Laurie Hill, West Coast - A big thanks to all the staff for dealing with all the disruptions caused by Covid and bad weather. They have been awesome just dealing with it.

Steve Hamilton, Blenheim – it was great to have Olivia Brown on site this week and a lot of positives coming from higher needs students. Appreciate her input.

Heinz Woodman, Nelson – So good to see how resilient the staff and students have been this week, especially with junior teachers being off with Covid and some classes having to merge to share teachers. Lets hope we are on the other side of the sickness and we can get back to normal next week.

What a beautiful day to go fishing! And this is exactly what the Nelson Y7/8s did.  We travelled to Anatoki Salmon over in Golden Bay, and we had a blast catching salmon and feeding the eels.  We learned about salmon farming, the lifecycles of both the salmon and longfin eels. We learned and perfected how to fish and to work in a collaborative team. It was a fabulous day. We would like to thank our parent helpers who assisted us on this excursion and Anatoki Salmon for having us. We enjoyed it. Yum!

Although it was a bit chilly, the Winter Sports Day was enjoyed by everyone.  I would like to thank the following people whose contributions made the day the success it was.

Our referees, Chad Fisher, Wilson Fisher, Jane Clifford, Heidi and Sam Johnson, Jeremy Clifford, Bailey Fisher, Emma Beatson, Tayla Clifford, and Brynlee Beatson, our photographer. 

A big thanks to Heinz Woodman, Kurt Woodman and Brendan Smith for all the tasty hot chocolates and coffees they made.   Thanks to Lisa Roche and Debbie Beatson for keeping score and looking after the first aid as well as all the Nelson and Blenheim staff who supported their teams and umpired games.   A special thanks go to all the parents, community members and bus drivers who took time off their busy days to support the students.  I know it is much appreciated.

Willem de Beer

Campus Principal - Blenheim Campus

The Westport campus has this year become part of Garden to Table and runs it with the four Junior students. Garden to Table (GTT) is a charitable trust that supports primary and intermediate schools and kura to take learning out of the classroom and into the garden and the kitchen.  

The programme teaches thousands of kiwi kids knowledge and skills that have a transformative and lifelong impact on their hauora - wellbeing — and on the world around them, and is unique because it can be linked with the NZ curriculum across all subjects.

We have a well-established garden which was previously set up and has been run with many volunteer hours from Mr David Amies, who sadly passed away earlier this year. The children already have some vast knowledge, there were crops in the garden and veges ready to harvest.  

To continue to keep up the garden we run closely with the GTT calendar, which guides us through the chores for the months and seasons and gives us lots of ideas of how to use the produce we grow. 

We won 100 seedlings from Zealandia earlier this year, and a selection of seeds from Kings Seeds, and are now harvesting and selling lettuces, cooking leeks, thinning rainbow carrots and keeping the bugs away from many greens, including bok choy, different coloured cauliflowers, and broccoli, lots of spinach and kale and herbs including parsley and thyme. Each week we either care for the garden, weed, feed and plant, or we take it to the kitchen where we can turn seasonal produce into delicious food! So far, some things we have made include beetroot hummus, roast potatoes, leek and potato soup, and feijoa cordial! We always share it with whoever is at school – and take some home to our families! 

Today we held the annual bake sale in Westport and raised over $300 for our garden! Westgold supported it also, by donating 10 blocks of their delicious butter to every school involved in a bake sale. 

Now we plan to get some strawberries into the ground, fix up the polyhouse cover and start planning for the spring harvest! We love seeing the kids faces when they taste the freshly dug carrots, turn things like leeks and beetroot into yum food – and get dirt on their hands. 

On Wednesday the Year 2s from Blenheim came to our school, they spent the whole day learning alongside the other students already at school. Mrs Winitana had her hands full with 18 students, handling them all on her own. They had lunch with the seniors and enjoyed all the games the juniors enjoy playing.

On Wednesday 15^th June the 2023 new entrants spent the day at OSG with their Year 3-4 buddies. This was the second school visit for some and the first visit for others.

The children enjoyed a variety of activities with their older buddies, including making patterns using a variety of maths equipment. They had a very special visit from Ruby, Mrs Donaldson’s pet lamb, and everyone planned and wrote a description of Ruby with their buddies. There was also buddy reading and a story, and the new entrants tried out MAP practice tests on their buddy’s device.  All the children in the junior school were offered an ice block at lunchtime, which went down well despite the cold temperature outside.  For many of the children, the highlight of the day was the time they spent with their new friends in the playground.

The third school visit for the new entrants will be during Week 8 of Term 3.

The Year 3-6 children have been getting together to work on their book character masks. They have been creative with card, glue, paint, wool and lots of other materials, with the goal of making a mask that resembles their chosen book character.  Everyone will have the opportunity to see the completed masks on the last day of this term.

Over the last week we have had a special visitor to Nelson Campus.  She was rejected by her mother who had had triples and Mrs Donaldson has been bottle feeding her.

Here is some writing about Ruby:

Ruby is a young lamb that is cute.  She is very curious and she likes licking, sniffing and nibbling.  She has curly wool that is soft. If you touch her the wool is soft.  Ruby is a very cute lamb.

Written by Diego, Shandler and Monty.

Ruby is a twelve day old lamb.  She likes to sniff and nibble things.  She has brown patches on her ears. If you touch her wool and stroke her you can see some pink skin.  Ruby is the cutest, littlest lamb.

Written by Tahlia and Jaeda.

Ruby the lamb came to OneSchool Global.   She likes Mrs Donaldson.  She has white fur and brown spots.  If you touch her she feels fluffy.  Ruby is cute.

Written by Aaliyah, Beulah and Rilla.

Ruby the lamb came to school today.  She likes to nibble and lick on stuff.  Rubys wool is very fluffy and cuddly.  If you touch her she is very soft.  Ruby is very cute.

Written by Ivy, Sari and Brittany.

Due to COVID delays, West Coast held their brunch for blokes this past Tuesday. We also took the opportunity to invite all the grandparents out for lunch, as they missed coming out last term because their day was virtual.

Because we were sick of the weather, while Alfie was visiting, we decided to use it for a collaborative task and have some fun with words. We had to use weather words to make a list and elaborate by using adjectives and adverbs, similes, alliteration, metaphors, and idioms. 

When we had drafted our ideas, we were challenged to present them creatively and add a group photo or picture to support the text and identify the collaborators.  

Take a moment to show your appreciation to a staff member, student, parent or volunteer who has made a positive impact on you in the past week/s.