Kia ora e te whānau,

What a beautiful warm and mellow afternoon we had for our school Cross Country last week. Our children showed a variety of motivations - some determined for a top spot, others with personal goals, and some just out to have fun, whether walking or running. It was really pleasing to see our children all giving it a go and persevering, as well as children supporting other children on their run. Thank you to our community for the wonderful turn out also. A big thank you to Gabrielle Lange for organising this event, to the Wright family for providing hay bales, and to our staff and student teachers for their support with organisation.

Congratulations to the following students who are able to go through to the West Zone Cross Country on Thursday 22 May.

• Year 6 - Alyssa, Braxton, Oscar

• Year 5 - Indi, Zoe, Layla, Kayla, Laura, Gabriel, Hunter, Austin, Alby

• Year 4 - Emily, Elizabeth, Ashley, Felix, William, Max

HERO Certificates - Enthusiastic

Having a positive attitude, an eagerness to learn, trying new things, taking pride in your work, achieving goals, and persevering through challenges are qualities that sit under being an 'Enthusiastic Learner.'

Congratulations to Archer, Indi, Ethan, Luca C, Layla B., Felix, Yuto, Roman, and Esme, who all received HERO awards for being Enthusiastic learners in our Week 2 assembly. These children have been showing positive attitudes, focus, and motivation towards their learning in class.

Farewell and Welcome

We bid a fond farewell to Daniella Brantley as she embarks a new journey to train as a classroom teacher. Dani has been an asset in her role as a Teacher Aide. We extend our best wishes to her in this new endeavor. We warmly welcome Lynne Jones to our team. Lynne brings a wealth of experience from Whitau School and will be joining us part-time in Weeks 3 and 4 before transitioning to full-time in Week 5. We are looking forward to having her on board to support our teachers and students.

Reporting to Whānau

As we move into Term 2, there is a lot of work being done behind the scenes to work out how best to communicate to parents, student progress against the new curriculum in a clear and understandable way. Schools have only been using the new curriculum (which includes new teaching content) since the start of 2025, and at Yaldhurst, we are focusing on Maths for Terms 1 and 2 and English for Terms 3 and 4. We are in the process of aligning our new reporting with the refreshed NZ Curriculum. We aim for this process to be completed by the start of 2026. For mid-year reporting, we will continue to report as we always have until the Ministry of Education templates are available for our use. Currently, they are still in draft.

Health Curriculum Consultation

The Health curriculum is reviewed with the community every two years. The Relationships & Sexuality Curriculum is currently being drafted and consulted on, and expected later this year. This consultation will be postponed until early 2026 when the program is ready for discussion.

Communication

Please remember that Hero is our main source of school wide communication including:

• School Communication (emails, newsletter links in the Community Feed')

• Student Progress & Learning Updates

• Absences

• Payments & Fees (coming soon)

• Subway Lunch Order Link

• School Uniform Provider Link

Class newsletters and school newsletters are also sent through Hail.

Enjoy your weekend. Kia pai to wiki,

Gretchen