23rd February 2012

This year one of our major aims at the school is to improve children’s motivation for writing and the quality of their work. Reading and writing are very closely linked so we are asking the children to look at published authors, to respond to what they have read (e.g. what was the message of the story, do you agree or disagree with the author, have you ever been in a similar position to the character in the story) and to look at the descriptions and techniques the authors have used. You could really help us at home by taking time to read your child some of the books you enjoy or share with them an article from the newspaper. Ask them what they think, talk about new words they don’t know the meaning of, let them tell you why they did or didn’t enjoy what you read to them. On our website we now have a new page under class pages specifically to display the children’s writing. Soon there will be a list of links on this page for websites that you can enjoy with your child at home.

9th February 2012

We have enjoyed welcoming all of the children back to school and an especially warm welcome goes to the families of the forty new children who have started with us this week. To give parents an opportunity to meet their child’s class teacher, we are going to have an informal picnic next Wednesday the 15th February. You are very welcome to come along and have lunch with your child from 12.50pm. The classes will all sit on the back field to eat their lunch which will give you a chance to introduce yourself to the teacher. At 1.10 pm the children will go off to play. You are welcome to stay with them until the end of the lunch break which is 1.35pm.

If you are able to make it we would love to see you. Please note that if the weather is poor we will have to cancel.

17th January 2012

Happy New Year to all our families, I hope you are managing to enjoy the summer break despite the weather being less than ideal.

The school has been a hive of activity over the break. Our caretaker Mr. Graveson has organised for new games to be painted on the concrete for the children to use during breaktimes, tomorrow our junior playground will be re-barked to improve safety for the children and Mr. McClean has been busy loading software onto new Ipads and laptops which the children will be able to use in their classrooms in the new term.

For any new families wanting to enrol their children, our school office will be open on the 2nd and 3rd of February with school starting for the children on the 7th. Come in and see our friendly office staff and we will organise class placements, stationery and uniforms.

I hope that the children enjoy the rest of the holidays, we look forward to welcoming them back on the 7th of February.

Reading Time With Geronimo Stilton

28th November

Geronimo Stilton was a special guest in our library and at assembly to finish off our bookfair with style. Our bookfair brought record sales once again which has contributed $1,800 worth of new books to our library. Thanks to everyone for their support with this event, it truly has a significant impact on our library catalogue and, more importantly, our kids.

Collette Lemon (School Librarian)

A very special visitor

16th November

The junior school children were very excited last week when Brian and Bobby came to visit. Brian and Bobby came to talk to the children about Keeping Themselves Safe. The children had to write to Bobby to let him know why it was important for him to visit our school and were thrilled when he chose to visit us. Remember to ask your children what important safety messages they learnt from Bobby.

Just for this Friday we have moved our assembly to 10.15am. If you are planning to come along please note the change of time.

31st October 2011

A tiring but rewarding day

All of the children had great fun either taking part in or watching Ag Day on Friday. Have a look at the middle school page for more photos from the day. Thank you to the organisers for making the day such a success.

25th October 2011

It has been a pleasure welcoming the children back to school today and it was great to see the sun. Just a reminder that Term 4 is a summer term so the children are expected to wear their hats to school. A newsletter will come home with the children tomorrow which will keep you up to date with all that’s happening this term. Please remember that we have our Agricultural Day on this Friday, if you have time come along and join us.

4th October

As we come to the end of the term, this is the perfect opportunity for us to look back at the achievements of our children. Our children have been highly successful on the sports field this term. The Year 5 and 6 netball, hockey and miniball teams all won their competitions at the North Cluster Sevens, with our Year 6 netball team going on to win first place and our hockey team and Year 5 netball teams winning third place at the Western Bay of Plenty tournament. Our hockey team also came 3^rd equal at the Tauranga Primary Schools’ tournament and two of our miniball teams took part in the Miniball World Cup held at the Mount. Last month we celebrated as Louie Campbell and Hanna Maloni went through to the regional speech finals from where Hanna went on to win third place in the Western Bay competition. Our movie crew won the New Zealand Transport Agency’s Movie Competition and are through to the second round of the Kid Witness News Competition where they are in to win a trip to Singapore. Other highlights for the term have been: our choir’s superb performance at Baycourt; two successful snow camps; a junior school trip to Rainbow Springs; the start of our new entrant class in Room 7 and a well-attended open afternoon focusing on children’s literacy skills.

We hope you have a great holiday with your children. The new term starts on 25th October.

30th September

Each year Mrs. Pheloung, one of our talented Reading Recovery teachers, records the progress of children who have turned 6. We currently have 70% of our children, as they turn 6, reading at or above the National Standard. This is a result to be really proud of especially as the National Standards are aspirational rather than showing the achievement of an average child. Since we started keeping Reading Recovery records in 2005 there has been a 33% increase in the number of children reading at the National Standard or above. I wanted to congratulate our Reading Recovery teachers (Jill Pheloung, Cathy McGeady and Helen Harrison) and to thank our parents who are encouraging the children with reading mileage at home. Together we are making a real difference to our children and setting them up for success.

30th September

Hanna Maloni went through to the Western Bay of Plenty Speech Finals last night. Hundreds of children from Te Puke, Mount Maunganui, Tauranga and Katikati all took part in school and regional heats to get through to the finals. Hanna presented an excellent speech entitled “Are we to believe the TV?” We are very proud of Hanna who came third in the finals and represented our school fabulously. Well done Hanna.