No: 06 8 March 2019

THE FRIDAY FLIER KOTAHITANGA

Waikato Waldorf School, Kindergartens and Playcircle

Kia ora tatou

Last year we introduced the KiVA antibullying programme in school. Whilst the school did not believe we had a big bully

problem we acknowledge that there were bullying incidents occurring. We were also concerned about the statistics of

bullying reported nationally in schools and the workplace and the high incidence of adolescent suicide.

We have now completed one year of the KiVa programme and are really pleased with the outcomes.

At the end of 2018 the students were surveyed. We found out that there was a reduction in the number of

bullying incidents and that if bullying incidents did happen then the students were more likely to tell some-

one it was occurring. There has been a significant improvement on the students’ perceptions of teachers

preventing bullying. Students felt the atmosphere in school had improved with more people being happy,

helpful and supportive.

The teachers were also surveyed and conveyed that they found the programme rewarding and that the students were

engaged in the KiVa activities. They felt that the interventions of the KiVa team were effective and helpful. Bullying inci-

dents had reduced in their classes, and it had strengthened class culture positively. They believed that students had a

greater awareness of what bullying looked like and what positive roles they could play in preventing it.

This year we are continuing our whole school inquiry into reducing bullying behaviours in our school and building a posi-

tive and supportive school culture. If you were unable to come to last year’s parent meeting about the KiVa programme

or are new to the school and would like to find out more then there will be an information meeting held in our school hall

on Tuesday 2nd

April at 3.15pm which will last about 30 minutes. If you are interested you can also visit the KiVA

website and look at the parent information leaflet about bullying. http://www.kivaprogram.net/parents/

You may be aware that members of NZEI Te Riu Roa and PPTA Te Wehengarua are involved respectively in major cam-

paigns called ‘It’s Time - Kua Tae Te Wā’ and ‘Bring Out the Best’. These campaigns are based on the urgent need to

address issues created by at least a decade of under-resourcing of the education sector. These issues include the current

teacher shortage, the under-valuing of teachers and the lack of resourcing for children with special needs. The campaign

has a strong focus on seeking significant investment into the education sector to provide teachers with the time to teach.

This campaign includes the process to renew the collective agreements for teachers in primary, secondary and area

schools. As part of the campaign, primary and secondary teachers have been actively voicing their concerns over the cur-

rent crisis in the compulsory education sector. The NZEI Te Riu Roa are now holding a round of paid union meetings for

all teachers who are covered by the Area School Teachers Collective Agreement (ASTCA). These meetings are critical

for all teachers as they provide the opportunity for our profession to come together to discuss the current status of the

campaigns and the claims for the renewal of the ASTCA. The decision to hold meetings during student contact time is not

one either union takes lightly. However, it is urgent that we come together to discuss ways to address the long-term, sys-

temic issues that are threatening to blow out class sizes and make it even harder to recruit and retain teaching staff. The

challenge so many schools have faced in 2019 in recruiting sufficient suitably qualified teachers to staff every classroom

in their respective schools is further evidence of the urgency of securing more resourcing for primary education.

Please support this campaign to address these issues by supporting your teachers to attend their meetings.

The meetings will be held nationally over the week 25-29 March, 2019.

The meeting for teachers at Waikato Waldorf School will be held on Thursday 28th March at 2pm – 3pm.

Please show us your support by collecting your child/children at 2pm to release our staff to attend this important

meeting. Please inform Monika in the office if you are unable to collect your child/children early and we will

provide care for them until 3pm.

We are very fortunate to be visited by Van James who is very well know in Waldorf circles for his excellent work-

shops and speaking. He has offered our community a session on ‘The Art of Education’ on

Sunday 24th

March at 7pm (costs $10 per person)

please see the further details in the flier. Please contact Monika if you wish to attend the workshop as places

are limited.

Also in the flier is an article from the Netsafe website for you information. It gives information about a new harm-

ful online “game” which you should be aware of.

