One more sleep - make it a good one! Here are the final reminders for tomorrow, Monday... 

Arrive at school at 8am

• Take your luggage to the buses on Eastern Tce. It doesn't matter which bus your gear goes in.
• Baking and meals to the maker-space
• Medication in a labeled zip-lock bag, to be given to your home-group teacher
• Go to your home-group meeting space with your daypack
• You need your lunch for the first day

Those who are in teams to play against Carisbrook School, make sure you bring sports uniforms if you have these at home. Pack this in with your luggage.

If you need to get in touch with us, Nicky's number is 0276229403

 Bumper Issue!

• Camp
• Uniform
• Athletics
• Cultural Festival
• Penguin
• Gear list

Camp

Just five sleeps and we will be on our way. Are we excited or are we excited!  Below are final important reminders for Monday:

All gear needs to be well labeled and securely packed. We have spare gear lists in the hub if your child has lost theirs or you can find a digital copy of the gear list at the very bottom of this post. We haven't heard from anyone who needs a waterproof coat - let us know ASAP if your child needs to borrow one.

Children will need a day pack containing; their lunch, drink bottle, entertainment for the bus, waterproof coat, sun hat and warm top.

Please bring baking on Monday and take it to the maker-space. Many thanks to those who have offered to prepare meals. We still need a few more offers, especially for cottage pies. Please click here if you can help. We have had plenty of chilly-bin offers. Hannah will be emailing everyone who has offered to prepare meals or supply chilly bins with further information tonight.

Any medication needs to be in a labeled bag with name and dosage/frequency. This is to be handed in to your child’s home-group teacher on arrival to school on Monday.

Electronic devices on camp are just for use on the trip there and back. Devices will be collected in for the duration of camp. Individuals will be able to use phones to call home in the evenings if they really need to. On the bus, there is to be no messaging or posting to social media. The device is simply for playing games, listening to music etc. Please also remind them to name and pack their charger.

Teachers will have cellphones on us at all times. If you need to make contact call Nicky on 0276229403.

We will send camp news and photos when we can so you can have a peek at what we are doing.

Children need to be at school by 8:00 on Monday. They take their bags to the buses on Sandwich Rd, and it doesn't matter which bus gear goes on. They keep their day packs with them. They take baking and meals to the maker-space and then go straight to their homegroup meeting place.

We plan to get back between 5 and 5:30 on Friday. Keep an eye on your emails for a more accurate arrival time on Friday.

Most days the children will have a packed lunch. We would like them to bring a lunchbox, wax wraps if they have them, or a zip lock bag, etc to keep a roll or wrap in. We will have glad-wrap as a backup for children who need it. It is really important that everyone has a named drink bottle.

While we would prefer not to have additional sugar on camp, we understand that some children would like to bring sweets to camp. If you decide to send sweets to camp the children will be able to consume these in their bunkroom. If they bring more than a 200-250gm bag, these will be taken off them and given back to them at the end of camp. Remember that we will also have home baking every day and that we don't get to sleep until your children are asleep - excessive sugar can prevent that. No gum!!  

Below is the slideshow we have been going through with the children this week. It provides a good overview of our camp.

Wearing correct uniform

Hoodies are not part of our school uniform. Children should be wearing school jackets. We understand that for Year 8s, replacing a missing jacket at this stage is out of the question. If this is the case for your child, please let us know. A plain red or black sweatshirt / jacket will be fine, however if they have a school jacket - this is what they need to wear. Please email your child's teacher if they need to be wearing a non-school red or black jacket.

This is the term of the sunhat. Please make sure your child has a named wide-brimmed sunhat at school each day. 

Athletics Day

Whole Kura Athletics Day - Friday 30th October

Postponement Date: Tuesday 3rd November

This event will go ahead as planned if we are at Alert Level 1. If we are at Alert Level 2, Years 5 - 8 will compete without spectators and events for Years 0 - 4 will be postponed to a time when we are in Level 1.  

