And with a whizz and a roar we are nearly at the end of Week 7 of the term with Spring just around the corner, bringing not just daffodils but copious amounts of rain!

As I walk through the classes I am incredibly proud of the learning opportunities that our students have right across the school, from marimba lessons with a specialist teacher to the most amazing calendar art, from poetry celebrations to problem solving challenges in Mathematics, from speeches to Inter-School Sports competitions, the list is endless and varied. Our teaching staff certainly work hard to provide a range of authentic learning experiences for all students.

A special thanks and acknowledgement must go the small group of parents who attended the Reporting Evening on the 23rd of August. There was certainly a very robust review of our current reporting format with constructive ideas shared and draft planning as we work towards a revamped model.

As this newsletter goes to print the school choir are readying themselves for the Tauranga Music Festival which takes place on Friday evening. Thank you to Andrea Lockett who has worked so hard with Colin and Christine Birchall to prepare our choir group for this annual event. We know you will all do us proud when you perform on Friday.

Thanks to our caretaker Noel, who has our grounds looking shipshape. As you have no doubt noticed, Noel has several projects on the go at the moment, and you will see him busy at work on these as you walk in and around the school.

Our Year 5 and 6 students had an eventful day last Friday as they competed at the West Cluster Winter Sports Tournament. This is an annual event whereby students from a number of local schools compete against each other the sports being: Touch Rugby, Netball, Soccer and Hockey. A special thank you to Natalie van Dijk, Natasha Edhouse, Romy Wilson and Lesa Hall for their preparation and organisation to ensure the day ran smoothly. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the wonderful parent support that was in place for the event, especially given the change of date given the weather on Wednesday! This support with transporting, coaching and managing the teams is vital and we really appreciate the efforts made by our families.

Thanks must also go to the large number of parents who supported the Argos Gym visits by transporting students to and from the gym each week – without this support the visits simply could not happen. The students certainly enjoyed the opportunities to learn new skills in an environment that is set up with specialist equipment and coaches.

On that note and with winter sports teams wrapping up, I would like to thank and acknowledge the many parent helpers who give up their time to coach and support our wide range of sports teams, whether it be summer or winter sports. Their time, expertise (and patience) is hugely appreciated and doesn’t go unnoticed. A special thank you must go to Jolene Nelson, our Sports Coordinator for all the work she does promoting and organising the sports teams across the year. It is wonderful to see so many students (and parents) involved in out-of-school sports.  It is also great to see our turf so widely used before, during and after school by such a wide variety of groups.

Next week a large number of our Tall Poppy students are involved in AIMS Games this week with Tauriko School being represented in Cross Country, Indoor Bowls, Futsal, 6-Aside Hockey, Badminton and Table Tennis. This is an amazing opportunity for our students to be involved in an inter-school competition that is of such a large scale, with over 10,000 athletes registered across 22 sports for the week.  A special thank you to Ms Megan Holden for her organisation and preparation for this event.

The many ‘thank you’ notes above are indicative of the wide and varied roles that operate within our learning community. It certainly takes a village to raise a child and I for one think that Tauriko School is a pretty unique village that does a pretty special job for our tamariki.

Lisa Rose
Deputy Principal