NewsletterApr2 - Kaurilands School

2nd April 2015
Kia Ora Whānau
Term 1 has been a whirlwind of a term.
Already the children have been involved in so much exciting learning with all
classes taking advantage of the opportunities to work outside as much as
possible. This term has seen the completion of the retrofit of Rooms 7 and
8 and the children are enjoying their new open working environment.
Attached to our newsletter is a report from the Board of Trustees outlining some of the other exciting projects
coming up this term and other news from the Board. My gratitude to the Board and our parent group Te Whānau
Awhina for all their hard work and dedication this term.
Thanks Marketing Works
The lovely ladies who organised the
Appeal – L-R Leanne Little with her wee
helper, Brooke, and Luanna Brunt
KAURILANDS SCHOOL VANUATU APPEAL
Fast and furious was our collection for items for
Vanuatu.
We were so overwhelmed and humbled by the
Kaurilands School families who donated to help the
local people in Vanuatu who were left with nothing.
A big shout out to Marketing Works, Henderson for
supplying transport and a driver.
Thank you all so much for your support!
Leanne Little & Luanna Brunt
Order your new Entertainment™ Books and Entertainment™ Digital Memberships from us today, and 20% of your Membership goes towards
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Order either Membership type before 24th April 2015, and you'll receive
over $170 worth of Early Bird Offers which you can use straight away!
CONTACT: Nancy Robinson Kaurilands School 8175645
nancyr@kaurilands.school.nz
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
YEAR 6 CAMP:
FINLAY PARK 2015
Wow, what a week for the Year 6 children
who went to Finlay Park for their annual
camp and an adventure-packed week of
activities.
The children, as well as the parents and
teachers, had the opportunity to try heaps of
activities including Kayaking, Go-carting,
Rafting, Abseiling
and Hydro-sliding.
Everyone had fun
and enjoyed
watching the
children challenge
themselves to give
things a go and step
outside their comfort
zone. A big thank
you to all the
amazing parents
who went on camp –
without your help and support the week of fun and learning would not have happened.
Enjoy reading Liam’s fantastic recollection of his experience at Camp!
That was Camp!
Remember the adrenaline when you were zooming down the hydroslide
frozen stiff and all you could hear was everyone yelling “Pull up! Pull up!”
Remember losing your shoes at skull island
as you were running away from the wild dog?
Remember speeding round the go-cart track almost hitting the cows?
That was camp!
Remember whizzing down the soap-filled zoom slide
about to go over the top like a missile darting into the sky?
Remember your noisy cabin mates yelling and waking you up at 6:00 in the morning?
Remember walking to the rafts with the sharp spiky gorse under your feet?
That was camp!
Remember the warm brown milo as it slid down your throat like melted chocolate?
Remember touching the electric fence and your arm jolting towards you
as if it wasn’t part of you?
Remember Ms Best chasing you through the thick, dark brown mud of skull island
as she was yelling, “I’m coming to get you!”
That was camp!
Liam Ferguson
Room 1
ANZAC DAY SERVICE
As part of our community’s commemoration for ANZAC Day in 2015 and 100 years since
Gallipoli, the Titirangi RSA has asked each of the local primary schools to bring 25 children to
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march in the parade on Saturday 25 April (9.30 – 11.30am approx), with one of their parents
and one of their grandparents. Each family will carry one of a hundred handmade poppies that
will be presented as part of the commemoration.
Thanks to the 20 families who have volunteered. We need 5 more families. If you would like to
join us please email me over the holidays denisel@kaurilands.school.nz.
As a school we look forward to being part of this community event and thank the RSA for making this possible.
Denise Lacassie
CONGRATULATIONS!
To Dylan Sauvarin (Rm15), Gia Gore Chapman (Rm13), Cadie Reid
(Rm18) and Jahmayn Williams (Rm13) who were asked to represent
Glen Eden Athletics Club in the recent Top 10 Teams event in which
athletics clubs from across Auckland enter their top 2 boys and girls to
compete in each age group – they all represented the under 7 years
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age group. The boys placed 8 out of 16 teams and each received a
ribbon at their Club prizegiving. The girls also performed very well and they were
all a credit to their Club.
