newsletter flip10_4

Otatara School
Published on September 24, 2014

Thursday 25 September 2014 – Term 3 Week 10 Confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners striving for excellence Tena koutou katoa nga mihi ki te whanau o te Kura o Otatara - greetings to all families of Otatara School. We have come to the end of another term. It has been busy and we're all a little tired. This term has seen a lot of growth, accomplishment and success; in schoolwork, sports and other interests. Last Friday we were all wearing bright colours in support of deaf awareness. There was a bit of a fashion parade after Jump Jam where the best and brightest strutted their stuff. Mrs MacPherson stole the show with her Lady Gaga look as she danced her way down the catwalk amid clapping and cheering children. Students and staff brought a gold coin to donate and we managed to raise over $430. Well done school! Good luck to the four students off to Nelson to compete in the chess Nationals - Teegan Strudwicke, Charlie Samson, Regan Cross and Jacob Mortimer. A safe and happy holidays to all Otatara students and teachers. Heoi anö t ā ku mö n ā ianei - That's all for now N ā ku noa n ā - Yours sincerely Peter Nielsen-Vold Congratulations Congratulations to Florence McKenzie who is representing Southland in the Under 12’s Waterpolo National Tournament in Auckland in the holidays. Gym Team On Sunday 21 September three teams from our school participated in the annual Gym Festival at James Hargest College, achieving three A grades. These were wonderful results with some of our children competing for the very first time. Thank you to our coaches Sarah Jagoutz, Sandra Dolman, Amy Mallaby and Michelle Sadlier for their hard work and encouragement. Choir On Thursday evening our school choir participated in the annual ILT Sing Out festival, ‘Best of the Best’. This year was a massed choir and individual items presented by each school. Participating in an event of this scale is a wonderful experience for our students and it was fantastic to see the energy, enjoyment and enthusiasm of our choir, they were outstanding. A huge thank you to Alison Rodway for her guidance and expertise in preparing our choir. Dear Mrs Rodway, Thank you for teaching us choir. I really liked the songs you chose for us. My favourite songs are Green Pea and Little Bird by Annie Lennox. Thank you for going to the meeting room every Monday instead of eating your lunch and thank you for going to Room 14 every Friday to run our practices. Being on the stage at the Civic was fun. Thank you Mrs Rodway we really enjoyed it. From Somere Jenkins Pets & Passion Day Otatara School’s ‘Pets & Passion Day’ is on October 24 th , the Friday of Labour Weekend. These holidays would be a great time to find and train a pet and begin thinking about ‘passion’ projects. Examples of projects are models – vegetable, Science, Lego, floral art, photography, baking, collections, nature trays and best dressed Teddy. Sports T-Ball !! Panthers Otatara Under 7 Team. Calling all 5 and 6 year olds. T-ball is similar to softball; children of any ability can play. It will start in Term 4 on Saturday mornings. If interested in joining please email name and date of birth to Yvonne@smithsnz.com