Sunday 23 September 2018

Rātaka ō te wiki - Wiki Tekau

Kia Ora whānau rāua tamariki,

What an amazing week we had last week celebrating the learning of our ākonga (learners). They did a fantastic job of sharing their awesome mahi (work), and it was fantastic to hear that they are regularly sharing their learning experiences at home. If you missed out on the opportunity to carry out a Student Led Conference last week and would like to come in, please contact your tamaiti’s (child’s) pouako to arrange an appointment.

A HUGE kia ora (thank you) for those parents who were able to assist us on our trip to Te Manawa last week. Our tamariki had an amazing time - and are still buzzing about their time on stilts and their experience in the Old School! It’s always great to explore our learning in an authentic context, and without you this would not be possible - so again thanks!

House waiata competition will be held tomorrow, Tuesday 25th. We have been working hard on getting our singing voices just right. We are looking forward to a bit of healthy, good spirited, unbiased competition to promote the use of reo in our school - Gooooooo Kauri!!!

This week, for Kids Can, we are inviting students to support a great cause by bringing in a can of food. Students will receive a point for their house for each can of food donated. Collection boxes are set up in the atrium - thank you in advance for your support! Check out this great promotional poster from Zac below!



Ag Day is set to be held on Saturday 27th of October. This is the second Saturday of Term 4. Please lock this date in your diaries, and find details of both the home and school tasks on the Ag Day tab on the blog. It is a fantastic day, and we look forward to seeing what our creative learners come up with this year! 

Badge Assembly will take place on Thursday, 27th September at 11:30. If you have the time, pop in and celebrate our wonderful learners achievements with us.

The last day of school for the term is this Friday 28th September. School will finish at 2pm. Please make sure you have made arrangements for your tamaiti (child) to be collected at the earlier time of 2pm.

Finally, there will be no homework this week. It’s week 10! As always, we still encourage students to foster their love of reading by cozying up with a great book, and maybe play some games that will help reinforce their times tables knowledge (look up greedy pig - it’s a great one and can also be played with dice!)



We wish you all a safe and enjoyable break - hopefully the sun will shine and you have a fabulous (well deserved) break with whānau and full of rekareka (fun).

We wish our Year 5 / 6 Tournament of Minds team, who will be competing in the International competition in Darwin these holidays, all the best! Kia kaha koutou! You will have the most amazing experience!

Ngā Mihi,
Kahurangi Pouako

Thursday 20 September 2018

Apple Distinguished School



Meredith Bean from Apple NZ visited us Yesterday to present Whakarongo with a plaque recognising our accreditation as an Apple Distinguished School. ADS status goes to school who has been recognised for continuous innovation in learning, teaching, and environment.

Monday 17 September 2018

PTA Lunch - 26th September

PTA Lunch - 26 September

Sausages in bread 1 for $2.00
2 for $3.00

Orders close 9am Monday 24 September.

ALL PROFIT GOING TOWARDS YEAR 5 & 6 TOURNAMENT OF MINDS TEAM TRAVELLING TO DARWIN IN OCTOBER.

Sunday 16 September 2018

Rātaka ō te wiki - Wiki Iwa

Kia Ora whānau rāua tamariki,

What a fantastic week we have had in Kahurangi! The weather turned it on for our Winter House Sports, and we saw some fantastic wairua (spirit) shown out on the sports fields. On Thursday we saw some unbelievable costumes to celebrate the Roald Dahl book character dress up day. Well done to everyone - including Pou Jo who was our (well deserved) Staff Pick for her Willy Wonka Costume.


Another celebration is due for our our year 5 / 6 Tournament of Minds team who travelled down to Wellington in the weekend to compete in the National Tournament. They worked hard as a team and earned themselves Honours in their category, as well as the opportunity to compete at the International Tournament in Darwin during the holiday! What an amazing opportunity koutou (we just love this photo of you all looking so proud of yourselves.) We look forward to following your journey and hearing about this once in a lifetime opportunity!



Congratulations also to all of our talented sports people who were recognised over the weekend at various prize givings and events. It is amazing to see you showing panekiretanga (excellence) in performance and attitude in our wider community! Ka mau te wehi (awesome) koutou!

This week we are set to celebrate our ākonga’s learning with Learning Conference’s running from today until Thursday. Bookings are now closed online. If you have not yet booked, but would still like to arrange a time, please contact your child’s pouako directly. Alternatively, you could make a special time with your tamaiti (child) to share their slides at home - we are super proud of the mahi (work) they have been doing and we know you will be also!

