14 February 2024 Week 3
Principal's Message
Kia ora Koutou
We are in the middle of the first full week of school and enjoying the settled weather that is enabling plenty of outside time and full use of Northland Park. It is great to see a variety of games being played and the added bonus of a cricket boundary mowed at the park by one of our parents.
We are sure there are parents who have passion and skills in many sports and encourage you to let us know if you are able to come and take a game during a break or coach a small group of children. Please contact your child’s teacher if you are able to help.
HERO is our main platform for communication. We are developing the sharing of learning feature this term. We heard from you during our community consultation that you would like more regular updates on your child’s progress. The sharing learning page can include photos, and comments in a similar way to Seesaw. We encourage you to comment when you receive a post, during next week you will receive a post focusing on how your child has settled into the year and the routines.
During the next two weeks we will be carrying out a number of our health and safety drills to ensure that all staff and students know how to respond if there is an earthquake, fire or we need to evacuate for a period of time. The drills help us to review our processes and update any changes we need to make. It is important that we have all up to date contacts and medical information from you. The first drill will be a fire drill evacuation and then an earthquake drill next week. In each learning space we have our procedures visible. We know these drills can cause some anxiety for students, you may like to have a discussion at home to reassure your child why we follow procedures to keep ourselves safe.
Last year our talented music group learnt a number of new songs and created an album called Brain Storm, raising money for a charity that supports people suffering from brain cancer, the NZ Brain Tumour Trust. The group raised $1250 for the Brain Tumour Trust and Chris Tse, Chair and founding Trustee was delighted about the efforts from Northland School.
We will be playing the album during the picnic tomorrow so you will hear popular classics by Pink, Taylor Swift, Sia, Coldplay, the Chainsmokers, the Lumineers and Keane.
This year we have chosen to fundraise through music for the “I Am Hope” foundation for youth mental health. They heard about our music fundraising projects and they’d love to be the recipient of a musical project too. We are very grateful to Eleanore Walker, one of our parents who is using some of her Volunteer project time to meet weekly with a group of students to sing together and work towards producing an album.
Our Kapa haka will be performing tomorrow and we are looking forward to seeing many families gather on the courts. If you are keen to see the upgrade of rooms 1-3 just next to the office you are very welcome. I would like to thank Matt Bernon one or our parents for his plumbing work and contribution to supporting the school.
Thanks to the Home and School group for organising Mr Whippy to attend tomorrow, there will be an opportunity to talk to parents on the committee tomorrow evening. The first meeting of the year is on Tuesday 27 February at 7:30pm in the staffroom – all are welcome and we encourage you to come along to find out more about it.
Let’s hope the wind settles for the evening and we can enjoy a picnic, Mr Whippy, and meet parents and staff tomorrow.
Team Newsletters will be sent out on HERO by the end of the week and the next school newsletter will be Week 5 Wednesday 28th February.
Ngā mihi nui
Andrea
Northland Champs
Expectations for our playground are visible around the school, we are acknowleging Northland Champs who are showing the importance of rules for games so that everyone knows how to play and can participate as a team member.
Whānau Picnic
We are looking forward to enjoying a picnic tomorrow, Thursday 15th February on the courts so families and staff can mix and mingle. Each team will share with you the class routine, expectations and the teaching focus for this term. It is also a chance to hear from the teachers and ask any questions if you need further information. Presentations will also be sent home via HERO on Friday for all families to ensure everyone has team information.
We will cook sausages and provide bread and sauce to add to your family picnic. Koha would be appreciated. Mr Whippy will be in the carpark
5 - 5:45 - Picnic on the courts
5:45 - Kapa Haka
6:00 - Andrea, Judith, Grant share the key areas of focus for 2024 in Te Kōhanga.
6:20 - 7:00 Whānau can go and visit a team
- Ruru - Judith, Emma C, Angela, Alex
- Kōtare/ Tieke ( Year 4-6) Grant, Jane, Alex
- Kākā ( Y7-8) Charles, Lyndsey, Rachel - Rooms 5-7
We Need Your Help
Can you help us?
Gardening:
Last year we made an excellent start in planting around the school to improve our environment, with generous donations of soil, mulch, compost, plants and time! So firstly, thank you!
