Kia ora whānau. Once again thank you for sending those gold coins to school with your children today. While we are still counting today’s money, the last non-uniform day raised $750 for our new playground. If we get the same today and in two weeks time, we will have almost reached our target for the new playground!

Catalogues were sent home this week, BUT if you didn’t get one don’t despair - please check with your classroom teacher or the office to get your copy. Orders need to be placed by Wednesday 30 November.

This year, after not being able to participate in 2021 due to lockdown, we are happy to announce we will again be supporting the Age Concern North Shore organisation to collect gifts and Christmas messages of kindness and recognition to the elderly community of the North Shore. Many of our elderly in the community do not have relatives or friends able to be with them each Christmas day, so with the gifts we collect, Age Concern provides a small gift hamper for many of these lovely people. Please help us and donate an item to our collection!

Don't forget you can still buy tickets for the FOMS raffle hampers everyday before or after school from the office. $5 each or 5 for $20. Please help support this great fundraising drive as FOMS works to get the last $5000 needed for the new playground. Raffles will be drawn at the Festival of Song event on 9 December.

Connor from Room 5 is an x-race ambassador and spoke to the students today at singing assmbly, telling them all about X-Race and how much fun it is.

As part of the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme, we had a visit from the Police Constable Murray. He spoke about the importance of knowing our personal information like our home address and a parent's phone number, and what to do if we get lost. Constable Murray also spoke about Keeping our physical bodies safe by saying "No" to uncomfortable and unwanted touches. Thank you Constable Murray.

Kia ora tatou, It is getting towards the end of the year where the library will need to close up ready for stocktake in Week 7. The last week for students borrowing books will be this week (Week 5), with those books having a return date by the beginning of Week 7. Classes will still be able to visit the library in Week 6 but there will be no issuing.

This week we have been focussing on the Learner Profile Attribute of being Caring. This means that we care about people, plants and the earth. We help others and care for the environment. We also look after and take care of our own things. This week, the caring certificates go to; Ollie and Letty in Room 4, Spencer and Charlotte in Room 18, Austin and Rosalind in Room 17, Can and Derek in Room 16, Ryan and Milly in Room 15, Flynn and Thea in Room 14, Ida and Teddy in Room 13. Congratulations to these deserving learners.

The weather this term has been unpredictable, but the Gardening Club children came to the garden each Thursday, rain or shine. This week, we were able to harvest some carrots and strawberries to share!

Every Friday all the students in Year 0 and 1 get together for their weekly Fun Friday hui. At the hui the teachers each select some students to get the Learner Profile certificates, we sing some waiata (Maori songs), and then we can choose a fun art or craft activity to do. Fun Friday is a great time to catch up with our friends from other classes and do activities with other teachers.

Maia, Taylor, Summer, William, Ryan and Aadev were wondering if there was any technology down by the lake and asked Mrs. S to take them for a walk. They spotted a crane in the distance ( by the hospital) and a few AC condensers in the year 4 block. Their understanding of HOW THE WORLD WORKS is absolutely amazing. What a clever bunch of bilingual children!

The Year 5 Children recently spent two days at MERC in Long Bay - this was the first time many of them had spent a night away from home without their parents. The two days were an activity-filled adventure where all children got to experience challenges and successes and take risks in a safe environment with support and encouragement from their friends as well as the fantastic instructors at MERC. By the end of day two all were happy, tired and super proud of their achievements and full of tasty food. An experience to remember for many years to come. They have all written some descriptions of their most favourite moments, here are just a few examples to share with you. Year 5 Teachers

Room 12 ESOL students have been working hard unpacking the vocabulary and the central idea of their HOW THE WORLD WORKS unit of Inquiry. They now understand that materials are made up of matter that has properties which can be classified, changed and used for a variety of purposes - they did it in their ESOL class and had lots of fun while doing it.

As we are getting close to the festive season once more, I'd like to share our Milford School 'Education for Sustainability' Website. This has been created not only to share all the amazing things we are doing at Milford in Enviroschools and Sustainability, but also the many options that we have as environmentally conscious consumers for gifts at this time of year. Please go to the Sustainable Living page to find many options for home, beauty and cleaning products that all give back or take less from the environment. Feel free to send me the links to any websites that you feel are missing from the site as the services and goods offered in this area are a continually growing market.

Thank you to the family of Eugene from Room 18 for donating their spare dishwasher to our GTT programme. The 'new' dishwasher is now plumbed in and cleaning our GTT dishes successfully! Thank you Michelle Clark & Year 5 students

The forecast wasn't looking promising, however the Milford School Waterwise Regatta team had smiles on their faces as they made their way down to lake Pupuke. Our team of 12 were up against Campbells Bay, Forrest Hill and St Josephs schools in the Pupuke Waterwise Primary School Regatta 2022. Up first were our girls kayaker heats, 2 making it through to the final. Boys soon followed with one lucky finalist. Then into sailing where we achieved a 2nd and 3rd in two closely fought relay matches. With two 4th place finishes in the kayak finals, we can say that we put up a great effort against tough competitors! Well done to our students, parents and instructors from all schools who organised it for us. It was a great morning (and we escaped the predicted thunder and lightning, thank goodness!) All the children were cheering on their teammates as well as giving great encouragement to those competing against them! Congratulations all.

Every year the Milford School students sing Christmas songs on the field while the parents sit on picnic rugs, drink and eat and enjoy the children singing. It is a highlight of the year and we haven't been able to do this concert for a couple of years, so the children are very excited to have it back! It is a wonderful opportunity to get to know people in the school community and to celebrate the wonderful year. Children wear red, white or green clothing. They start arriving with you at 5pm. The singing starts at 5.30 pm. Each year group will be performing, so put it in your diary!

We have two Korean learners arriving to study at TNIS for Term 1, 2023 on 10 January next year. Homestay compensation is $320/w per student. Police vetting of anyone over 18 in the home will be required. A homestay learner is a great chance to share different cultures and widen your child's worldview. Any families interesting in hosting the visitors, please contact Sophia Yang on studynz@tnis.school.nz.

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

The Cheese Wheel is a cheese subscription service based in Wellington. They have kindly donated a cheese box for one of our FOMS raffle hampers and they have also given the school community a special offer of 20% of your first cheesebox using the code TCW22MILFORD. See above flyer for more information. The Cheese Wheel is a cheese subscription service based in Wellington.

9 Lives Orphange do an amazing job of caring for and rehabilitating injured, sick and scared cats and kittens, and to re-home these once stray and abandoned animals into loving forever homes. With 252 cats and kittens in foster already, and with kitten season already in full swing, they desperately need donations of food, litter and other items. There is a box in the school office if anyone would like to donate to this very worthy charity.

This school holiday programme is the perfect way for your child to spend the last few days before Christmas. Each day has been carefully planned so that the children are engaged in a variety of creative activities throughout the day. The course is multi-leveled so is perfect for primary aged children.

Get your children excited about Technology with these 12 awesome holiday programmes.

Bunnings Glenfield has a free Christmas Family Night on Friday 9th of December from 5pm till 8pm. They haven’t had a Family Night event for the last couple of year due to restrictions so are all very excited to be able to once again host this event instore.

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.