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Riverdale School Newsletter
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Newsletter - Week 11 Term 1 2024
Friday 12th April
Principals Message
Term 1 of 2024 has flown by and as I look back over the term I am incredibly proud of what Riverdale staff continue to offer our tamariki. Core learning is of course the main focus in our classrooms, but being responsive to the individual needs of each student is also of a high priority. We are firm believers that by providing rich experiences across our curriculum, building strong relationships and knowing our learners allows students to flourish in their own way, at their own pace, and in an area that makes them build their own positive, personal identity.
Thankyou once again to our amazing community for your ongoing support and sending your children to school each and every day ready for learning. This makes a massive difference for teachers in our classrooms and has a substantial impact on the learning conditions for your child in the classroom.
Next term, students will be inquiring into our local histories and areas of significance within our local community. This will lead us into our Matariki celebrations at the end of the term where we will be inviting our community into our kura for our annual concert and whanau hangi.
We have a special guest coming in next term to present to our community on how we can keep our children safe online. This has been organised as a result of community consultation feedback last year for our 2 year strategic plan. Parents communicated that social media and the influence on their child now and in the future was a trend of growing concern. Rob Cope from ‘Our Kids Online’ will be presenting in our school hall on Thursday June 6, 2024. This is a free event and we encourage all of our community to attend. We promise that you will leave with some strategies and knowledge on how you can navigate the digital world alongside your child.
The new cell phone policy will come into effect at the start of next term. In short, children bringing cellphones to school is not allowed unless there are special circumstances approved by the principal. You can find our full policy below by logging into school docs.
I wish you all an amazing break over the holidays. Stay safe and see you back in Term 2.
Jared
Māori
Welcome
To our new students: We wish you happy days at Riverdale School
Piako Tahi - Te Wai-Marama Hempel-Wright, Harrison Neil, Eleanor & Imogen Smith
PTA Walkathon - Term 2
We will be holding our major fundraiser the PTA Walkathon in Term 2 at Riverdale School. We are raising funds to upgrade our school hall for our tamariki.
We are calling all local businesses in our community for any support that can help us with spot prizes and/or a donation to help achieve our school goals.
If you would like to find out more about how you can help, please contact us at pta@riverdale.school.nz or pop in and see us in the office.
Ballot
Riverdale School is governed by an enrolment scheme, details of which are available from the school office.
We have four out-of-zone intakes per year. Riverdale School Board of Trustees will determine how many out of zone spaces there will be for each intake.
The next ballot dates are outlined below:
Enrolment Period: Term 3 2024 (2nd July - 27th September 2024)
Deadline for applications: 9th May 2024
Date of Ballot - 10th May 2024
If you have a sibling that is out of zone and you are wanting to enrol please go the Riverdale School website and complete the online Out-Of-Zone application form. Or pop into the school office to collect a form.
HERO Tips & Tricks
Translation Option on Newsletter
If it would be easier for you to view the fortnightly newsletter in a different language there is a translation option available.
Once you open the newsletter look to the top of the page and click on "Translate". This will open a drop down box and you can select from hundreds of different languages, click on "Done" then the newsletter will be translated to the language of your choice.
Tax Receipts
If you are needing to download a tax receipt for your school donations this can be done via HERO.
You will need to log into HERO on a computer or laptop. Click on "Finance", then "View All Payments", then "View Donation Payments".
This will bring up a page with the applicable Financial Years available. You can select the year required and download from here.
Poutama
Poutama has thoroughly enjoyed our Science Inquiry over the second half of the term. Being the Assembly hosts in Week 8, we decided that we wanted to share some amazing science experiments with the School. So we set out to find the perfect experiments to share. We knew they needed to be interesting to watch and therefore needed to have a big enough reaction to ‘wow’ the crowd. After much investigation we decided on the Lemon Volcano experiment and the Magic Balloon experiment.
We were privileged to have a very special guest at our Assembly, Albert Einstein himself!
