Te Aroha Primary School (TAPS) News

Kia ora Parents, Whānau and Caregivers,

We are into Autumn now and heading towards the end of Term 1 already. We have 4 weeks remaining, finishing on Friday 12 April. PLEASE NOTE that we have 2 short weeks coming up.

Next week, (Week 9) has a Teacher Only Day on Thursday 28 March and then we are into the Easter break. School resumes Wednesday 3 April (Week 10) and we finish 12 April (Week 11).

This has so far been an exciting and busy term for us. We thank you for your patience as we roll out our new Spotlight app. This app will be worth the wait when it arrives. In the meantime however, it has made sharing with you difficult, and our teachers really like to share! We are confident that it should be all up and running by the beginning of Term 2.

Swimming has been a great success. We are so very fortunate that our Board of Trustees invested heavily in our pool. Having the pool at 29 degrees when the children get into it in the mornings makes having the first swim of the day just as nice as the last.

"Learning conversation" aka Parent-teacher interviews will be held in Term 2. These will be much better held when the Spotlight Learner space is turned on, which will be early Term 2. We will let in know well in advance so that you can organise a time that best suits your circumstances.

Last Friday 42 children headed off to Ngatea for the annual Hockey Big Day Out ...and what a great day they had! The weather behaved itself beautifully.

A comment was made that TAPS had the most beautiful manners because every single person who bought something, said "Please" and "Thank you" How cool is that!

There was lots of successes but a special mention needs to be made of the Ravens team who not only went through the day undefeated, but they never had a goal scored against them! They won their final 6-0.

Also a big well done to the Terrors who topped their section as well...so that is TAPS for the win in both the Year 4-6 and Year 7-8 sections.

A big thank you to the amazing parents who managed teams and transported us there. We are so grateful to you!

Congratulations to all our TAPS students who 'Accepted the Challenge' and participated in the fun day.

Our values were on display as our students raced around the fields enjoying a day of sport.

Special mention to - Morgan, Perryn, Erica, Lucas and Toby some of the refs and also ex Taps pupils

Last week 30 children represented TAPS at the Te Aroha Primary Schools Swimming Sports- also known as "Districts"!!!

We saw some excellent swimming with a big congratulations to Morgan Ngarama who won every single race she entered!

We did extrememly well in the relays with both girls' teams and the Flying Squad winning. We had 2 seconds and a third in the others.

A big thank you needs to go to all the people who helped TAPS run the event this year. Special thanks go to Cam Melrose who spent hours entering data with the help of Megan Diprose.

We also thank all the parents who took the day off to help with setting up and timing, as well as our amazing PTA who worked tirelessly to feed and water everyone. Our TEAM is a great one!!!

Special moments from Matua Rawiri’s kapa haka workshops across our school last week. This was a fantastic opportunity for our students to practice their waiata, wiri and mihi whakatau. Tino pai.

Kia tu Kia toa Kia mau - accept the challenge.

How cool is this!!!

Groups of Yr 6/8 students from Te Moananui A Kiwa (Hub 3) had an incredible time taking part in the EPro8 Challenge. This was run by Mrs Gamble, with the challenges designed to promote science, engineering and problem solving.

We loved seeing these students in action as they tested out ideas, showed perseverance and collaboration to complete the challenges within the time limit.

Brilliant brain power

Kia tu Kia toa Kia mau - accept the challenge

On the 7th March Waihou hub had their swimming sports. They ran, dolphin dived, swam with noodles and all sorts! A massive thank you to those who came to support and a huge congratulations to all of the students who swam. The teachers were especially impressed with Waihou hubs listening and with how hard they tried.