Comedy Night, last chance!

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A big thanks to everyone who has brought Comedy Night tickets for tomorrow night. We have not sent any tickets home; these will be collected when you arrive at 7pm. Please bring money for drinks (we plan to have eftpos operating). Also bring loose change for our hamper raffles. We should be wrapped up by 9:30, so you can get home for the royal wedding.

If you have yet to book a ticket, we have a few left. Click this link.

Home Learning Review, Term 2, 2018

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Home Learning Review, Term 2, 2018

We would like to get feedback from our parent community, on the direction we take with home learning.

Families need to carefully consider what they value when it comes to home learning. Our home learning options need to fit with your values and the time your family wants to put towards this compared with the other valuable family activities you may be involved in.

We know that parents have a diverse range of views on home learning. We also know that each family context is very different and many families already have competing priorities on their time after school.

We regularly hear from parents about the challenge and stress that 'getting children to do home learning' creates for families.

As primary school educators we see importance in children building and maintaining good reading habits through daily opportunities to read in both home and school environments. 

There is plenty of research that will argue both for and against other forms of home learning at the primary level. 

Your homes present opportunities for your children to develop oral language skills, social skills and values that will enable them to contribute positively to their own future learning, and to the society that they are growing up in. To that end, we prefer to 'offer' home learning opportunities that are flexible and give each student and their family agency to select an approach that will meet the needs of your child. For some families, that selection may be "We are already doing so much - we don't need any more home learning." For others, there will be the ability to choose to engage with the activities that you believe are valuable. 

We would like to hear your views on this topic.

Please click on this link, to give us your feedback on this topic.

The link will close for accepting feedback on Monday 4th June

Writing Competition Opportunity

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EssayCompetition TwoLines
The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition is the world’s oldest schools’ international writing competition, managed by The Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883. Every year, it offers all Commonwealth youth aged 18 and under the opportunity to express their hopes for the future, opinions of the present, and thoughts on the past, through the written word. The competition will help to build confidence, develop writing skills, support creativity and encourage critical thinking, using literacy to empower young people to become global citizens.
If your child is keen on writing, they might like to enter the competition.

Here are the options for children under the age of 14.

Junior CategoryBorn after 31st May 2004 (under 14 years of age)
  1. What does a 'safer future' mean to you and your community? 
  2. Write a recipe for a common future: what ingredients will you need? What is the best method for making it? What will it look like?
  3. ‘A Day in the Life’. Imagine you are your country’s Head of Government for the day: how will you build a better future for young people?
  4. Our Common Earth.
Judges described entries to the competition in 2017 as ‘emotive’ ‘hauntingly assuring’ ’striking’ and as having ‘powerful narratives’, that ‘this letter should be read by everyone’. We expect a similarly high calibre of writing for 2018.

If you want further information, here is the link with all the details.

Kauri Whānau: Weekly Update Term 2 Week 3

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This week we welcome Sharon Tipene to our hub. Sharon will be working with our children to learn about the Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand history, over the next three weeks. Each home-group will spend six 90 minute sessions with Sharon.

We are now building time into our classroom programme each week for the children to work towards their kete badges. These were introduced at learning conferences at the start of the year. It would be good to talk with your child about what they have planned to do and which badge they are working towards. It is optional to continue working this at home.

Comedy Evening:

Many thanks to those who have purchased tickets and offered to help with our Comedy Evening on Saturday. We now have 33 tickets left to sell. A final promote and purchase would be really appreciated.  We have sent home flyers to those who can advertise at work today. If you have offered a hamper item, please send it along to school tomorrow. We have a box for collection on the spotty table. If you offered to make a supper plate, please check the instructions that Leigh emailed through today.
Still to book your ticket? Click here now.

Cubby Holes:

We've had a few instances of things moving around in the cubby holes outside the hub. If you see anything come home that doesn't belong to your child can you please let us know - we've had a sketchbook and drawing implements misplaced and the student who they belong to would really like them back!

It's a good idea for students to bring their lunch boxes inside at the start of the day and keep anything special in their bucket as only one set of cubby holes is easily visible from inside the hub.

Winter Sport:

At last we are underway with winter sport this Friday. A huge thanks goes out to Jenny for her many hours of work to coordinate and prepare the teams, and also to those parents who will be giving their time to support teams. Without you our children would miss out on this opportunity. On Friday your child needs to come to school with their sport uniform, drink bottle, asthma inhaler, boots, mouthguard and shin pads, as appropriate.

Ski Trip

Many thanks to those who have offered to come on our ski trip. We now have plenty of helpers.

High School News:


Cashmere High School Open Day is on Tuesday May 22 from 4-6pm

Christchurch Steiner School Open Day is on Thursday May 24 from 9am - 3pm