Kia ora e te whanau. We have had a lot of exciting things happening at school in the last two weeks, so this is quite a long newsletter.

We continue to post additional updates on HERO, so please ensure you are signed up to your child/ren's account. This will be where student reports are published and where you can book times for learning conferences. Teachers can help you to get signed up and instructions are on our website https://hampsteadschool.co.nz/a/VCzdY7c

National Young Leaders Day: Some of our Year 5 and 6 students had the opportunity today to attend the NYLD(National Young Leaders Day) at the Town Hall in Christchurch. There were five motivational speakers and a short performance at the end of the day. The speakers covered topics such as stepping out of your comfort zone, thinking of an issue you care about and what you can do to make a difference, and you can save money by doing a little bit every day. I'm sure Charlie, Icent, Jaxson, Jaylah, Natalie.P, Rikki, Ruby and Ryleigh had a fantastic day and have lots of other little quotes and ideas from the day written in their notebooks.

EPro8 Challenge: Summer, Ryan, Zac and Maria represented us at the EPRo8 Competition at the Intermediate this week. They had 3 challenges to do, one was to build a rollercoaster with an elevator to set the ball rolling. The team showed great sportsmanship, resilience and we look forward to further training later in the year to build up to next year’s event. They were particularly good at using the Electronics simulator kit. Thanks to EA Networks for their sponsorship to each school this year for the hiring of the gear for our class runoffs. 

County Cross Country: Congratulations to Summer, George, Fletcher, Morgan & Lucas who are representing Hampstead School in the County Cross Country today at the Ashburton A&P Showgrounds. We know you will do us proud with your enthusiasm, determination and by being excellent sports. 

Heartland Music Festival: We are excited to see our very talented choir perform in the Heartland Music Festival on Thursday 13 June at the Events Centre.  They have been working so hard with Mrs Williams on the massed songs as well as a special bracket on their own.  We are also very proud of our seven students that perform in the Representative choir as well.  

Matariki Celebration:  We are looking forward to celebrating Matariki on 4 July from 5pm at school.  Kai for Kids are kindly making soup for everyone and our lovely Hampstead Friends & Whanau team will be making Hot Chocolate to keep everyone warm.  We would love donations of any vegetables that can be made into soup.  In the days before (1-3 July), if any whanau have a spare vegetable (e.g potato, pumpkin, kumara, yams, carrot, parsnip, onion, celery, silverbeet etc) please send them along to class and our student council will collect them up and give to the team at Kai for Kids. 

Celebrating Samoan Language Week: We thank our Samoan community for helping us to learn more about Samoan culture and language.  Our whole school enjoyed learning about and taking part in an Ava Ceremony.  Some of our junior classes had an opportuntity to dress in Samoan clothing and learn some dances and chants.  Thank you to all that made this possible.  Fa'afetai Lava!

PJ Day: On Thursday 27 June, with the help of our student council and some of our Hampstead Friends & Whanau team, we will be having a Pyjama dress-up day and warming up with a Hot Chocolate.  There is no donation required.  ALL Friends and Whanau of our school are invited to our next hui on 13 June from 5pm in Rm 9.  We will provide a light supper.  Children are welcome to play while the adults chat. 

Our Kāhui Ako learning community have organized Joseph Driessen, a internationally renowned expert on boys education to come to our community to give two presentations. The presentations are being held on Wednesday 12 June at Ashburton College. The two presentations are “Parenting skills to help your child succeed at school “ (6:00—7:30pm) and “ Becoming the parent your teenager needs you to be” (7:45—9:15pm). Both presentations are free to attend. However, you do need to register with the event organisers. Please use QR code you can scan / web-site details you can access to register for this event.

Student of the Week: Purotu of Rm 8. Purotu is a thoughtful, caring and kind member of Room 8. She is always ready to help someone out if they need it. Purotu has an excellent attitude towards her learning and can independently complete set tasks. Purotu is a great role model for others in the class and continually practices the values that our school encourages. She is willing to try new things and give everything a go. We are very lucky to have Purotu as a member of Ruma Waru.  We also celebrated Melani of Rm 13. Melani is a polite and hard working student, who tries her best in all tasks. She has flourished in her reading with Miss Early and this is apparent in the keen interest she shows during class. Melani is very thoughtful, always being the first to offer to help, and she always pays attention and follows instructions. Melani, you are a Room 9 SUPERSTAR!

Upcoming Dates:

Joseph Driessen Parenting Workshops: 12 June, 6-7.30pm at Ashburton College

Hampstead Friends & Family: 13 June, 5pm in Rm 9 - all welcome

Heartland Music Festival: 13 June, 7.30pm at Ashburton Events Centre

Board of Trustees Meeting: 26 June, 6pm in Puawai space

PJ Dress up Day: 27 June

Matariki Public Holiday: 28 June

Matariki Celebration: 4 July, 5-7.30pm at School

Last day of Term 2: 5 July (Student Mid Year reports published in Hero)

First day of Term 3: 22 July

Learning Conferences: 23-25 July

Nga mihi nui,

Claudine Campbell (Principal)