Ngã Mihi

Sue

TERM 1 DATES

Week 7

Thursday 14 March BOT meeting 6.00pm

Week 8

Monday 18th March Autumn Festival

Wednesday 20th March – Friday 22nd March

Class 4 Pirongia Camp

Thursday 21st March PT meeting 7pm

Sunday 24 March 2pm Van James workshop for community

Week 9

Thursday 28 March Teachers union meeting

(school finishes at 2pm)

Sunday 31 March MEDIEVAL CARNIVAL

Week 10

Monday 1st April School Closed – Teacher Only Day

Tuesday 2nd April KiVA meeting 3.15pm

Week 11

Thursday 11th April BOT meeting 6pm

Friday 12th April Final day of term – school finishes 2pm

Autumn Festival Monday 18 March

Annual Food-bank Collection

Autumn is around the corner and we begin to think about harvesting and storing food for the coming winter.

This is also the time to think of others in our wider community and how we can help.

Every year for Autumn Festival we collect food to give to the Hamilton Combined Food-bank.

Donations of non-perishable food and/or toiletries can be taken directly to your child's class every day next week. Thank-you for your kind support.

Waikato Waldorf Enviro Group

MIRO HOUSE KINDERGARTEN

IMPORTANT DATES

12th April Harvest Festival; Last day term 1

15th April Miro House closed, Kindergarteners attending Waldorf100 Conference

19th April Good Friday

22nd April Easter Monday, Miro House Closed

25th April ANZAC Day, Miro House closed

29th April 1st day Term 2

Class Three

The start of the year saw Class Three begin with the story of creation as in the book of

Genesis. The children proudly created their own books of this story through painting and

started to introduce cursive script into parts of their writing. This was followed by the stories

of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, and finished with the Tower of Babel. There was a lot of

opportunity for drama during the retelling and the children connected deeply with the stories

and characters they were portraying. It was delightful seeing Adam and Eve naming all of the

animals in the Garden of Eden and this led into the introduction of the four word types: nouns,

verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

At the end of this block, we finished with our class sleepover camp in tents on the school

grounds. The weather was just perfect for tenting and it was a great bonding time for the

class at the start of the year. The children helped with putting up the tents and enjoyed a

variety of outdoor games before (and after) a delicious shared evening meal. I would like to

thank all of the parents who helped out with the tents and food serving as well as those who

stayed the night also. The only downside was when our newest member of the class hurt his

wrist after falling on it and had to go for a check-up and could not stay the night! Apart from

that, it was a most enjoyable camp and many children stepped up to be brave and overcome

a few personal fears by sleeping in a tent away from home and family.

Carl Saunders

CLASSROOM CORNER

Thank you

from Miro House Kindergarten and the Waikato Waldorf Community

Thank you Te Puna O Waikato, for your wonderful donation. This has meant we

can replace the old underflooring and carpet in one of our lovely Kindergarten

classes. The children are loving the softer, new floor coverings.

Thank you also to the busy fundraisers from our community who put time and

effort into applying for these funds!

Medieval Carnival Update

Sunday March 31, 10am-3pm

With 23 sleeps to go, excited children and adults digging in to give everything you can -

please ensure you have asked for extended family and friends support for carnival

weekend. As we are aiming for over $26000 this year it is vital we have all stalls well stocked and staffed. It

is not only our biggest fundraising day for the community but an awesome way to connect with community

and engage with other like-minded families.

A few notices about:

FLIP and FLY Circus Acrobats

We will have junior aerial acrobats performing this year! This looks very exciting. There are also many of

our local talents on stage also.

Saturday Set Up

Please come along and share in the jobs that make Saturday set up fun and easy. There are gazebos and

tables to go up, signs, decorating, tidying, carrying stuff from the container, picket fences to put up and lots

more. Children are welcome.

Carnival Parking

Free car parking is available in Te Manatu Park (beside the school). Limited parking accessible from Bar-

rington Drive, more available from Te Manatu Road (close to Kowhai). Thank you to Downer for helping us

this year

Donations of fruit

If you have excess fresh fruit to donate come carnival weekend please direct it over to the lemonade stall

on Saturday setup or Sunday morning. We'd like to have on offer at the stall some fresh fruit along with

lemonade and iceblocks.

Raffles

Class 3 are coordinating the raffles. If you have goods or services to contribute please let the PA or class

3 know. Please also remember to add good quality grocery items to the box outside the office. We will al-

so be raffling an amazing sculpture created and donated by Fraser Marsh. More news to come on this!

Costume Hire

The school costume shop will be open most afternoons at the back of the hall from March 18. Costume

items range from $5-15. Please dress up as this adds so much to the atmosphere of the day! We attract

some amazing costumes from members of the public that wow us every year, so dress up and join the fes-

tivities!

