Panui - Term 1, Week 9, 2025
The end of Term 1 is upon us!
You will see the work on our court is well underway - special thanks to our business sponsors along with Doug Out and his team for getting this underway. The turf will be laid in the next few weeks and sponsorship signs erected...we are super excited and look forward to sharing updates with you. While we are stoked with the progress, a wee apology to our neighbours. The 4am wake up when the concrete was poured was a bit of a surprise to all of us. Thank you for your understanding!
Not such great news to update on the classroom upgrade front! The paperwork and permits are now finalised, however, there is now a delay on the builders end. So unfortunately it doesn't look like this will start until the end of the year. We are gutted to say the least - however - in true Tawhiti style we will roll with the punches! Rata and Kowhai will move back into these classes from Term 2 until we have further updates. This was a project that started in Mrs Rileys days of Principalship, given I have now been in the job 5 years, surely we must get it over the line sometime soon! This does mean our hall is back in action from Term 2. We will start the term with an assembly to finally give out the new learner awards, leadership badges and Tawhiti learner awards from Term 1.
A wee request from us to help keep our tamariki safe: please consider where you are parking when collecting children from school. We have parents parking right on corners as well as over yellow lines. There will be police visits monitoring this over the next wee while.
We farewell Courtney Phillips, one of our Learning Assistants, at the end of this term. Her children are still with us so we will still see her around the place. Good luck with your new journey Courtney.
Lastly well done to our Weetbix tryathletes last week...I am proud of you all for getting out there and doing your thing at this event.
If I don't see you beforehand, have a wonderful and safe holiday.
Sarah
What is our attendance as a school currently looking like?
We know there have been some icky bugs going around. However, we have still seen an improvement in attendance across the school, so we thank you for the collective effort and clear communication in this area.
🟩 ✅ Green Zone (210 children - 75% of our children). This is a jump up from 70% last time!
🟨 ⚠️Yellow Zone (51 children - 18% of our children)
🟧 🔶Orange Zone (14 children - 5% of our children)
🟥 🚨Red Zone (5 children - 2% of our children)
Whanau hui
There will be an opportunity to connect with your child's teacher and discuss progress at the start of next term. Each teacher will have one full day of appointment slots (8:30-3) as well as one evening (3:30-5). The day for each class will be different as this enables us to keep the school open and operational using relievers. The afternoon that teachers will be available will be the same for all teachers and will be Thursday 1st May. Bookings will open up on HERO in the second week of the holidays.
End of year camps
At the beginning of next term all teachers will send out information about end of year camps. In order to stop a fundraising overload, we are coordinating our fundraising across the school rather than leaving this up to individual classes. Therefore this year, the fundraising for all camps will be made up from what is earned in the school fun run (this is our major camp fundraiser), money raised from our market day which is held on grandparents day, and from 1 pizza lunch each. We will also send home a personal camp sponsorship form if you wish to do this for your own child to help with the cost of camp. Amounts will be confirmed at the start of next term and we encourage all families to starting making automatic payments throughout the remainder of the year. We look forward to some more memorable experiences and I thank my teachers for the time and effort they put into making these happen.
ANZAC day
This year ANZAC day falls in the school holidays. Our school leaders will be attending the Dawn Service and laying a wreath. We invite any other children who wish to march and join us to do so. Please meet at 6.15am at the Ngatai Ruanui building in Princes Street, wearing your school uniform.
Our school colour run fundraising event will be held next Friday, April 11th at 1pm. A huge thank you to Sheri for her time and energy organising this event - I am sure it will be a goodie!
Fundraising Update
Thank you to everyone for their mammoth effort with fundraising. We have reached our goal of $3500 towards sports uniforms so everything raised from this point onwards will go towards class camps. To celebrate the children's fundraising efforts we slimed some teachers last week. There is more sliming on the cards again this week...another $2000 raised and I believe its my head on the line...cant wait lol!
Class camp fundraising amounts to date: Total across the school $6700.
Kahikatea $1140, Pohutukawa $794, Kauri $741, Nikau $693, Rewarewa $627, Totara $585, Kowhai $498, Kawakawa $414, Rimu $390, Manuka $329, Rata $317, and Puriri $207.
About the Day
- Children should come to school in their uniform BUT bring a change of clothes to wear for the run. We recommend a white or light-coloured t-shirt to show off the vibrant colours best. However, any clothing is acceptable.
- Shoes are recommended to be worn
- The course will start on the school field and extend onto Glasgow street down to the farm we use for cross country. For safety, please do not park on Glasgow Street where cones will be set up.
- Parents and whānau are welcome to join us. If you would like to help out and volunteer on the day, please reach out to Sheri - sheri@tawhiti.school.nz.
- The PTA has organised a food stall, and pre-orders will be accepted before school on Thursday April 10th and Friday April 11th; Sausages $3, Drinks $2 and Iceblocks $2.
Donations
Students can continue to fundraise until Sunday, April 13th, so don't forget to promote their fundraising links even after the event. As mentioned above, this will be our major fundraising event for camps this year.
Prizes
Prize selection will open on Friday April 4th and remain open until April 13th. To ensure children receive their desired prize, please make submissions online. Prizes will be distributed after the school holidays in Term 2.
Help Tawhiti take out the title! Start collecting today...
Next term we are involved in a milk top recycling challenge! We want to collect as many milk bottle tops as we can. The STDC has prizes of up to $1000 for the school that collects the most.
Get the whole whānau involved. Collect the milk tops off empty milk bottles, give them a quick rinse, let them air dry, and then bring them into school and empty them into the collection bin in our office.
We accept all coloured tops from dairy milk and cream plastic bottles. Boring Oat Milk and other alternative milk that comes in plastic bottles are also okay, but no boxed/liquid paperboard milk lids please. They must be the standard size that would be found on a 1,2, or 3-litre bottle
Milk bottle lids are too small to be recycled through kerbside recycling. Often these are put back onto empty bottles and put in our recycling bins. This means the recycling is contaminated and cannot be recycled, instead ending up in landfill. We are here to help solve the problem!
One of our Mums, Molly Selway, will be climbing the Auckland Sky Tower on the 24th May in full firefighting kit and breathing apparatus to raise funds and awareness for Leukemia and Blood Cancer NZ. The link to my fundraising page is below if you are willing or able to support her: