Chelsea School Newsletter
Week 4 Term 4, 2023
Important Term Dates
Term 4, 2023
- Fri 03 Nov: Creepy Carnival 5-8pm
- Wed 08 Nov: Athletics Day at Birkenhead War Memorial Park 9am-2.30pm
- Fri 10 Nov: Assembly 9.00am led by Rito Hub 2
- Tue 14 Nov: Athletics Rain Day at Birkenhead War Memorial Park
- Wed 15 Nov: Chelsea School Board- Election Day
- Fri 17 Nov: Chelsea's Got Talent FINAL
- Mon 20 Nov: Teacher Only Day - School Closed for Instruction
- Tue 21 Nov: Chelsea School Board Election - Count Votes
- Wed 22 Nov: New Board Takes Office
- Thu 23 Nov: Interschool Athletics at Birkenhead War Memorial Park 9am-2.30pm
- Thu 23 Nov: Choir Dress Rehearsal 9.30am-1pm at Victory Church
- Thu 23 Nov: Choir Performance at Victory Church 6.30-7.30pm
- Fri 24 Nov: Pakiaka and Kākano Athletics starting at 9.30am
- Mon 27 Nov: Board Meeting at 7pm in the Boardroom
- Tue 28 Nov: Pakiaka and Kākano Athletics Rain Day
- Thu 30 Nov: Interschool Athletics Rain Day
- Thu 30 Nov: Kākano EOTC Market Day at School (Time TBC)
- Tue 05 Dec: Kākano Hub 1 EOTC Kaipatiki Trust Visit
- Wed 06 Dec: Rito - Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC)
- Wed 06 Dec: Pakiaka and Kākano EOTC Rotation Day
- Thu 07 Dec: Rito - Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC)
- Fri 08 Dec: Y6 Rainbows End
- Fri 08 Dec: Kākano Hub 2 EOTC Kaipatiki Trust Visit
- Mon 11 Dec: Pakiaka EOTC - Big Foot Adventures
- Mon 11 Dec: Y6 Water'n Wheels 4-6pm
- Tue 12 Dec: Pakiaka EOTC - Big Foot Adventures
- Wed 13 Dec: Sports Prizegiving at 2pm
- Wed 13 Dec: Xmas Carols and Hangi Night 5-8pm
- Thu 14 Dec: Kākano and Pakiaka EOTC Wet'n Wild Day
- Fri 15 Dec: Meet the (2024) Teachers 9.15 - 11am
- Mon 18 Dec: Picnic Day
- Tue 19 Dec; Junior Prizegiving at 9.15am
- Wed 20 Dec: Senior Prizegiving (Time TBC)
- Wed 20 Dec: School closes for the year at 12.30pm
What a week last week! Our campers had a brilliant time at MERC, Long Bay. It was great to hear the stories of camp and of learners pushing themselves and doing things that they didn’t think they could do. That is the beauty of camp - supporting each other to face our fears. The feeling of pride that comes with accomplishing something challenging is like no other.
I would like to say a massive thank you to Tracey and Sarah, who put in hours of organisation and planning to make the whole experience such a success. Also, a huge thank you to the parents who spent the week at camp supporting our learners and teachers. You were incredible.
Our Year 5 learners also had a big week with their EOTC activities. Our teachers were very proud of the way that they got stuck in and gave everything a go. The feedback from the instructors at AUT Millennium was incredible. The problem-solving skills and collaboration on display were very impressive. I always feel proud when people outside of our school notice how amazing our tamariki are. Thanks to Keith, Debby and Helen for the planning and organisation, and to our parent helpers who assisted on the days out and about. We appreciate you!
Hopefully, everyone got some rest over the weekend and is ready to rock this week!
There is so much to look forward to this term, with Kākano, Pakiaka and Rito Teams still to experience their final EOTC adventures. I’m looking forward to these!
Teacher Appreciation Day Thanks
Thanks to those whānau who took the time to acknowledge our teachers with a little note, card or email. This meant so much to our staff. Thanks also to the PTA, who provided the most delicious cookies for morning tea on Friday. We appreciate you!