Silver Service

This year at the Carnival we're making the move from single use plates and cutlery to washable ones pro-

vided by the Gourmet in the Gardens Silver Service caravan. You can also support the move to washable

plates by bringing your own picnicware (plates and cutlery). Remember to bring your coffee cups and drink

bottles as there will be no bottled water for sale

Entry Donations

We will be asking for donations at entry this year to cover the cost of using silver service. Please make

your friends and family aware of this and the reason for it

Posters and Baking Boxes

Please help our advertising by putting a poster up at your work and in your car. We would appreciate a let-

ter box drop in your street too! If every family can return a filled baking box we will have a hugely successful

bakehouse and café! Please contribute more if you are able, in a well labelled container with no plastic

wrap please. Baking can be dropped off on Sunday morning

Sword making and Bake House help needed

If you or family find you have an hour or two to spare, please ask at sword making or the bakehouse if they

need a hand. These are both busy stalls and currently need some more hands on deck.

A reminder that it is a Teacher Only Day on April 1. Miro House and Kowhai will be open as usual.

FACEBOOK Pages to Follow

Please like and follow our facebook pages. The PA have created a “Waikato Waldorf Community Connections” page for “in house”

communication and requests. “Medieval Carnival Waikato Waldorf” is the page we use to advertise the Carnival, please like, follow and

share this page. Tag your friends and family in the comments, take photos of craft and baking to share to the page, post comments as

often as you can so we can reach and engage with people far and wide.

Lastly a huge THANKYOU! for every big and little thing you have been able to do, and are still doing to support our massive fundrais-

ing day. We expect a lot and as a community we always deliver above and beyond!

The Parents Association

Anthroposophic Reading Group

Lectures given to the workers during construction of the Goetheanum. Dear school community and friends The lectures to the workers cover an array of topics raised by the workers, considered to be more dialogues than lectures at times. Please join us at any

time. We will now commence with a trio on “Star Wisdom” leading in to Easter.

We meet on the 2nd and 4th Monday evenings each month during term time and usually read one lecture, pausing now and then for clarification and dis-

cussion.

Our next reading is this Monday 11th March at 7pm at Waikato Waldorf School. Please contact me if you’d like to come along. Sarah Oliver (parent) 027 805 0850

Are We Carnival Ready?

Willing Volunteers please read!

Our school is really starting to look gorgeous with the energy parents, students and teachers have

invested.

However despite the drought we still have a glorious crop of weeds

Are there any wonderful parents/caregivers out there who can put in an hour or two to do some

weeding?

Please contact Lisa at the school 😊

85 Barrington Drive, Huntington, Hamilton Ph: 07 855 8710 email: office@waikatowaldorf.school.nz website: www.waikatowaldorf.school.nz www.facebook.com/WaikatoWaldorf School

These notices are published as a service to the school community. Publication is at the discretion of the Editor, and does not

necessarily reflect the opinion of the Faculty.

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Support a Refugee Family to settle in Hamilton!

Are you interested in supporting a Refugee family? Now is a great time to join Red Cross and register for a free training course. The role of a Refugee Support Volunteer is to support a UN-quota refugee family during their first 3 months of resettlement in Hamilton: setting up a house, introducing the new arrivals to NZ culture, assisting them with doctor’s registrations, school enrolments, finding their way around their new community etc. You can find more information on our website: https://www.redcross.org.nz/what-we-do/in-new-zealand/refugee-programmes/volunteer-help-former-refugees/

A free training course with the Red Cross starts on Thursday, 21 March 2019 to prepare volunteers for the refugees arriving in Hamilton on 26 April 2019. In five training sessions you hear about the refugee experience, your role as a Refugee Support Volunteer and how we can help with resettlement in Hamilton.

The schedule is as follows:

Dates:

Thursday 21 March, Thursday 28 March, Thursday 4 April, Thursday 11 April, Thursday 18 April – you need to attend all 5 sessions and can choose to attend either from 9.30am-12.30pm OR 6 PM – 9 PM. There will also be a planning meeting on Tuesday 23 April from 6-8pm.

Location: NZ Red Cross building, 422 Te Rapa Road, Hamilton

If you are interested and available to support a refugee family for at least 3 months (up to six), please contact me via email: linda.weijers@redcross.org.nz or phone 07 850 2191

Seeking a Host Family!

