April 30th 2025, Week 1
Principal's Message
Term 2 Week 1 2025
Wednesday 30th April
Kia ora koutou
Welcome back to school everyone and a special welcome to our new families who have joined us. Sally in Ruru iti and Aaminah in Ruru 3. Our staff have had a well deserved break and the children are enjoying reconnecting with friends and are ready for a busy term of learning.
We welcome Lydia who is voluntarily supporting us in classrooms during the day and Lara who is running Before School Care this term from 7:30-8:30 daily in the library. We are pleased we are able to continue to provide the before school service for our community at a reasonable rate. If your child is at school before 8.30am they need to attend BSC so they are safe. If you would like to find out more please contact Ann or Hayley in the office, office@northland.school.nz
There is excitement in the Kākā Team for Camp Kaitoke in Upper Hutt. They leave next Tuesday and return on Friday. Camp provides many opportunities for children including coping with being away from home for three nights. They will also experience a range of physical and mental challenges as an individual and as a team member. A huge thank you to Rachel, Lyndsey and Grant for the overall organisation and to the following parents who are attending so we can make this possible; Stewart, Mark, Adam, Sean, Nic, Bridget, Claire, Julie and Aisha. We hope the weather will be settled for the week ahead and everyone has a great experience.
Children are building up their fitness and stamina for the School Cross Country. This will have a different look to how it has been in recent years. This year we will be running it as a whole school event, with all year 1-8 students participating. It will be held at Northland Park. Students will run at the park, surrounding pathways and streets. I would like to thank Neil and Alex for reviewing how we could make this a more inclusive event for the whole school and save money on the cost of buses to and from Karori Park. We look forward to trying something different.
The Northland CHAMP represents our values and our expectations. The bird image is known by all children and reminds us of our ‘ways of being’ at Northland School. Every term we re-establish our routines and remind one another of our expectations for mahi, the playground and how to show respect when we are talking with one another.
Classes and teams discuss ways that the values and expectations are acknowledged and we also celebrate as a school the mahi and values that we see regularly. We encourage you to discuss these expectations with your children.
We want to highlight some of the main communication processes to keep everyone informed.
- School Newsletters this term will be uploaded through the Community Feed on HERO in Weeks 1,2,3, and then fortnightly until the end of the term.
- Team newsletters will be published in Week 3 and 8 and will be uploaded through the Community Feed on HERO.
- Teachers will post information for class trips, activities, resources or help required through the Community Feed on HERO
- Updates about learning will be shared throughout the term by teachers through the Sharing Learning page on HERO. You can comment on these posts.
- In the last week of this term Mid Year Reports will be viewed on your child's main page on HERO. Previous years reports are currently offline until we publish at mid year.
If you have any questions or concerns about your child, please follow our process:
- Classroom Teacher as the first point of contact.
- Team Leader/ Deputy Principal if unresolved.
- Principal (if further support is needed). This will ensure the right people can address things efficiently.
Ngā mihi
Andrea
NEW - The Northland School cross country, to be held on Tuesday 13 May, starting at approximately 12:20pm
The cross country will have a different look to how it has been in recent years. This year we will be running it as a whole school event, with all year 1-8 students participating, to be held at Northland Park. Students will run on the park, surrounding pathways and streets. There will be slightly different courses, for different year levels, with the aim of maximising spectator visibility.
Year 1-3 students will run a course entirely within Northland Park. There will be competitive events for year 4-8 students who would like to be considered for selection for Western Zone cross country. The courses have been marked out so for those who are wanting to be considered for selection to the Western Zone Cross Country ( Year 4-8) will be running between 1-3km. There will also be non-competitive events for year 5-8 students.
If we need to postpone because of the weather, our back-up days are Wednesday 14 and Friday 16 May. We welcome your support for your child as they prepare and participate in our school cross country and look forward to seeing many of you at the event. Please see the courses below.
Further details with approximate starting times for each year group will be shared next week in the newsletter.
