Kia ora whānau. Next Wednesday sees the Term 1 parent/teacher/student meetings. These are a great way to talk with your child’s teacher, face to face, about all aspects of their learning. Please ensure you have made a booking through the SkoolLoop app. A reminder that classes finish at 12.30pm that day, so please ensure you have made arrangements for your child to be collected at that time.

We will be holding a parent/teacher/student meeting on Wednesday, 13 April. Bookings are to be made through Skool Loop. We are looking forward to meeting with you to have a conversation about how your child has been progressing this term.

sKids are offering after school care on the afternoon of 13 March for those parents who are unable to collect their child/ren at 12.30pm. Please contact them directly to book in.

We are happy to welcome Mrs Alicia Patane-Waters and Mrs Kathy Wilson to our Learning Assistant team here at school. Both Alicia and Kathy have started working with us this week, not only assisting in classrooms with students learning, but Alicia is also taking on the Garden to Table garden role with the Year 5 team. The gardens are looking beautiful! Welcome to you both, we know your work with our learners will be very much appreciated.

Starting in July 2021, Auckland Transport made a number of temporary street changes to Otakau Road and Fenwick Avenue which included the Kea Road Crossing.

Kia Ora Parents. I know that there are some overdue library books from last year that may have “disappeared” during the long lockdown. Please do not be overly concerned if your child has misplaced this 2021 book at this stage. These records have been left on their library account at this time so that if they are found, it can be easily placed back into the system. If you know for certain that the book(s) are lost, I will be quite happy to issue a replacement invoice to you by the end of the term.

This week the Learner Profile Attribute that we have been learning about is Reflective. This means that we think about our own work, we think about what we have done really well, and what we could have done better. This week's certificate recipients are Christian and Maia (Room 14), Sona and Carter (Room 15), Layla and Caden (Room 16) Misha and Aylar (Room 17). Congratulations to these wonderful learners.

Congratulations to our Year 6 Student Kaiārahi (leaders) for 2022!

Room 15 loved going to meet the animals from Little Bo Beeps Farm. The farm visit was to support our Inquiry; How we organise ourselves. Farmer Fleur told us about the animals and what they need to survive and the children used their thinking brains to ask some very good questions.

During the Year 6 Camp, the students were in activity groups and earned points based on their teamwork, cooperation, encouragement, effort, communication and the attitudes they showed. They also scored points for the quiz night, camp wide relays and other activities. As a reward, the top three teams won a mufti day yesterday. Congratulations to our winning teams: Ruru, Kereru and Piwakawaka.

This week in Room 16, we have been talking about the importance of washing or sanitising our hands regularly and carefully. We used bread to help us see what would happen if we didn't do this. We used one slice of bread and left it untouched - this was the control. The second slice was handled by children who had sanitised their hands. The third slice was handled by children who had washed their hands with water only in the bathroom, and the fourth slice was handled by children who had not washed their hands at all. Here are photos of the results. We learned that it is very important to wash our hands often and thoroughly.

Little Bo Peep mobile farm visited the Year 1 children this morning. Room 17 children learnt some interesting facts about the different farm animals and got to look at the animals up close (some even hugged and kissed the goat!). The children had so much fun in this learning experience. They looked, patted, hand-fed, and broomed the animals... Many children were risk-takers, who bravely tried something that they felt a little scared of initially. See a video below of what the got up to.

As part of our How We Organise Ourselves Unit, Year 2 have been inquiring into what a workplace is and the importance of having a common vision or purpose. The Hive looked at our own workplace, Milford School. They came up with some questions and then interviewed and photographed all the staff at Milford School. They then interpreted what they had learned, displayed it on a poster with their own portrait of that staff member and presented it to the class. They learned a lot about the different roles within the school. One common factor among staff though was that there were not enough hours in a day to do all they needed to do!!

Room 14 was one of the lucky Year 1 classes to enjoy Little Bo Peeps Barnyard visit. Farmer Fleur told us all about the farm animals, how to care for them and some ways in how they help us. She also taught us about how different animals live in different environments. We met Marvel the bunny, Capone the llama, Poco the alpaca, Dobby and Levi, the goats, Skylight the sheep, Silver the pony and Hugo the donkey. We got to feed and brush the animals. We had so much fun!

In Room 20 we have been learning to say our Pepeha. A Pepeha is a way of introducing yourself in Te Reo Māori. It tells a story of the places that are special to you and your whanau.

The students in Room 11 really enjoyed creating their "I AM" poems. They followed the I am poem structure to help write their poems, expressing their unique interests, imagination and points of view. Please enjoy reading Jeremy, Emily, Henry, Maddy, Bowen, and Ben's poetry.

It was the final Gardening Club session for Term 1 this week. The children got to enjoy the 'fruits' of their hard work by harvesting some veggies to take home. The children each collected some leaves from the lettuce garden and potted one coriander seedling to take home. See you next term Gardeners!

Ramadan Mubarak to all Milford School students and their families who celebrate their most important holiday. Kenzy, R7 and Naya, R19 (photo) are some of our students who celebrate the holy month of Ramadan. Kenzy has written more about it. See below.

A major focus for this term has been for the Year 3-6 to learn how to play xylophones and marimbas. Xylophones are a very special instrument and are one of the main instruments in Orff music pedagogy. This way of teaching resonates with me because it makes music accessible to everyone and super fun! It involves the whole body and is amazing at connecting pathways in your brain!

Miss McKeen will be running a series of STEM focussed workshops during the school holidays. For details and registration information, please see below.

Our music specialist, Eugenie Middleton, is offering after school xylophone lessons on a Thursday afternoon.

Looking for a fun football holiday programme? Northern Rovers Football Club are running sessions over both weeks of the April school holidays.

Shelley Bryce is once again running her Tennis Holiday programme from the Milford Tennis Club on Dodson Avenue these coming school holidays.

Need a safe and fun holiday programme for the kids over the school holidays? Our before and after school care team, SKIDS, are running their holiday programme filled with fun activities and trips.

Holy Moly Arts and Craft, along with sKids, will be running after school art sessions on Monday afternoons in Term 2.

Fun Languages, along with sKids, will be running after school Spanish classes on Wednesday afternoons in Term 2.

Not all workouts are created equal - Suna Pilates brings you a unique and very effective exercise style that gets results faster, by focusing on great posture and breathing technique. If you are keen to add to your fitness repertoire, or start integrating fitness that really works into your lifestyle, Suna has two VIP offers for Milford School Parents (and yes, you can bring your bestie).

Xabilities is putting on an Autistic expression art event, where autistic people are coming together to display their creations, to show what autism really is. The event is being held at the Estuary Art Centre in Orewa. Opening Night is this coming Monday 4th April from 4pm-6pm. Free Entry. Come and experience a beautiful night out, or night in! The event will be live-streamed. Click the link below to go to the event page. The exhibition will run for the whole of April.

Please note that the following advertisements are from external sources / businesses and are intended to be informative for the reader. This does not imply that they are endorsed by Milford School.