Waitati School Column

By Antony Deaker

In this column, the school has a new roof and new classroom furniture,
BoT to get intensive training, community consulted after dinner,
families checking out school welcomed, sporting success, bonfire
proceeds go to class resources, Quiz Night coming soon, art exhibition
and film project.

Making the decision about which school best meets the needs of your
child is a really important one. It needs to feel right. Our
principal, Heidi, is open to people coming and getting a feel for the
place. This might take one visit or it might take a few. The more
comfortable your child and family are with the school, the smoother
the transition will be. Contact Heidi by phone (482 2888) or email
(principal@waitati.school.nz) to make a time to visit.

By the time this is published we will have had another community
pot-luck dinner, this time followed by a discussion on values and
vision for the school. If you weren't able to make that event please
use the school website or get in touch with any of the BoT or staff to
share your ideas. We also hope you will take time to respond to our
survey about after-school care or bus service, in this publication or
on our website.

We now have a new roof over the main block at school, funky new
classroom furniture, painters booked for the summer break to repaint
the exterior and we expect to have completed many alterations to the
interior of our classrooms by the time term one, 2011 starts.

The BoT has been glad to book a weekend of intensive governance and
strategic planning workshops for later this month. We see this as an
invaluable opportunity to strengthening the school's performance. The
BoT is excited about entering a potential relationship with Ngai Tahu
to run a school banking programme for the pupils. We are also in talks
with the Blueskin Playcentre and Blueskin Resilient Communities Trust
about the relocation of both of those organisations into the school.

The PTA are using proceeds from the Bonfire Night to leverage further
funding to purchase new resources, toys and equipment for the
classrooms. The pupils have made their wishes clear and can look
forward to a few early Christmas presents. Further funding for the BMX
track has been confirmed and work is likely to start soon on its
installation. The PTA have announced 19 November as the date for the
next Quiz Night, this was lots of fun last year when Waitati
generously let a team from Warrington win.

Our pupils have been busy on numerous fronts. The seniors are well
into their film-making project having met with a producer and started
devising stories. The whole school has held an exhibition of pupils'
work at Gallery on Blueskin which looked fantastic. Many thanks to the
Gallery for its support with this! The Futsal, Rippa and cricket teams
all opened their seasons with wins. And, finally, a special note of
thanks to Tuihana and Jacob who played very well for North East Valley
School in the first week of cricket.