Term 1, Week 2, 2020 (Tuesday 11th February 2020)

He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa - warm greetings to all.

Our upcoming Fair - 22 March 2020

Our purpose of our upcoming fair is to fundraise to develop the steep bank that separates our playing field from our classrooms. We plan to install a series of steps and adventure play items such as tunnels, huts, slides, ladders, bridges and climbing ropes. These things will serve dual purposes of providing outdoor play equipment as well as alternative routes to travel between the two areas of the school. This play equipment will remain accessible to the public in the weekends and holidays so will become a valuable community resource and a destination playground for children from neighbouring communities and schools. This is a major project that we expect will be completed in stages over several years.

We need all the help we can get from parents/caregivers to make this the best fair ever. Please sign up to a stall on this parent sign up form.

Chess Club sign up - new and returning students

Our chess club has been a big success for over four years now and has at least 30 students involved. There is a beginner group and a more experienced group and the chess teacher decides who goes where. The cost is $25 per term. This payment ensures our club continues and that we can employ a very talented chess teacher (Mark van der Hoorn). The $25 per term cost will go onto your child(ren)'s account at the beginning of each term (unless you have already paid in advance). This can be paid per term, as a lump sum or by arrangement (eg automatic payments over the year). Normal payment options are available; cash, EFTPOS, internet banking (Ridgway School bank account number 12 3141 0104464 00).

Chess Club 2020 sign up here….

Touch Rugby

Is anyone interested in Touch Rugby? It's a fun sport, which is great for teaching teamwork, fair play and sportsmanship. Currently we have a Y3/4 boys team (although it could become mixed if any girls are interested) and a Year 5/6 mixed team. If we want to play in the other grades we will need at least two or three Y1/2 and five or six Y7/8 players. It runs from Wednesday the 19th of February for 6 weeks at Wakefield park (the turfs on the way to Island Bay) and runs through age groups from Y1/2 at 4pm until Y7/8 at 6pm. Cost is usually around $20-25 and depends on how many players we have (it won't be any more expensive but can get cheaper if we have lots of players!). Practices are at lunchtime on Friday. If you are interested please register here.

Netball

Year 1/2 and Year 3/4 teams play in Term 1 and Term 4. You can register your child here for either or both of these terms. It costs $30 per player per term and is played on Saturday in Kilbirnie at the courts adjacent to Evans Bay Intermediate. The times will be confirmed once our teams are registered. We are running netball skills sessions at school on Friday during lunchtimes to help all of our netball players improve.

Using the pedestrian crossing before and after school

We ask that all parents help keep our children safe on the road by setting a good example when crossing the roads with their children around school. This means using the pedestrian crossings when crossing the road with your child rather than taking a short-cut and avoiding the road patrollers. We appreciate your support with keeping our children safe on the roads.

Dropping off your children safely

Please only use the designated drop off areas rather than stopping on the yellow lines, the bus stop on Mornington Road or in our driveway.

School Policies and Code of Conduct

You are able to access all of our school policies on the School Docs website. First search for Ridgway School, then put in the username Ridgway and the password RRRR. We would like to refer our parent community to our Code of Conduct (attached to the email and also available on School Docs) which outlines how we expect parents to behave in and around our school.

Volunteer Builders wanted to build 10 small bicycle skills features on Vogelmorn field

Volunteer builders (LBP qual'd and 'hammer hands') are needed now to help build 10 small wooden bicycle skills obstacles for the Tawatawa bicycle track on Vogelmorn field.

Wellington City Council and Ridgway school have agreed to the next phase of the bikes in schools project and community cycling facility. This involves building 10 small wooden bicycle obstacles, e.g. see-saw, ramps, bridge etc, to plans under the guidance of Volunteer parent Mike. Mike builds tracks and features professionally and has donated his time for the entire project!

By volunteering your skills for a short period of time to build skills features, you can ensure the children get a better facility in a quicker timeframe that will improve their cycle skills and make the facility more fun! We are hoping to have 4 'builders' on hand for each build session over about 4 weekends. If you can help for a few hours, a day or several days that'd be very much appreciated.

Interested in helping build some of these skills features? Email jasoneady@hotmail.com.

Lunch orders

Your child can order sushi on Thursday and Pita Pit on Friday. When ordering for the first time this year please update your child's details by clicking "members" and changing their classroom to reflect where they are this year. www.lunchonline.co.nz

Music Lessons

Piano Lessons

Beth Chen is offering piano lessons at school. An upright piano will soon be arriving at school for these lessons so children can learn on a piano rather than a keyboard. Beth is currently taking new students and her website is https://bethchenpiano.com/. You can contact her via email on bethchen@bethchenpiano.com.

Guitar, Ukulele, Bass Guitar and Singing Lessons

These lessons are available at school on Wednesdays or Thursdays and the cost is $12.00 per session (2nd child from the same family is 1/2 price). Andrew says: "As a music tutor I love seeing my students "get it" and my unique "fast style" will have your child up and playing chords and songs in their very first lesson. Progression is my focus and over my career I have developed hundreds of high quality hand made song sheets for my students to progress through.

In home private lessons are also available in Guitar, Ukulele, Bass Guitar, Drumming, Singing or Songwriting from $25." Contact Andrew McPartlin on andymcpmusic@outlook.com or 0210323659 for bookings.

Brooklyn Northern United Junior Football Club

There is an open day on Sunday 16 February for this football club. More information here.