Kia ora e te whānau. We have been celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori this week and ka rawe to all our tamariki and whānau who joined together earlier this week with the nation in a te reo Māori moment! We have many other wonderful celebrations in this edition of our newsletter as well!

We will be holding a ballot for out of zone students in October this year, for entry to school in 2022. This ballot includes out of zone siblings of students already attending Milford School. The final day to get a ballot application into school is Tuesday 21 September. The ballot will be drawn by our Police Education Officer on Wednesday 20 October.

Wishing all our Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Philippine, Vietnamese and Japanese families a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival.

Tēnā koutou e te kura whānau! Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) was a successful and fun time with our Milford Kura ākonga (students). In a variety of ways, our kaiako and tamariki participated in Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori (Māori Language Moment) that happened on Tuesday at 12pm. This is a significant moment in Aotearoa's history because it marks the day and hour that the Māori Language petition was delivered to parliament back in 1972 calling for courses in Māori language and culture to be offered in New Zealand schools.

Tino pai! Ka pai to mahi! Kia ora! Aroha Aotearoa! It has been fantastic to see the level of engagement in te wiki ō te reo Māori. The Year 3 students have been creating their pepeha, designing koru for a kowhaiwhai pattern, making and decorating rakau sticks, developing an understanding of place value in te reo, counting kararehe (animals), interviewing family members as to how they are feeling, as well as all the fantastic specialist teacher activities.

Two members of our Maori action group - Rebecca Young and Esther Choi have stepped up as leaders this week and provided activities for our Milford School tamariki, sharing their knowledge of Te Reo. Rebecca made a Maori language Kaoot for the whole school and when it exceeded 100 players, we had to make another one.

The Year 2 team came together on Tuesday 14 September at 12pm as part of the Māori Language Movement to sing some waiata. New Zealand were encouraged to stop and take a moment for te reo Māori at this time. The Year 2 team enjoyed our sing along at this time.

ESOL ZOOM classes are going really well. Students are excited to see their friends and share their lockdown learning experiences. They are balanced learners and do their best to not spend too much time in front of devices.

To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo, the Year 0/1 students danced our way through some waiatas on the Musical Monday zoom.

Many of our talented Tamariki have been sharing their talents on their chosen musical instrument on seesaw. Playing a musical instrument takes dedication and commitment to practising and persisting everyday.

The Year 5's got together and did a Year Group Zoom - we invited siblings and parents along too! We had lots of fun. We all greeted each other and then shared some pepeha. It was lovely to hear a couple of mums and dads share theirs with us as well. Then we said a whakatuakī and completed a quiz together.

In Week 10 of this term, we have our annual school wide Literacy Week taking place. This is a great week for children to have fun with all things literacy.

Looking after the mental health of our children is more important now than ever before. Join Hugh van Cuylenburg, founder of The Resilience Project, as he unpacks the research on mental health and breaks it down into simple tips to support the wellbeing of parents/carers and their children.

Unfortunately the High Tea Fundraiser is being postponed until there is clarity around the alert level changes. We are still hopeful that this event can run sometime this year and we will update you in due course.

Thank you so much to all the parents and school supporters who have saved Yummy Stickers and sent them into school. If you have any completed sheets at home, please drop them into the school letterbox or bring them in to school next week so they can be tallied. Every sticker counts and goes towards new sporting equipment for our school.

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