Issue 14: Week 4, Term 2 2025

Principal's Message - Karere a te Tumuaki

Kia ora e te whānau,

Our week began with some enthusiastic energy from Mr Dyer, who arrived at school grinning from ear to ear on Monday morning. His beloved football team Crystal Palace made history by winning the FA Cup Final for the first time ever – a huge deal in the footballing world. Though, it’s fair to say the Man City fans among our students weren’t quite as thrilled by his celebrations!

On Monday night we held our first Ag Day planning meeting for the year – thank you so much to everyone who came along or got in touch to offer their help. We are always so grateful for the support of our school community. One of the things we discussed was getting your input into what the proceeds from the 2025 (and 2026) Ag Day funds should go toward. When we sent out a similar survey in 2023, your feedback helped us achieve some awesome projects such as:

• Installing droppers and marine carpet in the Junior Courtyard

• Purchasing a defibrillator for the school

• Buying new Kapa Haka uniforms

• Laying artificial grass under the Kōkako canopy (no more mud!)

• Creating planter boxes and seating on the top flat

We’d love to hear your thoughts again, so please take a few minutes to complete the new survey – your voice genuinely makes a difference. Link to survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1xWAJxeWihujBXs2CEPQHmM7nowGuPjLuyB7ZxvC10euJow/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=102164993313008743719

We are also now able to share our 2026 Term Dates with you. This link outlines all the relevant information, including public holidays both in holiday and term time - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1udfsVxOmDM7BQ1SkUZ5ALadzExwrWcSHutIBAl2B0qA/edit?tab=t.0 .

You’ll see that we are starting and finishing on a Monday – Monday 2nd February to Monday 14th December. After reviewing the options, this setup made the most sense, with a smooth start to the year followed by Waitangi Day on the Friday. It also gives our Intermediates a full week to settle in before heading off to camp – always a great way to begin their senior journey.

Reminder: Next Friday is a Teacher Only Day – school will be closed for instruction. We appreciate your support as our teachers continue to engage with the newly refreshed Maths curriculum.

We also have a large group of Year 5&6 students at the ECCS Netball Funday at Bruce Pulman today. I am excited to be going along for the day to help Mrs Redshaw and our awesome parent volunteers - whistle in pocket in case I'm needed to umpire throughout the day! No doubt we'll have some photos to share with you in next week's newsletter.

Lastly, thanks to all those who supported the Pink Shirt Day cause on Friday. We raised $219.40 and because we sent it in on the same day, our donation amount was doubled by a company also supporting the cause - ka nui te mihi (thank you very much)!

Anna Powrie

Celebrating Learning and Achievement

Assembly Certificate Recipients from 16th May 

Notes from the Office

Ag Day - Saturday 13th September

• Congratulations to Sarah Sutherland - Chairperson and Katey Pope - Secretary who are heading our Ag Day Committee, as voted in at the meeting.
• Entry Form and Information Booklet - the office and committee are currently working on producing a booklet with all the information you may need to know e.g. animal care, projects, stall information. We hope to have the booklet out in a couple of weeks.
• Animals - children are given the opportunity over proceeding months to rear, train and prepare calves, lambs, goats and chickens. Lambs and goats do not have any set dates to be born, however, they must be this seasons. Calves must be born between 1st June and 31st August. Chickens are to be ordered through the school. More information will be in the information booklet.
• Trophies - if you received a trophy last year, please can you polish it up and return to the office. You get to keep the miniature you were awarded last year.

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