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Thankyou for your support over recent weeks on a number of OSG activities, including the provision of having your children bringing hats to school. We have had an excellent uptake of our students wearing hats and seeking shade during these hot summer days in Westport and Greymouth. Our challenge now becomes making this behaviour a habit and minimising teacher reminders around this.
We have also begun work around ensuring that all of our OSG stakeholders have a sound understanding of the Learning to Learn framework, focusing on the Assignment, Lesson and Study. Our staff and students are practicing their "elevator pitches" (a short, less than one minute pitch on the L2L framework) and I challenge you to test your children at home with their pitch. We will be practicing these during Whanau times and ensuring we can perform them with confidence at a moments notice.
I am very appreciative of the effort being put in by parents getting your children to school in advance of 8:40am. Please continue to make this a priority, it is really important for us to get our days started right with an effective Whanau time and coaching opportunities to track goals and achievement.
Enjoy these beautiful summer days while they are still here, it won't be long before the daylight starts to disappear earlier and we look towards Autumn.
DATE
Tuesday 26th March - We are very much looking foward to welcoming parents, elder siblings, aunts, uncles and grandparents to our Athletics Day.
Please note this is a different date to the NZ School Calendar due to availability of the venue.
WHERE
Saxton Athletic Track click here for google map link
START TIME
9am start (welcome and warm up). Reminder this is a compulsory school day attendance for students.
NELSON STUDENTS: need to arrive direct to the track by 8:40am, dropped off at the Southern/Richmond end of the pavilion where they will have their attendance marked.
BLENHEIM/WEST COAST STUDENTS: need to arrive direct to the track by 8:55am, dropped off at the Southern/Richmond end of the pavilion where they will have their attendance marked.
FINISH TIME
3PM finish
EVENT SUPPORT
As with previous years we cannot run this event practically, nor safely without the wonderful support of many volunteer helpers. This year we hope to boast the largest number of volunteers signed up. Across the day we need help with collecting and maintaining the equipment, recording results, lining up students, moving students between activities – something for everyone to help with. Check your calendar and click the link HERE to sign up.
Volunteering will give you access inside the track fencing to get the best view of the children performing, as well as help earn your families House some well needed house points. If you are extended family check with your current students what House they are affiliated to, most families are grouped together.
SPECTATORS
If you are unable to commit to help with an event this year we welcome you to come and watch for the parts of the day you're available. The students are keen to ensure plenty of spectators come down to cheer everybody on and contribute to a great atmosphere. We encourage all spectators to dress in their families’ House colour to make Saxton a sea of Red, Yellow and Green.
SAFETY
Please do remember only competitors, staff and event volunteers are able to come INSIDE the track fence. Any spectators, and younger children must stay outside the track fencing. This is a requirement of our safety operating procedure for the day and ensures no disruption to the competitors during their events
STUDENT PREPARATION
Student are working on their skills and technique for Athletics in their PE Lessons, you can support them in doing extra training at home – there are resources on the PE Canvas page.
On the day of the event ALL students are expected to be present, be correctly dressed in their coloured House shirt with their OSG PE kit (no other sports wear is allowed, please ensure your child/children have the correct gear, that fits well for this event). OSG hats are compulsory. No mobile phones or smart watches are permitted for students.
Keeping hydrated and well fuelled on the day is vital, however, this should NOT include any energy drinks. Please do not provide these for them, a water bottle is all they need and can be refilled at the track.
We went to Shantytown so we could learn about history and migration.
I learned what school was like (if your work was not up to standard you had to wear a hat with DUNCE written on it!).
We found out about Kehu and Brunner's journey to explore the West Coast (I had been learning about them in reading) and how people came to the West Coast to get the coal, despite Brunner's judge of the land (sandflies,dense bush, rain). After, we split into four groups and each built a raft out of manuka wood, paper, flax and sellotape, and put them in a trough to see if a paua shell and a kiwi would stay on the raft!
Morning tea was fun because of the stilts. I couldn't do more than a couple of steps for astart, but Pera showed me how to put my arms in front of the of the stilts and I got the hang of it.
Later we turned into gold miners (with our groups) and walked to Infants Creek on the manuka track with a tarp hanging on a spade with the group's (my group=5 members) lunch boxes, water bottles, gold pans, a little spade and a blanket! When we were there we claimed a one square metre of ground (our claim) built a shelter with the tarp, blanket, and ropes, and shovelled the top of the sand/gravel on our claim. Then we started the gold panning! We shovelled the gravelly sand out of the cleared claim into our gold pans, dipped them into the creek to carefully remove the gravel, gave it a wiggle, repeated it until we had almost no gravel in the pans and looked closely for tiny golden glimmers. We only got a few flakes of gold, and some didn't get any at all, but it was still my favourite part of the day.
Written by Tahryn Amies
West Coast Campus: 03 789 5520
westcoast.campus@nz.oneschoolglobal.com