Dear Parents /Whānau,

A Message from the Principal

Term 3

Tēnā koutou katoa,

What an incredibly busy and exciting term 3  it's been at Queenspark Te Hua Mānuka!

As we head into the holidays, I want to extend a huge thank you to our entire school community for your hard work, enthusiasm, and support. It’s been a term filled with learning, laughter, and some truly memorable events.

A Thank You to our Teachers

I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the incredible work of our teaching staff at a time when they are going through significant curriculum change and related professional development.

Their passion and commitment to our students are evident in the dynamic and innovative learning programmes happening in every classroom. We've seen an incredible range of engaging activities, from hands-on science experiments and creative art projects to rich literacy and numeracy programmes that are challenging our students to think critically.

Their dedication to fostering a love of learning and their ability to create a supportive and inspiring environment truly make a difference in the lives of our students every day.

A special mention also goes to our hard working group of parents in the PTA. They work behind the scenes arranging fundraising, discos, calendar art and much much more. You are an amazing bunch who care deeply for our tamariki. Thank you so much!

A highlight for our senior students last week has been their participation in the Koru Games.

Our athletes showed amazing resilience and teamwork as they competed against other schools in a range of sports. It was fantastic to see them step up and represent our school with such pride and sportsmanship.

This term we also had the pleasure of hosting many International students. It was wonderful to see our students embrace our visitors and for them to experience life in a New Zealand school.

Welcome to Queenspark

We received some amazing feedback from them, highlighting the warmth and welcoming spirit of our students and staff.

We were also thrilled to see our school's athletic prowess on display at the Zone Winter Tournament.

Our basketball, football, netball, and hockey teams all played with incredible spirit and determination, representing our school with pride.

Creativity and culture were celebrated in our vibrant Pacifica and Kapa Haka Festivals, where our students performed with passion and confidence, sharing the beauty of Pacifica and Māori culture with our whānau.

This was closely followed by our fantastic participation in the Strum, Strike, Blow event at the Wolfbrook Centre. It was a spectacular experience to see our students perform alongside hundreds of other tamariki on their ukuleles, marimbas, and recorders.

The term also saw the continuation of our  lunchtime clubs, which have been a massive success. From gardening and robotics to chess and drawing, it’s been wonderful to see so many students engaging in new hobbies and connecting with their peers.

Finally, a big thank you to the many parents and whānau who volunteered their time to help with school trips, sports teams, and in the classroom. Your contributions are invaluable and help make our school the wonderful place it is.

Thank you to our outgoing Board members

Tania Morgan-Smith: As our Board Chair, Tania has led with vision and passion. Her commitment to our school's success and her exceptional leadership have been instrumental in guiding us through key decisions and initiatives.

Chris Wheeler:Chris's expertise in Property has been vital in maintaining and improving our school's physical environment. His efforts have ensured our learning spaces are safe, modern, and well-equipped for our students.  Special thanks to the current work that he is doing in the much-needed upgrade of our staffroom.

Anthony Calderone: Anthony's meticulous work on Policies and Review has provided a strong, clear framework for our school's operations. His dedication has ensured our school is run fairly, efficiently, and in line with best practices.

Celia Wevers: Celia has been an incredible advocate for our community, strengthening the links between our school and our families. Her passion for connecting people has fostered a truly collaborative and welcoming atmosphere.

Phil Gourley: Phil's stewardship of our school's Finance has been exemplary. His careful and thoughtful management of our budget has ensured we have the resources needed to deliver high-quality education and enriching programmes for our students.

Kylie Murcott: As our Staff Representative, Kylie has been a crucial voice, ensuring the perspectives of our teaching team were always considered. Her insights and advocacy have helped create a supportive and thriving workplace.

Announcing Our New Board of Trustees

I would like to extend our congratulations to our newly elected Board of Trustees. Their willingness to serve our school and their commitment to our students' future is truly appreciated.

Our new Board of Trustees is as follows:

Phil Gourley

Luke Adams

Felicity Boyd

Erika Hendry

Nicky Thorne

Stacey Hewson - Staff Representative

We are all looking forward to working alongside these people  to continue to build a strong and supportive environment for all our learners.

The Board plays a crucial role in the governance and strategic direction of our school, and we are fortunate to have such a dedicated group of individuals stepping into these roles.

Thank you to all who put their names forward and to everyone who participated in the voting process.