However, over the holidays the weeds have set in! We have a very keen group of students ready to fix this, however we are lacking in gardening equipment.
We are looking for any donations of:
- Hand forks
- Trowels
- Handheld weeding tools
- Larger garden forks
Computer Mice:
Do you have any old wired computer mice lying around at home or at the office? We would love to take them off your hands to help with our Minecraft education programme.
We are looking for really basic usb plug and play wired mice. We are happy to take them apart and give them a clean, so don’t worry about dust or grime!
If you can help us with either gardening tools or computer mice, please either email Lyndsey lyndseyb@northland.school.nz or bring them down to Kākā 7.
Thank you! And keep your eyes out for gardening project updates and how you can get involved!
Tennis balls:
We are on the search for tennis balls. If you have access to any used tennis balls and are willing to donate these to the school, we would be very grateful. Thank you Angela Scholten Team Ruru.
Library News
Scholastic Book Club Term 1 2024 - Issue 1 is out now!
Term 1 Issue 1 2024 catalogues have been distributed in your child's class. Deadline for orders is on 23 February. Please note that we do not take paper order forms or cash payments - all orders are done online via LOOP. Please go to https://mybookclub.
Should you wish to gift the books you ordered to someone, please place your order then email Erwin so she knows. When the order has arrived, she can then put it aside and get in touch with you so you can come and pick it up. Any other queries to Erwin Palado by emailing librarian@northland.
Sports News
Weetbix Tri-athalon
I have created a Weetbix Tryatholon school group, so please make sure to sign your student up through our school group. The tryatholon is on Sunday the 17th of March 2024. It's an engaging and fun event for kids of all ages. More information can be found here: https://tryathlon.co.nz/locations/wellington/
email rachelp@northland.school.nz
We will have updates coming soon with all our school sporting events starting in March.
Red Bin Donations
The red bin is coming back! It will be parked at the Tiger Turf entrance to school from Thursday 15 February - Thursday 22 February. All clean, good condition clothing and shoes are welcome. For the first term you can also include usable back to school supplies such as stationary or backpacks. The red bin will be available one week each term and items collected are donated to our partner school in the Wellington area. If you have any questions or have a large donation, give Deborah a text or call on 021709467. Thank you!
Home & School
The first meeting of the year is on Tuesday 27 February at 7:30pm in the staffroom – all are welcome and we encourage you to come along to find out more about it.
Hoodies T'Shirts Hats
We can take orders all year round. In addition to this there will be 3 special discount weeks next year. The last week of Term 1, 2 and 3 will offer a 10% discounted ordering week and free shipping directly to school.
https://www.theoutfitters.nz/collections/northland-school-uniform?ls=MI69jVtWRpu2rkXtxr7f7g
Northland School doesn’t have a school uniform, so purchasing these items is completely optional. For those of you with children participating in sporting events, you can choose to purchase your own school sports shirt or borrow one from the office.
We've registered with The Fundraising Shop - We're excited to let you know we've registered our school with www.
If you have any questions please contact homeandschool@
School Calendar
https://www.northland.school.nz/events/month/
This is the link to the school calendar that is on our school website under News & Events. If you select the calendar and then select List, it provides a list of monthly events, which is updated weekly.
Term Dates
2024 Dates
Term 1 Wednesday 31 January-Friday 12 April
Term 2 Monday 29 April - Friday 5 July
Term 3 Monday 22 July - Friday 27 Sept
Term 4 Monday 14 October - Wednesday 18 Dec
Our teacher only days are
Term 1 Thursday 28 March (Easter Break Friday 29 March to Tuesday 2 April)
Term 2 Friday 31 May
Term 3 Friday 30 August
Term 4 Tuesday 29 October
Community Notices
KELLY SPORTS TERM 1 – BACK TO SCHOOL SPORTS!!
Kelly Sports is back for Term 1 with our fun and exciting classes!. Kelly Sports encourages children to have fun, build confidence and to give sport a go. We believe that sport and physical activity has so much to offer young people; it improves fitness, develops communication skills, team work and gives them a place to channel their energy.
Sessions start on Monday 12 February 2024 and run for 8 weeks.
visit www.kellysports.co.nz email adminwgtn@kellysports.co.nz.