Willow Park School Newsletter

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/

Today we celebrated Gumboot Friday, with lots of children wearing gumboots and bringing a gold coin donation. The I Am Hope Foundation have helped Willow Park School provide free counselling for students over the last couple of years, and this makes a huge difference.

On the netball courts at lunchtime Mrs Fowler and Mr Millward ran a gumboot throwing competition. There were some interesting techniques to throw, that aounted to some huge throws. We did have some winning throws:

Lucy, Room 18 for the Year 0 - 3 students

Kobe, Room 27, for the Year 4 - 6 boys; Peyton, Room 24, for the Y 4-6 girls

Thanks for all of the donations for Gumboot Friday, such a worthy cause - our gold coin collection raised $500.40.

One of our fabulous caretakers, Mr Murphy is running a football tournament between the Year 5 and 6 classes this term. He has heasured out the field, organised the teams and then spent his lunchtimes refereeing. The children playing in the games, and the children on the sidelines are having lots of fun. A huge thank you to Mr Murphy for doing this for the senior students.

The Willow Park Chess team have had a long history of success in our regional competitions. Teams have also been to the National Finals 7 times for the past 10 years. This year, our chess team finally became the New Zealand Primary Champions. The team had an almost perfect score, winning 7/7 rounds and 25/28 games.

Congratulations to Dillon, Tilden, Eric and Patrick!

Term 4 continues to be a very busy term and it is exciting to see our sports all underway.

Special mention to our summer netball teams who showed their passion and commitment and planned their Halloween fun for after their scheduled games last night. Only to have four of our five teams have the opposition default on them. Well done to the year 4 WP Flames, who were the only team left and played Birkenhead and had a well deserved win. And a special thanks to our two year 6 teams who decided to play each other so so they got a chance to play a game. It is so nice to see the year 6 children having fun, with their friends and making the most of the last few weeks of their time at Willow Park.

This week we had five year 5 and 6 boys teams play in a 3 x 3 basketball tournament at the Harbour Basketball Venue at the Eventfinda Stadium. The teams all played 6 or 7 games that were 12 minutes long. They were fast and tactical and there were a lot of hot, sweaty boys by the end of the day. But again, a lot of fun was had, with lots of wins, a few loses and the odd draw. A lot of these boys then went on to play touch games, summer football games and then their own scheduled miniball game. I hope they slept well that night.

A few reminders for events coming up:

• Girls Quick Hit Cricket - Friday 8th November - year 5 / 6 girls - Takapuna Cricket grounds.
• Athletics - Monday 11th November - year 4 - at Willow Park - parent help is needed - this is from 9am until 12:30pm.
• Athletics - Wednesday 13th November - year 5 / 6 - Takapuna Athletics Club - parent help is very much needed - all day.
• 3 x 3 basketball - Wednesday 20th November - year 5 / 6 girls - Eventfinda Stadium.
• Inter School Athletics - Thursday 21st November - year 4 / 5 / 6 selected children - Takapuna Athletics Club.
• Triathlon - Monday 9th December - year 4 / 5 and 6 - at Willow Park - please note the change of date. We also will need parent help on the day.

A friendly reminder that there will be a Staff Only Day on Friday, 8th November. School will be closed to all students on this day. Our staff will be engaged in professional development focused on the curriculum refresh, ensuring we are well-equipped to deliver a vibrant, relevant, and inclusive learning experience for all our tamariki at WPS.

2024 Term dates (Staff only days Friday 8 November)

• Term 4 starts Monday 14 October, last day is Tuesday 17 December (1pm finish)

• Labour day - Monday 28 October.
• Staff Only Day - Friday 8 November.

2025 - School Term dates

Term 1 - Monday 3rd February. - Friday 11 April

Term 2 - Monday 28 April - Friday 27 June

Term 3 - Monday 14 July - Friday 19 September

Term 4 - Monday 6 October - Tuesday 16 December

2025 - School is closed for :

Staff only days will be advised once decided.

• Waitangi Day - Thursday February 6
• King's Birthday - Monday 2 June
• Matariki - Friday 20 June
• Labour Day - Monday 27 October

There will be an E-Waste Recycling Collection on November 2nd, 10am - 1pm at Cedar Centre 56a Tramway Road Beach Haven.

This joint project put on by Rotary Birkenhead, Abilities and Cedar Centre, is to assist our community with disposal of e-waste and polystyrene as well as providing meaningful work for people with disabilities.

For more information you can phone Katie at Abilities 027 839 1457 OR Janice at Rotary Birkenhead 021563342