Tawatawa News

7 March 2025

He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa
Bonjour à toutes nos familles

Multicultural Day - 4th April

Tēnā koutou katoa, Bonjour, Namaste, Talofa lava, Konnichiwa, Ni hao, Kia orana, Malo e lelei, Chao, Hello, Zdravstvuite, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Salam, Hola, Annyeonghaseyo, Hallo, Ciao, Nei hou, Suosday, Ni sa bula, Kamusta, As-salamu ‘alaykum, Hola, Γεια σας (Yia sas)! 

Our school multicultural day is a celebrated school event and this year, each whānau will have the chance to celebrate their cultures within their whānau through art, song and dance.

Each whānau will design and create their own flags that will represent all the cultures we have at our kura. We aim to present these at our end of term assembly.

Tamariki are encouraged to come to school wearing one or two items that represent their culture and identity. E.g. a pounamu and a kilt to celebrate Māori and Scottish identity. Or, each child is welcome to bring a taonga (family treasure) if preferred. E.g. a carving or a family medal etc.

Let’s celebrate our diverse and unique community together!

Silent Auction - coming your way in Term 2! 

At the start of Term 2, we will be holding a silent auction for skills and activities, led by Ridgway parents and friends. It will be held online, and allows you to bid for activities or items provided by the Ridgway community. There is no upper limit on the number of offers you can make, but we ask each family to please consider making at least one offer. We are an incredibly diverse community here and we look forward to finding out what skills we have! 

Some examples of what you might volunteer are:

• A few hours of handyman work, gardening, sewing, painting, or web design (wherever your talents lie!)

• A workshop to bake your signature cake (with 3 places available, as that’s how many
  cakes your oven can hold) 

• A ‘paint and sip’ workshop at your house (with 4 places available, using a Youtube painting   
  tutorial) 

• A beginners mountain biking trip (with 2 places available) 

• Paddleboard / kayak trip to Tapu Te Ranga in Island Bay

• A piece of art (for all our amazing artists out there)

• Plants

• Language lessons

• A weekend at your bougie bach! 

We want to emphasise that this is for fundraising and social reasons - you don’t have to be a professional baker (for example), and your recipe doesn’t have to be a special one. It’s enough for you to have an oven and be willing to host a few people for a nice afternoon. Similarly, don’t be shy to do something you’ve never tried before - we’re all friends here!

Thanks to Gemma, Otto’s mum, for coordinating this!  

Movin’ March

We had a bit of a slow start promoting Movin’ March because somebody forgot to put it in the newsletter last week… not naming any names (it was Sarah). 

But, we are all go now!  Walking or wheeling to school is a great way to get active, know your neighbourhood, kick start learning for the day AND take care of the environment. Children get their ‘passport’ stamped each day they walk or wheel to school. Remember tamariki with at least one stamp on their passports to go in the draw to win a Micro Scooter and helmet at the end of March plus we have loads of in-school prizes. 

If you live too far away for your child to walk or wheel the whole way, drop them further off than the school gates, for example down by the VBC or the top of Farnham street and they can walk/wheel from there! 

Term 2 Basketball and Netball sign ups

Basketball sign up Year 3 - 8

Netball sign up Year 5 - 8

The juggler!

It was super fun having Paul come in and put on a show for us!  Here’s a couple of photos, one from his Instagram account where he calls us a ‘cute little primary school’. Which, of course, we are! 

 

Athletics Day

Thanks to all the offers of help! We will get more information out to our parent helpers next week about the event they’re on. 

Upcoming Events

• 16 March - Weetbix Tryathlon (sign up here)

• 18 March - Athletics Day at Newtown Park 

• 4 April - Multicultural Day

• 11 April - last day of Term 1

• 29 April - blessing of the pou 

Sarah Patterson
Principal/Tumuaki
Te Kura o Tawatawa - Ridgway School