Kia ora whānau,

Key Dates:

• Matariki Museum & Art Gallery. Students have visited the museum and art gallery as part of our learning about Matariki and New Zealand history and culture.
• Friday 31st July – NED Show
  The NED Show is a fun, interactive performance that teaches students valuable life skills through storytelling, humour and amazing yo-yo tricks!
  NED stands for:
  Never give up
  Encourage others
  Do your best
  These positive messages support resilience, kindness and a growth mindset, and we'll continue referring to them throughout the year.

Learning: Weeks 1 & 2 

Mathematics
We are beginning the term with Geometry focusing on:
Reflection, translation and rotations. 

Alongside this, students will continue daily Number Knowledge activities to build fluency with:

Problem-solving strategies
Addition and subtraction facts
Times tables
Division facts

Reading

Our guided reading is based around fiction and non-fiction.
Students will learn how to:
Developing Confident Readers, fluency  and decoding          

Text Form, Structure & Style, Vocabulary, Comprehension Strategies

Physical Education

Our focus is cooperative games for the first couple of weeks. 

Cooperative games are those in which players work with one another in order to achieve a common objective. The goal of a cooperative game is to reduce emphasis on competition and increase emphasis on the social aspects of working in teams and groups. Learning to cooperate includes a core set of skills needed in many other game forms.

Writing
Writing to persuade (Speeches - Creativity) 

Planning, drafting and Publishing

Transcription skills: Handwriting and keyboarding

Oral Language

Students have co-constructed a new reporting sheet that they will begin on set days each week. Thank you for your support with this opportunity for them to present in front of their peers. 

School-Wide Theme: Creativity
This term our school-wide theme is Creativity. 
Students will be encouraged to think creatively every day by:
Solving problems in different ways
Designing and creating
Sharing original ideas
Working collaboratively
Reflecting on and improving their work
Creativity will be woven throughout all curriculum areas, encouraging students to explore, imagine and innovate.

Production
This term we will begin preparing for our school production.
Manuka will be working alongside Whārangi as we rehearse and prepare our class performance. 

Kind Regards,

Jason

Kia ora,

Welcome back to Term 3! It’s been a busy and exciting start, and we have a lot happening over the coming weeks. Our overall theme this term is creativity — exploring our talents, expressing ideas, speaking up, and sharing our views with others. We’re really looking forward to seeing students grow in confidence and creativity across all areas of learning.

Learning Focus

In Mathematics, we are diving into all things triangles! Students are learning how to classify triangles, measure sides and angles, and calculate area. It’s been great to see them developing their understanding and applying new skills.

In Reading, our focus is on fluency — reading smoothly, accurately, and with expression. We are practising reading with attention to punctuation, increasing words read per minute, and building confidence. We are also exploring plays and beginning to perform short pieces, helping us prepare for our school production later this term.

In Writing, we are working on improving handwriting, revising key spelling rules (this week’s focus is the long “a” sound using ei), and developing more complex sentence structures.

Mid-Canterbury Technology Centre (Year 7)

Our Year 7 students had their first session at the Mid-Canterbury Technology Centre on Monday and made a fantastic impression! We received a lovely email from the staff praising their effort and attitude. Students used the vinyl cutter and created personal handprint designs showcasing their strengths. Next week, they’ll be making pizzas — something to look forward to!

A reminder that the Technology Centre bus leaves school at 8:40am every Monday. Please ensure students arrive on time so they don’t miss the bus.

Camp Reminder

Thank you to those who have already returned camp permission slips — we’ve had a great response so far. If you haven’t yet returned yours, please do so as soon as possible. We are also still looking for a few parent helpers, so please get in touch if you’re available.

School Production – Week 9

Our Term 3 production, “A Night at the Zoo,” is fast approaching! Tawa Class will be part of the Primate Enclosure, and students are currently creating masks for lemurs, gorillas, chimpanzees, and tamarins. We’ll share costume details soon so you can begin organising these at home.

Options Programme

Our options programme begins today, and students have all been informed of their groups. We’re excited to see them develop new skills and interests through these sessions.

