Last week Silverdale Normal School had book week, where books and their characters and stories were a key focus. Mr Harrop made his way around the classrooms reading to many of the students; teachers swapped classes to read their favourite stories.

New Zealand and Australia are co-hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Forty lucky senior students from our school were selected to participate in a FIFA Women's World Cup event and train with the Zambian team at Korikori Park on 17th July.

In the last week of Term 2, the Senior School celebrated their learning about Planet Earth and Space by staying the night at the Hamilton Observatory to learn more about our solar system and have a closer look at the night sky. This was followed by a morning at the Zoo.

As part of a new Ministry of Education initiative, the government has provided the schools in our Kāhui Ako funding to support attendance across the Silverdale, Hillcrest, Newstead, Tamahere, Tauwhare, Matangi, Knighton and Peachgrove communities. As part of this initiative, our school will be partnering with Bluelight to support attendance in our school.

We will be selling Cadbury Chocolate bars for $2.00 each at the school kitchen after-school on Fridays, for the rest of the term as our next fundraiser.

In week one we created a character from recycled materials. This will become the main character in our narratives that we have been working on in writing.

The Māori Art Group began the new term planning masks of a given shape. The children did not know what/which materials they would be using, so it was a huge surprise when they were confronted with large, three dimensional husks from Nikau Palms that had been prepared for use.

In Room 16 we have been learning how to SCAMPER different products. This is when you take a product such as a teddy bear, cup or pencil case and make a range of changes to make it different. Some of these changes include a new material, purpose, additions or size.

On the first Monday of Term 3 a number of Silverdale Normal School staff attended a First Aid refresher course.

In week 1 our senior students were fortunate enough to have a product designer come and speak to them. Anne Magtira has been designing for 20 years and was able to share a wealth of knowledge to our tamariki about what a designer does, the design process and many of the products that she has designed.

All lost property remaining on Friday will be sent to charity. There is a large accumulation of discarded clothing here at school. Please take the time to check it before the end of the week.

If your child would like to purchase a cup of milo, please give him/her a reusable cup to bring from home (unbreakable if possible). The cost is $1.00 and will available this term from the student kitchen window between 8.30-8.50am.

There may be occasions when your child may need to bring a cellphone to school.

We would love it if you could keep collecting the stickers from Yummy Apples and cut-outs from 1.5kg bags of Yummy Apples anytime now (if you haven’t already started) for Silverdale Normal School's share of sports gear. Some more good news – Yummy will be switching over to compostable stickers in the next few months.

Bee Card – New public transport subsidies with Community Connect

Our Term 3 LEGO after school classes have resumed again this term in Room 7.