Week 7, Term 1 2021
Tauranga Primary School Newsletter
Principal's Message
Tēnā koutou katoa
Ngā mihi nui, ki a koutou katoa - Warm greetings to you all.
Thank you to our school families for your support at the Middle and Senior School Swimming Sports on Tuesday. It was a great day and fantastic to see so many students competing and striving to put in their best performance.
In the last round of employment negotiations for teachers in NZ, eight Teacher Only Days were awarded to create opportunities for professional learning and managing workload. At TPS, last year three Teacher Only Days were used, this year another three will be utilized and the final two will be coordinated for 2022. The first 2021 Teacher Only Day will be this Friday on the 19th March. We will be using this day to engage in professional learning regarding our change to a Structured Literacy approach.
The Friends of the School (FOTS) is an amazing group of TPS parents that come together to support our school. Over the years they have led various fundraising and FUN-raising initiatives (for example; the free rides at our family picnic, frosty fridays, pizza lunches, quiz night, movie sessions, sausage sizzles and discos ) for our school. The funds raised have then been spent on creating an awesome learning environment for our children to learn and grow in. The FOTS provide the book prizes for the end of year assemblies and have contributed to the refurbishment of all three school playgrounds, the installation of the turf on the junior site and most recently. the water play feature on the junior site - Taurikura.
This week the FOTS AGM was held. There is a core group of three to four parents who have worked tirelessly over the last few years to support our school as the FOTS committee and we very much appreciate all that they have contributed to our school. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, they are unable to continue to lead a FOTS committee. Therefore, the tough decision has been made for the TPS FOTS group to temporarily 'disestablish' formal meetings for the remainder of the year. We hope to re-establish a parent support group in 2022, where new parents can become involved. We would very much like to continue with seven planned FOTS events for the remainder of the year, and we will need additional parent assistance to make this a reality for our students. We ask that parents think about committing to help with one event this year, and filling in the FOTS form if you can help out. This will put you onto a register and we will make contact prior to the event introducing you to the person who will lead the event and providing some instruction about how you can help. These are the 2021 planned events:
Term 1
Week 8 : Friday 26th March - Frosty Friday - pick up ice blocks and sell 2.30pm-3.20pm
Need 2 people
Term 2
Week 3 - Friday 21st May - Pizza Lunch
(11:45am-12:45am at school sorting the orders, Need 2-3 people)
Week 8 - Friday 25th June - Pizza Lunch
(11:45am-12:45am at school sorting the orders, Need 2-3 people)
Term 3
Week 4 - Friday 20th August - Pizza Lunch
(11:45am-12:45am at school sorting the orders, Need 2-3 people)
Week 10 - Thursday 30th September - DISCO
Set up the hall team - 1:00pm-3:00pm
Junior parent helpers 5:00pm-6:30pm
Middle/Senior parent helpers 6:30pm-8:30pm
Clean up crew 8:30pm-9:00pm
Term 4:
Week 3 - Friday 5th November - Frosty Friday - order, pick up ice blocks and sell 2:30pm-3:20pm
Week 8 Friday 10th December- Frosty Friday - order, pick up ice blocks and sell 2:30pm-3:20pm
FOTS 2021 HELPER FORM CLICK HERE
Good luck to our TPS Top School team competing at Gate Pa School on Thursday evening, they will be supported by our TPS Cheerleading team. Both teams have trained hard and are prepared to battle it out with other local schools in a bid to be the TOP SCHOOL.
A very warm TPS welcome to our second cohort entry group of New Entrants; Isla Breach, Ava White, Sandra Kilmister and Tiana Nielsen. Glad to have you and your family as part of our TPS TEAM.
Thank you for your continued support.
Noho ora mai
Fiona
Fiona Hawes
Principal | Tumuaki
The Great Tauranga Duck Race
You have an amazing opportunity to participate in the Great Tauranga Duck Race- a fun day out for your whanau. This event is organised by Rotary and will take place on The Strand in Tauranga on the 11th April. Thousands of ducks will be dropped into the sea and the first one over the line is the winner (cash prizes)
All ducks are numbered so all you have to do is buy a ticket to be in the race. We will be selling tickets at the school gate and some children will be bringing a book of five tickets home to sell. Each ticket is $5.00 and 100% of these funds go to our school
We hope you can support us with this fundraising effort.