Canterbury Winter Tournament 

On Thursday of Week 9 four teams from Queenspark Te Hua Mānuka competed in the Canterbury Winter Tournament. Our Senior Netball, Senior Hockey, Junior Hockey and Junior Rugby teams all won their respective competitions at the Eastern Zone Winter Tournament earning the right to compete at this event.

All of the athletes represented our school demonstrating our 3Rs. We are very proud of the way they stepped up and gave their personal best at this event.  A special mention to the Senior Hockey team who made it to the final of their tournament and went down to a very good Mt Margarets team who they beat in pool play.

Cancer Society Fundraising 

In Week 7 our kura once again took part in the annual Cancer Society Daffodil Day fundraising event. This is something that a group of senior students organise and facilitate.

We are grateful for all of our school community who got in behind this week and helped to raise funds. Thank you!

This year we were able to raise $886 which has been donated to the Canterbury Central branch of the New Zealand Cancer Society.

Swimming Year 2, 3/4 and 5/6 

This term, the Year 3/4 learning team had a fantastic two weeks at Taiora QEII pools, diving into their "Swimsmart" aquatic programme. We focused on essential water survival skills, and the students were amazing!

They learned how to be confident and safe in and around the water, practising how to use a life jacket, what to do in a boat, and even how to navigate water currents. We are so proud of the resilience and confidence they showed while learning these critical skills.

A huge thank you to the QEII team for their support!

We all learnt so much during this 2 week pool session 🏊️

Cantamaths

On Wednesday, August 20th, Mrs. Willis accompanied our talented Year 7 and 8 mathematicians to the Wolfbrook Arena for the annual Cantamaths tournament. Departing school at 2:30 PM, the group arrived by 3:20 PM, because Mrs. Willis doesn’t like being late for the intense competition ahead. Two teams of four students represented our school, one from each year group.

The tournament format was both strategic and fast-paced: each team had just 30 minutes to solve 20 questions, each worth five points. A designated "runner" from each team submitted answers to a marker, who would respond only with "yes," "no," or "unclear." The crucial rule was that skipping a question meant forfeiting its points permanently. Victory went to the first team to reach 100 points or the team with the highest score when time expired.

The Year 7 team put in a valiant effort, finishing their round with a solid 30 points. The round was won by Cathedral Grammar School, who managed to reach the 100-point target in an astonishing 14.5 minutes. Similarly, our Year 8 team performed admirably, achieving a score of 40 points. Their competition was won by Middleton Grange School, who secured victory in 16 minutes. The exhilarating evening concluded with a prizegiving at 6:30 PM. It was a fantastic experience for all involved, and a huge thank you must go to Mrs. Willis for giving up her Wednesday evening to make it possible. 

By Andrew and Heidi

Tournament of Minds

Tournament of Minds is a fantastic competition where kids from all over New Zealand come together to compete in teamwork, problem-solving, and creative thinking.

On the day of the competition, we arrived early with our props for the Long-Term Challenge. This is a six-week project where our team had to choose a challenge and create a performance, including props, a script, and costumes—all without any help from our teachers! The final performance had to fit within a small three-by-three-meter square. The day also included a Spontaneous Challenge, where we had to solve a brand-new problem from the judges in just five minutes, with our teamwork being the main thing they were watching. This year's mystery was about the sudden disappearance of the number sixty-six.

The Queenspark teams absolutely rocked it! Team Mana Minds took home third place, and Team Awesome Sauce won the entire competition! We had a blast being creative and dramatic with our friends. Tournament of Minds was a great experience, and we highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys drama and creating things. A huge thank you to Mrs. Willis and Mrs. Murcott for all their support and help throughout the six weeks.

By Ethan and Rosie

News from the seniors:

Koru Games 2025:

The Koru Games is an amazing sports tournament for Year 7 and 8 students in the South Island of New Zealand. It's like a massive sports day, but it lasts for three days!

Lots of schools from all over the South Island head to the Selwyn District to play against each other. You get to play with your friends and represent your school in a variety of sports. Here are a few snippets from our participants.

The first two days of volleyball were incredible and a winning streak for us, 6 wins in a row. We worked hard, and our teamwork paid off. Even though the semi-final didn't go our way, we bounced back to secure third place in a playoff against Rakaia.  The Koru Games were a great experience, and are a highlight of the year for us.