Dylan and Jahmayn also did well at their Club champs with Jahmayn achieving
nd
some 1st and 2 placings and Dylan placed in every event in which he competed
receiving 8 ribbons
in all.

To Cara Bennett and Abby O’Hagan (Rm9) and Zara Rose
(Rm13) who entered the Weetbix Tryathlon at Narrow Neck Beach
nd
on the 22 March. They all competed incredibly well
 To AlexDunkley (Rm3) who is 9yrs old and finished 2nd overall in
an U12yrs 18 week competition in the Takapuna State Beach
Series 250m Swim after battling some tough conditions along the way to his success. Well
done Alex, amazing effort!


To Jade Werner (Rm4) who attends animation classes in Titirangi and was asked to do
all the animations for the music video of the song “Worms in the Ground” by David Parker
and his band The Ukes a ukulele trio. The song and music video will feature on YouTube
later this year and will also be used by David’s band in schools around New Zealand.
David will be known to many locals as the face behind the Titirangi Music Festival.
To Findlay Lister (Rm1) who recently came 1st in the Rooks Division of the Sarapu Cup for
chess with a total of 5.5 points (5 wins and a draw) from 7 games! Well done Findlay who is
also Captain of the Kaurilands School Chess Team who have been the top primary school
team in West Auckland for the last 2 years.
Max (Yr6) and Alexander (Yr4) Van der Westhuizen , together with their Dad, are part of Team Tengu who have
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entered the Oxfam Trail Walker 100km walk on the 28 -29 March. They are trying to raise funds for Oxfam and if
you wish to help them you can make a donation to this worthy cause by visiting their website link
http://www.oxfamtrailwalker.org.nz/otw15/teams/team-tengu
YEAR 3 MOTU MOANA TEAM BUILDING
Room 17 had a great day
at Motou Moana where
they challenged
themselves with difficult
activities.
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On Monday 9 of March Rooms 18, 15 and 13
went to Motu Moana to work as a team. First we
went on the flying fox and the confidence course.
We had to work to help each other on the
confidence course. When I went down the flying
fox and hit the tyres I screamed “This is
Awesome!” I got two jolly good goes.
Next we did orienteering. It was fun because we
had to find clues. You had to find the right letters
to get it right. We got CAMP IT CITY, but it was
CAMP IN CITY. Orienteering was super-duper
cool. After the orienteering we did the team
challenges. We worked really hard. The kids
won against the parents at the tug of war. I was
impressed we did it. Last we went down the
water slide. Miss Namajuska was the champion.
I had one go because the queue was so big that I
felt too cold. The water slide was so slippery.
My favourite activity was the flying fox because I
went so fast.
By Tate Bennetts – Rm18
SWIMMING POOL KEYS
Our school swimming season has now finished. Could you please return your pool key to Mrs
Robinson in the school office by the first week after the holidays as only half of our keys have
currently been returned. Thank you to all those parents who have already done so.
TRAVELWISE
Dear Parents and Families,
Auckland Transport conduct regular surveys, to understand
how important messages are being communicated within the
Auckland community. They are currently seeking feedback
from our school community on the ‘Back to School’ campaign
which has been run throughout the Auckland region. Please
click on the link: http://tinyurl.com/AT-BackToSchool2015 to be
taken directly to a brief online survey. Everyone who
completes the survey goes into the draw to win a $50 Prezzy
Card. All information and responses are used for internal
research purposes only. Thank you for taking the time to
assist with the survey and for supporting our Travelwise
programme.
WANTED!
A parent or whānau member
to help with our Junior
kapahaka group each
Thursday afternoon.
If you play the guitar that
would be wonderful! Our
group is very, very enthusiastic
and fun to work with!
Please contact Mrs Heremaia
jocelynh@kaurilands.school.nz
if you could help us out.
KAURILANDS HOLDS ITS FIRST PASIFIKA FIAFIA!