Thank you for all those parents who have been able to offer help for our Te Manawa Museum trip next week. We now have enough support to allow us to go on the trip. Yay! Those of you who have offered parent help, please check you have received an email with all the essential information, and contact your child’s pouako if you have any further pātai (questions).

The cost of this visit is $10 - $5 for the bus and $5 for Te Manawa. This cost will be directly added to school accounts.

The visits will rotate in Hapu’s as follows.

Wednesday 19th September
Hapu 18 - 10 am - 11:30 am (Bus to leave WS at 9:30 am and return 12:00 pm)
Hapu 19 - 1 pm - 2:30 pm (Bus to leave WS at 12:30 am and return 3:00 pm)

Thursday 20th September Hapu 20 - 10 am - 11:30 am (Bus to leave WS at 9:30 am and return 12:00 pm)

Ag Day is set to be held on Saturday 27th of October. This is the second Saturday of Term 4. Please lock this date in your diaries, details of both the home and school tasks have been emailed to parents and can be found on the blog under the 'Ag Day' tag. It is a fantastic day, and we look forward to seeing what our creative learners come up with this year!

On Thursday we have a special visitor coming into Kahurangi POD to present Whakarongo School with their Apple Distinguished School Award. Apple Distinguished Schools are centres of innovation, leadership, and educational excellence that use Apple products to inspire creativity, 
collaboration, and critical thinking. The selection of Whakarongo as an Apple Distinguished School highlights our success as an innovative and 
compelling learning environment that engages students and provides tangible evidence of academic accomplishment.

Badge Assembly will take place on Thursday, 27th September at 11:30. We would love to see you there to celebrate our student’s achievements.

The last day of school for the term is Friday 28th September. School will finish at 2pm. Please make sure you have made arrangements for your tamaiti (child) to be collected at the earlier time of 2pm. 

Finally, homework this week is all about ‘Old School’ School. To link in with our trip to Te Manawa we are asking our ākonga (learners) to interview their parents about what school was like in the ‘old days’....Have a bit of fun with it! Please find this on the blog under the 'Mahi Kainga' tab.

Ngā Mihi,
Kahurangi Pouako

'Old School' School Homework

Sunday 9 September 2018

Summer Hockey Registrations

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

Rātaka ō te wiki - Wiki Waru

Kia Ora whānau rāua tamariki,

What a fantastic start to the week we have had today with our creative tamariki designing, creating, testing, debugging and refining their ‘egg parachutes’. We had super successful models - keep an eye out on Seesaw for some pics of our amazing innovations!

As some of you may know, this week is Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori language week). This is an opportunity for us to celebrate the Māori language and challenge ourselves to learn some new Reo! We look forward to celebrating this with a fun day of te Reo Māori activities this Wednesday.

Good luck to our Tournament of Minds team who will be travelling to Wellington this weekend to compete in the national tournament. You continue to work hard, showing perseverance and creativity - keep it up guys! We are all so proud.

Learning Conference’s are running in Week 9 from Monday to Thursday. Bookings are available online. It is great to see so many parents have already booked in a time to come and celebrate their tamaiti’s (child’s) learning. Please visit the School Interviews website (www.schoolinterviews.co.nz ) and input the code tzzvp to make a booking. If you have any problems booking online, please contact your Pouako and we can book in for you!

Thank you for all those parents who have been able to offer help for our Te Manawa Museum trip next week. We still require parent help for Hapu’s 18 and 20 for this trip to go ahead so please contact your tamaiti’s (child’s) pouako ASAP if you are available to help out. The cost of this visit is $10 - $5 for the bus and $5 for Te Manawa. This cost will be directly added to school accounts.

The visits will rotate in Hapu’s as follows.

Wednesday 19th September
Hapu 18 - 10 am - 11:30 am (Bus to leave WS at 9:30 am and return 12:00 pm)
Hapu 19 - 1 pm - 2:30 pm (Bus to leave WS at 12:30 am and return 3:00 pm)

Thursday 20th September
Hapu 20 - 10 am - 11:30 am (Bus to leave WS at 9:30 am and return 12:00 pm)

Senior Winter House Sports will be held tomorrow, Tuesday 11th September from 9:30am-2:30pm. We are looking forward to getting outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and getting active together! We invite whānau along to support our ālonga (learners) and cheer them on. Tamariki are to wear their house colours and bring appropriate footwear, extra lunch and plenty of water to keep them going. If it’s another beautiful day we suggest digging out the school hats and sunscreen too just in case #sunsmart!

