Te Matatini is happening this week and a large population of performers and supporters will be in New Plymouth. The event is attracting tens of thousands of people, which will affect many schools - especially those near Pukekura Park. An obvious impact will be increased traffic and as a result, getting to school might need a bit more time and patience. If your children bike or walk to school, you may wish to accompany them, ensure they use pedestrian crossings, and that they are aware that they will need to be extra careful with more traffic around than usual.

Kia ora Vogeltown whānau,

One of the most valuable contributions any parent can make to their child’s education is supporting them and the school.

The equation is simple: when schools and whānau work together, children achieve more. When everyone gets behind learning, activities, and events, it creates a richer school experience for our tamariki.

Throughout the year, there are many ways you can get involved, and we encourage you to consider what you might be able to do. Some ways you can help include:

• Supporting learning at home by reading with your child each night as part of our reading nights initiative.
• Attending the learning conferences during the year.
• Encouraging your children to get active at school by participating in things like swimming, school sports, kapa haka, leadership opportunities, and dress up days.
• Volunteering to coach or manage a school sports team.
• Being a helper at experiences or events like camps, cross country, and the hāngi.
• Attending school events like the whānau fiesta, hāngi, and powhiri.
• Joining the Home and School Committee or explore joining the Board of Trustees (elections are later this year).

Your involvement makes a real difference. When children see their whānau involved in school life, they feel valued and supported, and are encouraged to participate. If we can do this, we can build stronger connections, and create a school environment where every child thrives.

Thank you for your continued support - your involvement is important to us.

Kia pai tō koutou rā – have a great day!

This year, our Vogeltown Adventure was held closer to home, with a focus on deepening our understanding of significant places within our school and the nearby Huatoki Domain. It also served as a wonderful opportunity to strengthen our buddy class connections.

As a teaching team, we dedicated time to learning about different aspects of our school. We first walked the route together during a meeting, sharing our knowledge with one another. The teachers then replicated this experience with their buddy classes, helping them gain a richer understanding of our school's story.

During the hīkoi (walk), all children learned about:

• Mount Taranaki
• The school bell
• The original school building
• The carvings at the entrance of the hall
• The time capsule in the hall
• Paetoki rock
• Huatoki Stream
• The old pool in the Huatoki Stream
• Tītokī trees

Many of these features are connected to our school vision, syndicates, and values. By sharing this knowledge, we hope that our children will notice these, understand their significance, and feel even more connected to Vogeltown School.

The pool along the Huatoki Stream.

We will include more about camp in next week's newsletter but in the meantime a big thank you to all our Paetoki whānau for helping make camp such a fantastic experience. From those who supplied baking, to those who came along as parent helpers, we appreciate your support. We are looking forward to seeing all our Paetoki tamariki next week, refreshed after some much needed sleep, ready to share their camp experience.

We recognise the individual efforts of children reading outside of school hours with certificates that acknowledge the number of nights that they have read. Children are awarded a certificate for every 25 nights of reading that they do. A night is a minimum of 10 minutes reading for children in the Taranaki syndicate, 15 minutes for children in the Huatoki syndicate, and 20 minutes for students in the Paetoki syndicate. With certificates being given out it is important that children are having their reading signed off by a parent at home on a daily basis.

We have noticed an increase in parents using the junior driveway to drop off and pick up children at school. While the gate may be open at times, vehicle access is for teaching staff only.

Allowing additional vehicles in this area compromises safety of children, especially during busy times when they are arriving or leaving school.

We kindly ask all parents to park on the road and, if necessary, walk their children into and out of the junior school.

Thank you for your co-operation in keeping our tamariki safe.

We are keen to make sure that all children are safe. To help us out we ask that the earliest that children arrive at school is 8:15 am. This provides time for teachers to prepare for the day, it is a time when we are sure most staff are onsite, and it is also when our road patrollers start duty for those children needing to cross the road.

Our school tryathlon week is next week! We have events on two separate days.

The syndicate tryathlons are being held this Wednesday 26th February. The Paetoki team will have their tryathlon first up, followed by the Huatoki team and then the Taranaki team. You are more than welcome to come and support your child. The approximate timings for the day are below:

Paetoki Team - the tryathlon starts and finishes on the back field.

• Year 5 Girls: 9:30am
• Year 5 Boys: 9:45am
• Year 6 Girls: 10:00am
• Year 6 Boys: 10:15am

Huatoki Team - the tryathlon starts and finishes on the back field.

