As we turn our focus to the winter months and the sports associated with it, I thank all the volunteers that make it all possible. In schools and communities such as ours, things only happen if there are people willing to give their time to make it happen, so thank you all for your efforts, it is very much appreciated. Feed back from the Nathan Mikaere Wallis evening and the day that followed for the staff has been huge, from both parents and staff. Thanks to Karen Brisco for making this happen. Food for thought for all of us. At our last Board meeting, Vicky presented her curriculum report and focused on the ALL programme (Accelerated Literacy Learning) and highlighted the ways it has had an impact with writing and reading confidence. Also the new readers that are supporting student’s interests and skills, are extending all students at both ends of the spectrum.

The Junior Reading report from Viv led to a rich discussion between staff and Board with the teacher resource “Choice Words” at the centre. Viv explained how the book, ‘Choice Words’, by Peter H. Johnston, had become a hot topic in staff meetings and how powerful the way we use words can influence learning. I commend all staff on looking outside the box at ways to become better teachers and ultimately educate our children better. Our enrolment zone continues to help keep our roll steady with stable student numbers at the July roll return. The property development project of creating extra learning space in the main block (building on to the cloak bay) and an extra room onto the library continues to move forward with draft plans on the Board table and the final touches being added. I hope to be able to give you a time line by the end of Term 3.

Board of Trustees Update

Hamish Logan Chairman

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TERM 2 2014

What’s on Top? Tena Koutou E Hoa Ma

Our rich topic for this term and last has

been a science focus, ‘Guardians of the

Bush.’ Pat has been leading this topic with

his vast knowledge and the skills he grew

while working with DOC last year. So I will

let Pat explain about our precious Omata

bush reserve . . .

“This is a lowland coastal forest

remnant and has a canopy dominated by

many fine pukatea trees, several large tawas

and unusually because they are technically

sub canopy trees many large kohekohe and

mahoe trees, some of these are probably as

big as they are ever likely to get. Coastal

forest remnants in Taranaki are precious as

there is very little of it left anywhere.

Kohekohe is also a tree on the decline

because it is very vulnerable to possum

browse. Kohekohe is a very interesting tree

with its beautiful glossy foliage and the way

it flowers and fruits on the stems rather than

on the branches. There are not many trees

that you see with flowers and fruit growing

directly out of the sides of the main trunks.

All this provides a rich learning environment

and custodial responsibilities for students

right at our doorstep.”

So if you haven’t had the time to take

the bush walk through our own amazing

school bush, please do try over the

holidays. You should be pleasantly surprised

by how much the children can tell on the

way through. Next term we continue with

science studies but with the theme, ‘What’s

going on?’, looking at all kinds of amazing

phenomena (science experiments!).

Thanks for your support coming out

on a cold night to hear Nathan Mikaere

Wallis talking about the brain; wasn’t it

amazing. We had Nathan for the whole day

after and we were left wanting to know

more. I am planning to get Nathan back so

look out for another session focussing on

the teenage brain. Now that will be worth

another night out! Safe and happy holidays to you all. Ka Kite Ano Karen Brisco, Principal

Omata Play-Group

Rachael invites all pre-schoolers and parents to play-group held every Thursday from 9-11am in the hall

during term time. Phone Rachael Shotter 7514 529

Guardians of the Bush Chris, Prezley, Max and Kanaan

Another term has flown by. Last month we held our annual meeting where Karen Glenny stepped down from the position of secretary after 7 years. That’s a lot of commitment and we thank you Karen for all of your hard work. Friday lunches are extremely popular and a successful fundraiser for the Home and School. A big thank you to Ann Thomson for the hours she spends organising, preparing and cooking for the children and to the home bakers that provide the tasty baking the children really love. Our yearly calendar fundraiser is underway with some fabulous artwork coming in. This term we donated $1000 to the library and for some new readers for everyone, and $300 for each classroom to purchase games and learning activities for the winter months. I wish everyone an enjoyable school holidays and hope you all relax and stay warm, ready for busy term 3.

