Kia ora! Maths Week has seen our classrooms abuzz with all things Mathematics. An annual highlight for the senior classes is the Mathex competition where teams of four from each of the Year 4-6 classes battle it out with a mix of problem-solving ability and speed. This year the Year 6 division was won by a team from Room 2, in Year 5 it was a Room 5 team, and in Year 4, a Room 9 team. A huge thank you to Linda Vane for organising this.

You may have heard the sad news  this week, that one of our school parents passed away suddenly, leaving his wife and their two boys (Year 6 and Year 4). John Tuivaiti was 37 years old. The thoughts and sympathies of the Milford School community have been passed to the family. As you can imagine, the family are in shock and are not sure what support they may need going forward. We will be keeping in touch with them and will let our wider community know, when we know. For now, please just keep them in your thoughts.

This week, your children will have come home with some general knowledge questions about New Zealand. These are for the annual Quiz-a-thon our PTA run which has a different theme each year. We ask that they try and get as many sponsors as possible over the next 2 weeks, so that after the test on 28 August, the money they bring in to school will go towards the brand new senior playground that the students are eagerly looking forward to. This is a great event as it not only raises money, it has an educational focus also.

A big congratulations to Tamaki Sugiyama-Ongley, Peter Yap and Roileen Yap who all achieved their yellow belt in Martial Arts recently. This result involved lots of training, self-discipline and perseverance. We are very proud of their result as this was their first grading and they all double-graded.

Just a reminder that there is a lot of unnamed lost property, especially polar fleece jackets, in the school office. If your child has lost an item, please pop in and check it out, or ask them to take a look. It is probably timely to check that your child’s items are clearly labeled.

Today is the last day at Milford School for one of our amazing teachers, Mr John Cormack. John leaves us to head to a teaching job in his home city, Wellington. We wish him well and know that while he is very excited to be going home, he is also sad to be leaving our school community and his Room 5 class. We sincerely thank him for all he has done in his two and a half years here.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Ngā mihi nui

Sue Cattell

Principal