At Witherlea School, we are committed to honoring the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa and celebrating the diverse cultures of the Pacific. We strive to ensure every student sees their identity reflected in their learning and feels a deep sense of Tūrangawaewae (belonging).
All students participate in fortnightly Kapa Haka sessions integrated into Team Hui time. These sessions focus on building school-wide confidence, understanding tikanga, and learning the waiata and haka that define our kura.
Performance Group: Students with a passion for Kapa Haka can join our specialized rōpū, meeting every Tuesday from 12:30–1:00 PM. This is led by a dedicated team of kaiako.
We celebrate the vibrant traditions of the Pacific through music, movement, and storytelling, fostering a school-wide appreciation for Pasifika heritage.
Performance Group: Our dedicated Pasifika rōpū meets every Wednesday at 10.30am for coaching and rehearsals. In collaboration with FUA Creative and our Pasifika whānau, students receive expert instruction to represent Witherlea School at regional events, including Polyfest.
We warmly welcome whānau collaboration and invite our community to walk alongside us during our practice times. We value the expertise and support of our families in co-leading our cultural initiatives, ensuring our ākonga have authentic connections to their identity and heritage.
At Witherlea, we believe in a broad curriculum based on using local experts and community experiences. Students learn in and out of the classroom and the Graduate Profile for our students comes from the colocated colleges’ wider community consultation in 2017.
After our own consultation in 2018, along with our new Vision, we adopted these six aspirations for our learners as they travel through each team at Witherlea on their individual learning journey.
Global identity: Tuakiri – Our students explore who they are, their heritage and develop cultural awareness on a local and global scale.
Sustainability: Kaitiakitanga – Our students explore and start to understand and apply sustainable approaches.
Creativity and Innovation: Auahatanga – Our students explore creative & innovative thinking to their learning, building the foundation for future problem-solving.
Personal Management: Rangatiratanga – Our students build capacities for resilience, tenacity, adaptability and confidence to succeed in anything they set out to achieve.
Effective Relationships: Whakawhanaungatanga – Through collaborative learning approaches, our students explore and build relationships that help them to learn and achieve together.
Student-Centred Learning: Ako Arotahinga – Creating personalised learning environments where students are inspired and supported to be the best they can be.
Extra support in the classroom for some students is essential so Witherlea School tries to provide, outside of Ministry funding, teacher aides. This is heavily dependent on the financial situation each year and the impact of needs within the school.
While this is vital to the success of ALL students and we are lucky to have highly capable and trained support staff the donation at the beginning of the year and fundraising goes towards funding this resource in our classrooms.
We have several support programmes for children who need extra. These programmes take place during classroom hours. They may include; Reading Recovery, ELS (Early Literacy Support), ESOL, Haumaru (Room 20 – Wellbeing Space), pastoral care targeted funding and in-class support for behaviour, social skills, literacy, mathematics and learning to learn capabilities.
The Diverse Learners Team is led by Jacqui Driver our Deputy Principal, and the team consists of Maree Herdman our SENCO (Special Needs Coordinator) and the principal. This team looks at all the needs across the school, applies for funding, coordinates Haumaru, the teacher aide team and timetables and liaises with agencies and whānau and families. This team is designed to support our community and our learners to access the curriculum and reach their potential.
We are a GAFE School: Google Apps for Education and our network is provided and supported by N4L; Network for Learning. This enables them to act as a watchdog entity and provide ongoing digital support. All students from Year 3-6 have ‘google accounts’ and access to a range of software and research media. We have approved site access for pupils to the Internet and we pay for and run Hapara which enables teachers to see everything that children are accessing and sending (even deleted items) while online at school and home, if using their school google account.
All pupils take part in Physical Education and sporting activities. Involvement in Phys. Ed. during school time is compulsory. All children at Witherlea have Fundamentals in Term Two which includes Water Safety and swimming and is held at the Stadium 2000 complex. All students are bused to and from each day (this is in our activity fee section).
We have an aquatics programme Terms One and Four at school, Witherlea Swimming Sports at the Stadium, Cross Country and Athletics where our Year 5-6 students are selected for the Inter-school Competitions. We also participate in the annual Marlborough Tournaments; cricket, rugby sevens, rippa, hockey and football.
We operate a range of sports teams where students can represent Witherlea School, all families can access and register for these via our Sports Hub;
Following the registration for the above sports many codes now require a New Zealand Sport registration via SPORTY Player and registration as a Coach/Volunteer via this SPORTY link
Clubs organise their own teams for other sports codes, such as; athletics, rugby, cricket and soccer.
Mr Dan Stephens is our Sports Coordinator and can be contacted via email; dans@witherlea.school.nz
In the swimming season, all children take part in aquatics unless excused by a note from you. Named clothing is essential, and independence in changing is appreciated. The pool is heated, filtered and maintained in top condition throughout the summer in Term One and Term Four.
PLEASE REMEMBER that even when the weather is cool, the teacher will make a decision if there is swimming or not, so swimming gear should be sent along EVERY DAY.
Swimming and Swim Safe is part of Fundamental Skills held at the Stadium 2000 complex held in Term Two.
We have a policy of involving the students in Outdoor Education and the Blanket Consent Form is filled out on enrolment which allows student participation in all low risk, local activities and sporting events / practices.
