Kia ora koutou

Welcome to week 8 and the final week of the 2021 school year.

This is also the final newsletter of the school year and my final newsletter as principal of Te Aroha Primary School.

I have had a wonderful journey as Principal and I would like to thank you all for your friendship and commitment to TAPS.

We have made enormous changes to our school during this time and I would like to thank our present and past Boards of Trustees for their support and belief in me as the Principal of TAPS. I am certainly going to miss seeing everyone each day but especially our children. It has been a privilege to be the principal of this awesome school and the memories of the past 14 years and 3 months will stay with me forever.

My position is currently being advertised and the Board is working very hard and thoroughly with an Education Consultancy to select the best person for the position.

It is time for a new challenge for me and I am looking forward to continuing my education journey working for the Ministry of Education in Hamilton as a Senior Adviser.

Ka mihi ano ki a koe mo to tautoko me to atawhai

Ngaa mihi nui

Kevin Johnson

Principal / Tumuaki

Road patrol will operate on this day to ensure children get across the road safely.

Parents pick up their children as usual in the front of the school or in Ema Street.

Buses will not run at 12.00pm so parents will need to pick their children up at this time.

Parents will need to provide their children with a morning tea time snack on Monday 13 December.

BASKETBALL:

Man what an end to the year!!!

Both yr 5/6 boys and girls won their grades- how cool are we.

The year 7/8 finals had to be cancelled as we didn't have enough vaccinated 12 + children to continue. It is sad to think that for a while, this will be our new normal....no jab no play. I am not sure what 2022 will look like for District and Thames Valley sport.

The upside of the cancellation is that the standings were taken as they were before the finals. That means we won both the boys and girls competition.

Woohooo TAPS that is a clean sweep.

TOUCH

A huge well done to everyone who took part this year. Special mention must go to the the under 13s who, despite just returning from camp, all turned up to play. After 2 lots of extra time, we narrowly lost the final by 1 point - but you guys were amazing. Big thanks to TJ, Megan and Darren for keeping you all motivated and awake.

We say good bye to many of our stars this week. To our Yr 8s, thanks for all you have done and all the sports you have played. You rock.

If you do come onto the school grounds to visit the office then you are required to wear a mask and to sign in at the office for our contact tracing. Please also scan in using the QR code on the office window.

We need to keep everyone safe.

Please ask your child if they still have a book that he or she still has at home and send it back to school if they have.

We still have 57 books that have not been returned to the library.

Thank you for your help with this.

TERM FOUR DATES 2021

1. Yr7&8 Social 9 December - children only

2. Final Assembly for students only on Friday 10 December.

TERM ONE DATES 2022

4. School Office Open for New Enrolments and Uniform Sales - Thursday 27 January 2022

9am - 1.00pm

5. School Office Open for New Enrolments and Uniform Sales - Friday 28 January 2022

9am - 1.00pm

6. School Re opens for students at 9.00am on 1 February 2022

I can't believe we have reached the last week of school for the year and what a year it has been! A huge thank you to our parents/caregivers for all your support with your child's learning. It is an exciting week for Room 1 as we are finally going to the pools! Thank you to the parents/caregivers who have offered to help. We will finish off with a Christmas themed week. Well done Room 1, you have done some amazing learning since you started school and you can be very proud of the learners you are becoming. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a great summer holiday.

Rm 2 Mrs McGhie

Kia ora. Welcome to week 8. We will be putting our fine motor skills to work this week making decorations and making the classroom look Christmassy. The trip to Swimzone Te Aroha pools will be a highlight for the children this week and thank you to the parents/care givers who are coming with us to supervise. We will also be having swimming at school and other end of term activities. Have a great week. Maria

Rm 3 Miss Swan

Kia ora koutou

Wow, Week 8!. Room 3 has a lot to look forward to this week including a well earned Pancake Day, a trip to Swimzone and other exciting end of year festivities!

Reminders for the week

• We have our Swim Zone pool trip on Wednesday. Please make sure your child has sunblock on, togs, and a sunhat.

• Please bring along a drink bottle, your school sunhat and your swimming togs everyday!

• No homework this week and could I please have any reading books that are at home, sent back to school.

Please remember you can contact me via Seesaw and email mswan@tearohaprimary.school.nz

I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very safe and happy holiday season. It has been an absolute pleasure to teach all of the Room 3 tamariki this year. Arohanui.

Rm 5 Miss Entwisle

Wow! The end of the term is almost here! We welcome Mrs Maisey in on Monday as Miss Entwisle will be busy with the library stocktake. Our Spelling words this week are all about ail and er. For those children who are motivated to do extra learning at home, our Spelling words, Weekly Poem and other Home Learning based tasks are shared each week via the Seesaw activity section. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me via email at mentwisle@tearohaprimary.school.nz or through the Seesaw message function.

Rm 6 Mrs Bankier

I can't believe the final week of the year is here. Firstly I would like to thank you for your support over the year especially while I was away and then my return to work. I have really enjoyed Room 6 this year.

This week we will be doing a range of Christmas activities and sorting the room ready for the end of the year.

Just a couple of reminders-

* Please return any school or library books you may have at home.

* Please send togs and towels each day as we will be swimming.