Last Friday marked a special occasion for Pasifika whānau
and for Kaurilands as we held our first ‘Fiafia’!
It was a really great night with lots of singing and dancing
and excellent kai! We had a great time getting to know the
different whānau
who put in a
huge amount of
effort to make
the night a great
success. It was
really great for
us to hear stories
from traditional Pasifika life as well as to see the
tamariki, parents and teachers sing and dance.
Kia ora koutou for making it
such a great night!
We are looking for Pasifika whanau to
help us set up some engaging cultural
learning experiences for the tamariki. If
you would like to help or get some more
information about our newly established
Pasfika group, please get in touch with
lanim@kaurilands.school.nz or
sians@kaurilands.school.nz.
Manuia fa’afetai,
Sian Smith and Lani Maoate.
WESTERN ZONE SWIMMING SCHOOL’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
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On Wednesday, 25 March our school representative
swimmers competed as a team in a total of 148 races over
the course of the day in the West Auckland Primary
Swimming Championships. Seven other local primary
schools competed and the competition was fierce.
The team of twenty-one were Anais Logan, Amelia Hinvest,
Ella Nelson, Ella Battle, Daniella Lemamea, Nikki Plackett,
Bee Townsend, Jessica Frost, Alex Dunkley, Abigail
Edwards, Cole Brown, Kasey Watts, Rhiannon TaylorRoberts, Eric Arnold, Amber Moule, Olivia Tukia, Samantha
Poore, Poppy Paterson-Boock, Hamish Nelson, Olivia
Bindon and Connor Spavin-Little.
Our teams’ skill and commitment to training sessions to
prepare for the competition and their quiet determination on
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the day resulted in a convincing 1 place overall. Our
medley relay team (Alex Dunkley, Jessica Frost and Nikki Plackett) and freestyle relay team (Abi Edwards, Cole
Brown, Kasey Watts and Bee Townsend) both placed first in the Division 1 finals.
Many thanks to all the parents who helped with transport to training sessions and the championship day. Particular
thanks to the many years of time that Judy Frost and Cheryl Bindon have given to school representative swimming
– not only with Jessica and Olivia, but their older children, who were members of the school’s teams during their
time at Kaurilands School.
Denise Lacassie
Swim Sports Co-ordinator
Noho ora mai (stay well)
Jo Augustine
Principal
HAVE A GREAT EASTER &
HOLIDAY BREAK! STAY SAFE AND
ENJOY THE SUNSHINE!
LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU
ALL FOR TERM 2 ON MONDAY,
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20 APRIL.
AN UPDATE FROM YOUR BOARD OF TRUSTEES
With lots happening in and around school, the Board thought it would be a good time to
provide an update.
Ipads in our Classrooms
Last year the Board approved the lease of 210 more Ipads – 7 per class across all year
levels. This, in addition to the technology we already have available in our classrooms
will provide our children with the ability to be 21st Century technologically savvy learners.
School Website
The Website was always going to be a work in progress. Our timeline for this project was a year – we planned to
tweak issues as we became aware of them. We appreciate your constructive feedback – please use the feedback
option on the website page for your comments.
Attached to this newsletter is a “how to” for viewing our newsletter using pdf format in firefox. Often it is not our
school website at fault but computer settings that change when our home computer updates the programmes it
runs.
In regards to viewing these newsletters on Ipads and Iphones, our website will need to be reconfigured. This will
be done over the holidays as our site is required to be offline.
One of the main issues we have come across is viewing .pdf files when using Firefox. This is NOT a website issue
but an issue caused by some Firefox updates. The instructions below are for a MAC but the fix is very similar for a
PC. In order to view PDF files properly follow these steps:
1. On the menu bar, click on the Firefox menu and select Preferences….
2. Select the Applications panel.
3. Type pdf into the search bar.
4. For each content type listed, click on the drop-down menu in the Action column andchange the selection to use
to “Preview in Firefox”.
5. Close the Preferences window
School Beautification Update
This is a very exciting project – watch for lots happening around school.
