Sunday 8 April 2018

Rātaka ō te wiki - Wiki tekau ma tahi

Kia Ora whānau rāua tamariki,

Wow - we can’t believe it is already Week 11 and end of term is almost here. We took some time this morning to reflect on the amazing learning journey of our tamariki this year - we can’t wait to see what is still to come!

Our Year 6 Epro8 team will be heading off to the semi-finals tomorrow morning. We wish them luck and look forward to hearing about their challenges! Should they make the finals, this competition will be held on Friday.

This week we will have our last conceptual curriculum rotation. We look forward to seeing how each class negotiates their collective ideas to create some outside of the box ideas and solutions! We are still on the hunt for some supplies for our STEM activities. If you have any clean, waterproof recycling (cotton reels, ice cream containers, plastic bottles etc) can you please send these in ASAP! 

Homework for this week will be a follow on from in class activities around the commonwealth games. We have seen some fabulous work coming through and would like our students to have a chance to further explore and complete activities. Make sure you keep a look out from these showing up on Seesaw and share these at home with your children!

The last swimming session at Ashhurst is on Wednesday this week. We would like to see all students participate in this final session, please help your child in remembering to bring their togs. If your child is unable to attend a session, please notify their homeroom teacher.

This Wednesday we will also have our final PTA lunch for the term. This week we have Domino’s Pizza. Orders have now closed for this lunch and no late orders will be accepted. We would like to give special thanks to the members of the PTA for organising these lunches and giving up their time to deliver our lunches. You guys are wonderful!

Badge Assembly will be on Thursday 12th April. The assembly will start at 11:30, and all parents are invited to come and celebrate our students successes.

School will finish for the term on Friday 13th April at 2:00pm. Please ensure you have made arrangements for students to be picked up at the earlier finish time.

School will start back for term 2 on Monday, 30th of April. The Term 2 newsletter will be sent out at the beginning of term 2, outlining all important information and the upcoming learning programme.

We hope that you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday break and look forward to hearing about all the great adventures of our tamariki when they return to school!

Ngā Mihi,
Kahurangi Pouako

Tuesday 3 April 2018

Ākonga Whakatutukitanga - Student Achievements

Remember to keep track of all our wonderful student achievements by checking out the Ākonga Whakatutukitanga tab!

Rātaka ō te wiki - Wiki Tekau

Kia Ora whānau rāua tamariki,

Welcome back after Easter break, we hope you found some time to relax and spend some quality time with family. Firstly, ka mau te wehi to all our tamariki who have been showing excellence this past week, in particular those representing Whakarongo School as a part of Epro8 and the Inter-school Swimming team. A great result for our Epro8 teams with our Year 5 team coming in 4th place, and our Year 6 team coming in 2nd place. Tu Meke guys!

Another big congratulations goes out to our Year 5 / 6 Northern Cluster team who came first overall in the Interschool Swimming Competition! Ka Rawe team!

What a fantastic week it was last week, meeting with our learners and their whānau to celebrate their achievements so far this year. Collectively, our students have had a fantastic start to 2018 and we look forward to seeing what their creative, inquiring minds come up with throughout the rest of the year! 

If you have not yet had your Parent-Teacher interview and would like to touch base, please contact your child’s pouako directly via email - or pop in - to arrange a time to meet. It is a great opportunity to build school-home partnerships and engage with your child’s learning.

If any of our parents are not yet connected to their tamariki’s Seesaw Learning Blog, please talk to your child’s pouako and we can ensure you get connected. It is a great way engage with your child’s learning, comment on their work and let them know that their learning is important.

On Wednesday afternoon, those Year 6 students that have an interest in joining the Performance Kapa Haka group will meet with Matua Ash to discuss what this might look like this year.

 Our students have been super engaged in their conceptual curriculum learning rotations, and we continue to be amazed by their creativity and innovative ideas to solve problems in their world. We are still on the hunt for some supplies for our STEM activities. If you have any clean, waterproof recycling (cotton reels, ice cream containers, plastic bottles etc) can you please send these in ASAP! This would be much appreciated and we will ensure that all plastics are disposed of responsibly! 

There will be no homework set for this week - students are welcome to finish off any of their previous homework tasks or have a break this week!

Wednesday swimming at Ashhurst will continue in week 10 and 11. This is a compulsory part of the curriculum. Please help your child in remembering to bring their togs. If your child is unable to attend a session, please notify a homeroom teacher.

End of term is fast approaching, and there a few important reminder. Badge Assembly will be in week 11 on Thursday 12th April. The assembly will start at 11:30, and all parents are invited to come and celebrate our students successes. School will finish for the term on Friday 13th April at 2pm. Please ensure you have made arrangements for students to be picked up at the earlier finish time. School will start back for term 2 on Monday, 30th of April.

 Ngā Mihi, Kahurangi Pouako