VOGELTOWN SCHOOL TE KURA O HUATOKI

What a fantastic celebration of creativity, courage and talent our Huatoki team delivered with their production of A Night at the Art Gallery!

Inspired by the works of famous artists Van Gogh, Kahlo, Mondrian, Hokusai, and Warhol, the production brought art to life in a wonderfully entertaining way.

One of the real highlights was seeing children step outside their comfort zones. Some relished every moment in the spotlight, while others showed tremendous courage in pushing aside their worries to take part. It was a wonderful example of what it means to be a Jungle Tiger – trying new things, showing resilience and having the courage to give something a go.

A huge thank you to our talented Huatoki team of teachers and teacher aides for the enormous amount of work that went into the script, set design, directing, music, and costumes. Productions like this don't happen without considerable time put in behind the scenes.

We are also grateful to our whānau for supporting costumes, helping children learn their lines, offering encouragement and motivation, and being such an enthusiastic audience for the evening performance!

Finally, we encourage all whānau to take a moment to explore the wonderful artwork displayed in the Huatoki corridor. These pieces provided the inspiration for the production and are another fantastic showcase of our children's creativity.

Congratulations to everyone involved - what a wonderful achievement!

After eight years at Vogeltown School, we are saying farewell to our wonderful Executive Officer, Suzy Wolfe.

Throughout her time with us, Suzy has made an enormous contribution to our school. Her knowledge, dedication and expertise, particularly in managing our school finances, have been invaluable. Equally important has been the warmth and care she has shown when welcoming new students and whānau, helping them feel part of our Vogeltown family.

Suzy has also brought plenty of fun and personality to the office, making it a special place for staff, students and visitors alike.

We are incredibly grateful for everything Suzy has given to Vogeltown School over her time. While we will certainly miss her, we wish her every success as she begins her next adventure.

A big thank you to everyone involved in bringing the Lions Eye Health Testing programme to Vogeltown School. We are especially grateful to the Lions volunteers who gave their time to work with many of our students.

All children who participated will receive a follow-up form indicating whether any potential eye health concerns were identified. Families can then decide whether they wish to follow up with an optometrist for further assessment.

We are beginning to turn our attention to making up classes for 2027. This process requires thought and time as we put together groups of children in what we consider to be the best combinations for learning and behaviour.

Big ideas:

• The classes represent the best mix for all children in the year group. With this being our priority, while individual considerations are important, the dynamics of the whole group comes first.
• All children deserve the opportunity to have academic and social role models within their rooms.

Guidelines:

• A balance of male and female students.
• An equitable representation of different year groups (within any composite classes).
• All children need to be given the right to work with all learners. With this in mind, there may be occasions we consider it to be important to separate some children from current friendship groups. All children will have at least one other student they can connect with.
• Children requiring learning or behaviour support are spread throughout all classes. High achieving learners spread throughout all classes. For all learners, we try to ensure there is at least one other like-minded person with them to facilitate group teaching opportunities.

If you have a child due to start school next year and have not yet enrolled them, then please contact the office to get enrolment forms sorted. If your child is not going to be attending Vogeltown School next year then please also let the office know.

Kia ora whānau,

We’ve had to make a change to the date of our school hāngī to ensure our expert helpers are available to guide us through the process. As we continue to build our own knowledge and skills, we’re still reliant on the knowledge and generosity of others.

Our new hāngī date is Friday 13 November, with our Year 6 hāngī sleepover kicking off preparations the night before, on Thursday 12 November.

We’re still looking for parent and whānau volunteers to help with all stages of the process. This includes preparing the food and fire the night before, keeping the fire burning through the early hours to heat the stones, laying and lifting the hāngī, and serving the food on the day.

We had fantastic support last year, and we’re keen to keep building on this. Our long-term goal is to develop the knowledge and experience within our own school community so that this special event can continue for years to come.

Whether you’re an experienced hāngī hand or simply happy to roll up your sleeves and be told what to do, we’d love to have you involved. The more helpers we have, the better! We'd love to see helpers from whānau across the school - whether your tamariki have been at school for 4 months or 4 years, we'd love to have you there to help alongside us.

If you can lend a hand, please add your details using the link below. We’ll be in touch closer to the time with further information.

https://forms.gle/C3gGjo5i7QyR3kxv6

Ngā mihi nui,

Vogeltown School Team

They worked incredibly hard during practices, showing dedication, commitment and a willingness to learn and improve. It was wonderful to see them enjoying the opportunity to perform, sharing their passion for Kapa Haka and representing our school with such pride. Their hard work truly paid off, and we are so proud of them!

A big thank you to Matua Kauri and Whaea Rae for taking us under their wing and passing down their knowledge and expertise.

The Paetoki Team is excited to present "Where the Wild Things Are". We are so proud of our tamariki, as they have put so much effort into their practices. We hope you enjoy the show!

