Friday 31 May 2023

Term 2 - Week 5

Greetings, Kia Ora, Tālofa lava, Mālō e lelei, Kia Orāna, Mauri,

Dear Parents / Caregivers

• Pacifika Language Weeks - Samoa 28 May - 3 June      Next week is Samoan Language week - Tālofa lava. We look forward to celebrating the Samoan culture in lots of various ways in classes. We will be taking a small group of children to Avonside Girls High School this term to share in a performance of Samoan culture. We are looking forward to this experience.

• The following Pasifika Language weeks will be acknowledged in our school as the year progresses.

Kiribati is in the holiday break so Term 2 Week 10 - Mauri

Tongan Term 3 Week 8 - Mālō e lelei

Cook Islands Term 3 Week 3 - Kia Orāna

Fijian Term Term 4 Week 1 - Ni Sa Bula

We acknowledge Mrs Barbara Mulholland who is facilitating these cultural celebrations and who is leading and promoting cultural sustainability in our school.

"Potential" Strike Information:

This notice is to ensure that you are aware of potential strike action by teachers on Wednesday 31st May.

Many of you will already be aware of this from media sources. The negotiations between the teachers union NZEI and the Ministry of Education have been underway for several months, and some progress has been made.

Strike action may still take place on Wednesday 31 May if the NZEI Te Riu Roa National Executive and negotiation team feels insufficient progress has been made through the new process. We will be able to inform you on Monday 29th if the strike is going ahead.

Colour Run:

We enjoyed seeing the many smiley faces on the slide show at assembly this week. Congratulations to the students who won PTA prize incentives for the most sponsors gained and money raised. 

Well done to all children who collected sponsors for this fun run challenge and congratulations to our hard working PTA for their great organisation of this event. Thank you parents for getting behind this great fundraiser for our school.

The final fundraising total was $11,630! Outstanding!

Core Values - Our core values focus on being respectful, being responsible and being resolute. At school the children discuss with us what this looks like on a daily basis. We encourage all our parents to do the same. ie. How these values are lived out with you children at home. How is this discussion with your child going? We would also like this discussion to extend to good manners ie. Saying please, thank you, excuse me, how can I help you are the sorts of things we expect from our children and is an important part of developing good character.

Teacher Only Day - Friday 2nd June:

A reminder that this is scheduled for next Friday the 2nd of June. This day will be based at Shirley Boys Boys High and Avonside Girls High and is being organised by our local Kāhui Ako. We look forward to attending a wide variety of workshops on this day.

Vaping:

This article was written by a student in the senior school. We encourage conversations at home between parents and our older students about the effects vaping can have.

Junior Cross Country:

It was great watching our junior children try so hard in the cross country today. They all gave it their best and it was great to see them have fun at the same time.

There was lots of cheering on the sidelines from other students which was awesome to see. Our students lived up to the Queenspark 3R's today. Well done to all our Junior School with their effort today.

What's coming up:

Tuesday 30th May - Zone Cross Country @ QPS

Wednesday 31st May - 'Potential' teacher strike - confirmation to follow on Monday 29th May if going ahead.

Friday 2nd June - Teacher Only Day - school closed for instruction

Monday 5th June - King's Birthday - school closed for instruction

Monday 12th June - BOT meeting

Monday 12th June - Kiwi exams begin this week

Wednesday 21st June - Canterbury Cross Country @ Ngā Puna Wai

Friday 23rd June - QPS Disco - Theme is Outer Space. $2 entry

Tuesday 27th June - House Competition - remember House T Shirts

Friday 30th June - Last Day of Term 2

Monday 17th July - First Day of Term 3

Have a great weekend.

Ngā mihi

Ross Willocks

Principal

Queenspark School - Te Hua Mānuka