If you are able to help on the day please contact Neil, neils@northland.school.nz or Alex, alexm@northland.school.nz
1km Lap for Year 4-8 Students
400m Lap for Year 1-3 Students
NEW - Relationships and Sexuality Education
Last year we sought feedback from the community about our Health programmes. We held an information session for parents to outline the variety of programmes we run and give an overview of the Navigating the Journey programme. Teacher and parent feedback has helped us to relook at how we spread the content of our Health programmes across the year. This year we continue with the current curriculum and would like to provide you with the slideshow which gives you information on what is taught within each team.
In Term One the main focus in all teams has been on building a positive learning environment, knowing ourselves and developing relationships with others. We would like to let you know that teams will inform you of the content that will be taught in each term for the remainder of the year. Please contact your classroom teacher if you have any questions when you know what sessions will be taught this term. For some aspects of Navigating the Journey you may want your child to have an alternative activity or require a little extra information on the content.
You may already be aware that the Ministry of Education is drafting a revised framework for this area of the curriculum. The Ministry is also interested in feedback from school communities, and have invited whānau to have their say through social media. If you are interested in providing feedback please refer to the link below.
The draft framework for relationships and sexuality education (RSE) is open for feedback until 9 May. The framework aims to provide consistent, age-appropriate and evidence-informed content from Years 0 to 13.
Consultation open for draft relationships and sexuality education framework – Ministry of Education
NEW - Library News
Welcome to Term 2. A few things are happening in the library this term.
HELL Pizza Reading Challenge
The 2025 HELL Reading Challenge is back!! Students receive a stamp on their pizza wheel for each book they read from Term 2 onwards. Once they have read seven books, they can exchange their completed wheel for a free 333 kids’ pizza at HELL Pizza. The pizza wheel is available from the library. This challenge runs for the whole year. There is no limit to the number of pizza wheels each student can complete within the year.
For the younger students who still cannot read nor write, they can come to Erwin to retell a story that has been read to them or they can challenge themselves to try and read the book to Erwin. Older students need to write a quick book review about the book they read. Book review forms come with the pizza wheel. Submit it to Erwin and their pizza wheel will be stamped and signed.
What's New?
Have you ever wondered who would win if a lion had a fight with a tiger? Or a komodo dragon vs. a king cobra? How about a tarantula against a scorpion? Who do you think will win?
Our school library now has these fascinating fact books that would reveal all. These “Who Would Win? “ books are found in the Junior Non-fiction section of the library. Come and have a read.
HERO
We would like to provide you with a brief outline of all the functions that we are now using on HERO. Please make sure that you are signed up and have notifications on so you can access all the information.
As we progress in our upgrades with HERO we are adding new features to streamline communications.
- Attendance
- Enrolment
- Sharing of Learning
- Community notices
- Group, Class, Team notices
- Trips and request for parent help
- School event reminders and parent information evenings
- Finance
In the financial section you will notice we have added Before School Care (BSC), Pizza payments and all our Western Zone Bus payments. You can check your school account at any time through the App and we will send statements at the beginning and end of each term.
Please come and talk to us if you need help navigating the HERO App.
School Lunch Options
Subway - Every Monday - order online through www.lunchonline.co.nz
Sushi - Every Tuesday - order online through www.ezlunch.co.nz
Pizza - Once a month - available the 1st Friday of each month, $6 per pizza order forms available on the school website or in the school office.
Apps available for Subway and Sushi through the school website.
Term Dates
The bell rings at 8:50 am. Any student arriving after this time will need to sign in at the office and will be marked late. We encourage students to arrive by 8:30 am to meet with friends and get ready for the day. Lessons will begin at 9am.
Before School Care available from 7:30 am -8:30 am in the Library. Please email the office for further details, office@northland.school.nz
Term 2
Kings Birthday - Monday 2nd June
Matariki Holiday - Friday 20th June
Teacher Only Day - Friday 27th June - (Mathematics curriculum)
Term 2 - 28th April - Thursday 26th June - last day of term
Term 3
Teacher Only Day - Friday 22nd August (Mathematics curriculum)
Term 3 - 14th July - 19th September
Term 4
Labour Day - Monday 27th October
Term 4 - 6th October - 17th December
CAMP DATES
Year 7 / 8 Camp - Term 2 Kaitoke 6th May- 9th May 2025
Year 5 / 6 Camp - Term 4 Forest Lakes 29th October - 31st October 2025