Newsletter - Week 2, Term 1 2026

Principal’s Update

Kia ora Waitetuna Whaanau, the students were very excited to welcome Abby and Harold today. Everyone had a visit to the Life Ed truck with their many important messages. I went along with the Year 5 and 6 students today. Ask your child what they learnt in Life

Education. See the Life Ed segment below.

Certificates—we will be continuing with the Waitetuna Way certificates for each class in a three weekly cycle. These will be the only certificates presented other than a class certificate presented weekly. We have adjusted this slightly after our recent Professional

Development.

Get-Set-Go Day-Students showed outstanding perseverance as they challenged themselves across a range of activities designed to build fitness, teamwork and confidence. It was wonderful to hear about manaakitanga and positive sportsmanship demonstrated throughout the day. There were smiles all around as the team rotated through fun events. What stood out most was the way our learners supported one another — celebrating effort.

PTA Meeting—See you on Monday at the PTA Meeting. Online or in the staffroom at 7.30pm. Remember we need a new PTA chairperson. Please help us by taking one thing off Robyn’s responsibilities.

Phones away for the day—a reminder that at the beginning of last year the government made it compulsory for phones to be away at school. We have this in place. If a phone needs to come to school to be used outside of school hours then it must be taken to the school office when your child arrives for the day.

Remember if you have a query about your child’s learning please contact your child’s teacher. You can do this by emailing or ringing after school.

Property news—Pump track—we received funding from the Tu Manawa fund to allow us to purchase bikes in a range of sizes for classes to use. A new small shed it being built to contain these. A little more work had to be done on the pump track but it will be ready for use soon. The students are looking forward to this all coming together. Also the small wall in the multi-purpose room will be removed in the weekend to opened up our library space.

Have a great weekend, hopefully Ra (the sun) shines for us.

Ngaa mihi Amanda and staff

All the Happenings

• Life Education 20th Feb to 24th Feb

• PTA Meeting—23rd Feb

• Board Meeting 3rd March—5.30pm

• Assembly 6th March

• Raft Race for Maui Dolphin Day—Sat 7th March

• School Swimming Sports—Fri 13th March—starting at 1.15pm—Junior Room display first then races

• School photos—16th March

• Senior Room Camp—Sun 22nd March—24th March

• Inter school Swimming—24th March

• Junior Room Day Camp—27th March

• Tryathlon—31st March

• Board Meeting—31st March

• Last day of Term—2nd April

• Easter Friday — 3rd April

In the Senior Room, whilst the Year 7 & 8s are at Tech, the Year 6s have started working in the Clubs programme. This online platform allows students to interact with other kids from around the country in areas of passion, including Creative Writing, Design, Coding, Mathematics and other topics. It is a safe way to create positive connections and learn from others in New Zealand. And Pancake day is always popular!

PTA News

PTA Meeting on Monday evening—online or in the staffroom—7.30pm.

Waitetuna Way

Well done to Tilly & Oli A

For

RESPECT (Whakaute)

Celebrate your own and others success

Show respect for myself and others (courtesy)

Respect for our school equipment

Show respect by actively listening to

others

Show Respect for our environment

Together we are growing the seeds of success

Na too manaaki, na tooku manaaki, ka puawai mai nga kaakano