What a fabulous end to week 3. Throughout the week we had some special guests (teachers) come and read to us while we ate our morning tea. We ended the week by celebrating our school value, Mahi Tahi at assembly, followed by a whole-school parade on the courtyard showing off our fantastic costumes. It was a great day, and thank you to all the amazing children and parents who helped create costumes to celebrate the love for reading.

Please check out some of the photos and keep a lookout on our school’s Facebook page for more! https://www.facebook.com/southhornby/

Have a wonderful weekend, and we look forward to seeing you all for another week.

This term, Team Toi Toi have started our Numicon Maths programme. This programme aligns well with Te Mataiaho – the new NZ curriculum.

Already, we have had so much fun exploring the new equipment. Take a look at some of the activities the Whakarua students completed!

• Making shapes out of cuisenaire rods and discussing the colour, size and numbers they represent.
• Filling the 100 baseboard with Numicon shapes and discussing how we did this. Some of us even did this without using particular shapes…

We are very impressed with some of the Maths vocabulary that has been coming through already.

Wow! What a fun afternoon we all had doing the Colour Run.

We began the run getting splashed by the firefighters, Mrs Harris and Mr Smith – we noticed that the spray from the hoses made mini rainbows! We ran through a range of different obstacles, like nets, hurdles, and balance beams, all while getting covered in different coloured paints.

It was great to see the Top 4 fundraisers for Te Manu Tukutuku were all members of Team Toi Toi – Yeeyah Toi Toi! A big shout out to Maringinoa, Noah, Lucas M, and Layla.

A big thank you to Mr V for organising such a fun day.

Today we all came to school to celebrate Colour Your Day. Everyone looked absolutely amazing in their bright colourful clothes. This was a celebration for E Tu Tangata, which reminds us to stand up for standing out.

Congratulations to the following students from Team Toi Toi who won the Colour Your Day colouring in competition.

Mrs Norris – Fu Tian

Miss Lauder – Nivah, Yuvan

Miss Pringle – Sienna, Kiel

Miss McBride – Lilliana, Kevin

Miss Hollings – Millie, Frankie

Miss Simpson – Mila, Ethan

Week seven started with St Patrick’s Day. There was green everywhere. Great to see so many people, students and teachers, enjoy the challenge of wearing green.

On Thursday we were lucky enough to have Dahlia Malaeulu come into the school and chat to the students. Dahlia is a Duffy Schools Role Model. The students listened intently as she discussed how she has written books, the first being about her children. She was able to show the books to us and we even have some that will be put into our library for the students to enjoy in their own time.

Following the assembly the Duffy books were distributed to the classes and handed out by the teachers. We are very lucky to be part of the Duffy Books in Schools programme and receive books for our students throughout the year. These books are for the students to enjoy and keep at home.

This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming two wonderful educators from Science Alive! They delivered an engaging 40-minute lesson to each class in Team Toi Toi, sparking excitement and curiosity among our learners. The children were eager to explore fascinating facts about the sun, the moon, and the Earth. The interactive sessions made them feel like real scientists, giving them opportunities to share their knowledge while discovering even more about our incredible solar system.    

This week we were lucky enough to have the Duffy Theatre come and perform for us.

The show this year was called “Duffy and Scruffy’s Pawesome Adventure.”

Duffy and Scruffy’s Aunty Ana/Uncle Ben is the best! They are the epitome of a cool aunty/uncle but they have some sad news, they need to move to Australia for their job! Duffy and Scruffy are devastated until Ana/Ben suggests they start a book club and write physical letters to each other as a way of staying in touch. The letters spring back and forward between Aotearoa and Aussie until one day when they mysteriously stop; Aunty Ana/Uncle Ben has gone missing! Scruffy thinks they know why and is ready to solve another mystery. This story is full of super-hero adventures and furry animals, will reading be able to save the day again!

Thank you Duffy for coming to visit Te Manu Tukutuku South Hornby School!

We had the biggest pleasure meeting all our families in our Toi Toi team. Thank you to all that made the brave effort to adventure down to your child’s class in the thunder storm and share some kai. It was lovely to introduce ourselves more as teachers and to see  families interacting. Our students were very excited to show off their learning spaces, work books and art that is displayed on the walls. If you couldn’t make it, our doors are always open to have a chat or to see your child’s work.

What a great start to the school year we have had. There was much excitement as the children ventured into school this week. It has been a fab week of learning routines and getting to know one another to ensure we have the best learning year ahead. We have enjoyed a couple of swims in the pool and lots of exploration of our classrooms and playground. We were thrilled to be able to walk through Rakamaomao and smell the fresh paint of a new classroom and all the joys of a brand-new space for learning. The children are also excited to see the library is back in its original home and cannot wait to spend some time there when it reopens next week.