NB: Friday night sport is not affected by the Teacher Only Day
FRIDAY NIGHT SPORT IS STILL ON
House spirit Day - March 26th
wear your house colours to school
Our Eco-warrior Team lead WOW Wednesdays at TPS.
WOW stands for “Wipe Out Waste”.
This means on Wednesdays, we ask that there is no glad wrap or pre-wrapped food such as chip packets, cheese and crackers in packets etc.
Each child with nude food on WOW Wednesday receives house points.
WHY are we trying to reduce WASTE at TPS?
- We want to create better habits to protect our Earth
- Because we have learnt that all the plastic that has ever been created on earth still exists
- Rubbish is bad for our environment
- Sea life mistake plastic for food and it ruins their homes and kills them
- We want to learn life-long skills to protect our precious earth
Our Eco Warriors (student leaders) help us by emptying our scrap buckets into our worm farm and composts daily.
We also do an annual WASTE AUDIT to track how the school is reducing our waste
Our TPS Eco Warriors
SCHOOL LUNCHES REQUIRED
There are occasions that a child may need a lunch provided whilst at school. We currently have a list of school parents who are able to provide additional lunches for children. These requests could be for one or two lunches one day a week for a term, or maybe one lunch for 3 days, to help a school family through a challenging time.
Providing lunches is always very much appreciated by the families concerned and the school. Your contribution is provided anonymously through the school office.
If there are any parents who would like to add their name to the list please contact dp@tauranga.school.nz or admin@tauranga.school.nz .
Equally, if you are experiencing some challenges providing school lunches for your children, please let us know. We are here to help. Talk with your child's teacher or email us.
- 18th March --Top Schools 3:45 - 7:00pm
- 19th March - Teacher Only Day- no children at school
- 23rd March - Board of Trustees meeting 7:00pm
- 26th March - House Spirit Day - wear your house colours
- 31st March - Year 5 Camp- Mount Maunganui/Waimarino
- 31st March - Year 6 Discovery day
- 1st April - Year 6 Discovery day
- 2nd April - Good Friday- School Closed
- 5th April - Easter Monday - School Closed
- 6th April - Easter Tuesday - School Closed
- 8th - 16th April- RSA Poppy appeal - Gold coin donation
- 12th-16th April - Kids can ride- Seniors
- 16th April Last day of term- school finishes usual time
EASTER 2021
GOOD FRIDAY - 2nd April
EASTER MONDAY - 5th April
EASTER TUESDAY - 6th April
School is closed these three days.
Contact Details
Please notify the office if your phone number, email, address or emergency contact details have changed recently: office@tauranga.school.nz
It is essential that we are able to make contact with every family.
Email is our most common way of communication - you are able to have up to two email addresses listed to receive newsletters and direct correspondence from the school.
Don't worry if you have moved outside of our school zone, once your child has started at TPS their place is secure.
COMMUNITY NOTICE BOARD
Windsurfing Interest Survey
Tauranga Windsurfers Incorporated (TWI) is the official affiliated club established for sailors in the BOP region who wish to participate in windsurf events.
We are currently wanting to ascertain what interest level there is in the Tauranga area for school aged children to take up windsurfing and dinghy sailing.
We would greatly appreciate you taking the time to complete the two minute survey below.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc20JU2C7qJKx6c9dBpjXW_e4ZFdHU9utW2qnbxIJykvCIBDA/viewform
Contacts
Principal
Fiona Hawes
07 578 6222
Deputy Principal
Cathy Ediker
Assistant Principal
Robyn Caley
Junior Team Leader
Pam Wilkins
Middle Team Leader
Jason Morgan
Senior Team Leader
Jo Howard
International Student enquiries
Cathy Ediker
Business Manager
Susan O'Neill
Office Administrator and Enrolment Officer
Barbara Turley