The Connection Week 5 Term 2
Huapai District School 3rd June 2021
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
This week when I was on duty, two wee students ran up to me almost out of breath with excitement. They were clearly bursting to tell me something. I bent down so we could chat and I asked them what was going on. I had big expectations - a new baby, shifting house, someone exciting visiting, a pony?? It was “Mrs Lloyd, look at this acorn we found - it’s MASSIVE! We’ve been hunting all day for a big one and now we found one!”
To these students, this was worth celebrating so we whooped and hollered together, marvelled over its size and we all left a little bit happier. Often the little things are overlooked, down played as not important or brushed over for something bigger. It costs us, as parents and educators, nothing to acknowledge and celebrate the good things, no matter how little. If students feel supported to tell us the little things when they themselves are little, we are setting good foundations for them to tell us the big things when they are big. We have so many wonderful things happening here at school, some huge and some small. We encourage you to share your child’s achievements (no matter how small) far and wide, because we are happy for them too.
Thank you for continuing to support us by acknowledging and celebrating all the positive things happening here at school. Children are currently working on reading as many stories as they can from around the world, every new country coloured on their map is worth acknowledging and celebrating. Please be the cheerleader for your child; to encourage them to tell you those little things. Who knows, it might just make the day a little happier for you both?
Kind regards,
Maree Lloyd
Upcoming Events
- Teacher Only Day - Friday 4th June (tomorrow)
- Board Meeting - Tuesday 8th June
Teacher Only Day - Tomorrow
The school will offer support through our Huapai Plus (before and after school programme). The school will not be open on this day.
Board Meeting - Tuesday 8th June
The next school Board of Trustees meeting will be held on Tuesday 8th June at 6.00pm.
Parents / caregivers are welcome to attend. Meetings are held in the staffroom.
Staff Leaving And Appointments
It is the season for moving home!
It is with regret that we let you know that Breanagh Chisnall has accepted a teaching position at Pahiatua Primary, teaching year 7&8 commencing term 3. This is much closer to Breanagh’s home town and we are pleased for her that she is moving closer to whanau.
We are pleased to welcome Jason McKearney and Kirstin Robinson to our team next term. They are both experienced teachers and we are truly excited by the skills that they will bring. Jason will travel home to NZ from Doha to rejoin his family in the local area. He has two daughters currently attending our school. Jason will join the year 5&6 team. Kirstin is currently teaching in the Wairarapa and has roots here in the Kaipara region, so she too will be returning home. Kirstin will join the year 7&8 team. Our newest members of staff will start on the first day of Term 3.
Student Of The Week
Aadarsh says, "My favourite thing about Huapai is that our school offers camps. This makes us learn new things and get out in the elements out of our comfort zone. Huapai School is a fun place to be."
Getting To Know...
Stacey Wheeler
Hi, I’m Stacey. I’m the lead teacher in charge of Performing Arts here at Huapai District School. I love my job because I get to work in my area of passion and see children grow in confidence through the arts. My own love for dance and drama started here at Huapai as a student…a few years ago! I love to spend my weekends fishing and hanging out with my family.
Whanau Breakfast
It was lovely to see so many of you in school on Wednesday morning for our whanau breakfast. It is a great opportunity for whanau to come in and see what the children are currently learning about and to form connections as learning partners. Our next breakfast will be early next term. If anyone has a contact for a coffee truck to come in, please let us know at the school office.
Parent Teacher Learning Conferences
We are looking forward to inviting caregivers into school to discuss your child’s learning and to celebrate the wonderful achievements of the term. The dates for these learning conferences will be held on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon / evenings of Jun 29th and 30th. Booking information will be in next week’s newsletter.
Tough Guy and Gal Mud Challenge
It’s that time of year. If you are interested in your child entering the Tough Guy and Gal challenge this year please use the link below to register. As a school we have entered a team in the Auckland event on Wednesday 4th August. Please use Huapai District School on your child’s entry form so that all our entries can be linked together.
Hockey
Our year 5&6 hockey team are on the look out for a couple of new players. The games are held on a Monday afternoon (usually around 4-5:30pm) at the National Hockey Centre on Bush Road. If your son or daughter is keen to join, please contact Luke Kearney: luke.kearney@hds.school.nz
Quiz Night
Grab your friends and get in quick. Tables are available to purchase through Kindo and are selling fast. Lots of raffles and auctions for amazing items throughout the night.
Yummy Apple Stickers
It’s time to start collecting the apple stickers again! Every year we collect these stickers and bag cut outs which count towards a share of $200,00 free DG sports gear. There is a printable form attached to this newsletter, or children can collect one from the office. Sticker sheets should be returned to school when they are complete.
Readathon - Read Around The World
We want to make our library even more amazing!
Every single student at Huapai District School uses our school library. As we continue to improve our school environment, we have recently upgraded rooms 6-10. You may have noticed that we are now upgrading the outside of this block, as well as the outside of the main office block, including the science room and library. With a facelift on the outside, we now want to give our library a massive revamp on the inside and have it glowing!
This year’s ‘athon is a readathon - Read Around The World.
We are encouraging students to broaden their horizons, learn about cultures other than their own, delve into history, discover previously untold tales, explore a spot of poetry, listen to the korero of people they know and travel the globe from the comfort of their own home or school.
Students have been supplied with a map of the world. When the child reads a story, article, myth, poem etc from another country in the world, they colour that country in on their map. The idea is that over the duration of 6 weeks, students will aim to colour in as much of the world as they can. Students may encounter many articles from different countries during their time in class this term, in addition to reading at home..
Prizes will be given for the following categories:
The students who colour the most countries (each year level)
The student who colours the most countries (overall)
The students who raise the most money (each year level)
The student who raises the most money (overall)
We will celebrate the end of our Read Around The World with a week long book week in week 9 of this term. We will have a book character parade where we will encourage children to become a character in a piece of writing they’ve read or heard from around the world. We will also have a book fair in our school and lots of book related activities.
To make donating to our readathon easy for you, we have created a Give A Little Page. Which we have linked below. Please use this page to make any sponsorship payments for your child (remember to note their name as a reference!). Please also feel free to share this page with family, friends and even any local community pages. Every dollar donated is a dollar closer to our end goal!
For more information about this, please see below for a document containing everything you need to know.
One last thing - if you would prefer to keep everything online, please use the link below to make your own copy of the world map.
Can You Help Cooper?
You Could Win A Big Little Sponsorship For Our School
Be in to win a $10,000 sports grant for Huapai District School
AA Insurance are giving one North Island and one South Island primary school the chance to win one of two $10,000 grants. It can be spent on whatever will help the kids tackle their sporting dreams. It could be new turf for the rugby field, extra coaching sessions, bus hire to get all the kids to a game, or even new boots and bibs for all the players. It's game on!
How to enter:
Winning takes teamwork. So spread the word and ask colleagues, parents, friends and the whole community to nominate our school at the link below.
Photos From The Week
HERO Notifications
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Contact Us
Email: office@hds.school.nz
Website: https://www.huapaidistrict.school.nz/
Location: Huapai District School 40 Station Rd, Kumeū, New Zealand
Phone: +64 09 412 5042
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/huapaidistrictschool