VOGELTOWN SCHOOL TE KURA O HUATOKI

As the year moves on, many of our Year 6 children are beginning to think about their next big step —moving to intermediate. This is an exciting milestone, but it can also bring a mix of nerves and uncertainty. In these moments, good preparation and clear information can make all the difference.

If you have any concerns about your child, it’s a good idea to let the new school know when you enrol. The more they understand about your child’s needs, the better they can support them. If you’d like to connect with staff, it’s best to phone ahead for an appointment. Schools are busy places, and booking a time helps ensure you can speak with the people best placed to help.

Handy hints for preparing your child for intermediate:

• Talk positively about the new school. Take a walk around, attend an open day, or go on a tour together.
• Connect with older students who can share their experiences and tips about the first few weeks.
• Plan the journey ahead of time — whether it’s walking, biking, or catching the bus. If possible, arrange for them to travel with a friend.
• Establish routines at home — such as set meal times and homework times — to make after-school learning easier.
• Organise the uniform early. Looking the part helps children feel confident and ready to start.
• Support friendships. Encourage your child to keep positive friendships and be open to making new ones in a bigger school environment.
• Keep talking. Ask how they’re feeling, listen carefully, and reassure them that a mix of excitement and nerves is completely normal.

At Vogeltown School, we play an active role in preparing our Year 6 children for this transition. We meet with Highlands Intermediate staff to share information about each child, and our students are also visited by Mr Luff and some of the Highlands student leaders, who provide a glimpse into intermediate life. In addition, all Year 6 children attend an open day, and for those who may benefit from extra support, we arrange additional visits to help them feel confident, familiar, and comfortable in their new surroundings.

Ngā mihi nui,
The Vogeltown School Team

Out of zone enrolments for Highlands Intermediate close on Friday 22nd August 2025. Highlands would also like all in zone enrolments in at this time.

Enrolments are done online by clicking on the link below:

https://etap.co.nz/OnlineEnrolment/EnrolmentForm/enrol/2172/1/0

All out of zone applicants will be notified if they are successful or not by Friday 5th September.

If you require a hard copy of the enrolment form, please contact Highlands Intermediate enrolments@highlands.school.nz or 06 7584162 ext 703

We are very sad to let you know that Mrs Debbie Wrigley has resigned from her position at Vogeltown School. Debbie needs to return to Australia to support her family, and while we completely understand her decision, we will miss her greatly.

Debbie has been a wonderful addition to our kura this year, bringing a balance of sportiness, and academic focus to her class programme. We are very grateful for her time and effort with Room 12.

We are currently finalising plans for Term 4 and will share details with the class and whānau very soon.

On Tuesday 26th August at 1:30pm, a number of our staff will be attending a paid union meeting, facilitated by NZEI Te Riu Roa.

These meetings are an entitlement for all union members and can take place up to twice a year. Staff will be meeting to discuss and vote on next steps in public service pay negotiations, collective agreement matters, and the campaign to increase school staffing.

What does this mean for our school?

The school will remain open, however our teaching programmes and classroom arrangements will be adjusted to manage with fewer staff onsite.

We appreciate your support and understanding.

Our hāngī is coming up (Term 4) — and we’d love your support to help make it a success!

Getting our community more involved means the hāngī can run smoothly, allows teachers to have more focus on their class, and helps ensure we can keep these events going in the future.

We have 12 helpers so far, but we’ll need more to make this happen - especially if you’re an expert! If this sounds like you and you’re able to help, please sign up here:

Get ready for a captivating journey through creativity, innovation, and imagination at the upcoming LEGO Exhibition bought to you by the Vogeltown School Home and School Committee!

We are looking for LEGO enthusiasts to create LEGO models (originals or LEGO builds) to exhibit at the Vogeltown School Hall on Sunday 31st August 2025 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm.

What you need to know:

1. Create your entry (original or standard model), one entry per person. The exhibition is open to all LEGO enthusiasts including current students, former students and AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO)

2. Drop your creation off to the school hall on the afternoon of Thursday 28th August between 2:30pm and 3:45pm (Friday 29th August is a teacher only day) or before the exhibition on Sunday from 12:30pm.

3. Gold coin entry to the exhibition. We will provide stickers to families so that you can show your appreciation by adding stickers to the notes of models on display.

4. Collect your creation after the exhibition from 3:00pm to 3:30pm

5. There will be spot prizes for the entries.

6. We will be selling tickets to our raffle (no pressure) and have a LEGO prize up for grabs by guessing the correct number of LEGO pieces in a jar - $1 per entry.