Book Character Dress Up Day is on this Thursday 13th September. We have heard some excited students talking about their costumes - they may even give Pou Jo a run for her money (keep an eye out for her AMAZING costume!) This day is a chance to dress up and celebrate some of the fantastic Roald Dahl stories we all love. There is no collection of donations so leave the gold coins at home! Those not dressing in character costumes will be required to come in full school uniform.

Summer Hockey registrations are now open on the Sports Blog for those who are interested.

Thank you to those who attended the Navigator Centre Open Night - it sounds like it was a fantastic showcase of what out ākonga (learners) are experiencing in their intermediate years at Whakarongo School. For those interested, you can follow the Navigator Centre and their learning in 2K19! Please find the details on how to do this below.

Homework this week is all about Te Wiki ō te Reo Māori - and building whanaungatanga (relationships) with whānau (family). Please see attached the Te Wiki ō te Reo Māori homework and give it a go with your tamariki - a great chance to celebrate New Zealand’s culture and spend times with those we love. Can’t wait to hear what experiences you have!

Ngā Mihi,
Kahurangi Pouako

Monday 3 September 2018

Sunday 2 September 2018

Rātaka ō te wiki - Wiki Whitu

Kia Ora whānau rāua tamariki,

It is always fantastic to start the week (and the newsletter) off celebrating the achievements of our ākonga (learners). Our Tournament of Minds teams have been working hard with Mrs Zhou preparing for their tournament, and it shone through on Saturday where they placed FIRST in their year levels! Charlotte Burt, Olivia Persson, Hannah McClean, Ella Michie, Prya Simon, Louis Crawford and Lejla Arnautovic-Wootton represented our Year 5 / 6 TOM team. They showed perseverance, collaboration, creativity and panekiretanga (excellence) and came out on top! It will be a busy couple of weeks preparing for the National competition to be held in Wellington. Kia Kaha koutou - we are all behind you!


Congratulations also to our Year 6 representatives for the Super 10 competition held last week. They remained undefeated throughout the tournament - look out next year teams!

Learning Conference’s are running in Week 9 from Monday to Thursday. Bookings are now available online. It is great to see so many parents have already booked in a time to come and celebrate their tamaiti’s (child’s) learning. Please visit the School Interviews website (www.schoolinterviews.co.nz ) and input the code tzzvp to make a booking. If you have any problems booking online, please contact your Pouako.

This week for our Conceptual Curriculum topic, Technological Advances, we are designing our own parachute and safety devices to keep our ‘precious cargo’ safe when dropped from a height. Keep your eyes peeled on Seesaw this week for some fun innovations!

As part of our unit on Technological Advances, we are hoping to visit Te Manawa Museum’s old school - and have a look at how the lives of our tamariki at school have changed over time. There will be a small charge for this visit - we will advise you of this as soon as we finalise costs. We do require parent help for this to go ahead so we are hoping to twist some arms, and have some volunteers for this! The visits will rotate in Hapu’s as follows.

Wednesday 19th September
Hapu 18 - 10 am - 11:30 am (Bus to leave WS at 9:30 am and return 12:00 pm)
Hapu 19 - 1 pm - 2:30 pm (Bus to leave WS at 12:30 am and return 3:00 pm)

Thursday 20th September
Hapu 20 - 10 am - 11:30 am (Bus to leave WS at 9:30 am and return 12:00 pm)
Please contact your tamaiti’s (child’s) pouako (homeroom teachers) to let them know if you are available to assist on the day. This will be a wonderful outside the classroom experience for all so thank you in advance!

The Whakarongo School Intermediate Years Open Night will be held on Wednesday, 5th September from 5:30-7pm in the Navigator Centre.

Senior Winter House Sports will be held on Tuesday 11th September from 9:30am-2:30pm.
This week's homework is set to get our tamariki thinking about the wonderful and talented Roald Dahl - and generate some ideas for Book Character Dress up day which will be held next week on Thursday 13th September. Please find this on the blog.
It contains fun activities such as quizzes, fun facts, word finds and creative writing ideas! Book Character Dress Up Day is a chance to dress up and celebrate some of the fantastic Roald Dahl stories we all love. There is no collection of donations so leave the gold coins at home! Those not dressing in character costumes will be required to come in full school uniform.
We can’t wait to see what wonderful costumes our ākonga (learners) come up with!

Ngā Mihi,
Kahurangi Pouako