TAPS News. Week 8, Term 2

Kia ora parents, whanau and caregivers,

Welcome to Week 8. It is hard to believe that we have only 3 weeks left of this term and then half of the school year will be behind us.

How lovely it has been to see the sun and have an opportunity to get outdoors at break times. I don't think too many of us mind the cold when it's a sunny day to go with it.

I have tried to include as many of the highlights from the past 3-4 weeks in the newsletter for you. Some of it you will have seen on Facebook if you are a regular follower.

I would like to extend a big thank you to the parents who took the time to come out and see John Parsons last week. His message is totally on-point and is something that all of us as parents should be listening to every few years to remind us of the dangers and pitfalls that exist in the online world.

John provided participants with some excellent tips and suggestions so that children can enjoy exploring the digital world in a safe way.

Thanks must also go to our amazing TAPS PTA who organised a fantastic mid-winter disco last Friday evening. The children all had a ball, it was a lot of fun.

Before school care - we recently sent out a google form gauging interest for Before School Care at TAPS. We have had some good positive responses. We need to work further on this potential idea and will come back to you all as soon as we have new information to share.

Written reports - we have our newly improved reports coming home in Week 10. Teachers are currently finishing off testing, collating their information and getting mid-year reports written. You can look forward to reading these in a few weeks time.

On Friday evening the wonderful multi-talented TAPS PTA ran two awesome disco's for our children. The theme for the disco was Mid-winter Christmas. The children (young and old) had a super time and enjoyed dancing the night away to a variety of tunes. There were prizes for best dressed and best dancers. The next disco is coming up fairly quickly after the term break and will be on a Thursday evening to try and make the event even more accessible for students to attend.

Talofa! To celebrate Samoan Language Week Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa, Rm 10 girls learnt a siva. This is not as easy as it looks! Well done girls - this is really beautiful to watch

Our Rm 10 boys met the challenge of learning the Fa'ataupati or Samoan Slap Dance. This was awesome fun to learn and also to watch. Well done boys! We are proud of you

Beautiful moments Rms 8 and 10 were proud and excited to share their learning about Samoan Language Week Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa through song and dance for their special visitors from Te Aroha Kindergarten yesterday. Very special to have this opportunity and celebrate together.

Thank you for coming Te Aroha Kindergarten

Last week on Friday we had our whole school assembly. Along with our usual format we also celebrated our badge recipients. Our senior students received badges for Kapa haka leadership, Being House leaders, Being librarians, Being Road patrol wardens and also for being peer mediators. Some students received multiple badges for their service to the school. It is always great to see our seniors stepping up into their role as leaders of our school.

Our Yr 4-8 students were lucky to work with John Parsons last week. As a Cyber Safety and Risk Assessment Consultant, John was able to share the importance of students keeping themselves safe in a digital space and how to do this by protecting their privacy. This was a truly amazing and valuable session for our students - wonderful to combine with other students from Manawaru, Springdale and Elstow-Waihou schools.

Thank you John for empowering our young people

Room 1 has been learning the 'R' sound and got to meet Roxy the Rabbit. We had fun with Mrs Maisey making chickens out of toilet paper rolls to go with our Chicken Wobble poem. We loved taking part in the Waihou hub space workshops.

Room 2 have really enjoyed the tennis lessons we have been having on Tuesday's and Thursday's.

Room 3 has been looking closely at the magic 'e' over the past week. They have also been using their senses to add interest to their writing.

Room 5 have enjoyed their tennis lessons and learning about Persuasive writing.

Room 6 also loved tennis and are planning on sharing their persuasive writing with the principal!

Room 7 are loving their new learning about space and the solar system.

Room 8 have been doing inquiry work on their space projects.

Room 9 have been looking at the meaning of words and how they can be used to express ideas.

Room 10 have been looking at how life could be sustained on another planet other than earth.

Earlier this term, Our Year 8 students went to Hamilton with Mrs Gamble, Whaea Armstrong and Mr Bertrand to attend Young Leaders Day.

NYLD is a leadership event for primary and intermediate school students that is held every year all over Aotearoa, New Zealand.

The aim of this event is to develop student leadership, helping them to feel empowered to fulfil their dreams and become great leaders.

We were some of the very lucky students to be part of this event and are here to share some of the highlights with you today.

This year the event was held at the Claudelands event centre in Hamilton.

When walking into the room, you were greeted with huge flashing lights, a large screen which had a live stream of the audience, and loud music. It felt as if we were at a concert or school disco with thousands of other kids.

The event consisted of four guest speakers…

BRAD SMEELE – FORMER PRO WAKEBOARDER and QUADRIPLEGIC

JULIA GRACE – A MENTAL HEALTH WELLNESS COACH

GEORGIA LINES – SINGER AND SONGWRITER

AND WOLF GANG - A 10 YEAR OLD RAPPER

Some of the key messages and inspiring quotes these guest speakers shared with us were…

1. Don’t forget yesterday, live for today because tomorrow everything can be taken away. Reminding us how lucky we are to have what we have and to be grateful for every day.

2. Comparison is the killer of joy. Emphasising the importance of being grateful for what you have and not to compare yourself to others because you’ll miss out on the joy in your own life.

3. A winner is a loser who doesn't give up. Highlighting the importance of perseverance and determination. Striving for your dreams and keeping positive.

Between each guest speaker lots of fun was had.

We did a heap of dancing, threw giant beach balls across the room, watched a hip hop dance crew and were even lucky enough to get a private concert performance from Georgia Lines herself.

Our favourite part of the day was…

Being given the opportunity to sing along with Georgina Lines. We sang some of her well known songs and she even taught us the chorus to her newest song, Monopoly.

We had a great time mingling with the other schools who were there and are grateful to have been part of such an amazing event.

Written by Taylon and Baxter

What an awesome time we have had working with Sven and Bodin from Core Tennis. Really cool to see our whole school learn how to play tennis. These sessions have been super fun, with a focus on skill building, racquet grip and serving. Ka mau te wehi!

Room 7 have been producing some awesome art work with Mr Barker. Here are a few examples