Wyndham School

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Our School Profile

Wyndham Primary School is a Decile 5, contributing school, situated beside Menzies College in Wyndham. The Wyndham Township is in the Lower Mataura Valley area of Eastern Southland.

Our role currently stands at 107 pupils but can range due to a fluctuating local and wider population that is generally influenced by changing share milking arrangements and local employment opportunities.
Students attending come from a wide geographical area including, Mokoreta, Mimihau, Tuturau, Glenham, Mataura Island and Brydone.

Half the pupils travel by bus with children travelling up to 60kms per day to attend school. Half of these children’s parents are sheep or dairy farmers, with the remainder being made up of farm workers, farm cottage dwellers and others who live on life style blocks.

Within the township there are parents who own, manage or work in local businesses, others are employed at the nearby dairy factory and some parents are employed in non-farm related occupations in Gore or Invercargill.
The school community is very supportive of the school; the BOT and PTA in particular are an excellent group of workers/helpers and have provided the school with many extra valuable resources.

Although the population has declined in the town over the past ten years the community provides essential services, and agencies for the surrounding farmland.

Special Features

Our school is focused on providing learning programmes designed to enable all the children to develop the best of their individual abilities.

The BOT and the staff are fully focused on the “Aim High” philosophy and this drives the school’s direction.
The class size average is 22 within the five classes at the school.
Teacher Aide support is allocated across the school to meet individual / group needs and to run specific programmes eg. the oral language programme for Year 1 to Year 2 pupils.
A perceptual Motor programme is currently run for the Year 1 & 2 pupils with Teacher/Teacher Aide and parent help.
Children’s specific needs in literacy and numeracy are targeted.
We have up to date technology, ie interactive whiteboards, computers, computer net work and digital cameras.

Cultural Diversity

Within the classes we have children from Fiji, Thailand, Maori, and European descent.

Maori Consultation

Consultation with the Maori community takes place in Term One and they are being informed on student achievement. School wide monitoring in Literacy and Numeracy programmes have been established and the results have enabled teachers to further develop learning outcomes for Maori pupils. Where Maori children are identified as low achievers, or in need of help, (high achievers are also included) they are given extra assistance to ensure that they are receiving every opportunity to improve their level of achievement. To promote cultural understanding the school also:

Ensures that teaching staff are supported in their efforts to extend their Personal abilities in Te Reo.
Ensures that there are components of Tikanga Maori and Te Reo Maori integrated across the school curriculum programme.
Utilises the services of the resource teachers of Maori where appropriate.
Encourage parents to participate, assist in delivery of programmes, to assist staff and their children to achieve.

School Uniform

The introduction of a school uniform in 2006 has been a really positive move, with the children looking fantastic as a group and receiving many favourable comments on how well they are presented. The children also wear a yellow high visibility vest to and from school. We were the first to introduce the yellow vests in the Southland area. Choosing yellow ahead of the orange colour ones was an obvious choice as it related to the yellow on roading signs and people with colour blindness have some difficulty with orange.

Buses

Ritchies provide transport for our pupils on a daily basis. We have built up an excellent rapport with them. With over half of our children travelling by bus it is important that we keep our communication open. It is our recommendation that if you have any matters relating to bus transport that you contact the school first.

Lower Mataura Valley Combined School Activities
Group

This group comprises 4 schools, Edendale, Glenham, Tuturau and Wyndham. The schools meet at least three times a year for planned events that mainly focus on sporting or cultural events. These are held each term and children are selected from them to further participate in Southland provincial events. Athletics, Cross Country, Music Festivals and Swimming are the main events catered for, with activities like netball and tennis also selecting teams from within the group.

Our Partnership With Menzies College

Menzies College (Yr 7 – Yr 13) are our neighbours and we share a special relationship with them. As well as being the major contributing school to them we work with their staff in to enhance programmes for the pupils in both schools. English, Phys Ed, Art and Drama and Maori programmes have benefited from this partnership. We also share our grounds for sporting events, the heated swimming pool, their hall and its lighting and sound facilities.