Willow Park School Newsletter
04 May 2024
Contact us:
Email: office@willowpark.school.nz
Website: http://www.willowpark.school.nz/
Location: Willow Park School 13 Compton Street, Hillcrest, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: 09 480 9236
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/willowparkschoolhillcrest/
Welcome Back
As we dive into another exciting term here at Willow Park. We're thrilled to kick off Term 2 with a blast. Last term, we saw incredible displays of teamwork, dedication, and values-driven behavior across all houses. We're delighted to announce that the Ruru's emerged as the house champions, collecting the most Willows through the term. Congratulations to the Ruru's on their well-deserved win!
To celebrate their win, the Ruru's enjoyed a day of fun and excitement, including a non-uniform day and the unforgettable opportunity to 'dunk' their teachers and Mr. Millward. There were many smiling students as they took turns sending their teachers into the dunk tank.
As we begin Term 2, the house points have been reset to zero, providing a fresh start for all houses. Each house now has the chance to earn Willows through their demonstration of our school values, working to accumulate points and claim the title of Term 2 house champions.
We encourage all students to continue embodying our values of manawaroa, manaakitanga, kiatiakitanga, whanaungatanga and manawa reka. in their daily actions. Let's support one another, strive for excellence, and make Term 2 as amazing as the last term.
Stay tuned for more exciting events and updates throughout the term which will have more team challenges and celebrations.
Working Bee - May 19th - we need more help!
On Sunday 19th May we will be having a working bee at school to target three areas in our school - Enviro Area, Nature Area and the Sandpit. We are looking for volunteers that can provide some time and energy between 9.00am and 12.00pm with gardening work and more. If you are able to help, please could you sign up on the Google Form below. We will provide some morning tea and a sausage sizzle at the end of the working bee.
Over the holidays the sandpit cover was taken off and water blasted so is looking pristine. We are ordering in some new sand on the day of the working bee so that we can fill the sandpit up, so the more shovels we have the better.
Friends of Willow Park Meeting: Monday 6 May
Our next Friends of Willow Park meeting is this Monday 6th May at 6.30pm in the staffroom.
Sign Language Week
This week we have NZ Sign Language Week being held from 6-12 May, There are lots of great resources to learn more at: https://nzslweek.org.nz/ :
This year’s theme: “An Aotearoa Where Anyone Can Sign Anywhere.” Join Kat and Erica as they teach you some of Aotearoa’s sign names for places throughout the motu!
Want to explore more place names in NZSL? Dive into the NZSL Dictionary and give it a try! https://www.nzsl.nz/signs/search?tag=New+Zealand+place+names .
Let’s encourage everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand to embrace our beautiful language – New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)! From the peaks of our mountains to the depths of our seas, from noisy nightclubs to quiet moments, there’s so much to discover and share through signing!
Why is this important? Because NZSL is more than just a language – it’s a vibrant, evolving means of communication that empowers the Deaf community and breaks down barriers. NZSL is for everyone, and we’re thrilled to promote it to all Kiwis while celebrating the everyday heroes of the Deaf community.
Sports News
Welcome back everyone and I trust you all had a wonderful holiday break.
We are already underway with our sports this term with our miniball teams playing on Tuesday and Wednesday. Flippaball has their first game on Sunday and Hockey kicks in on Monday. Our senior winter netball teams and table tennis begin on Wednesday and our Junior netball teams next Saturday 11th May.
We have an awesome group of parents who have taken on board the challenge to coach and manage these teams. Without them we would not be able to offer the selection of sports we have or the number of teams we are able to cater for.
There are still vacancies in the hockey teams - year 3 - 6; and we also could do with a couple more competent year 5 / 6 swimmers for our flippaball team.
If you think your child might be keen please let me know. sue.w@willowpark.school.nz
I am also about to finalise our Rippa and Tackle teams for the two zone days coming up in June and August. If you haven’t registered your child please can you do so on Kindo as soon as possible. This is for year 3 - 6 children.
On Tuesday we have 9 children participating in the North Shore Swimming Competition at the Millennium Pool in Mairangi Bay.
Also coming up we have our annual Cluster Schools Sports day for our year 5 and 6 children. This is scheduled for Monday 27th May. The children will get more information on this next week when they will be asked to choose one of five sports to play on the day.
Pink Shirt Day
On Sunday our Willow Park 5/1 girls started the season with a great day out at the NNH Jnr pre-season tournament. This was their first time playing together this year, thanks to rain cancelling our first couple of scheduled trainings, so they were pretty much coming in cold.
They did extremely well, winning all 3 round-robin matches convincingly to take out our section; putting us up against Belmont 5/1 in the final. It was a tough match; an arm-wrestle to the end, which Belmont eventually took out 4-2, but they gave it their all and we are so proud of how they held themselves.
It was a fun day, and we’re now all looking forward to a great season at NNH!
-Gemma, Vikki and Natalie.
Dates and Events
EVENTS:
2024 Term dates (Staff only days confirmed as they are decided)
- Term 1 starts Thursday 1 Feb, last day is Friday 12 April
- Term 2 starts Monday 29 April, last day is Friday 5 Jul
- School closed for King's Birthday Monday 3 June
- School closed for Matariki Friday 28 June
- Term 3 starts Monday 22 July , last day is Friday 27 September
- Term 4 starts Monday 14 October , last day is Tuesday 17 December (1pm finish)