Kia ora whanau, talofa aiga, hi everyone, would you believe we are over halfway through term 2 already! The term, actually this year, is flying by!

Our kaiako/teachers have been busy with assessments during their Classroom Release Time, which will help them form Overall Teacher Judgements on where your child is at with regards to Curriculum Levels in reading, writing and maths. These will be communicated to you via the Hero app graphs, along with written reports on maths and topic. We will let you know when these are available for you to view later in the term.

The North Canterbury Kids Hunt - thank you

A huge thank you to everyone for getting behind and supporting our major fundraiser for the year - The North Canterbury Kids Hunt. We are finalising the amount raised and will let you know asap. Your support and the support of our entire community has meant we can continue to offer our Garden to Table and Paddock to Plate programmes to all our tamariki.

A special thank you again to the Hunt Committee for organising this event, and to our Home and School team for organising the food and entertainment. Your dedication to our school is much appreciated.

Hunters4Hope and The Hope Community Trust

Hunters4Hope were at our Hunt and took away 20 deer to process into mince for the Hope Community Trust to distribute to families in need. We were lucky enough to be invited to the Hope Church to see the meat from our hunt donated to the Trust ready for distribution. A huge thank you to Steve and Adam from Hunters4Hope, and Tracy from the Hope Community Trust, for allowing us to contribute to this very worthy cause.

Rally Fundraiser - thank you

On Sunday we set up shop and BBQ at the Canterbury Rally pit stop venue - the Whiterock Quarry. It was a very entertaining day as the rally cars came and went, racing through 4 stages locally with service stops in between at the quarry. We raised approximately $400 for our Garden to Table and Paddock to Plate programmes. A huge thank you again to all our families and staff who supported this fundraiser.

Thank you to Hellers!!

We have been very fortunate to have Hellers support us with our fundraisers, supplying all of our sausages for the BBQ’s through their Sausages for Schools programme. A huge thank you to Hellers from us all here at Tihiraki North Loburn School.

TOD last Friday

Last Friday we spent time with Rose Stanley from Evaluation Associates having an in depth look at our refreshed English Curriculum. It was a very worthwhile day, dissecting the curriculum, discussing our practice and sharing examples and ideas. Thank you to our whanau for supporting us with this and thank you to Rose Stanley for all her mahi.

Hosting the Enviroschool Hui - thank you Mrs Webb

Last Thursday Mrs Webb hosted teachers from other kura for an Enviroschools Hui, run by our Enviroschool Coordinator, Siobhán Culhane. When I went to take a look they were having a pest tracking discussion and making traps.  It looked like great fun and I noticed Mrs Webb had some excellent tips for other kaiako/teachers to take away and try with their tamariki.  Thank you for sharing your expertise Mrs Webb!

Tihiraki North Loburn Rugby Kids Beat Dan Carter Challenge!!

Come and check out our Year 4-8 rugby kids attempting to beat Dan Carter's goal kicking target of 273, all the while raising money to provide clean water to kids in the Pacific. The challenge will take place here at school on Friday 14th June from 12-1pm - so come down and support them in their endeavours to beat Dan’s target!

We also thought we would have a Sausage Sizzle that day and donate some of the proceeds to this wonderful cause. So look out for a Lunchonline message to place your child’s sausage lunch order.

Rakahuri Runners

Congratulations to our team of runners who entered the Rakahuri Cross Country on Tuesday the 28th May: Amelia Rothschild-Stewart, Cooper Jarvis, Finley Robinson, Harper Berry, Jaxon Vincent, Jessica Armstrong, Lenie Stegehuis and Stella Hamblin. Unfortunately Sophie Compton was unwell and couldn’t enter. You all did yourselves and our kura proud, achieving great results!! Well done everyone. A special congratulations to Harper Berry who came 1st in the Year 6 girls race, and to Stella Hamblin who came 6th in the Year 7 girls race. Fantastic results girls!! They both now head to the Canterbury Primary Schools Cross Country competition in Christchurch.

Thank you to the parents who were able to support our team, while Miss Sherriff attended Cycle Sense with the Year 6’s.

Year 6 Cycle Sense

It was great to have the cycle sense teachers, including Anne Hughes and Louisa Robinson, at our kura last week. The year 6 students learnt all about bikes, keeping them safe to ride, the road rules and biking on our city streets. With a ratio of 1:3 it was a great opportunity to get the best out of the programme, and maximise time with the experts!  Aria mastered riding a bike - we are so proud of her!!  

Travelling to Te Matauru on day 2 to put their learning into action was a fantastic experience, especially given our rural children don’t get many opportunities to bike on city streets, yet one day that is where they will more than likely end up!

Thank you to Miss Sherriff for arranging this opportunity and to our wonderful Cycle Sense teachers for all their mahi, including supplying some bikes when needed.

Chess Competition

On Tuesday the 28th May Chester, Conrad, Eleanor and Will represented our school at the Christchurch Chess Competition. They were great ambassadors for our school and competed strongly, winning some of their games, and coming away all the wiser for the experience. Well done to you all.

Students Personal Successes

Cooper Jarvis recently trialled for the Te Toka Tū O Waitaha 12’s rugby league team and got in!!  This means he will travel to Rotorua for the Aotearoa National Māori rugby league tournament later in the year. Congratulations Cooper!! A fantastic achievement.

Amelia Rothschild-Stewart entered the FISAF 2024 Pacific (Australia/NZ) Open Sport Aerobics Competition in Christchurch at the weekend and came 3rd in her section out of all the entrants from Australia and New Zealand. Congratulations to you too Amelia!! What an outstanding achievement! What an extra special moment it was also for you to meet your idol, and the person who has inspired you along the way: Kylie Lyders, a New Zealand aerobics athlete. That was clearly very exciting!!

Please note: if your child has had some personal success outside of school that you are willing for me to share, be it sporting, cultural or something else I would love to hear from you.  Please send me an email and I will be happy to share it in the newsletter.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Ngā mihi nui

Kate Hassall