We hope that you have all had a great break together as a whānau, and are excited about the start of Term 2 this coming Mane (Monday).

We have a lot of exciting learning adventures planned for the term, ranging from studying innovators, through to becoming kite designers, but all of this is on hold across the first two weeks, due to the excitement of the WaiSwim programme.

WaiSwim - we are swimming this Mane (Monday). Ākonga are required to bring their togs and towel (with googles if needed), in a seperate named bag each day across the first two weeks of the term (exception next Wednesday, as we are holding our whole school cross country).

Unlike pervious years, the focus is very much on water safety, rather than lessons - which we believe is a powerful and exciting change. 

Cross Country - as mentioned above, we are holding our whole school cross country event next Wednesday. We are excited to be back down at the Lake to share this event with the community. Keep a look out for further information about this from our Sports Leader - Mr Henderson. 

Due to WaiSwim, both timeframes and the physical nature of these sessions, we are unlikely to be able to practice our long distance running (Year 4 - 1km, Year 5 - 2km) during school time, so we are encouraging those wishing to dominate their respective races, to hit the pavements before or after school with their whānau. 

Hot Kai - one of the highlights of Term's 2 and 3, is the heating of kai for lunch. We will be starting this in Wiki Tuatoru (Week 3) - as our lunchtimes are going to be at different times (you guessed it, because of swimming). 

Wiki Tuatahi (Week 1) mahi - Did I mention we are swimming this week? 

Aside from this, we roll straight back into our fantastic MNP sessions, with the Year 4's moving onto Multiplying 2-Digit numbers, and the Year 5's picking up from where they left off last term, with solving word problems involving Multiplication and Division. 

Our Literacy and Inquiry focus is on Remembrance - as we look back to our amazing Warriors (no not those ones - they lost), who fought and continue to serve our country, including our great Māori Battalion. We have a exciting ANZAC project lined up, which will coincide with new poetry styles being taught, and some exciting recitals being accessed via QR coding. 

Our great student kaiako, Brodie and Dixie are with us again each Wenerei (Wednesday) and our North Canterbury Sports Coach also return this Tāite (Thursday).  

Library - we are lucky enough to still be able to access our wonderful range of pukapuka each Wednesday, so please return all those holiday reading books and get some new ones out. 

See you on Monday,

Ngā mihi

Simon, Jen, Amanda, Leanne, Sonya, Sarah, Ruth and Gaynor.