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Over the holidays, beginning 7 April, the senior court (outside Rooms 1-6) will be resurfaced with artificial turf.
Poles went in on Monday for shade sails.
We appreciate that over the holidays many families use the senior court area to ride bikes, scooters and
skateboards. If you could stay off the senior court during the holidays while the turf is being laid that would be
fantastic. You are of course welcome to use other concrete areas of the school. Our turf will last longer if we lay it
properly and follow the instructions we have been given.
In Term 2 a plan will be in the foyer of what is to come with this project. We hope to turf other courts, change bark
to matting in playgrounds and erect shade sails – the list is always growing. Along with grants we are applying for,
Te Whānau Awhina will help us to raise money with their fundraising events. We would love for you to get behind
these events as the faster the money can be raised the more things we can achieve for the children of Kaurilands
School.
Finally in this update, the Board farewelled Marshall Boyes. Marshall was part of the Kaurilands School Board for 6
years. Both his daughters, Sofie and Emma, have now left Kaurilands. We would like to publically acknowledge
Marshall’s hard work for our school and wish him well. Congratulations to Helen Dunlop who has been elected to
the Board Chair position. Helen has 3 sons at Kaurilands School and has been a Board member for 3 years.
We hope you all have an amazing holiday and look forward to seeing what Term 2 will bring.
Helen, Brendon, Natalie, Ronnie & Sarah
*** COMMUNITY NOTICES ***
FREE PIANO WORKSHOP
Run Monthly until December 2015
No obligation INTENSIVE tutorial for
children with no musical experience
covering the contents of around 4-6
average piano lessons. Workshop notes will be provided.
By the end of the 2 hour workshop you will be able
to read most music and place 2 simple
melodies with both hands.
Limited places per workshop –
booking essential – one parent
must attend.
For information or to make a booking, telephone
818-3410
This is an action packed 4-day
community program offered to boys
and girls between the ages of 5-12 years. Our fun skill
based training is delivered by professional Wellington
Phoenix Soccer School Coaches and provides an
opportunity for young soccer players to further their
development with additional training in a unique
professional environment.
Cost: $150 (Includes WPSS Shirt for first time
registrations)
Venue: Bill McKinley Park, Mt Wellington.
Week 1: Tuesday–Friday, 7th-10th April. 9am-12pm
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Week 2: Monday-Thursday, 13 -16th April. 9am-12pm
What to bring:
 Players to wear WPSS Shirt
 Bring a Football
 Water Bottle
 Snack
 Rain Jacket
For registration information please visit
www.wpss.org.nz or contact us on admin@wpss.org.nz
SCHOOL HOLIDAY FUN
AT PARADICE ICE
SKATING
Holiday Programme
9am-12noon
LEARN AN OLYMPIC ICE SPORT!
136 Lansford Crescent, Avondale. Phone 828 3800ext6;
email avondale@paradice.co.nz or visit
www.paradice.co.nz
Classes for Beginner to Advanced skaters from 6 years
1 hour Ice Skating Lesson & 2 hour Supervised Public
Session – All Fees include Admission, Equipment Hire
and Tuition
WAITEMATA JUNIOR RUGBY
REGISTRATIONS
Every Wednesday 4pm-6pm
All players receive a Milo pack,
including a Ball and all registered
players go in the draw for an Avanti
bike.
For further information email
jrcdelegate@waitematarugby.co.nz
CAN YOU HELP VICTIM SUPPORT?
We are currently recruiting Volunteer
Support Workers to provide practical
and emotional support to victims of
crime and trauma – full training is
given.
If you are a good listener and
communicator, computer literate,
have a full driving licence and a car and can commit to
being on call for one shift per week day or night and
interested in working in the Community please
telephone 0800 86 58 68.
PLAY RUGBY AT SUBURBS RFC
All grades from Under 5 to Under 13
Registrations on Thursdays 5 - 6pm
at Shadbolt Park, 200 Portage Rd,
New Lynn
Telephone 828 9387 or 0272 817
461 for more information.