Thursday 5th November (Week 4 of Term 4).

Matinee: 1:30pm. Evening Show: 5:30pm

To ensure we meet our fire safety obligations, seating is strictly limited to 260 audience members per performance. We understand this is a change from previous years, and may cause some inconvenience, but we appreciate your understanding. If you are able to come to the daytime performance, rather than the evening performance, please do so.

Ticket ordering guidelines:

• How to order: Tickets can be ordered now by using our Kindo Shop. Please select the Paetoki Production tab, then the performance time that suits you best. Add the number of tickets needed to your cart under the name of your child that is in the production. If you have multiple children in the production, just choose one child to book all your tickets. Please do not book tickets under multiple children.

• Limit: Whānau can order up to 4 tickets in total. The limit allows more people to get the show of their choice. You can order, for example, 2 tickets for the matinee and 2 tickets for the evening show. Please do not over order as you will only be given a maximum of 4 tickets.

• Seating: On the night, those with tickets will be able to sit anywhere.

• Mobility Seating: if you have a family member with mobility issues, please let the office know so that we can allocate a suitable seat for this person and a carer.

• Extra tickets: If any unallocated seats remain closer to the event, we will send out a notification so you can order more tickets.

• Cost: Tickets are free of charge. However, we would appreciate a koha/donation which will be collected at the door to help offset production costs.

• Ticket delivery: Printed tickets will be sent home with your child prior to the performance dates so please check bags!

• Every person attending requires a ticket - this is to ensure we do not go above our capacity.

• Kindo Shop - if you do not yet have a Kindo account, please set up an account using the following link: https://shop.kindo.co.nz/app/login

Please note - all Taranaki (junior school) and Huatoki (Year 3 and 4) tamariki will be viewing the production at school on Tuesday 3rd November, so they will have already seen the show.

More detailed information about timings for the evening production will be coming out next week (i.e. what time your child needs to be at school to get ready).

Thank you for your support in making this a wonderful event for our students.

Nga mihi

Mr Goodwin and the Paetoki Team

Please keep a look out in your emails in the next few weeks, as you will receive an email directly from Photolife with all the information on how to order. We will also let you know in the newsletter when the emails have been sent out.

The notice below has been given out to all Year 6 students attending Highlands Intermediate next year.

Please note - parents/whānau are responsible for taking their tamariki to this orientation.

Vogeltown School is going to be open as a voting place for the 2026 General Election on Saturday 7th November. We are going to hold a sausage sizzle outside the hall from 10:00am to 2:00pm on this day as a fundraiser for the 2027 camp.

If you are able to help at the sausage sizzle, even just for an hour, this would be most appreciated. Please email vshomeandschool@gmail.com if you are available.

Thank you for your support!

The Weet-Bix Kids Tryathlon is being held in New Plymouth on Tuesday 23rd March 2027. If you would like to enter your child, you can click the link below which will add them to the Vogeltown School group. As part of the group you can choose for your child's entry pack to be delivered to your home or to school. More details will be available closer to the time.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__raceroster.com_registration_cd47b9a1-2Df6e4-2D43b1-2D94a4-2D58fff300a914_entry-3Fteam-3D1052174&d=DwQFaQ&c=_Zm2Kb9yJrso4r0-N78Ezl-a6DfgMbIISn5tZXXqWk4&r=zXnw6m0wNCL2eSmp7WJj6TkKKARmg3zpFcVvnXeBNENGQ_9nGttkIR3_tiobu1LI&m=52UCg6rCBDozqpcM76frGnE7L6PMnhm1Fliu_yytbwaS_FDueoP6A5viuR0H1Dsl&s=KqO6Edv0HfnsPafr9x2dgYPZGN0YmVjVe3kKgugFm4k&e=

https://raceroster.com/registration/cd47b9a1-f6e4-43b1-94a4-58fff300a914/entry?team=1052174

TERM CALENDAR

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

TERM 4 2026

4 November: Highlands Orientation - 11:30am at Highlands

5 November: Paetoki (Year 5/6) Production - Matinee at 1:30pm, Evening Show at 5:30pm

12 November: Year 6 hāngī sleepover

13 November: Hāngī day

13 November: Four Year Old Friday, 10:15am to 11:15am, junior school

16 November: Cohort 2 New Entrants first day

16 November: Pizza Orders close at 8pm - orders to be placed on Kindo

18 November: Pizza Lunch Day

27 November: Four Year Old Friday, 10:15am to 11:15am, junior school

1 December: BOT Meeting, 6:30pm

10 December: Year 6 Leavers Assembly, 5:30pm, school hall

11 December: Four Year Old Friday, 10:15am to 11:15am, junior school

15 December: Final day of school for the year, school finishes at 3pm as normal

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

Website link to Schooldocs.