The Vogeltown School Original LEGO Exhibition is set to be a fun family day out, with a chance for the Vogeltown School community to display their favourite models and creativity.

Any proceeds from the LEGO Exhibition will go to Vogeltown School for the benefit of our tamariki.

Please direct any enquiries to vshomeandschool@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you there!

We are having great success with the raffle tickets! So much so, that we are out of extra books! If you have a book of tickets at home that you are unable to sell, please bring them back to school and we will have them reissued. We really appreciate your support with this fundraiser.

Our school cross country is planned for Thursday 21st August, with a postponement date of Friday 22nd August if the weather isn’t suitable.

This year we are heading to Vogeltown Park. It’s a great opportunity to make use of this community space, and it also allows our tamariki to experience the same course used for interschool cross country.

We've had a great response to our call out for volunteers - thanks to all those who have been in touch. We will be in contact early next week with more details.

It is important to us that everyone gives this event a go and tries their best. Success will look different for each child – it’s not about being the fastest, but about putting in their best effort.

For children who are unable to participate, they will either accompany their class to support others or, depending on their age, help out with jobs on the day.

Please make sure your child comes in appropriate clothing and shoes for running.

Classes will walk to the venue together and remain seated on the stands at Vogeltown Park until it is their turn to race. The event is scheduled to start at 10.00am, beginning with our oldest children first.

If you have any questions, please start by talking with your child’s class teacher.

We will be holding a Teacher Only Day on Friday 29 August. On this day, school will be closed for instruction.

The focus of this day is for our teaching team to continue deepening their understanding of the new national curriculum refresh, including how it will shape teaching and learning within our school. This learning is important to ensure we are well prepared to deliver a curriculum that meets the needs of our learners.

We appreciate your support in making this time available for staff.

Registrations for Term 4 touch rugby, summer soccer, netball and now cricket are open on our Kindo Shop. We are still waiting on dates and costs for hockey - these will be available from next week.

• Touch Rugby - Monday after school at Devon Intermediate - $32
• Summer Soccer - Tuesday evenings at Merrilands Domain - $22
• Kiwi Cricket (Yr0-2) - Friday evenings at Sutherland Park - $15
• Softaball Cricket (Yr 3-6) - Friday evenings at various grounds - $20
• Hardball Cricket (Yr 4-6) - Saturday mornings at various grounds - $35
• Netball (Y0-2 only) - Wednesday after school - $ FREE!!
• Summer Hockey - Saturday mornings - $38 (Yr3/4) $48 (Yr 5/6) (price subject to change)

We love that Kindo allows you to drip feed your account throughout the year so that your account can be in credit for when you need it!! Then once registrations are open you are able to pop the registration through straight away.

If you are yet to set up a Kindo account, please use the following link for first time users:

https://www.vogeltown.school.nz/school-information/kindo-shop/

If you have any questions at all please feel free to contact me on michelle.sleep@vogeltown.school.nz

Daffodil Day this year is officially being held on Friday 29th August, which is a Teacher Only Day for Vogeltown School. So we are going to acknowledge Daffodil Day a day early, on Thursday 28th August.

We will be collecting gold coin donations and encouraging all tamariki to dress up in yellow.

Daffodil Day is a very important fundraiser for the Cancer Society. Proceeds from Daffodil Day help fund the Cancer Society's vital support services, including transportation to appointments, cancer prevention programs, and research.

It is important that we know if you have a child starting school sometime in the remainder of this year. This will allow us to put organisation in place for new students - especially those starting school, and to understand our predicted roll throughout the year.

You can do this by contacting the office to confirm that we have your child on our records, or by completing an enrolment form (which can be collected from the school or downloaded off our website).

If you know of anyone else living in zone that may be looking to enrol then please share this message with them.

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 3 2025

18 August - Cohort Entry #2 begins for new entrants

21 August - Vogeltown School Cross Country, Vogeltown Park

22 August - Cross Country postponement date

22 August - Highlands Intermediate out of zone applications close

26 August - NZEI Te Riu Roa union meeting

26 - 28 August - Taranaki syndicate trip to Puke Ariki

28 August - Daffodil Day - Gold coin donation and dress up in yellow

29 August - Teacher Only Day - School closed

10-11 September - Learning Conferences

18 September - New Plymouth Primary Schools Choir Festival

19 September - Last day of Term 3

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! Have a great weekend.

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.