OPAHEKE SCHOOLOPAHEKE SCHOOL Sharing Caring Learning And Achieving

office@opaheke.school.nz Tasman Drive Web Site: www.opaheke.school.nz PAPAKURA 2113 Ph 298 5410 Fax 298 0739

5 October 2011 Newsletter No 15/11

“The Opaheke Way”

SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST:

SCIENCE FAIR

ROAD TRANSPORT

AMMENDMENT

Fun Fact It is

impossible to hum if your

nose is plugged

Dear Parents, Welcome to the end of a very busy Term Three. With the Rugby World Cup now getting to the ‘interesting’ phase, many classes have held their own form of rugby contests.

END OF TERM

School will finish for Term 3 this Friday 7 Oct at 1.30pm. Term 3 will start on Tuesday 25 Oct and finish on Friday 16 Dec. Note that children are dismissed from the hall on the last day of each term. The Ponga Road bus will also leave at 1.30pm on the last day. Term 1 for 2012 will begin on Wednesday 1 Feb and finish on Thursday 5 April.

Term 2 for 2012 begins Monday 23 April and finishes Friday 29 June.

Term 3 for 2012 begins Monday 16 July and finishes Friday 28 September.

Term 4 2012 will start on Monday 15 Oct and finish for the year on Tues 18 Dec.

GALA DAY SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER

Only 31 days to go!! Our small gala committee are working hard to bring every-thing together for the big day. A letter will be coming home shortly requesting your help, so please, we need lots of help from parents to make this gala a success. We will need help setting up on the Saturday before from 10-12pm, ’manning stalls’ and cleaning up afterwards. Any amount of time you can give will be much appreciat-ed. All the funds raised from this gala are to be used to purchase additional laptops for the school COW (Computers on wheels). Any sponsorship or donation, ei-ther gift or monetary would be greatly appreciated. Any questions please contact Josie ajwickers@xtra.co.nz or 296-2967.

SCHOOL AMENITY

The following is the Bank

Account for the Opaheke School

BOT if you would like to set up an automatic

payment. ASB Bank

12 3031 0728049 00

STATIONERY LISTS 2012 Stationery lists will soon be available for next year. We will send these out early next Term with information for purchasing packs from School Supplies as we have done in previous years. The early notification of costs will hopefully help parents with budgeting for next year.

SCIENCE FAIR

The Year 7 & 8 Science Fair will be held tonight in the school hall from 6.30-8pm. All parents and students are welcome to come to view the work of our Year 7/8 students. Congratulations to all the winners and to students for the work and effort that has gone into their projects.

SUN HATS A reminder that the School Board of Trustees has a policy of compulsory sunhats for children in Terms 1 and 4. Our uniform hat is royal blue full brimmed. This is a uniform item and variations of this are not acceptable. The hat can only be purchased from the School office. Plain $12 or Logo Embroidered $18.

NZ FACTS

ROAD USER RULE AMENDMENT TO THE TRANSPORT ACT Changes to the Road User Rule affect all drivers, riders, walkers and cyclists in New Zealand. From 1 October 2011, drivers approaching a pedestrian crossing controlled by a school patrol will only be required to stop when the school patrol sign is extended. As you may know, school children are only permitted to cross when the school patrol sign is extended so it’s unnecessary and confusing to require drivers to stop when the patrol is not ready to proceed. This is consistent with school patrol training. Also from this date drivers passing a stationary school bus with an optional ‘flashing school bus sign’ will need to reduce their speed to 20km/h. The bus driver will also be able to operate the flashing lights for 20 seconds before and after the school bus has stopped. This will help warn motorists that they’ll need to take care and slow down as they are approaching an area where children are likely to be crossing the road.

Abel Tasman a Dutch navigator discovered New Zealand in 1642. Therefore

the sea between New Zealand and Australia

was named after him, Tasman Sea.

SCHOOL DENTAL CLINIC Therapists are currently working in a new Transportable Dental Unit (TDU), based at Rosehill Intermediate School, we also have a new phone number which is 837 9135. The Dental Unit is located behind the Special Education building, and access is through the small carpark beside the Special Education building, not the main staff carpark for Rosehill Intermediate school.

