Last year and the beginning of this year with Excursions, there have been a few students appearing unexpectedly at our different sites.  While we love having visitors and we do want to promote our Upper South students working from our different campuses, we do need to know what is happening before students arrive.  

There are clear guidelines that help this process. 

1. The reason for the visit is important for student education (not just because they want to).
2. At least one week before you plan to travel, a discussion is had with the Learning Leader of the site regarding your plans
   1. Learning Leaders
      1. Blenheim Willem de Beer willem.debeer@nz.oneschoolglobal.com
      2. West Coast Gareth Sutton gareth.sutton@nz.oneschoolglobal.com
3. Campus Principal Grant Rogers is informed by the Learning Leader
4. At least four days before the planned travel, the student site exchange smartsheet is completed. 

USC student exchange 

The Blenheim Campus have welcomed six new students this year – Archer Faulkner, Remy Beatson, Theo Faulkner, Ingo Clifford, Lilah Fisher and Beau Fisher. 

These students have made a fantastic start to the year and have become an important part of the Year 3-6 class. It is lovely to see some new families join our school community, and we look forward to showing them what OneSchool is all about.    

The Year 3 – 6 students from the Blenheim Campus spent the day in Picton.  After a slight change of plan due to the weather, they headed to the Ecoworld Aquarium. 

As well as seeing and touching a variety of marine creatures, the students were also able to pat a tuatara.  The highlight for some was being splashed by the stingray!

After a picnic lunch on the foreshore, the students donned their rubber gloves and began a beach clean up along the waterfront and over the bridge at Shelley Beach. 

The day concluded with a well-deserved ice block and a play on the pirate ship.   

At the Nelson campus we are pleased to welcome 10 new students to the Year 3 – 4 class as well as another two students to Year 5 and Year 7. 

12 new students in total for Nelson campus.

Back row: Matisse Brewerton (Y3), Solitaire McLean (Y3), Sage Hamilton (Y3), Sakari-Rose Wood (Y3), Jaeda Woodman (Y3), Sienna McCallum (Y7) and Celine McCallum (Y5).

Front row: Shandler Beatson (Y3), Arlo Malcolm (Y4), Turin Wood (Y3), Carter Brooke (Y3) and Taylor Beatson (Y3)

The Nelson Year 3 – 6 students were fortunate to have two excursions on Wednesday 10 February and Thursday 11 February.

On Wednesday they had a day out in Wakefield where they enjoyed cicada spotting on a bush walk and walking up to the lookout in the Faulkner Bush Reserve. A highlight was hearing from one of the local police constables and having a look at all the gear he carries personally and in his car.

The children had lunch at Higgs Heritage Park followed by a look inside the numerous museum sheds. They saw model railways, implements and household items and many different types of vehicles and agricultural machinery.

On Thursday the students enjoyed a full morning at the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary in Nelson. They learned all about the predator proof fence that runs for 120 km around the sanctuary, and saw the stoat and rat traps inside the fence. They learned about different plants and berries and saw and heard many different birds as they walked through the bush along by the stream.

Some highlights were the two beautiful waterfalls and spotting the very large eel that was swimming in the stream. The children also had the opportunity to do some tasting of kawa kawa leaves and supplejack shoots, and they were able to view a stoat, a weasel and a possum at close quarters when Rick, our guide, pulled some specimens out of the freezer.

The children had some fantastic experiences over the two days out of the classroom, and the visit to the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary will support Inquiry learning over the rest of the term.

On 05 February, Nelson Campus had a fundraiser lunch to fundraise money for sports gear.

The lunch was very successful and raised a total of $620.60!

Thanks to everyone for your much appreciated support.

This year, West Coast Campuses warmly welcomed Birch Hayman (Westport), Tahryn Amies and Slade French (Greymouth) to our sites.

All three students are lucky enough to have siblings at school already, to support them. They have made a fabulous start to the year. The students accomplished their first trip up and down the Coast Road with enthusiasm. They showed that they are already flexible OSG learners. They can work diligently no matter which site they are on.

This year has started out well at the West Coast Campus. We started out with an assembly followed by a large game of intelligence to kick the year off. We welcomed Mr Sutton, our new Learning Leader, who got the ball rolling as soon as we entered the school doors by setting high expectations and helping us to set goals for the year. Below are some photos of our lunchtime sports that we have been playing over on the Coast.

The West Coast Year 3-6 juniors are practicing long jump in Westport for athletics. Every Wednesday, when the Greymouth juniors come to Westport, we go down to the oval to practice our skills. This slow-motion video helps us to know what we are doing wrong and how we can improve to be better next time.

Some of the actions that we noticed are: tucking our legs up, swinging our arms forward, not falling backwards and jumping off the right place. Everyone is looking forward to athletics at the end of the term. 

What a wonderful trip to start our year! We have made new friendship connections across sites and learnt about Sustainability from the Victorian Era.  Our learning is going to lead into our Inquiry topic.  We thoroughly enjoyed dressing up, gold panning and travelling by steam train!  Thank you Shantytown, the hospitality of West Coast and our parent helpers!

We were very lucky to have Mr John Orchard, local historian, to speak to us about the WWI and WWII exhibitions at Omaka Heritage Centre.  The students behaviour was exemplary and all showed positive enthusiasm for the duration of the day.

The Y11-Y13 trip to Anakiwa and Mistletoe Bay was a huge success. The students thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of walking the 12.5km from Anakiwa to Mistletoe Bay and the 8km kayak trip back.

A huge thank you to the teachers and parents who accompanied the students on either the walk or kayak. I am very impressed by the parents and staff who did both.

A special thanks to Anthony Fisher who organised the event and who with Susannah, Huntley and Bailey prepared and provided a much needed lunch. Many thanks to the drivers who took on the responsibility to transport our students from Greymouth, Nelson and Blenheim and delivered them home safely. 

Mr de Beer

He may have thought he got away with it but Mr Rogers had a significant birthday at the end of last year. Karina sneakily filled his room with balloons and all the Nelson staff provided morning tea.  Happy birthday for last year Mr Rogers.