A Japanese male student, 20 yrs old, who is interested in Steiner Education is looking for a friendly kiwi host family. He is arriving from Japan on 14th April and planning to stay for a couple of months. If you are interested, please contact ritsuki.0323@icloud.com for more information. Thank you.

Growing children live wholly and completely in their environment. Their experi-

ence and understanding of having an inner self separate to the outside world

only gradually evolves through many stages of growth and development within

their journey to adulthood. This more undifferentiated experience of the world

with its constant sea of sense stimulation can be accompanied by sleep disorders or mood and behaviours which are an

outward expression of a child’s internal tension and anxiety. When there is too much for a child to cope with, the ability to

digest and process everything experienced during the day is often overwhelmed.

Our body has a processes for balancing the sense experiences we meet through the day- one of the most important of

these is sleep. When we sleep our life forces regenerate and the sense impressions of the day are transformed. Often if

there has been too much outer stimulation during the day it can be difficult to transition into sleep. The issues can be com-

pounded if we are as parents are over tired or stressed from the happenings in our own day- one only has to be up several

nights in a row with a sick child to understand this!!

Having a bed time routine creates a rhythm once learned can help bring calm to a busy day. Creating a quiet mood with a

candle, a story, or verse or a lullaby creates the inner quiet necessary before sleep can begin.

Weleda Lavender bath milk added to a night time bath is helpful, Weleda Rose warming oil created to support the three

main systems of the human body (nerve-sense, rhythmic and metabolic) and help integrate their

activity, applied as a gently massage over the chest and back aids a child into sleep. There are

other possibilities for supporting your family’s sleep and you’re welcome to get in touch.

Maree Smith RN Anthroposophical Nurse ph: 021 150 9433

ARTICLE FROM NETSAFE: MOMO CHALLENGE ADVISORY FEBRUARY 2019

— 28TH FEBRUARY 2019

Netsafe has received reports relating to young people who have been exposed to a harmful online “game” known as the Momo Challenge. Although we have not received any reports of young people in New Zealand taking part in the “challenge”, we are aware that some young people have seen content relating to Momo and have been very upset by the content and imagery. There has also been talk about whether this “challenge” is real or a hoax. Regardless of whether the actual challenge itself exists, individuals who come across Momo related content may experience emotional distress at seeing it – particularly younger children.

Netsafe encourages anyone that comes across content relating to the Momo Challenge or other similar ‘challenge’ content to immediately report it to the social media site or website that it’s on. In New Zealand, it is against the law to incite another person to take their own life. If somebody is targeting a young person to play this “game”, or attempting to incite suicide, you should contact the Police and Netsafe for help, and a mental health service for support. Netsafe can also provide ad-vice for any parents who are concerned about this challenge. If young people are expressing feelings about self-harm or suicide then this should be followed up with appropriate mental health support.

Netsafe’s advice for parents about exposure to upsetting content:

Have a conversation with young people about what to do if they do come across upsetting content online

Let your child know that they can come to you when they find something upsetting and they won’t get in trouble

Stay calm if they do come to you – don’t assign blame, reassure them that it’s not their fault and don’t punish them for

seeking help

Normalise their feelings – let them know that it is normal to feel scared, confused or upset

Don’t over-react by taking away the technology – this may make them less likely to talk to you if something else happens

For young children in particular, consider using parental controls to block out specific keywords like “Momo”

If you or your child comes across this type of content report it to the platform that it’s on

If your child is expressing any concerning feelings, follow up with mental health support.

If you know that a young person has been engaging in this challenge, report it to the Police and Netsafe, and contact a

mental health service for support.

For more advice about children viewing upsetting content online, visit our Upsetting Content page.

CONTACT NETSAFENeed help or advice? Contact us.

Text ‘Netsafe’ to 4282

Email help@netsafe.org.nz

Call us toll free on 0508 NETSAFE (0508 638 723)

Online report form at netsafe.org.nz/report

Our helpline is open from 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am – 5pm on weekends.

MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT SERVICES:

Need to talk? – Free call or text 1737 any time for support from a trained counsellor. Lifeline – 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE). Youthline – 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz or online chat.

Samaritans – 0800 726 666.

https://www.netsafe.org.nz