LDA Dance Performance

Good luck to our students involved in the LDA Dance! The performance is on 11 August, 7–8pm. We hope you’ve managed to get tickets — they’re selling fast!

Communication

Thank you for taking the time to go through your child’s report from the end of last term and celebrating their progress. While we don’t have scheduled interviews this term, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to discuss anything. You can email us anytime to arrange a meeting.

Lastly, if you have received this message, please respond - read so that I know communication is where it should be. 

Ngā mihi,

Gemma McDonald 

Tawa Newsletter – Term 3, Week 1–2

Kia ora whānau,

Welcome back to Term 3! It’s been a busy and exciting start, and we have a lot happening over the coming weeks. Our overall theme this term is creativity — exploring our talents, expressing ideas, speaking up, and sharing our views with others. We’re really looking forward to seeing students grow in confidence and creativity across all areas of learning.

Learning Focus

In Mathematics, we are diving into all things triangles! Students are learning how to classify triangles, measure sides and angles, and calculate area. It’s been great to see them developing their understanding and applying new skills.

In Reading, our focus is on fluency — reading smoothly, accurately, and with expression. We are practising reading with attention to punctuation, increasing words read per minute, and building confidence. We are also exploring plays and beginning to perform short pieces, helping us prepare for our school production later this term.

In Writing, we are working on improving handwriting, revising key spelling rules (this week’s focus is the long “a” sound using ei), and developing more complex sentence structures.

Mid-Canterbury Technology Centre (Year 7)

Our Year 7 students had their first session at the Mid-Canterbury Technology Centre on Monday and made a fantastic impression! We received a lovely email from the staff praising their effort and attitude. Students used the vinyl cutter and created personal handprint designs showcasing their strengths. Next week, they’ll be making pizzas — something to look forward to!

A reminder that the Technology Centre bus leaves school at 8:45am every Monday. Please ensure students arrive on time so they don’t miss the bus.

Camp Reminder

Thank you to those who have already returned camp permission slips — we’ve had a great response so far. If you haven’t yet returned yours, please do so as soon as possible. We are also still looking for a few parent helpers, so please get in touch if you’re available.

School Production – Week 9

Our Term 3 production, “A Night at the Zoo,” is fast approaching! Tawa Class will be part of the Primate Enclosure, and students are currently creating masks for lemurs, gorillas, chimpanzees, and tamarins. We’ll share costume details soon so you can begin organising these at home.

Options Programme

Our options programme begins Thursday, and students have all been informed of their groups. We’re excited to see them develop new skills and interests through these sessions.

LDA Dance Performance

Good luck to our students involved in the LDA Dance! The performance is on 11 August, 7–8pm. We hope you’ve managed to get tickets — they’re selling fast!

Communication

Thank you for taking the time to go through your child’s report from the end of last term and celebrating their progress. While we don’t have scheduled interviews this term, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to discuss anything. You can email us anytime to arrange a meeting.

We’re looking forward to a fantastic term ahead!

Ngā mihi,
Jackie Brown and Angela Winchester

Kia ora,

Welcome back to Term 3! We have a super busy term! I hope everyone is feeling refreshed and ready to go! 

Ned Show: We have a show coming to perform for us next week. This is a show about resiliency. The show is free for us, because another school bought yo-yo's at the show. We will be selling them as well to ensure another school gets to see it. The yo-yo's are $16-$25.

Year 6 Camp: I am still waiting for a few more forms to be returned! Please make sure these are in by the end of the week. If your child is not going please send me an email. 

Winter Tournament: Thank you to those who have returned these forms. I am still waiting for a few more.

Pie Fundraiser- Please see previous notice on bank account number change- I apologise for any inconvenience this has caused! 

I am out of the class tomorrow (Thursday) on Sick Leave with Nova in Chch. Alice Czerski will be in the classroom, the students know her already! 

Have a good week

Ella 

ella.shapland@ashborough.school.nz

Good morning,

We would ideally like one more adult to join us for our trip to the Gallery/Museum tomorrow please.

We will be walking, leaving school at 1.10pm and returning by 2.50pm.

Thank you,

Rebekah

rebekah.clement@ashborough.school.nz