Greetings Tauriko School Community

We start our newsletter with a whizz and a bang by celebrating the recent success of Year 6 student, Rylee van Dijk.

Rylee was the winner of the Western Bay of Plenty Speech Finals Competition held on Tuesday of this week. Rylee was up against tough competition from other speech finalists from across the Bay so this is an awesome result. This is the first time that a student from Tauriko School has won this prestigious title. Congratulations and well done Rylee.

Our annual Book Week was a roaring success with students actively involved each day in the many activities and events on offer from making bookmarks to buddy reading, Book Parade (albeit a bit different due to the weather!) and from Grandparents Day to Milo and Marshmallows with our PTA and Tauranga City Librarians. Thanks to Lynda Palfrey for overseeing the wonderful week with awesome support from the Literacy team – Tim Stanley, Nicole Johnson and Colleen Wilkie. Thanks also to the parent helpers, in particular Carolyn Fleet, who supported with the running of the Book Fair itself, you are amazing!

This week our Tall Poppies class are at Sports Camp at Totara Springs, competing for all their worth across 22 codes. A huge thank you must go to our Tall Poppies teacher, Jo Te Whaiti, for the incredible amount of organisation in preparation for the week away. The class have started the week well and are holding their own with great results in a number of sports. As this newsletter goes to print I hope to be heading over the hill to do some side-line cheerleading!!

Next term brings a busy first week with our annual Agricultural Day and PTA Gala. The wheels have been turning and much is already in place for what is always a fantastic day. School will be finishing at 12.15pm on Thursday the 19th of October. Judging in the animal rings will start promptly at 2pm so please do come along as it is always great viewing. Ag Day prizegiving will start at 4pm and the PTA Gala will officially kick off at 4.30pm.  Community involvement is a huge part of this day so if you are able to support in any way, shape or form please contact Jolene, our PTA Chairperson.

In Term 1 of this year, the School Council in consultation with classes, planned to fundraise for a new drinking fountain. In partnership with the PTA, a new fountain will be purchased and installed over the holiday break. This will mean all students will have access to drinking water when playing out and about on the back field which is fantastic!

On that note, I would like to thank our incredible PTA for the awesome job they do and the voluntary hours they each put in. The PTA do so much for the learners in our school and their support is much appreciated by all.  Our RAFT (Relatives and Friends of Tauriko School) also work away behind the scenes contributing to a real team effort.  A special mention and thank you must go to Jolene Nelson. Jolene frequently goes beyond and above her role as PTA Chairperson and it is a real pleasure working alongside her.

On Friday Term 3 draws to a close and there is a two week break before school resumes again on Monday the 16th of October. Thanks to each and every student for a fabulous term of learning – rest up and come back ready for an awesome Term 4.

A huge thank you and ‘shout out’ to all the staff and parent community for the wonderful support over the term, I wish everyone the happiest of holidays.

Lisa Rose
Acting Principal

To read our full newsletter please click here:  Newsletter No 11

Greetings Tauriko School Community

Another busy fortnight has passed and the school holidays are now on the horizon which is an incredible thought! 

Students continue to be actively involved in a wide range of activities across the school with each day seeming to bring on new learning challenges to conquer and successes to celebrate. Congratulations to Rylee van Dijk who recently won the Year 6 Category for the West Cluster Speech Competition with her speech ‘Why English is a Crazy Language’. Rylee now goes on to represent the Cluster at the WBOP Speech Competition in Week 10. A wonderful achievement Rylee and all the very best for the next competition.

Well done and thank you to Andrea Lockett who has worked so hard to prepare our choir group for the Tauranga Music Festival. The massed choir sounded wonderful and our choir looked very smart on stage. The individual item for our school was ‘Rockin Robin’ and they sang this beautifully – a proud moment indeed.

Our Year 5 and 6 students had an eventful day last Friday as they competed at the West Cluster Winter Sports Tournament; the sports being Touch Rugby, Netball, Soccer and Hockey. A special thank you to Tatyana Duffin, Natasha Edhouse, Tim Stanley and Ian Woodfield 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, this support with transporting, coaching and managing the teams is vital and we so appreciate the efforts made by our families.

On that note 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. Thanks also to Kaye Barnett 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 and great to see our turf so widely used before, during and after school.

A number of our Tall Poppy students are involved in AIMS Games this week with Tauriko School being represented in Cross Country, Gymnastics, Trampolining and Table Tennis. This is an amazing opportunity for our students to be involved in inter-school competition on such a large scale. Thanks to Maree Logan for her organisation and preparation for this annual event.

Book Week is quickly approaching and there is a range of activities happening in school next week as part of this annual event. Please check the flyer for daily details and do remember to come in and visit the Book Fair that will be set up in our School Library; there are always lots of great books to purchase. Our PTA is once again working with the community to subsidise 50% of each book purchased for our library. This means that for every book you purchase for the library you pay 50% of the cost of the book and the PTA pay the other 50%. Families are acknowledged inside the front cover of the book for any library book purchases they make. Thumbs up again to Tauriko School PTA.

Teachers are continuing to love using the library as a venue for staff meetings with the professional learning focussed specifically on the Tauriko School Inquiry Journey and thinking; in particular thinking tools and skills we believe our students need as part of 21st Century learning. Ensuring we have both a bi-cultural and environmental lens consistently throughout our Inquiry curriculum is also part of the review and development process.

Thanks to our caretaker Darren who continues to ensure our school grounds are presented to a high standard. The newly planted Titoki tree near the central concrete area certainly looks right at home.
We now have new neighbours in the adjoining orchard. The BOT wish to advise the community that the orchard is no longer organic and therefore has a different spraying programme. The orchard will notify the school of any spraying which will be done outside of school hours from 4.30pm and during the weekends.

Our Tall Poppies class head over the hill to the Intermediate Sports Camp at Totara Springs for the last week of term. With over 20 different codes they will definitely be challenged to compete to their absolute best as they represent our school with passion and pride. We wish them all the very best and look forward to having a daily update from them.

As this newsletter 'goes to print' we have a hangi down and nearly ready for eating, thanks to the tireless efforts of Helen Guthrie, Jo Te Whaiti and their team. In classes students are learning about 'all things hangi' - protocols, process and language. A wonderful community effort for all involved.

All in all another fantastic fortnight at Tauriko School – well done to all of our learners who consistently model our school values of Respect, Excellence, Innovation and Integrity.

Lisa Rose
Acting Principal

To read our full newsletter please click here:  Newsletter No 10