Kia ora koutou katoa. Today is the last day of the term and the mid-point of the year. At the parent/student/teacher meetings this week, I know many of you have talked about what your child has achieved this half-year and what their goals are for the second-half. These goal setting times are important in ensuring we are all clear about what learning needs to take place. For me, today is my last day at school until Term 4, with Term 3 being a sabbatical term for me. While I am really looking forward to the study and travel I will be doing (I finally get to see my daughter and granddaugher in Singapore), I will miss the daily contact with staff, students and families here. This school is a very special place and one that feels like family. I do know that things here will continue to move along smoothly, with Sara Baker and Nicola Hewitt as Acting Principals during this term.

You can watch this week’s episode of Milford School TV by clicking the link below

At the end of each Term, our wonderful Crest Cleaners, award a class that have repeatedly left their classroom the tidiest at the end of each day, with a pizza lunch.

On Thursday, as part of celebrating Matariki, the year three team took part in a variety of activities. We made poi and learnt waiata, created pepeha and Matariki star artwork, and weaved flax Matariki kites. The children had a lot of fun and learnt a lot about the importance of Matariki.

On Tuesday 6th of July, Milford School took part in the Bayswater Festival of Football tournament at Bayswater Park. Two teams went along, a Year 3/4 team and a Year 5/6 team. Each team played 6 games overall and there were 10 teams with 7 players on each team, a mix of boys and girls.

This week the Year 3 children enjoyed a visit from some of the Year 13 students at WGHS. The students carried out various presentations on topics to do with the environment and how we can better care for it. Topics included reducing the use of palm oil and understanding the impacts of bycatch. This visit tied in nicely with our unit of inquiry on Sharing The Planet. It was awesome to see the positive interactions between our children and the students from WGHS.

Our amazing Year 1 techxperts attended weekly meetings over the course of Term 2 to learn more about using technology in their learning. Over the course of four weeks, they learnt how to enter the passcode to unlock the iPad, close unnecessary tabs, type capital letters and scan class QR codes to upload their work onto Seesaw. These amazing techxperts are now so knowledgeable in this area that they will be able to help their teachers and other classmates. They have been awarded a certificate and a stylus pen to congratulate them for their achievement!

Matariki 2021 was celebrated in all the Year 4 classes throughout late June and early July. Learning focused on the Māori lunar calendar and learning about the tikanga and customs associated with this special time of remembrance and new beginnings. Our learning about Matariki culminated in a day centred on craft and a shared te wā kai. Students enjoyed making kites, origami bookmarks and eating a yummy shared hākari (feast) with some fish and chips (ika me nga maramara) . We are all looking forward to Matariki 2022!

The FOMS group would like to say a big thank you to all those families who came along to the Jump Event held last Friday. It was a huge success and so well received that FOMS will be looking at running it again during the next teacher only day in Term 4.

Last week in Room 10 - Camille Collins came to our class to share her Māori heritage with Room 10. Camille is the mum of Lily Collins, a Room 10 student- and together they presented together some of the aspects of their Māori culture.

The Year 2 team were fortunate to have some Year 13 Social Studies students from Westlake Girls High School visit us on Monday. The girls ran some activities and did presentations about different social and environmental issues. Our children loved the opportunity to interact with the older students and share their own thinking around the issues.

The production team are looking to borrow a few clothing racks for the storage of production constumes. If anyone has one that they can borrow, please can you let either Bev Boyd (Rm5) or Eugenie Middleton (Music) know, or drop them into the office. They will need to be very sturdy.

The Pupuke Kāhui Ako Power-ED Initiative aims to promote connections between schools and local business through the parent community by building on already existing relationships between school and whanau.

Max has shown great progress in 2021, and I am proud to say that he is showing perseverance in his learning. He is working on being a Knowledgeable and Open-Minded learner who loves to share his learning with others. Good on you Max, keep up the good work!

Yay! After months of collecting used writing instruments from across the school, we have collected enough to send our box to TerraCycle where they will repurpose the plastic from all the items. Our box weighed 5.78 kg and contained hundreds of items. Milford School receives $0.01 for every unit received. The most important thing is that we are keeping these usually non-recyclable items out of the landfill.

We are so proud of yet another huge success of Malika, Room 1 for winning 1st place in 2021 North Island Artistic Swimming Championships held in Tauranga last weekend. Well done, Malika!

Parent Information Evening - Tuesday 10 August 7 - 8pm in the School Auditorium.

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.

Milford Primary School is selling Entertainment Digital Memberships as part of this year’s fundraising initiative and we would love your support. Buy a Membership & your Milford School receives 20% of the purchase.

Tap into your child’s potential by encouraging their creativity with Bricks 4 Kidz® Holiday Programme, a fresh and fun way for kids aged 5-12 to spend their school holiday! Students will show off their engineering skills, problem solving, creativity and imagination, explore the world of Science, Engineering and Architecture using STEM principles. Your only limitation is your imagination!

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

Contact milford@skids.co.nz to find out how to enrol your child.

See attached enrolment information for Skids before and after school programme, including their weekly activity plan for Term 3.

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.