Nau mai Haere mai and welcome back to a busy Term 1.

Welcome back! We hope you have all had a lovely holiday with your whānau. We are excited to be back at school and looking forward to a fun filled term of learning. We have a team of five Year 7/8 homerooms.  As a group of kaiako, we meet frequently to collaboratively plan and work together to ensure consistency within the hub and to care for the learning and pastoral needs for all our students. 

We warmly welcome Gerhard Potgieter to Tūrepo 3 and Erin O'dell to Tūrepo 2. We also welcome Lauren Purvis who will be a student teacher with Fiona Bester in Tūrepo 1. Megan Cherry remains in Tūrepo 4 and Kirsty Anderson will be in Tūrepo 5, the classroom behind the hall building, near MacKenzie Place entrance. Louise Patrick and Lucy Kennett will support students in their role as Learning Assistants. Kirsty Leonard will be teaching every Wednesday in Tūrepo 2. Last but not least Nigel Seaton will be the Classroom Release Teacher for Tūrepo team. He is also teaching in Tūrepo 3 for the first part of term 1. Nigel continues to lead sport across the school and also will be lead teacher for our new Year 8 Tūtira Mana Tāngata challenge group.

You may have noticed lots of building work in the Tūrepo Hub during the holidays. We are excited to have our classrooms now more accessible and also we have amazing cubbyholes for the students to safely store their belongings! The benches and a few finishing touches will be completed in the next week or so. Its been a busy place getting everything ready for the students to be back to start the year.

Swimming 

Swimming Sports will be held on Tuesday 18 February at Dudley Pool. We will be having a practise swims on Wednesday  12 February. Please keep an eye out for a notice going home this week.

Camps

We are looking forward to heading off to Wainui on camp in March. Our Year 8's go Monday 10th-12th March and Year 7's Wednesday 12th-14th March. A learning focus in Term 1 will be the history and geography of the Banks Peninsular.

Tūtira Mana Tāngata (previously William Pike)

Mr Seaton will be meeting with the Year 8s who have signed up to the first Tūtira Mana Tāngata challenge soon. Students will complete a number of outdoor challenges, service and personal challenges throughout the year. If your Year 8 student would like to join please make the deposit payment on KINDO.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Tūrepo team are looking forward to engaging in BYOD again this year. Learning will incorporate the use of devices to enhance learning experiences where applicable. This will complement ‘traditional’ methods of learning.  If your child would like to bring a device, please ask your child to see their teacher for a BYOD Acceptable Use Agreement.  Please note, devices will not be charged at school, so please ensure your child takes care of this at home.

Technology at Te Matauru

In term 1 and 2 our Year 8 students will attend Technology at Maukatere Technology Centre at Te Matauru School. Tamariki will travel to and from technology by bus leaving at 9am and arriving back to school by 3pm. Mrs Bester will attend technology with the tamariki. Technology will begin in week 3 on Thursday 13th February.

Cellphones

If your child needs to bring a cellphone to school, they must complete a Cell Phone User Agreement. Cell phones are required to be handed in to the teacher at the start of the day and will be held in the school office until the end of the day.

Sun hats are needed during terms 1 & 4 for all outside play. Even if it is not sunny. No hat, no play!

Back to School Picnic

We warmly welcome parents / whānau to our Back to School Picnic on Thursday 13th February. Come along to the hall at 5pm for introductions and a brief welcome / welcome back to Ashgrove then out to games, music and fun activities for all the family. Bring a picnic dinner. We will have the BBQ going with some sausages too! Our Year 8's will also be selling baking to fundraise for their leavers' hoodies.

We are usually available before and after school if you have a question or information to let us know. 

We do ask however, if you need more than a few minutes that you make a time to meet with your child’s homeroom teacher.

We can be contacted via email:

Tūrepo 1 - fionabester@ashgrove.school.nz

Tūrepo 2 - erinodell@ashgrove.school.nz

Tūrepo 3 - nigelseaton@ashgrove.school.nz,

gerhardpotgieter@ashgrove.school.nz

Tūrepo 4 - megancherry@ashgrove.school.nz

Tūrepo 5 - kirstyanderson@ashgrove.school.nz

Assemblies

• Friday 7 February, 7 March, 4 April

School Picnic - Meet the team

• Thursday 13 February

Swimming

• Practice -Wednesday 12 February

• Swimming Sports - Tuesday 18 February

• Zones - Wednesday 19 March

Technology 

• Starts Thursday 13 February - Year 8

Life Changers 

• Year 7's Friday 21 February

Tūtira Mana Tāngata Challenge

• Kayaking - Monday 24 February (group 1) and Tuesday 25 February (group 2 )

Wainui Camps

• Monday 10 - Wednesday 12 March - Year 8

• Wednesday 12 - Friday 14 March - Year 7

Hear this Education 

• Monday 31 March (T1, T2, T3) and Tuesday 1 April (T4 ,T5)

Year 8 HPV

• Wednesday 2 April

Last day of term

• Friday 11 April

Ngā mihi nui 

Fiona Bester, Erin O'Dell, Gerhard Potgieter, Nigel Seaton, Kirsty Anderson, and Megan Cherry