pages in the more section.
Phone 314 3800 - fax 314 3809 - E-Mail: office@gretavalley.school.nz
Please support our sponsors
2
**COMMUNITY NOTICES **
FREE INFLUENZA VACCINATION
From now until 31 July 2014 Seasonal Influenza
vaccination is again being offered free for all people
aged 6 months to under the age of 18 years in
Canterbury. The vaccine helps protect against
influenza which is a serious disease that spreads rapidly in the school environment, to homes and the
wider commu-nity. Vaccination is available through
your general practice team.
AIR FORCE MUSEUM HOLIDAY
PROGRAMME
Brighten up your child’s July school holidays by
enrolling them into ‘Flying through Colour’ at the Air
Force Museum. We offer OSCAR-endorsed holiday
programmes that stay on site. We always have a
variety of crafts, art, Museum hunts, games and
sports. These holidays some of our activities include;
creating our own 3D winter scene, coloured weaving,
kite paper stars and making a tree house with an
aircraft landing strip. Early bookings are essential;
please contact the Public Programmes team on (03)
3439504 and visit our website for details www.airforcemuseum.co.nz
THE WAIMAK AMAZING RACE
Fundraisingfor the Waimakariri
Dog Training Club
Where: Rice Park, Heywards Rd, Clarkville
When: 13 July 2014
Start Time: 11.00am
(cars will be sent off at 1 - 2 minute intervals
depending on numbers)
$25 per car if you pre-enter
$30 per car if you enter on the day.
Things to bring:
Smart phone, smart person and/or a map,
Digital Camera.
Trophy for winning team and spot prizes.
Email: waimakamazingrace@gmail.com to enter
and receive online banking details for payment.
Feel free to have team/car names and themes.
Drinks and bar snacks will be available for
purchase at the final destination.
DENTAL CARE OVER THE SCHOOL
HOLIDAYS
The Community Dental Service will operate an
emergency service over the school holidays. This
service is to provide relief of pain only and will
not undertake ‘routine’ treatment. The service will
be available each working day from 8:30am until
12:30pm from the Hillmorton Community Clinic,
Sylvan Street, Christchurch as follows:
Mon 7th July to Fri, 11th July and
Mon, 14th July to Fri, 18th July This service will
operate by appointment only and if we are unable
to see your child, alternative options will be given.
If your child has dental pain as a result of an
accident please contact your dentist in the first
instance.
You can phone and make an appointment for the
emergency clinic by ringing 0800 846 983.
GLENMARK SCOUTS
This term Keas (6-8yrs) have been learning compass, cooking outdoors food, making scroggin and
the older Cubs (8-10yrs) have cooked on Hobo
Stoves, learnt about compass points, and started
their personal safety kits. Scouting is fun for all
kids, boys and girls, and we would love to see you
there. There are opportunities to learn about the
outdoors, go on camps, and get involved in the
community. All meet on Tuesday at the Glenmark
Domain Scout Den, Cubs 3:30pm – 5pm, Keas
4pm-5pm. Contact Isobel 03 314 6813 or just
come along on the day, first 3 sessions are free.
$40 per term thereafter
Phone 314 3800 - fax 314 3809 - E-Mail: office@gretavalley.school.nz
Please support our sponsors
3
Mrs Turnbull taught the Room 1 children to do Felting and Weaving
Phone 314 3800 - fax 314 3809 - E-Mail: office@gretavalley.school.nz
Please support our sponsors
4