Class Placements & Organisation for 2024
We are about to start building our classes for 2024, and the opportunity for whānau to share any important information in relation to class placements is coming to an end. If you haven’t managed to connect with one of the senior leadership team, please flick us an email before the end of this week. Once this time is up, it will be too late to discuss any placement information.
Congratulations to…
Brooke & Samara who represented our school at the Auckland Primary School Diving Champs 2023 at Westwave last week. They did incredibly well, with Brooke achieving gold and Samara silver in the individual events. Together, they were awarded a team bronze award in the synchronised dive event.
They made the trip down from camp to compete and were straight back into it after the competition wrapped up.
Phenomenal effort, girls. The hours of training are paying off! We are all so very proud of you.
A big well done also goes to Tyler and Charlize, who completed the 11km traverse as part of the Auckland Marathon event. It would have been a spectacularly windy day to be crossing the Harbour Bridge! Well done on your ‘Up for a Challenge’ attitude!
Creepy Carnival
The weather looks like it may clear for our evening of creepy fun on Friday, cross everything, team!
Just a quick note that we are not dressing up during the school day on Friday. Save those fantastic costumes for Friday evening.
If you haven’t yet organised tickets (everyone needs one) or creepy dollars, please call into the office to see Jo.
If there are any new weather situations (it’s anyone’s guess at the moment!), please check Hero and follow the Chelsea PTA Facebook page.
Please save any lollies and treats that may have been collected during trick or treating for eating at home!
Chelsea’s Got Talent is Back!
That is right. What started as the brainchild of ex-Chelsea student Blake Saward and the 2022 Student Council is officially becoming an annual event, with this year’s council making the decision to run it again and unleash the amazing talents of our tamariki in 2023. We have had an overwhelmingly large number of hopeful acts signed up to audition this year (and I didn’t even need to jump on the PA system to damage everyone’s eardrums with my singing this time). We have all sorts of awesome acts ranging from dancers to singers to magicians. There might even be the odd budding comedian as well!
The auditions will be run over a series of lunchtimes starting this Wednesday, 1st November, culminating in the grand final, which will be on Friday, 17th November, at 1.30 pm in our school hall. The dates are below, along with a link to the schedule of when everyone is performing.
Round 1 - Wednesday 1st Nov
Round 2 - Tuesday 7th Nov
Round 3 - Thursday 9th Nov
Round 4 - Friday 10th Nov
Round 5 - Monday 13th Nov
Grand Final - Friday 17th Nov
Sven Cropp
Hangi Time
…And if all that isn’t enough for one term, we have decided to throw in a hangi as well for good measure. It has been 4 years since we last did a hangi for our community, so this is well overdue. Many of our tamariki have never tried hangi before, so this will be a fantastic cultural experience for them. This will coincide with Carols Night, where you and your Whānau will be able to enjoy the festivities of the evening whilst enjoying a tasty hangi. More information about how you can purchase pre-sale tickets to come.
Further Staffing Updates
Debby Rafter has resigned and will be doing more learning next year, around SPELD and how to best meet the needs of learners with dyslexia and dyslexic tendencies. We are so excited about this direction you are taking, Debby! We will miss your knowledge, experience and passion for excellent learner outcomes. We will likely see Debby around the school in a reliever capacity next year, which will be exciting.
We have appointed Marlece Jensen, who has been teaching at Glamorgan School, to Māhuri Team. Some of you will know Marlece as she taught with us for a term last year as maternity cover for Katie Pine. We are very excited to welcome Marlece back to the team.
Swimming Pool - summer hireage
There is still quite a bit of work to be done on the pool over the summer period, including installing a heat pump, replacing the fencing and painting the coping. We are unsure at this stage whether the pool will be available to families over the summer period. Once we have locked in a programme around the outstanding remediation tasks, we will let you know. It may be that keys can become available once school starts again, but once the Board has decided, we will let you know. Our number one priority is our school swimming season, and not interrupting this with renovation work.
Ngā Mihi
Amanda Douglas
Tumuaki/Principal
Chelsea Primary School