Hi Everybody

We are well and truly back into the swing of school life! It’s been great to catch up with everyone about their holidays, what they are looking forward to this year and hear some of the ideas students have come up with over the holidays that they think would work here at school.

There is a nice ‘hum’ around the school and our students are back in the rhythm of work and learning.

On Monday classes had their first Kiwi Kaha (Kiwi Can has had a name change) session for the year with our leaders.

Back into the swing of school life. Photo: supplied

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In week 1 we welcome some new faces and families to Wallacetown School: Arlo and Rosemary have both joined Room 1, and we have welcomed Amelia to Room 2. We hope you enjoy your time at Wallacetown School and all the awesome opportunities and experiences that come with being part of a small school.

Arlo and Rosemary have both joined Room 1. Photo: supplied

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We have also welcomed Arnika Thompson – Whaea Arnika who is joining us in Room 4. Arnika is in her third and final year of her teacher training at the University of Otago. Arnika will be in for blocks of time throughout the year on placement as well as a number of Mondays.

On Fridays we hold our whole school assembly – We also live stream our assemblies on our school Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/wallacetownschool/.

This is great for whānau and extended family members who can’t make it/live away etc.

Life Walk - This year we continue our partnership with the service Life Walk – and have Glenys Fairhurst onsite on a Tuesday as our Life Walk Chaplain. Life Walk Chaplains are dedicated volunteers and we are proud to be one of 250 schools in New Zealand to establish a partnership with them.

Glenys’s role is to help us to support our students when they may be having a tough time and a listening ear to share their thoughts/worries with or maybe are wanting to talk to someone.

Wallacetown School proudly supported by Pypers Produce

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A number of schools in Southland employ counsellors through private providers or make use of the ChatBus South service that provides free counselling to students. In the past when we have been asked by families about counselling services on offer in Invercargill for support, a number of these services are under pressure, have long wait lists or are costly.

Knowing that tough things/times happen for some of our kids, being able to support them is important to us as a school team. Glenys is a regular face around school each week and she enjoys coming out to join in the different events we have at school; craft days, pet day etc.

Athletics - Winton. Photo: supplied

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Glenys is on site from 10:15am on a Tuesday each week and is out and about in break times. She has a wee box in the office so if students want to chat to her when she is in on a Tuesday, they leave her a note and she will make time to catch-up with them while she is here. If you are wanting to read a bit more about Life Walk their website is www.lifewalk.org.nz.

Athletics – Monday 3rd March in Winton - despite it being a wet start to the day, we all arrived at Winton , and had a fun day.

A big congrats to the following students who have made it through to Central on Friday 7th March: Max, Axton, Harry, Archie, Pyper, Bethany, Jacob, Ryder, Jack, Cody, Henry, Rowan, William, Eden, Georgia S, Eliza, Nixie, Sienna & Olivia.

Central Athletics 2025 Friday 7th March.

Upcoming 160th Celebrations. Photo: supplied

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An absolute pleasure to spend the day cheering on and watching our athletes in action at Central Athletics! A number of our students made it into the finals for their track events and we had some top 2 spot finishes in the field events - with some students being selected for Southland Athletics coming up on Saturday 22nd March!

Nikau and Amelia wearing olden day school clothes, and carrying their school bags. Austin and Louie sitting on one of the tractors! Photo: supplied

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‘Olden Time’ – this is in place of our normal Golden Time for Term 1 and the start of Term 2. With our upcoming 160th Celebrations we decided to use our Golden Time slot to take part in a range of activities that school students in the late 1800’s early 1900’s would have experienced! Everyone has chosen an activity and over the 6 different ‘Olden Time’ sessions students will get to take part in each one! There even has been ice-cream made the old-fashioned way – with a hand beater!!

Hokonui Pioneer Museum 10 & 11 March.

Lilly, Eliza and Mitchell checking out the different artefacts and the old bank. Photo: supplied

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What a great start to the week we’ve had with each class getting to visit the Hokonui Pioneer Museum in Gore to experience what school/life was like back in the day. We all really enjoyed looking at all the old artefacts and experiencing a classroom lesson – oh how times have changed! Thank you to the parent helpers that came along both days and to Miss McDonald for organising such an awesome opportunity for our students. Thank you to the Fundraising Group for covering the cost of the buses.

Spencer trying one of the old phones!! Photo: supplied

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We have had a very busy start to the year, and time has flown. We still have a packed few weeks coming up to finish off term 1, so keep an eye out on our School Facebook page , and our website https://www.wallacetown.school.nz/home.