Pembroke School Newsletter
Week 4, Term 1, 2024
PRINCIPAL’S PĀNUI
Thank you to all our whanau who came out to enjoy a great night together at our Pembroke Backyard BBQ. It was so nice to see everyone out having a good time and connecting with one another. The atmosphere was awesome and highlighted that there really is something special about small and rural schools and our ability to have a true sense of family and community for our children and families. We are looking forward to more opportunities to come together next week with our Rātā Dinner and Tawa Sleep Over.
It has been wonderful to catch up with parents and students this week at Learning Conferences. We have enjoyed the conversations that we have had with you and setting goals together to support your child/ren in their learning this year. Learning happens in so many ways and contexts and we are grateful for the opportunities that our students have had recently including the Hollard Garden Bug Day with our EnviroSchool friends, cricket sessions with Ross from Cricket Taranaki, a personal viewing at Pembroke of some of the Americarna Cars and our whole school day out at Americarna which is an enjoyable annual day out on our Pembroke School Calendar. We really enjoyed our visits with Harold and Megan from Life Education. Each year group had a different, age appropriate focus from learning about how to be a good friend and making super choices so we can be super learners to learning about changes in our bodies and personal hygiene for our Year 7-8s.
Being healthy, active learners is a key focus at Pembroke and we have been enjoying this through lunchtime House Sports on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Wednesday Wheels Day and Fortnightly Whole School Friday Sports as well as classroom based programmes. Our focus this term is developing our striking, throwing and catching skills through a variety of sports and games.
On Friday our Head Students and Deputies were announced (keep reading below). Our applicants all presented amazing speeches to the school last week. We are incredibly proud of each of them! We look forward to working with our leadership team throughout the year. Check out the Head Student Shout Out spot in our newsletter below.
Keep an eye out on the school calendar, in amongst some great learning we have lots of neat opportunities on the horizon for this term.
Noho ora mai
Wendy Single
Happiness Highlights
Pembroke's first Backyard BBQ was a fun and vibrant event to kick off the year. We had a waterslide, a boisterous cricket game, some yummy kai to share and marshmallows to roast at the end of the night. It was heartwarming to see everyone who came, joined in the fun, pitched in where they could and contributed to a lovely atmosphere on the night. It was so good to see some grandparents and other extended family members come along as well we know how much the children enjoy sharing their school with all the special people in their lives.
On Monday we headed to Hollard Gardens with the Taranaki Enviroschools team to do some fun learning about bugs and the reasons they are so important for our environment. We enjoyed identifying some different bugs on a bug treasure hunt, making bug hotels and an informative walk around the old garden with Richard. We finished our day there with a sausage sizzle and plenty of time to enjoy the amazing playground.
Mr Sharp lending a hand at the swings
Learning about bugs with Kate
Enjoying the slide
Captain Tommy
Eco friendly transport
A bug hitching a ride on the bus
Boys lending a hand on the BBQ
Waterslide fun
Iceblocks and marshmallow roasting
Awards
The first of our Aspire and Bucket filler awards for 2024 were given out to some hardworking students at last weeks Hui-A-Kura. We had a focus on our Aspire value of Ambition this fortnight and it wasn't hard to find amongst our amazing Pembroke tamariki.
Rata Aspire Awards: Isla Rodgers and Carter Tilby
Rata Bucket Filler: Carson Goble
Tawa Aspire Awards: Lennie Turner-Jeffery and Julius Scherrer
Tawa Bucket Filler: Kiana Pease
Kōwhai Aspire Awards: Brody Chesswass and Jahkoda Smith
Kōwhai Bucket Filler: Kailey Rodgers
Rimu Aspire Awards: Tyson Kahui and Izzy Single
Rimu Bucket Filler: Tyson Kahui
In the Spotlight
Touch Rugby
It is Touch Rugby season and some of our students are involved in teams or across school teams. I have received some wonderful feedback about the caring, inclusive actions of our tamariki on the sports field. This is a great reflection on our students, their families and our school culture. Super proud of you all!
Senior leaders
Nurturing our senior students as leaders has been an evolving journey for Pembroke School over the past three years. This year we have made a few tweaks to the process we use to select our Head students. In previous years the students had to write a letter to staff, this year we changed things up a bit and asked our applicants to modify that letter into a speech which they presented to the whole school. We then opened up for our Year 7 and 8 students to have their say about who the 2024 leaders would be and they voted for who they thought would make the best head boy and head girl. Staff also had a vote, with the exception of those who had a conflict of interest. Last Friday we announced who would be the head students for 2024 and took the time to recognise all of our Year 7 and 8 students who step up as house leaders. To all our seniors who took the time to apply and bravely put themselves out there in front of the whole school to tell us why you were a great choice, we are so proud of you. We hope that those who were not successful will apply next year if you are still at Pembroke or in the future when you move on to high school, you would all make amazing leaders and the voting was ridiculously close.
2024 HEAD STUDENTS
Head Girl: Bryah Hancock-Bland
Deputy Head Girl: Izzy Single
Head Boy: Ryder O'Donnell
Deputy Head Boy: Oliver Lockett
Reminders
We all know that a hungry tummy is not going to help a child learn to their best ability. All our students are welcome to enjoy some breakfast or extra breakfast in the old staff room before the 9 am bell rings. We are in the process of organising some of our amazing senior students to take turns facilitating our breakfast club but until then just let your teacher know if you need breakfast.
Head Student Shout Out
Head Girl: Bryah - I love how the Enviro Teachers put a lot of effort into the Hollard Gardens Activities. I liked making the bug houses and looking at the bugs they had collected. The Whanau BBQ was great and I loved how all the adults participated in the cricket.
Head Boy: Ryder - I really liked the Americarna cars that came to school today and how they demonstrated the hydraulics in the cars. Cricket with Ross from Cricket Taranaki was really fun, and I liked that he let us choose the activity we wanted to do.
Up and Coming Events
We have some great things planned this term and we will try our best not to overload you with too many dates all at once but here's just a few over the next few weeks to be prepared for.
Friday 23rd February: Americarna Trip
Wednesday 28th Feburary: Rata Class Whanau Dinner for students and their families
Thursday 29 February: Tawa Class Sleepover
Friday 8 March: Teacher only day
Monday 11 March: Taranaki Anniversary Day
Tuesday 12 March: Year 5 & 6 rural cluster competitive swimming sports
Wednesday 13 March: Year 7 & 8 rural cluster competitive swimming sports