Kia ora koutou. It was wonderful to see so many of you at our Matariki celebration last night. Thank you for all the donations of vegetables and to Kai for Kids for making them into yummy soup. Thanks to Anna and Nanae from our Board of Trustees for keeping the hot chocolate flowing and to James Wood JMW Events for supplying the lighting. It was an amazing night.

Scholastic Book Fair: A huge thank you to our Hampstead School community for the amazing support this event received. We sold over $2700 worth of books and the school library will receive $800 back in rewards to buy books from Scholastic during the year. Every order (either through the book club or book fairs) earns our school rewards which our library uses to add to our students reading experiences. We would also like to thank Mrs Andrea Ritchie for all her work running the book fair and for making our library such a engaging space for our students to nourish their love of reading.

Board of Trustees news: We welcome Nanae Perry as our new Board of Trustees member. At our last meeting, our board approved an application to Mobility Dogs NZ to be matched with a suitable Therapy Dog to support our students in a range of ways, including emotional regulation, anxiety support and literacy support. We will keep you updated on the application process.

Student Reports & Learning Conferences: Later today, our student reports will be published on Hero. Please email your child's teacher if you have any issues accessing these. You will also be able to book learning conferences via the Hero app from today. These are held on 24 & 25 July, however if these dates do not suit you, you can arrange an alternative time with your child's teacher.

Staff: We farewell our Reading Recovery teacher Miss Alison Early as she heads off on retirement with a 3 month trip to Europe. The government will not be continuing Reading Recovery in 2025. We wish Alison all the best and thank her for all her work growing our young readers.

Mrs Jen Williams will be taking a leave of absence in Term 3. We appreciate Mrs Sarah Grieve stepping up to lead and support our junior team in her absence. We look forward to seeing Jen back later in the year.

Duffy Books: We hope the children enjoy their two new Duffy Books presented in assembly last week. We are very grateful to be a Duffy School and thankful to Mainfreight for their sponsorship.

Student of the Week: Mackenzie of Rm 7 is a ray of sunshine and an absolute delight to be around! Mackenzie loves to learn new things and approaches them with a smile. Mackenzie takes pride in her work, always ensuring she has tried her best. Mackenzie is kind, caring, and helpful. She always makes sure no one is left out, making her such a great friend. Mackenzie is a valued member of our class and we feel so lucky to have her in Room 7!

Upcoming Dates:

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

First day of Term 3: 22 July

Learning Conferences: 24-25 July

Nga mihi nui,

Claudine Campbell (Principal)