!ROOM 1 We have really enjoyed being scientists in Room 1, observing carefully, classifying and identifying different species in our bush. After our mountain trip we were inspired to look and notice our environment. ‘Guardians of the Bush’ has been a wonderful topic to think about conservation and what it means for us as individuals in the future years. We have just begun our number topic multiplication; the symbol x means groups of. In class, we practice skip counting up and back in 2's, 5's,10's and 3's. This really helps us when we are learning our times tables. It is important for students to make the connection between repeated addition and multiplication. At home you could make groups of something, for example pegs, to emphasise this concept. We will be continuing with multiplication and division topics next term.  Regards Bridgit Barleyman

ROOM 2 With our topic, ‘Guardians of the Bush’, inter-school sports, rain, gymnastics, more rain and the arrival of a baby, it has been a very busy term. In Maths, we have been learning about decimals and have spent the last few weeks exploring measurement. Guardians of the Bush, has been our focus for both reading and writing and the children have written some wonderful poems and learnt how to write a formal letter. We have also been looking at newspaper articles and have been writing our own. In reading, we have been conducting a lot of research and have spent time looking at how to present information. W ith our bush topic , we have been concentrating on investigating why a small area at the bottom of our bush is not growing. I have been trying to get the children to approach this problem in a scientific way, looking at the evidence, coming up with theories and attempting to prove or disprove these theories. The Year 5/6 inter-school sports has been a huge success and the children are all buzzing at the news that Omata has made the semi-finals in both rugby and soccer. A fantastic

achievement. Very big thank-you out to all our coaches; Daryl Neilsen, Craig Feaver, Toni Pratt, Bridget Barleyman and Tammy Lewis. Regards Stuart Bennett ROOM 3 Another term has flown by, I have been very impressed with the enthusiasm the children have towards their learning. In literacy we have been practicing writing in a range of styles. Particularly letter writing and information reports. The children have learnt the importance of using key words when researching to refine their search. In reading we have been focusing on ensuring we have a deep understanding of what we have read. During term 2 the children have further developed their multiplication, division. Times tables have also been a focus and it has been pleasing to see children moving up the tables chart. In the latter part of the term we have learnt about statistics, specifically gathering data, displaying data and making evaluations on what the data showed. The children have thoroughly enjoyed our ‘Guardians of the Bush’ science unit. We have learnt about classifying, making observations and deciding what to do with information we found. Room 3 has focussed on identifying and eradicating the invader (weeds) in our bush. It has been very pleasing to see a group of students carry on and do weeding in their own time. This is what being a guardian of the bush is all about. Regards Vicky Aylward ROOM 4 It has been a short term of nine weeks, and my students have been impressive with their 'learning power'. This means progress with reading, writing and mathematics. As readers, we learn to be 'reading detectives' and use the clues of starting sounds, looking at the picture, and thinking what would make sense to the meaning when solving a new word in our reading. As writers, we are learning to add our personal voice and add detail that is going to hook in the reader. And in m a t h e m a t i c s , a s k m y s t u d e n t s a n y combinations of number stories to ten. We call these the 'friends of ten'. I hope you get a chance to see the class display, 'Guardians of the Bush'. This has been the major school wide focus. In Room 4 we have learnt about how to

care about our Native Bush and how important it is to be responsible for sustaining it in the future. This is an important message when you are five and also that is a big  responsibility for 'Guardians of the Bush' in Room 4. Kind regards Viv Norris ROOM 5 The major focus for term two has been our rich topic “Guardians of the Bush”. Students particularly enjoyed a trip up the mountain to the North Egmont Visitors Centre and learning about pests in our native bush, such as possums and stoats. This topic has provided us with great learning opportunities in, not only science, but written language and visual arts as wel l . In mathemat ics , we have been concentrating on increasing our number knowledge to 100 and beyond and solving addition and subtraction problems by counting on or back from the largest number. We have recently undertaken an exciting maths unit about measurement, based around the story of The Gingerbread Man. Next term will see the continuation of our science focus, with a new topic called “What’s Going On?” where the children will be involved in a range of scientific observations and mini experiments. Writing will also be a major focus in Room 5, with the Accelerated Literacy Learning (ALL) programme running from week two onwards. Regards Alex Baker

ROOM 6 The Year 7&8 students are currently carrying out a diverse range of action plans; such as growing seedlings, experimental planting and monitoring to investigate the impact of location on plant growth, finding out about fungi, creating a ‘Clean up the Omata Bush’ computer game, five minute bird counts, exploring the legal status of the bush reserve, possum and predator monitoring along with trapping, Omata bush tree guides, pitfall insect trapping, exploring QR codes as a means of providing information about the different trees to other learners exploring the bush, tagging and measuring trees for long term monitoring and more. This is not only providing the opportunity for rich science learning, but it brings with it a high level of student engagement and it has been great seeing some of our busy boys not only out there getting wet and dirty, but also being very focussed when carrying out research activities and writing about their findings in depth. I’m personally very proud to teach in a school where our students can still get involved in real learning outside of the classroom. Regards Pat Murphy

Home and School News Rachel Alford Chairman

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