Panui - Term 2, Week 3, 2025
We wrapped up Term 1 with our colour run, and it was a huge hit with our tamariki and wider school whānau. Thanks to your generous support, we raised enough to purchase new rugby uniforms, some much-needed sports jackets, and put nearly $9000 towards our school camps. We expect the prizes to arrive in the next 2-3 weeks. There are further details about school camps later in this newsletter.
Term 2 has started well with learning programmes humming across the kura. In Week 1, we welcomed a new cohort of 5 year olds and their whanau to the team - Molly Wineera, Rosie Dickson, Taihamoa Hori-Christie, and Nekai Skipworth. Nau mai, haere mai ki te kura o Tawhiti. We also warmly welcome 3 new support staff members - Natalee Puku, Maria Christie, and Linton Price to our team.
The focus of our unit this term is Puanga. As part of this unit we will be having a celebration event on Thursday 19th June. Together as a kura, we will remember loved ones who have passed, enjoy some performances, and share some kai which our children will prepare together. Something to look forward to, alongside the many sporting events and a PTA quiz night scheduled for Term 2.
Celebrations of success...
- A special shout out to Huxley Hikaka who recently competed in the NoJi Jiu Jitsu Nationals - placing 1st! Eli Lasike and Maverick Medway also did exceptionally well, placing 2nd in their age divisions. Tu meke koutou.
- I would like to recognise the leadership of Wiremu Luke-Brown, Ezekiel Rowell, Frankie Broughton, Willow Gibb, and Millie Dawson. These learners have been leading our mihi whakatau to welcome new staff, students, and visitors to our kura. Kei runga noa atu koutou! Thank you for helping us live our values.
Court update
Our brand-new court turf is complete — and it looks amazing! This upgrade is a real asset for both our school and wider community.
A huge thank you to Sheri Hughes for her incredible mahi in coordinating and leading this project, our PTA for their fundraising efforts, our Board of Trustees for their financial contribution, and to the Toi Foundation, Pelorus Trust, Pub Charities, and our generous local business sponsors for helping bring this dream to life. We are so grateful to everyone who played a part!
We can’t wait to see it in action — starting with our first interschool netball game this Wednesday!
We’re pleased to share that 71% of our students had regular attendance (over 90%) in Term 1 — a great improvement from 64% at the same time last year. It’s encouraging to see 90% of students arriving on time to class, helping create smooth and settled starts to the day.
The most common reason for absence continues to be illness (59%), followed by holidays taken during term time. As we head into the winter months, we understand bugs will be about — but every school day still counts!
Here are a few helpful tips to support attendance this term:
✔ Keep kids home if they have a fever, vomiting, or are too unwell to learn
✔ Mild coughs and sniffles? If they’re otherwise happy and energetic, school is fine. We will send them home if they become miserable.
✔ Establish regular sleep and morning routines to help with smooth starts
✔ Let us know early if your child is struggling with health or anxiety about school — we’re here to help
Thank you for your ongoing support in making sure our tamariki are at school, on time, and ready to learn!
You may have heard that the New Zealand Curriculum is being refreshed.
One of the biggest changes is a shift to more detailed learning progressions, meaning learning is now broken down into smaller, clearer steps (similar in nature to the progressions we have always had in place at Tawhiti). There is a noticeable lift in expectations of achievement with the new curriculum.
We encourage you to check out the Ministry of Education’s parent portal to learn more about the changes and how they affect your child’s learning:
🔗 https://curriculumrefresh.education.govt.nz/parents-whanau
Mid-year is the first time we will be reporting using the new curriculum. New graphs will be used that align with the new curriculum. /the goalposts of where children should be achieving have changed, this means you cannot compare children's achievement to their historical results. What we can tell you is they are all progressing with their learning despite the new benchmarks in place. The MOE's communications on this are as follows:
We’ll continue to keep you updated as we implement the refreshed curriculum across the school. As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Below are the costs for camp. These costs factor in the fundraising done as well as an estimate of how much will be made in the fundraisers planned between now and the end of the year (pizza lunches, grandparents day kai etc). Some awesome reductions!
Payments towards camp can be made at any time. If you wish to do further fundraising for your own child you are welcome to run a lotto drop or complete the sponsorship sheet attached. This is completely up to you and your whanau.
We are so grateful for the amazing support our whānau offer when it comes to school camps — we truly couldn’t do it without you! If you’re keen to help out this year, please ensure you have a current police vet with the school.
As much as we’d love to take everyone who offers to help, space and logistics mean that’s just not possible. If we have more offers than we need, a ballot system will be used. We really don’t enjoy having to do this, but we do our best to make it fair by considering things like gender balance, ability to transport children, and the support and fundraising you’ve already contributed. Thank you for your understanding.