July 16th 2025, Week 1

Principal's Message

Term 3 Week 9 2025

Wednesday 16th July

Kia ora koutou

Welcome back to school. We are pleased that the break has helped to put a halt to some of the sickness that was throughout the teams near the end of the term.  A very warm welcome to Anna Lewis who is teaching in Ruru Iti for the remainder of the year. She is joined by the following students who have started school this week, Madison, Scarlett, Annabelle and Anja.

Our staff have had some time to relax and to attend an excellent first aid course during the break. This is to ensure we are all up to date with current practice that is relevant to our school environment. A timely reminder to our community that we do have a defibrillator on site. It provides very clear instructions if you ever need to use it. During our course all staff received training in how to use this in an emergency. 

Children have returned from the break and are very pleased to connect with friends. Fortunately they have been able to play outside and make the most of the variety of equipment provided over the last few days.  While we appreciate the weather in Wellington has been very mixed, today we have blue sky!

I would like to thank Tony, our caretaker, for supporting the Volunteer Gardening group from St Anne’s Anglican Church who spent time in our school gardens over the holidays. We appreciate your support. Last year we had a number of parents who supported us with a few native plants and their time to help us maintain our gardens. If you are able to help in anyway please contact the office.

This term we have a variety of events on, that include: the Kapa Haka festival, DanceSplash for our Year 3 students, Artsplash Choir for our Year 4 students, Science Fair and Mathswell competitions for our Year 5-8 students. Further details will be shared on HERO for those participating in any of these events closer to the time. These are all on the school calendar. 

Our mihi whakatau will take place on Friday 25th July from 9-10am to welcome a number of new children and families to Northland School. This is led by students and is a highlight for everyone.  You are all welcome to attend as tangata whenua if you have been already welcomed to the school..

At the end of last term we uploaded all Mid Year Reports in Reading, Writing and Maths onto HERO. Thank you for some of the comments that you have provided to teachers on HERO. If you do have questions or need clarification please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible. 

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 - School Board Elections

Every three years, state school communities elect their parent and staff representatives to help govern their schools. This year the School Board Elections are happening in September. If you would like to learn more about School Board responsibilities, our current Board members are very happy to be flexible with a variety of options (e.g. phone calls, meeting parents at drop off/pick up time at school or meeting in the city during the day for coffee). This would be a very informal discussion about what it's like to be on a School Board and what it entails and answer any questions you may have. We are always looking for variety and different areas of experience to help our Board be well balanced and represent our school community. Below are the contact details for a few of our parent Board members.

• Jono W        027 645 8306
• Deborah Q  021 709 467
• Katie C-S      027 513 2951

Some current Board members will also be available in the staff room on 18th July from 2.30pm onwards, and 24th July from 9am onwards for parents to come and hear about the role of the School Board, and Board members will also be present at the Whānau hui on July 29th.

A quick timeline for the Elections 

• 16 July    Call for Nominations
• 06 Aug    Nominations Close  (Roll is closed for voting)
• 13 Aug    Voting papers sent out 
• 10 Sep    Voting Closes 4pm 

For further information on the role that School Boards play in the governance of a school, and what the work of the Board looks like, see Kōrari for Aspiring Board Members Webinar, Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa - NZ School Boards Association — What are school boards? and Community-member-guide-to-the-role-of-the-board-of-trustees_Sept-2020-v2.pdf

NEW - Northland School Board Election - Parent notice

Northland School
School Board Elections

Parent Election Notice

Nominations are open for the election of three (3) parent representatives to the school
board.

All eligible voters will receive this nomination form. Use this form to nominate yourself or
someone in your community. Information on who is not eligible to be a board member is
provided with this notice.

If you need more nomination forms, contact the school office.

Nominations close at noon on Wednesday 6 August. You may provide a signed candidate
statement and photograph with your nomination.

The electoral roll is held at the school and can be viewed during normal school hours.

As nominations are received, there will be a list of candidates’ names kept at the school up
until election day, which you can view.

Voting closes at 12pm on Wednesday 10 September 2025

Signed Ann Dalton
Returning Officer

NEW - Netball for Years 1 & 2

Calling all year 1 and 2  future netballers!

If your child could be interested in playing netball for Northland school, now is a great chance
to give it a go and see what it's all about.
Sessions will be held straight after school, starting next Monday 21st July for 5 weeks. Our
focus will be having fun and learning basic skills. Sessions will be led by yr 7 Star Helpers,
supported by the yr 8 team's coach Claire. Parents / carers are very welcome to come along
and participation is encouraged!

Key information:
● Sessions are free and run Mondays, 21st July - 18th August
● Time: 3pm for about 40 mins
● The game is played using soft balls, hula hoops and a lot of laughing
● Two fun festival days held at Cardinal McKeefry School on Saturdays 16th & 23rd
August, with a rain date of 30th August.
● To sign up or for more information, see: https://www.sporty.co.nz/northland
If you have any questions, please contact Christina Young on 021 494 039 or email:
christinayoungnz@gmail.com

NEW - Save the Date – Northland School Disco Friday August 15th

Our school disco will be on Friday August 15th and thanks to Cameron MacEachen of Handy Rentals (and a Northland School parent), this year’s disco is once again free! Koha is welcome if you wish.

We will need you to fill out a permission and contact form, so we know how many students to expect and supervise, and so we will know who will drop off and pick up your child. Please ensure you complete this information. We will have the permission and contact form sent out on Hero later this week.

Handy Rentals are also kindly providing a small bag of snacks for each student, please note this is not dinner and everyone will need to eat beforehand - and make sure to bring along a named drink bottle.

Years 1-4: 5:30 – 6:30pm

Years 5-8: 7 – 8:30pm

Please encourage your children to submit their favourite songs to their teacher who will collate for the DJ, and for those who would like some quiet space, the library will be available throughout both discos. Spot prizes will be given out on the night so break out your best dance moves! 

While parents do not need to remain on site, we do need at least 10 parents to supervise both the year 1-4 and year 5-8 disco. For parents whose children would prefer you to stay on site, you're more than welcome to help supervise the disco, or alternatively, you can have tea or coffee in the library and chat with the other parents.

If you're available to help the PTA set up the disco, supervise, and/or clean up afterwards please get in touch parentandschool@northland.school.n

NEW - Pizza Friday 1st August

All pizzas must be ordered by 1pm Wednesday 30th July, we are unable to process late orders. This is to help with making orders easier due to the sheer amount of pizzas arriving. 

The process is you pay online and we have paper slips in the school office to be filled in before 1pm on the Wednesday. 

We also had pizzas ordered with no payment AND payments with no order, please make sure you remember to pay AND order. 

REPEAT - Kidz Club After School Care pickup update

This term kidz club after school care will be meeting the children in the school Library. This is to keep them warm and dry before heading to After School Care. In term 4 they will meet at the Tiger Turf.

Library News

Scholastic Book Club Term 3 2025 - Issue  5 is out now!

Term 3 Issue 5 2025 catalogues have been distributed in your child's class. Deadline for orders is on 1 August.  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.scholastic.co.nz/Parent/Login.aspx to register. 

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.school.nz

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 3 -  14th July - 19th September

• Teacher Only Day - Friday 22nd August (Mathematics curriculum)

Term 4 - 6th October - 17th December

• Labour Day - Monday 27th October

CAMP DATES 

• Year 5 / 6 Camp - Term 4 Forest Lakes 28th October - 30th October 2025
  

Community Notices