Kia ora koutou katoa. It has been fantastic being back at school this week and seeing the smiling faces come through the gate. The children are so happy to be back with their friends, and their teachers. For many of us, the suddenness of this last lockdown was unsettling, and we do recognise this. That was why we provided the distance learning but left it to families to choose how much or how little they did, and this seemed to have been well received.

As you are aware, Covid-19 has had a negative impact on events, organised sports and many other facets of people's lives. From an organisation perspective, this has also been challenging with the change of dates, transportation, safety forms, fees or even refunds for the sports that are organised through schools.

Do you care about our Natural Environment? You can make a difference! You can take action and help the North Shore Birdsong Project to plant 500 trees in the nearby Brian Byrnes reserve this Saturday. Yes, tomorrow! Planting trees along the Wairau Stream in this reserve is one step towards restoring this contaminated stream and improving habitats of aquatic and bird life. The stream has no shade so has become infested with gambusia fish, but they are also planting trees to provide a food source for birds and native gecko. The trees will have a high food value for birds. Planting trees along the river banks also helps with water quality as they act as a filter for sediments and tree roots stabilise the banks.

Congratulations to the following winners. The standard was so high this year that we were unable to choose one winner alone.

Harper Kirby in Room 1 - helping deliver food parcels for a Charitable Trust, during Lockdown. Being an excellent Global Citizen - well done Harper.

During the lockdown, Room 14 have been learning about being Balanced Learners. Being a Balanced Learner means looking after our body, brain and mind (emotions).

Milford's Got Talent will resume next week with the two heats for Dance scheduled to take place. Unfortunately during Level 2 we are not permitted to have parents on site for these performances but we do encourage the children to bring what they need to school and enjoy showing us their items.

We are excited to be able to confirm the new Shore to Shore date as SUNDAY 8TH NOVEMBER 2020! Online registrations are now open.

The Graduation Social Committee is holding a Jesters Pie Day to help fundraise for the year 6 Graduation social.

Our new lunchtime Games Club has proven to be very popular and we are in need of some extra games and puzzles! If you have any spare board games or puzzles (that have all their pieces), please consider donating them to our keen kids. Games and puzzles can be sent to school with your child and dropped off to either the office or Room 17.

Patrick and Rueben, along with their elder sister Olivia, made an amazing rap during the level 3 lockdown, in which they talk about Fair Trade bananas! As part of Patrick's PYP unit, How We Organise Ourselves, he and his family found out how Fair Trade benefits many people. Here's a line from the rap: "So look for this label each time you shop, when you buy Fairtrade you care a lot!' Well done Patrick, Reuben and Olivia, you are awesome!

The flowers and vegetables don't know that we've been in lockdown. They just keep growing. If we leave things in the garden too long, sometimes they spoil, or get eaten by bugs. During both lockdowns we had vegetables that needed to be picked and Jude Franklin, a former parent, who still helps out by watering and weeding our Gardening Club garden during the holidays, offered to take some of our ripe vegetables to the Forrest Hill Community Garden stall.

We will be holding a ballot for out of zone students in October this year, for entry to school in 2021. This ballot includes out of zone siblings of students already attending Milford School. The final day to get a ballot application into school is Wednesday 14 October. The ballot will be drawn by our Police Education Officer on Wednesday 21 October.

Click link below to see PDF notice form the Student Community Dental Clinic.

The Terracycle Colgate Community Garden Challenge is back. By sending in our oral care waste and receiving your votes, we stand a chance to win one of two recycled community garden sets - made from recycled oral hygiene products. Let's see Milford Primary School on the Leaderboard!

The new scheduled date for Team and Group photos will be on Thursday October 22 along with Year 6 and New Entrant photos.

Catalogues were sent home this week, BUT if you didn’t get one don’t despair please check with your classroom teacher. Orders need to be in by Friday next week.

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.