Piako Rimu
Piako Rimu has been ‘Thinking like Scientists’ for the last few weeks! Our Explore topics have been WATER and VOLCANOES where we have participated in lots of experiments and made observations about what we saw. We have learned about the properties of water as a solid, liquid, and gas, and then we made ice cream using an ice and salt mix. We watched chemical reactions and eruptions and then learned about viscosity, lava, and different parts of volcanoes. SCIENCE IS AWESOME!!
Right Choice Day
Thank You!
Thanks to Jason from New World Pioneer for providing the delicious apples and sausages for all of our tamariki to enjoy on Right Choice Day.
Thanks to our wonderful PTA for a delicious Right Choice Day lunch.
Summer Sports Wrap Up
The season has come to an end for our Summer Sports. We had a large number of students participating in netball, tee ball, flippaball and hockey.
A huge thank you to go out to all of our parents and whanau who take the time to coach, manage and support our tamariki. Without you the students would not have this opportunity.
Hockey
Flippa Ball
Tee Ball
Summer Football Finals
We hope that everyone would agree that the first season of Summer Football was a resounding success. With many players giving soccer a go for the first time which was great to see. The level of play improved throughout the tournament and the games were played in good spirits. Moreover, the support from friends and whanau added atmosphere from the sidelines.
These community events add so much to the school and we are thankful for all the contributions that enable them to happen. The referees did a great job running the games and getting all players involved. Thank you to the numerous teachers and parents who managed or coached a team and gave them so much encouragement. Finally thanks to our amazing PTA ensuring our tamariki always have a sausage and a treat on hand.
Girls Futsal Tournament
Mikaela Bouwmeester from central football has been working hard to share her love of the game with girls in the Manawatu. Last week she organized a futsal competition where 17 teams of excited young ladies took part. 14 students from Riverdale attended, demonstrating some sharp skills but also an amazing enthusiasm and level of sportsmanship.
If your daughter loves football or wants to give it a go, we will be having a girls-only soccer tournament in held in Term 3.
Interschool Swimming
On Monday 25th March a team of 17 year 5 and 6 students competed in the Southern Cluster Swimming Sports Tournament at West End Aquatic Centre.
The whole team can be proud of their efforts with some great individual and team results.
Congratulations to Christy Au, Koni-Leigh Liuvaie, Elijah Lion and Meleana Tu’ipulotu for winning 1st place in their individual races and the Year 5 Boys 4x25m freestyle team (Elijah Lion, Zac Parr, Dante Wightman, Shelby Robinson) for a thrilling race coming in 1st place.
Rippa Rugby Tournament
Two Rippa teams from Riverdale School travelled to the Arena to compete in the annual Sport Manawatu event. Thirty Three teams competed for the top spot so competition was fierce.
Our Competition team played valiantly and after losing narrowly in their semi-final they achieved an incredible 3rd place overall. The Development squad allowed many up-and-coming players to experience some strong competition. The effort and attitude was amazing from all the players.
We are also thankful to Erin Hansen for her managerial support and for running one of the teams. She ensured that all players had a fair opportunity on the field.
Right Choice Day
Art
Check out this cool art Piako Rata created! Whaea Selina was super lucky and now has 3 on display in her office.
Upcoming Opportunities Term 2
There is always lots of opportunities for our students to be involved in. These are some of the experiences on offer to our tamariki. We encourage our students to listen out to the Student Notices to find out how to get involved. Here is some of what is able next term:
- Cross Country Explorers
- Pae Tamariki
- Ki o Rahi
- Tough Guy and Gal
- School Cross Country
- Riverdale's Got Cultures Assembly
- Vex Robotics
- Maths Explorers
- Choir
- Te Puawai
- Nga Tewhatewha
- West End Soccer Exchange
- Boys Netball
Calendar
TERM ONE
Friday 12th April - Last Day of Term 1
TERM TWO
Week One
Mon 29th April - First day of Term 2
Week Three
Fri 17th May - PTA Walkathon
Week Five
Tues 28th May - Manawatu Tough Guy & Gal
Fri 31st May - School Cross Country
Week Six
Kings Birthday - Mon 3rd June SCHOOL CLOSED
Teacher Only Day - Tues 4th June SCHOOL CLOSED
Interschool Cross Country - Wed 5th June
Cybersafety Evening - Thurs 6th June