• Year 3 Girls: 11:40am
• Year 3 Boys: 11:55am
• Year 4 Girls: 12:10pm
• Year 4 Boys: 12:25pm

Taranaki Team: 1:55pm - 3:00pm. The tryathlon starts at the pool and finishes on the back field.

Your child will need to bring their bike, helmet, togs/towel, hat, drink bottle and be wearing sunblock and appropriate clothing - we suggest t-shirts rather than singlets as children will be outside for most of the morning.

Taranaki children - bikes can be left on the grass area of the junior driveway on Wednesday morning. Huatoki/Paetoki children - bikes can be left on the back field at the senior school on Wednesday morning, there will be an area marked out where you can put them.

Your child can still participate if they do not have a bike or do not wish to bike.

Our second event is the whānau tryathlon this Friday 28th February. This tryathlon is a really fun event as the children participate in their whānau groups - so we have our Paetoki, Huatoki and Taranaki syndicates all taking part together. It will be held at the senior school and follow the same course as the syndicate tryathlons.

You are more than welcome to come and support your child. Every parent/caregiver who participates gets an extra whānau point!

Order of events for the day:

• 11:30am: All children go to the back field at the senior school. Welcome and run through the course.
• 11:45am Tryathlon starts - first, the Paetoki (senior) kids will complete 3 laps of the soccer field on their bikes. They will hand over to the Huatoki kids, who will complete one length of the pool. Then the Paetoki, Huatoki and Taranaki kids will come together to run/walk a lap of the cross country course. They will finish running together underneath the rugby posts and into the middle of the back field.

Paetoki children are the only ones that will need to bring their bikes and helmets (these can be left on the back field or in the bike racks). Huatoki children will need their togs, and Taranaki children just need comfortable shoes to run/walk in.

All children will need a hat, drink bottle and need to be wearing sunblock and appropriate clothing - we suggest t-shirts rather than singlets as children will be outside in the middle of the day. This is the perfect day for your child to dress up in their whānau colours - in their Vogeltown whānau t-shirt or any other clothing (headbands, wigs, fairy wings etc) that is their whānau colour.

We look forward to seeing you there!

We are really looking forward to an evening of great food and fun together. Get organised nice and early and block out from 5pm - 7pm on Wednesday 5th March on your calendars to connect with teachers and other Vogeltown whānau.

...to these special learners from our Huatoki team who were recognised for their efforts.

The 2025 Weet-Bix Kids Tryathlon is being held in New Plymouth on Tuesday 25th March 2025 at Ngamotu Beach.

If you wish to enter your child and register them under the Vogeltown School group, here is the link to do this:

http://raceroster.com/events/2025/93896/new-plymouth-weet-bix-kids-tryathlon/register?team=714836

We will have a Vogeltown tent up for children to meet but parents are responsible for their children on the day.

TERM CALENDAR

Put all these dates in your diary or your phone! Remember we will put all updates on Facebook, Skool Loop and Seesaw.

TERM 1 2025

26 February - Syndicate Tryathlons

28 February - Whānau Tryathlon

5 March - Whānau Fiesta

7 March - Four Year Old Friday, 9:00am to 11:00am, junior school

10 March - Taranaki Anniversary Day - SCHOOL CLOSED

11 March - Cohort 2 entry

11 March - Paetoki swimming sports TBC

21 March - Four Year Old Friday, 9:00am to 11:00am, junior school

25 March - Weet-Bix Kids Tryathlon, Ngāmotu Beach

2-3 April - Learning Conferences

4 April - Four Year Old Friday, 9:00am to 11:00am, junior school

9 April - Starting School the VS Way

11 April - Last Day of Term 1

Thank you for the ongoing support of Vogeltown School, we really appreciate the efforts everyone makes to ensure our kura is such a great place to learn and work!

On behalf of the Vogeltown team, ka kite ano!

The VS team

Email: office@vogeltown.school.nz
Website: www.vogeltown.school.nz
Location: Vogeltown School Huatoki Street, Vogeltown, New Plymouth, New Zealand
Phone: (06) 753 6843

Our school policies, like many schools, are now in an online system through a portal called 'Schooldocs'. Any time you want to bring up a school policy, just log in to schooldocs and you can access the policies.

The login is: vogeltown

The password: huatoki

The website link to Schooldocs is below.