Kia ora e te whānau, I trust that you all had a great weekend. The NZPF conference was a great experience. I particularly enjoyed listening to Scott Robertson as a keynote speaker and hearing about how he builds the culture at the Crusaders and inspires continuing success. The new Te Pae centre is certainly a magnificent building and an asset for our city.

This week we have the Fernside Tennis Club running introductory sessions for some of our classes which I know they will all enjoy. We also continue with the gymnastics sessions for Ponga and Kōrau which have been a favourite time for many of our students. 

Ngā mihi nui.

Darryn Ward

Winter Tournament

Last week we sent a number of senior students to the Canterbury Winter tournament to represent our school. I have had some great feedback from parents on how the children performed and how they represented our school. This is always good to hear. 

I would like to extend a big thank you to all of the parent volunteers and teachers who attended the event or helped out with the teams throughout the lead up. We could not do this without your help. Thank you!

To Annabel, once again, thank you for your organisation of the teams and getting them ready. I know how much our children enjoy having these opportunities.

And finally, to all of the students who attended, thank you for being such good role models for our school. 

New Entrant Induction Meeting

This event is taking place on Wednesday 21st September in the Library for all of our new parents who have children starting with us in Term 4. Ms Adair is coordinating this event. She will have made contact with you if you have a child starting soon. I look forward to meeting you at this event.

Welcoming a new staff member to our team

I am delighted to be able to welcome Kelly Williams to our staff for the remainder of the Year. Kelly has been employed as a Learning Assistant in Ponga and will spend most of her time in Ponga Tahi with Cat Hamilton. 

Kelly started with us today. We are all looking forward to having her on our staff. 

Tennis in schools

Over the next two weeks we have Fernside Tennis Club running introductory tennis lessons in school for some of our classes. I have been watching and listening to some of the students on the court during their lessons today and there is no doubt they are having some fun. A big thank you to the Fernside Tennis Club for offering these sessions.

'Celebrating success' in assembly

The photos that have been coming in are fantastic. There has been such a variety which is extremely pleasing. This week we had a mixture of sporting, cultural and photos of jobs being done at home. The children have been loving seeing these as they enter the assembly.

Please do continue to share some photos with me of the different things your children are doing outside of school. Any thing that we can celebrate is great.

Please email me photos at principal@fernside.school.nz

Our PB4L focus for the next fortnight

Our focus for the next fortnight with our PB4L system is looking at how our children are playing together and their ability to solve problems when they are playing. We have been noticing some fantastic examples of positive play and a resurgence of some of the older activities such as skipping, hopscotch, 4 square and elastics. 

We have also been noticing some occasions where our children have been struggling to play together or finding it difficult to solve problems during their games. We want to focus on this and be able to support all of our children to be able to play positively and enjoy the environment we have.

We would really appreciate your support by taking a moment to talk with your children about the games they are playing and by discussing some strategies they can use to help them solve any issues that may occur. Thank you for your support.

Rangiora A&P Show

We hope that our families will enter the local Northern A & P (Rangiora) show. This show is returning after a 2 year hiatus which is fantastic. 

Most of the entries for this show close on the 21st September, with flowers closing later. Follow the link below:

 https://showday.online/show/northern

Mountain Biking options

There are 2 mountain biking options coming up next term. We know we have some keen mountain bikers so do read on to see what you can get involved in.

The two local events are the Rakahuri Blast being held on Monday 27th November and the Northern Canterbury School Huxter being held on the 19th October. Both events are user pays. Barbara Shadbolt is our lead parent helper for Mountain Biking and coordinates the team.

MTB  - Rakahuri Bike Blast  - an awesome event for our students.

After a wee break, we are delighted to announce that the Sefton School Rakahuri Bike Blast is back up and running for 2022. This is a fun local  mountain bike event that is open to North Canterbury primary school children in Years 5/6 and 7/8 so get your team of two bikers organised now and enter online at :

https://forms.gle/HHkEC5DdkdjZpUxY7

Huxter Mountain Biking

The Huxter Mountain Biking event is on the 19th October, at Mcleans Island. Entries are through the school this year . Please contact Annabel

Tūhaitara Coastal Park Survey

Attached to the bottom of the newsletter you will find a poster that has information about survey that is being run for users of the Tūhaitara Coastal Park.

It is about current users of the Park’s understanding and knowledge of the Tūhaitara Coastal Park environmental and cultural histories and significance. This will help Te Kōhaka o Tūhaitara Trust (who manages the Park) further promote and enhance environmental, cultural, and historical understanding about the area.

You can access the survey from this link: https://new.maptionnaire.com/q/6jv42jvp2l3m

Some dates for you

Gymnastics for Ponga / Kōrau  - continuing until the end of the term

Tennis in schools  - Sept 19th, 20th, 27th

NE Induction meeting  - Sep 21st

Public Holiday 26th September

BoT meeting  - Sept 27th

Last day of Term 3 -  Sep 30th

1st Day of Term 4  - October 17th

Gardens of Fernside  - Nov 20th

Previous Notices

Gardens of Fernside

Gardens of Fernside

Gardens of Fernside tickets have now gone home for you to sell. Please be sure to support this fundraiser by selling as many as we can. Funds raised will be going towards some of our kura's outdoor projects that they have planned based on the information gathered from the recent community survey. There are some exciting ideas currently being explored at the moment such an upgrade of our pool changing sheds.

Thank you for your support!

We wanted to say a huge thank you to our growing sponsorship team and ask our community to support local as they support us! What a team we have supporting our school community!

Gold Sponsor:

Styx Landscaping & PropertyCare

Garden Sponsors:

• North Canterbury Books

• Saunders Robinson Brown

• Feather & Oak Home

• Mike Pero Real Estate Rangiora

Fernside School Garden Community Sponsors

• Rivertown Automotive Ltd

• Rangiora Vet Centre

• The Dermoscopy Centre

• Hyper Speed

• Design Tech

• Propaganda Streetwear & Skate

• Total Traffic Management

• Lily and George Toys

• Kere Marshall Drainage Services

Please feel free to email Julia.husband@icloud.com if your business would like to join the team!