Ma tini ma mano ka rapa te whai - Many hands make light work

Tēnā koutou e te Avonhead whānau

It has been a huge fortnight as we head into the final week of Term 2. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge and say a big thank you to our Team 5/6 staff, parents and students who all chipped in to make over 13,200 cheese rolls for our fundraiser. It was a mammoth task but many hands make light work. The efforts of the Team will help to reduce the cost of camp in Term 4.

Last Thursday night, we celebrated our Libyan families at our Term 2 Mix and Mingle. It was a fantastic evening. We learnt about Libya, saw a Libyan dance, learnt how to make a traditional Libyan dish - Cos cosi, and got to sample an array of Libyan food. A big thank you to our families who made the evening possible. It is always such a joy to make connections with the numerous cultures that we have at Avonhead School.

On Monday last week, our Year 7 and 8 Basketball team competed in the North West Zone tournament at the Bishopdale YMCA. We played against a number of other schools from our zone. As always, the level of competition was high. After losing our first match against Russley, the team rallied to win all of their remaining games to face Russley again in the finals. Avonhead played brilliant basketball to take out the final and qualify for the Canterbury competition next term.

On Thursday 13 June, Avonhead hosted the Rotary Speech competition in our hall. We had two students present their speeches after winning our Avonhead Year 7 and Year 8 speech competitions. Congratulations to Claudia and Georgia.

This Tuesday we held our first Avonhead Ako for 2024. This is an opportunity for families to come into school to see what their children have been learning about over the first half of the year. We absolutely love having our whānau in our spaces and the students relish the opportunity to share their work. Also on Tuesday, Team 4 shared their mini production. It was an absolutely amazing show with a focus on New Zealand's environment. Well done to all of the students for taking part and the Team 4 staff and helpers for your hard work, determination and efforts. A special thanks must go to Alison Dawson for writing the script and directing this wonderful show.

Earlier this week we had 3 teams of Year 5 and 6 students take part in the Canterbury Chess tournament at Te Hapua in Halswell. Congratulations to our C team who came 2nd in the B Grade and a big congratulations to our A team who won the top division and are now the Canterbury champs. The A team have also qualified for the National Chess Tournament in Wellington.

Yesterday, 18 students from Years 5 - 8 took part in the Canterbury Cross Country at Nga Puna Wai. The course was very muddy after the wet weather we've been having recently, but that didn't dampen our competitors' spirits. All of our participants gave it their all and ran very well. A big congratulations to Momoka, who came 1st in Canterbury for her race. This is a huge achievement!

This morning, Team 1 held their Matariki breakfast. This was a lovely way to start the day, to share in some kai and to acknowledge the celebration of Matariki.

Tonight, our Senior Choir students (along with some of our Choral members) are performing in the North West Music Festival at Burnside High. All the best to our tamariki and a big thank you to Vicki Lewis, Darelle Busfield, William Grubb and Nicola Holt for the work they do with our choir groups.

We mentioned in an earlier Message from the Principal that Avonhead played host to the Christchurch Schools' Music Festival auditions. Hundreds of students took part in these auditions in an attempt to make one of the special choirs or the special orchestra. We are very proud to have had 8 Avonhead students offered a place. It is a wonderful achievement and we can not wait to see Avonhead take part in the CSMFA concert again in Term 4.

Next week, our mid year reports will be accessible for whānau to see how their tamariki have progressed over the first half of 2024. Here is a link which shows how to access the reports through the eTap@school app. Our report format remains the same as Term 4 2023. With the Government looking at changing how schools report to parents we felt there was no need to change our reports until the new guidelines come through. We will have parent teacher interviews on Wednesday 31 July and Thursday 1 August to discuss your child's progress and set goals for the second half of the year. A link to make an interview booking will be sent out next week.

School is closed this Friday 28 June as we celebrate Matariki. We hope that everyone has an enjoyable long weekend.

Ngā mihi nui,

Micah Hocquard

Principal

"Ma tini ma mano ka rapa te whai" - Many hands make light work