Our whole kura athletics day provides an opportunity for our tamariki to participate in an athletics event. Our PE focus in the lessons leading up to this event is on the movement skills required to participate safely and to the best of our ability. The focus of the event is on fun and inclusion. Years 0 to 4 will be participating in a range of games that develop the fundamental movement skills of run, jump and throw, while the year 5 to 8 children will be participating in more traditional track and field events. 

On the day

• Children may wear their house top or their red polo.
• Children should also wear shoes and clothes that will be suitable for running and jumping, (running shoes and shorts/leggings are ideal). 
• Please ensure that your child has their sun hat and water bottle at school. 
• Year 5 - 8 athletics run all day long, starting with the optional mid-distance event and followed by track and field rotations. Sprint finals conclude the day. 

To help with the running of these rotations, we are looking for adult volunteers to work alongside a teacher at our track and field stations. If you are keen to help and available, please email Jenny. 

We welcome spectators in Level One, but please leave dogs at home. There will be an adult team in the house relay so wear your running shoes if you would like to join in on this. 

Cultural Festival: Te Whānau Mahi Tahi

Pop-up Penguins

Camp Gear List

 Whoops - forgot one more important camp message. If your child would prefer to travel by car, rather than on a bus to and from camp, please email Hannah to let her know ASAP.

 We trust you have had an enjoyable two weeks with your children at home. We teachers have had a great break and are busy getting sorted for our upcoming camp in week 2: Oct 19-23

Food

We appreciate everyone sending along some baking to get us through the week at camp. This will be collected on the Monday morning before we jump on the buses.

We are looking for a large number of volunteers to prepare pasta bakes and cottage pies. We are also needing to borrow some chilly-bins. Please click on this link to indicate how you can help out. 

Departure time on Monday

On Monday Oct 19, all children are to arrive at school by 8am. We have food to box up, buses to load and things to check before we hit the road at 8:30.

Bunk-rooms

The allocation of bunk-rooms is always a tricky job. We are confident that the following plan takes into account the children's requests.  

 In this post:

• Calendar art orders
• Camp forms
• Rubik's Cubes
• Speech Final
• Canterbury Winter Tournament
• Sports Shed painting in the holidays

Calendar art

Make sure you have placed your order for your child's landscape calendar art. This closes on Monday the 28th of September. Details for ordering are on the form that came home.

Camp Forms

Many thanks to those who have sent back health profile forms. We are looking forward to the remaining 40 coming to school tomorrow. Spare copies were handed out today, for those who had lost theirs. 

Rubik’s Cubes

We have had a number of issues with Rubik’s Cubes going missing in our hub. As a result, we have made the decision to ban these. Please ensure these are not coming to school.

Zone Speech Competition

A HUGE congratulations to Zoë Clarke and Max Graham for competing in the South Zone Speech Competition on Monday evening. Both students did a fantastic job presenting their well-written and entertaining speeches. Max placed 2nd in the Year 8 category. He had the audience in stitches at his personal storytelling. Well done to you both!

Canterbury Winter Tournament

It was a glorious day to be out playing sport today for our hockey and netball teams who qualified to represent our kura in the Canterbury Winter Tournament. Many thanks to Jules, Miranda, Anna and Nic who managed the teams and to Maddi, a former student who reffed the netball games. The adult helpers were full of praise for how well the children played and for how they conducted themselves at the tournament. 

Sports Shed Painting

All going well with the weather, I am hoping to have a good go at finishing the sport shed mural on the second Tuesday of the holidays, in the afternoon. If your child is keen to help, please send me an email and I will confirm times.

A few photos...

Hockey team at Canterbury Tournament

In science we have been learning about body systems and first aid.

Boys basketball team celebrating a win.

Ultimate frisbee team in action against St Martins.

Yoda, helps out with our calm focus.

We voted today, as part of our elections learning.