By Nadia & Jamie

The  Queenspark boys' volleyball team competed in the Koru Games recently. We travelled by bus to Lincoln University for the South Island tournament. Over the three days, we all had an amazing time playing against the other schools and making new friends. We played 7 games, all varying in challenge levels. Each game we improved as a team and our skills, winning over half of our games. We also played the winning team, and it was pretty close against them, which we were most happy about. Overall, we were stoked with our placing of 10th, as most of us were new to volleyball.   

By Ethan J and Luca C

Koru Games was such a blast! Playing korfball was an awesome choice, and it was so cool to be part of all that energy.  Even when we lost, it was still super fun.

We ended up getting sixth place out of 20 schools, which is really good since we were competing against schools from all over the South Island. We totally put up an amazing fight!

And guess what? We only lost by one point to the team that won the whole thing, Christ the King. That shows how close we were to the top! It was a super exciting experience that we will always remember. 

By Jacob , Xander & Alex

The Koru Games were SO AWESOME! There were teams from all over Canterbury and everyone was competitive, yet fair and showed the kaupapa Kīorahi is all about.

Our team had amazing teamwork and our defense was solid! We played nine games over the first two days and came in first place in our pool. We only lost one game the whole time, and we went all the way to the 3rd/4th place final and WON! We got the bronze medal. Peata was named in the tournament team, noticed for her amazing work as kaitiaki, and her dedication and ripping in te roto, no one could get past her.

The whole environment was so supportive, and we came away feeling like we had made some friends. It was a really great three days of Kīorahi!

Representing our school at the Koru Games was so cool! We played on the girls' football team, and there were 13 teams trying to win. We had to get up super early for our games and be at school by 7:45 AM on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

After each day, we were all totally exhausted from playing so hard, but it was worth it! In the end, we came in 4th place out of 13 teams! That's something our team and our whole school can be really proud of. It was an awesome experience!  

By Katie & Neha

Library Book Amnesty :

Right now, our school library is missing 720 books.

Starting week 9, we have begun a competition: The class that returns the most overdue library books by Friday, 17th October (end of week 2, term 4) will win a PIZZA PARTY! You have the holidays to search for any overdue books.  

Get your child to have a look in their room, under the bed, or even the car. Check anywhere a book might be hiding.

Bring back any overdue library book. No questions asked.

If they have siblings who went to Queenspark, ask them to check for any library books that may not have been returned.

Let’s return those books to the library, and their class might even earn a tasty reward along the way.

Thank you, and happy hunting!

YR7/8 Net's Basketball team:

We are so lucky to have parents who step up and help coach our teams here at school. One of the coaches from our senior basketball team wanted to make special mention of this team because of their outstanding play last night to come third in their division!

After a strong season, they played off for third/fourth last night, at a late game after the three days of Koru Games. Despite an unexpected delay to the start, Ben tipped them off and they had an absolute stormer of a game.

They beat Chisnallwood Heat solidly, dominating both offence and defence, and most importantly, they played so strongly as a team. They were captained excellently, they utilised each other’s strengths, played with courage, and levelled up their game epically. There were some spectacular individual plays with every one of them doing something special in the game.

They represented themselves and the school so well and finished their primary school basketball with the pride they deserve.

End of year christmas celebrations /assemblies:

We would love you to be able to attend our final assemblies of the year so we are giving you as much notice as possible. Please add these dates to your diaries now so you can come along and enjoy some festive fun with the children as we wrap up an awesome year.

Nest /Year 1 - Friday 12th December 11.30 - 1pm

Year 2 - Thursday 4th December 9 - 10.30am

Year 3/4 - Thursday 4th December 11 - 12.30pm

Year 5/6 - Tuesday 9th December 1.30 - 3pm

Year 7/8 - Thursday 4th December 6-9pm

Term 4 ends on Wednesday 17th December 2025 at 12.30pm

2026 Dates:

Friday 30th January - Whānau Day - a chance to meet your child's teacher (more information coming home at the beginning of next term)

Monday 2nd February - Term 1 begins with our ākonga.

Friday 6th - Waitangi Day - school closed for instruction

Friday 20th - School Swimming Sports YR5-8

Friday 27th - Teacher Only Day - school closed for instruction

2026 Teacher Only Days

Friday 27th February

Friday 23rd October

Monday 16th November

The above Teacher Only Days are to be penciled in as they could change. This is an indication at this stage.

Looking Ahead

I hope you all have a wonderful and restful break. Please take this time to recharge and enjoy some quality time with your families. We look forward to welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for an exciting new term on Monday 6 October.

Ngā mihi nui,

Ross Willocks

Principal, Queenspark Te Hua Mānuka