In Week 2 Miss King arrived after her very long journey home from the UK. The children in Room 5 have done a tremendous job welcoming her and it has been lovely to see children from other classes throughout the school introduce themselves too.

Last term Rooms 3 and 5 learned Mandarin with Miss Mei and this term Room 6 have their turn.

Room 6 children have been looking carefully at the security features of NZ bank notes. They have been able to look at how the NZ bank notes have changed over time. Many children have brought along foreign currency which has allowed us to discuss similarities and differences. Some children have even created their own notes with their own designs and security features.

Room 3 had a lovely time with the O'Sullivan-Naito family making origami ninja stars and eating Japanese noodles, this was the finale to our learning about culture. Thank you to Sarah, Seibo, Taisei and Joe for the time and effort you put into this for us.

Classes throughout the school have been playing ping pong for P.E. We have been practising holding our bat and making sure the ball goes to the player on the other side of the table. Interestingly we have a small number of children who belong to a table tennis club and who could share their expertise with us.

Kaikville is our major focus this term. Most, if not all, of the children in the Middles have done Kaikville before, but this year it will be quite different for them. This week we finished our CVs and cover letters and applied for our jobs. Examples of companies are the bank, the beauty salon and the cafe. We found out on Thursday morning if we had won the position that we applied for. While writing our CVs we have noticed some children do not know their address or date of birth, you may like to spend time making sure your child knows all of their important emergency information. Some children asked you to write them a reference to support their applications, and they received lovely letters from parents which were a delight for the teachers to read. There will be time scheduled into classroom programmes in the coming weeks where the companies will meet to plan and make the things required for their goods/ services and companies. Children will also have an opportunity to apply for a position as their company’s CEO or on the government. This time around there will be a bigger emphasis on saving and Mr Clarke has a special plan for those children who prove to be successful and sensible savers.

Peter and the Wolf