Kia ora e te whanau

We hope everyone is having a fantastic Term 3! We have a busy and exciting fortnight ahead across our school with academic challenges, public speaking, winter sports and host assemblies being the highlights.

LOOKING BACK: UNPLUG FOR HAROLD

A huge thank you to all our tamariki and whānau who took part in Unplug for Harold last week! Led by the Life Education Trust and our favourite giraffe, Healthy Harold, this initiative challenged students to put down their screens and digital devices for the weekend. It was fantastic to see our families swapping screen time for outdoor adventures, creative play, physical activity, and quality time together. We hope it inspired some healthy, balanced habits that carry on through the rest of the term!

Please take note of the upcoming dates and details below to keep track of everything happening over the next two weeks.

UPCOMING EVENTS & DATES TO REMEMBER

This Week: ICAS Science Exam & Spelling Bee
Friday (21/8): Sheppard Host Assembly 9am
Next Week: ICAS Mathematics Exam & Senior Speech Finals
Wednesday (26/8): Year 5 & 6 Cluster Winter Tournament
Friday (28/8): Mahy Host Assembly

THIS WEEK

ICAS Science Exam & Spelling Bee: Best of luck to all of our students taking part in the ICAS Science assessment and our Spelling Bee competitors this week!
Sheppard Assembly: We look forward to seeing our community at Friday's Sheppard Host Assembly!

LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK

ICAS Mathematics Exam: ICAS assessments continue next week with the Mathematics exam.
Senior Speech Finals: Our senior students have been working hard crafting and rehearsing their speeches. I am looking forward to hearing them for the first time next week.
Year 5 & 6 Cluster Winter Tournament (Wednesday): Our Year 5 and Year 6 athletes will be representing the school against neighboring schools in the cluster winter tournament next Wednesday. Please ensure your child brings their full sports kit, warm layers, a water bottle, and plenty of food for the day. (Further details regarding venues and transport will be shared via Hero).
Mahy Assembly: Next Friday we will enjoy our Mahy Assembly which will round out the fortnight.

Teacher Only Day

Please take note of an upcoming date for your calendars:

Date: Monday, 31st August
Details: School will be closed for all students on this day as our teaching and support staff undergo essential First Aid Training.

Have a wonderful fortnight, everyone. Thank you for your continued support!

Nga Mihi

Melanie Taylor

Tumuaki

Stay In The Loop

We have many ways that you can stay in the loop with everything that happens at Golden Sands School.
Ways to stay in touch:

Hero app - all school communication is through Hero, newsletters, class updates, learning stories etc.
Newsletter - emailed fortnightly
Website - school calendar updated regularly, Parent Portal page, general info
Facebook closed group (request to join) - reminders, sports events, general info
Instagram page - reminders, general info
Sports Info - sports calendar & website page or email sport@goldensands.school.nz

Facebook (Click here to join our GSS Facebook group)

If you have not joined our Facebook group, please search for it and request to join. This is a closed group so you will be asked who the children you are connected to are. We share lots of real-time information here with photos and updates included.

School App (Click here to download our School App)

You can also download our school app. When there is anything new to know about you will get notifications if you have enabled them.

New to Kindo: Autopay

Staying on top of school payments just got a whole lot easier.

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Kindo’s latest feature, Autopay, works with automatic payments to help you stay on top of school payment requests.

How it works:
You set your preferences (types of payments you want covered, wallet reserve etc)
Kindo emails you 48 hours before a payment run (so you can review or make changes)
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Learn how to set up automatic payments into your Kindo wallet https://bit.ly/4fVE1Id