MEASLES OUTBREAK Many of this year’s cases have started after unimmunised people returned from overseas with measles. The best prevention is immunisation, but anyone suspecting they might have symptoms should contact their local doctor and should stay away from work and school. Last month, Auckland schools were warned that unimmunised children should stay home if any of their classmates contracted the disease. That followed a rise in the number of cases. To date we have not had any notified cases of measles at school but please be alert. Measles is a highly infectious and

serious disease that can lead to ear infections, pneumonia and brain damage.

Symptoms include fever, cough, sore red eyes, white spots on the inside of the mouth. A rash appears 3-5 days later on the head, then spreads down the body.

Immunisation is the best protec-tion.

If you think you have measles visit your doctor or phone healthline 800 611-116.

CELEBRATING SUCCESS University of New South Wales (ICAS) English results: High Distinction 100%: Angus Cameron Yr6—an outstanding result. Distinction 90-99%: Yr8—Chhavi Breja, Elena Nascetti Yr5—Joshua Gilmore, Astrid Lewis Yr4—Phillip Liu Credit 70-89%: Yr8—Samuel Earl, Connor McCormick Yr7—Thomas Edwards, Timothy Fern, Abby Prince, Tione Sroga, Anqi Yang Yr6—Inayat Haer, Madison Hawtin, Chelsea Ross Yr5—Hannah Fern, Mandy Pope Yr4—Ellie Harper, Ella Rollo, Rhiannon Wood Bookweek Competition Winners: NE—Tamsin Unkovich Yrs1-3—Connor Gilhooly Yr4-6—Brenah Bishop-Olsen Interzone Gymnastics: Our School was represented by Joshua Muir, Emma Morris and Indiana Ortiz-Suarez. The Yr8 girls team was placed 2nd overall and Emma received a Silver Medal.

THANK YOU To Ruth of Ruth’s Frames for her support for our Family Portraits fundraiser.

MISSING READERS Can all of our parents please have a good look at home for any School readers. No questions asked. We will be pleased to have them back.

COMING EVENTS Wed 5 Oct (tonight) Science Fair display in the Hall 7pm Reading Together for parents of junior children Fri 7 Oct Last day Term Three. School finishes at 1.30pm. Ponga Road bus departs at the earlier time. Tues 25 Oct Start of Term Four. This follows Labour Day holiday. Wed 26—Fri 28 Oct Yr 6 classes at Chosen Valley Camp Ararimu 7.00pm PTA meeting in staffroom all parents welcome Thur 27 Oct Yr5 classes to Sonshine Ranch Wed 2 Nov 7pm Reading Together Sun 6 Nov School Gala Tues 8 Nov 7.30pm Board of Trustees Meeting

Quiz— Below are ten words, from each word, remove a single letter and

rearrange the remaining letters to find ten new words which are related to each other. Hint: Remove the Y from ENERGY and rearrange to make GREEN. ENERGY –Y = Green

DOORMAN

CLEAREST

WEIGHT

OUTLIVE

EMBARK

CALMER

SOLEMN

VOIDING

ARCHERY

Best Wishes

Murray Wratt Principal Answer: Green, maroon, scarlet, white, violet, amber, cream, lemon, indigo, cherry

COMMUNITY NOTICES: Papakura Athletic & Harrier Club: After extensive alterations to Massey Park our first Athletics club night will be 19th October. We are taking registrations tonight 5 October and 12 October 5.30pm—7.30pm in the clubrooms at Massey Park, Ron Keat Drive. Family friendly joining fees starting at $20. www.sportsground.co.nz/papakura_athletic and harrier club

PAPAKURA SEA EAGLES RUGBY LEAGUE & SPORTS CLUB SUMMER LEAGUE TAG UNDER 6’s – SENIORS Monday nights at Ray Small Park. Fees : $10.00 per player Contact Maude Morunga 09-2980936 email:maude @kol.co.nz or Papakura Rugby League Club 09-2998026