* Please check your child has their school hat for break times.

Thank you for sharing your children with me in 2021, have a Merry Christmas and stay safe.

Trina Bankier

Rm 7 Mrs Paul

And before we know it the last week is upon us.

We had amazing time at Waterworld and the children were brilliantly behaved, Thank you so much for trusting that we would do the right thing and keep them safe. It was great to see them out enjoying themselves just like kids should- without a care in the world. They have shown great resilience this year and that was evident on Thursday. A big thanks to Cam, Stef and Dave for being our helpers on the day- you guys were truly amazing. We will spend this last week celebrating a great year- I am sure that this year i can say 'this is it'- there will be no more Mrs Paul and this bunch of kiddies. Thank you so much for letting me have one more year with your darlings, It has been great.

Rm 8 Mrs Young

Wow, we made it through some unprecedented times,lockdown learning, Covid restrictions and normal school life. All thanks to a team effort between home and school.
TRIP/CAMP-
Thank you to all of our parent helpers and Mr Rasmussen for our recent Pool Trip and Camp. Photos will be shared on FB/Seesaw soon. A special shout out to Pub Charities for making CAMP possible for all of our students.

ART/School supplies - Art will start coming home slowly this week to ensure it makes it safely home. Some exercise books are empty due to learning online and lockdown, these will be great to have next year.

What’s on for the LAST week of school

Reminders -

• The School Pool is open - so bring your togs and towel as we are swimming every day this week

• Our last Kapa Haka for the term is on Monday with Mrs B and Matua.

• Sun Hat - it is super hot outside, we strongly encourage our students to wear their hats.

• Please return all LIBRARY BOOKS to avoid having to pay for these.

• Yr 8 leavers dinner - Year 7 students in Room 8 reminder to keep Thursday night free to attend our Year 8s leavers dinner. Due to Covid restrictions, it will be students and staff only, we apologize that our year 8 parents are unable to attend due to Covid restrictions.

Maths - Wrapping up the year with lots of maths games students can play over the summer break. Remember our school has a Mathletis subscription,so please utilize this awesome resource.

Literacy GOOGLE CLASSROOM Activities - We will be pushing through the pages to finish the book before the end of term.

Online interactive quiz - The YEAR in review. Please login via https://socrative.com/ Click on Student Login and enter TAPSROOM82021. This is the last quiz for the year.

THANK YOU to all of the TAPS Whanau, Te Moananui a Kiwa Hub and Teachers and of course my Room 8 Whanau for all of the support and encouragement this year, I have absolutely loved teaching your children. I will miss TAPS next year and hope to visit/teach from time to time while on Maternity leave.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS and MERRY CHRISTMAS TAPS WHANAU

Email- kyoung@tearohaprimary.school.nz

Rm 9 Mrs Gamble/Mrs Hodgetts.

The final full week of term 4 has arrived and the school holidays are just around the corner. Camp last week was a huge success and Mrs Hodgetts and I would like to acknowledge and thank all the camp dads and mums who came and made camp such a success. Also, to all our year 7 and 8 students for their outstanding effort. It really was an amazing experience and we are so glad we could end the year on such a high. We will put a collection of camp photos on Seesaw this week to share with you the experiences we had.

As this is the last newsletter for the year we wish everyone a happy and safe holiday and say farewell to our Year 8 students who we wish all the best as they start at college next year. Kia Tu, Kia Toa, Kia Mau! Accept the Challenge!

Reminders

• Year 7 and 8 farewell dinner is this Thursday at our school hall, starting at 6.00pm, ending at 8.00pm Unfortunately due to covid restrictions this is only for our students. Dinner will be provided. Tidy dress.

• Final school assembly is this Friday, once again only for our students.

• School reports and other important information will go home this Friday.

• Can all library books be returned as soon as possible please.

• School closes at 12.00pm Monday 13th December.

• Homework: weekly current quiz, and reading, mathletics games (these games are a great way to revise some of our learning this year).

As I leave Te Aroha Primary School, I would like to thank everyone for all your support and encouragement over the years. What an amazing ride it has been. I will miss you all and no doubt will be visiting TAPS again in the future.

Mrs Gamble

Rm 10 Mrs Brittenden

Kia ora koutou.

WOW! Camp was amazing. Truly wonderful to spend three days with our Yr 7/8 students and seeing them challenge themselves and trying new things. I am so proud of these students. We have many photos that we will share with over Seesaw this week. A massive thank you to Pub Charities and our Camp Mum and Dads - Megan, Russell, Jason, James and Richard (who was also our bus driver) for helping us make this camp happen. BEST THREE DAYS EVER!

This week is our last full week together and so we will be spending it having some fun and finishing off things we have on the go. We also have our Year 7/8 new look Social this Thursday evening from 6pm-8pm. This will be held at school for students and staff as we celebrate our Year 8s who are leaving. More information will be sent home in regard to this.

*Tech classes at Te Aroha College have finished - normal class on Friday!

To our parents and whaanau - thank you for all you support over this year. It has been a privilege to be the Room 10 teacher for 2021.

Looking forward to a special last week together.

Arohanui - Mrs B dp@tearohaprimary.school.nz