Our Year 4-6 students begin the stayover version of EOTC through Camps; Year 4 students use Pine Valley, Year 5-6 students use Bridge Valley, TeaPot Valley or Lake Rotoiti.
All other year groups take day adventures around our local community including local Kindergartens, Harling Park, ASB Theatre, Stadium 2000, and Pollard Park to name a few.
At Witherlea School the pupils take part in the cultural aspects of education. Art, music, dance, drama and public speaking are an important part of the school programme, and we have an active participation in these fields. Our school has had considerable success in the cultural subjects, just as it has in its sporting activities.
ARTS AFTERNOON
Hayley Christie is our Arts Coordinator and while Choir practices are on, all other children across the school are learning in the disciplines of; drama, dance including Jump Jam, Visual Art and Music.
Every three years the whole school uses the Arts Afternoon to be ‘stage ready’ for the Annual Dance Festival held at the Stadium 2000 (2025 is our next performance year).
As students move up through our school, we encourage them to take on greater responsibilities and we have developed our own unique Arts Leadership Roles at Witherlea. We have an Events and COMs Team which has an opportunity to lead the assemblies with support from Phill Johnson, Jump Jam Leaders from Year 4-6 who support the classes across the school to learn and participate, and a WitherLeads Team of Year 6 students who organise, run and present at key events throughout the year.
CHOIR
They practise for school performances and special functions. These students are aged Year 4-6 and they have; the Whānau Open Days, Music Festival, assemblies and school events to perform at.
As students move up through our school and into the Kowhai and Kauri Teams, we encourage them to take on greater responsibilities and leadership roles. Year five and six students are appointed to carry out specific tasks to help around our school. These include; librarians, Enviro Team, dishes, messengers, hall seating, Wet Day Monitors, Jump Jam leaders and PE Shed Monitors. This is part of our rich participating and contributing culture we have developed at Witherlea School.
Our Year 5-6 teachers, teachers from across the school, The Principal and Deputy Principal support the Student Leadership Positions at Witherlea School where Year 5-6 students are explicitly taught the fundamentals of role modelling and leadership. We offer opportunities and training in the areas of; Road Patrol, Peer Mentoring, Medical Monitors, Enviro Team and Wet Play Monitoring.
EVENTS AND COMS
Year 5-6 students, led by Mrs PJ Muir are given guidance on public speaking. Students are given opportunities to speak and build confidence leading; Assembly, Charity Days, New Entrant Whānau Hui and large events.
PALs (PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEADERS)
Every year a new team of trained PALs are upskilled to deliver sport and games in the playground at lunch time for students who want to join in.
WITHERLEADS
PJ Muir works with this group of selected Year 6 students as they learn about the fundamentals of leadership, learn to organise, run and present at events. These students learn to work together and to support other students at school as they are true role models.
ROAD PATROL
Our Year 6 students become eligible for Road Patrol which is a trained job through NZ Police. Students who are in Year 5 in Term 4 will be asked to take home a letter which then leads to the training. After the training students will be selected for Road Patrol and need to commit for the school year at least one week per year on either the Weld Street or Wither Road Patrols. This job is for students who can turn up on time and have the confidence to control the traffic.
We are always in need of parent supervisors for the morning as the students cannot run road patrol on their own.
LIBRARIANS
The students who fulfil these positions are highly organised and reliable and work within the Library at lunchtimes being mentored by Mrs Moran.
ENVIRO TEAM
The students have a love for the environment, hard work and making a change in this world. They are responsible for; Worm Farm, Compost, Forest, Rubbish and Recycling. There are many occasions that they work directly with The Marlborough District Council.
A large group of parents are involved in a variety of ways in helping our school. We welcome assistance from parents / caregivers and other community members in such activities as:
If you have time to spare and would like to be involved please contact a team leader. From time to time other people work in the school for a variety of reasons including University College of Education students, Public Health Nurse, Police, Secondary School students and outside experts. We require visitors to our school to sign the visitors’ book at the office upon arrival and all volunteers need to be Police Vetted.
Other ways to support are through our strong Parent Group Committee which is our FOWS.
Witherlea School ‘in zone’ students feed into Bohally Intermediate. Some students require more transitioning than others and we have strong relationships with our Bohally colleagues so our children are supported.
As of February 2020, Bohally School will adopt a ‘Home Zone’. It will be important for parents and caregivers to make contact with Bohally, if they are outside of the Witherlea School Zone to check their status. Bohally will run a ballot system for students who are outside their ‘Home Zone’.
Witherlea School does not support the handing out of worksheets and busy time filling activities for homework. We do believe that practicing some essential skills like; reading, spelling and basic fact knowledge which can reinforce learning from school however this should be an enjoyable time for parents and students.
We also encourage our kids to get on with playing and learning through doing…they have had a full day of focussed work at school. Many students can access learning through class Seesaw, Online Learning sites and websites, Google Classroom (Year 3-6) and continue learning and inquiry from home.
Learning that you may expect throughout the school, set up between the teacher and home could include;
Other options for Home Learning are; reading library books that your child brings home, cooking or playing games together, board games, team sport, music or drama lessons, Scouts, Girl Guides or just the old fashioned notion of ‘getting outside and having some fun.’
If you are really intent on further practice then there are a number of workbooks that you can purchase in bookshops. Remember our children have already put in a full day’s work before they get home to you.