A warm welcome to our new student William Armstrong

Dear Families,

The energy is definitely building here at school. Throughout all our environments we have children showcasing learning through the Arts and the chatter it creates is magic. 

Our Ropu Puawai Productions are bringing a real buzz of excitement to our senior children and I love seeing the involvement of every child in these performances, no matter how ‘Arty’ each individual is. It is an important reminder of the value of having an inclusive culture. 

On Monday we had our first Board of Trustees meeting with our new Trustees. On behalf of our operational team, I would like to welcome our new Trustees and am full of confidence with their ability to continue to govern our school with positive intent and keeping all our children's best interests at the centre of each decision. In addition I would also like to congratulate Phil Webster in being elected our Board Chairperson. Phil is currently the Chief Financial Controller for Prolife Foods NZ and has been on our B.o.T for the past 3 years. He has an excellent understanding of our goals, aspirations and strategic direction moving forward. On a similar note I would like to acknowledge leaving Trustees Ross Moratti and Sean Austin for their service on our Board, Ross for the last 6 years and Sean for the last 3. Your contribution to our community has been significant and with that I thank you. Finally, I would also like to say a special thank you to Ali Grigg for his service to our Board and Chairperson role for the last 6 years. Ali has provided not only myself but our team a tremendous amount of support throughout his tenure and has lead our Board and Community through transformative change during this time, of which not all has been easy. Ali is now a member of the St Paul's Collegiate Board of Trustees, I know they are delighted to have him as part of their team. 

Year 5 & 6 Production of 'Hunt for the 6C's" starts at 6pm on Thursday 4th July.  This will be followed by the Year 7 & 8 production of 'Pirates of the Careeribbean'

There will also be a matinee performance & dress rehaersal of both productions starting at 11.30am.

Door sales only.  Family tickets $5.  Individual tickets $$ Gold coin donation.  Chocolates bars will also be for sale $2.

As part of the continuing fundraising for the school pool upgrade  we are asking for your support with selling chocolates, one box per family.  Last year the school raised over $5,000, which is a significant contribution, and is hoping to reach a similar target this year.

The oldest or only child in each family will be sent home with one box of fundraising chocolate. We appreciate that there are families who would prefer to support the school in other ways. Please contact the School Office if you DO NOT want to sell chocolates before the boxes go out on Monday.

There are 36 bars of Whittakers chocolate bars in each box which sell for $2 each ($72 per box) Please return the cash in the envelope provided to the school office, or pay via internet banking (account number 12-3171-0283600-00) last name and chocolates as a reference), by the first Wednesday of Term 3 - 22nd July.  If you are able to sell more please email or drop in to the school office.  

We suggest you sell to family members, colleagues in the workplace, at busy sports fields, friends or neighbours. If the children are involved in selling, they should do so
under adult supervision, especially if selling door to door.

Thank you for your support.

The school is missing a large number of sports shirts.  Year 5 -8 should only have one shirt each, younger students may have one to wear for their sports teams, otherwise please return all shirts to the school office.  

This year our Agricultural Day is to be held on Tuesday 15^th of October, the first week of Term Four.

This year we would love to get as many children involved as possible.

Now is the time to think about taking up the challenge of rearing an animal for Agricultural Day.  Please let us know if you would like to be a part of it. 

Lambs and Goats

We will run the Lamb and Goat competition as usual. The school can help with sourcing lambs and goats and provide tips and advice on rearing them. Lambs and Goats can also compete at North Waikato Group Day on Monday 21 October and at the Waikato show on Friday 1 November if you choose.

Calves

Please indicate if your child would like to bring a calf to Agday. If there is enough interest, we will be happy to run a calf competition and will put in place procedures recommended by MPI for biosecurity.  Please note the calves will have to be sourced from a dairy farm that has been milk tested for Mycoplasma bovis and you will be asked to provide a copy of the negative results certificate.  There are no calf competitions at Group Day or at the Waikato Show again this year.

Chickens   - New this year!!!!

A couple of other schools in our area have run a chicken competition with their Agriculture days for the last few years. Chickens can be very rewarding for a child to rear and we would like to incorporate this into our Ag Day as well.

A batch of 1 day old red/brown shaver chicks will be ordered and will be delivered to the school at the beginning of September. The children will rear the chicks at home for approximately 6 weeks and bring them to school on Agday for judging. Chickens will be judged on 3 categories; Rearing (appearance and health), Children's knowledge and handling and a Diary that the children will keep about the life of their chicken.

Chickens are very easy to rear. They only require 10- 20mins of handling each day. They can be reared for six weeks in a large box or plastic tub with some netting over the top. The school will provide information on how to care for the chicks and may be able to help with re-homing the chickens after Ag Day if needed. It has been recommended from parents at the other schools to rear 1 or 2 extra chickens and then bring the best one per child on the day. The chickens will need to be brought to school on Ag Day in a secure cage, such as a cat cage, but one cage can be shared by 2-3 chickens. The chicks are a commercial laying breed and are sexed on hatching, so will all be hens.

At this stage a chicken competition is not offered for Group Day but the committee is looking into maybe doing this in the future.

We will need to order the chicks from the breeder in July so please indicate if you would like to be involved in the competition and how many chicks you would like to order. Chicks will cost around $6 each (price to be confirmed)

If you are unsure of what Agricultural Day is about or have any questions about raising an animal don’t hesitate to give us a call at school. Alternatively you could visit www.waikatoaandp.co.nz there is  information available to download in the future with plenty of helpful hints.

Please email: office@puketaha.school.nz if you are: 

1. Planning to have or already have an animal.
2. If you would like to know more about Agricultural Day.
3. If you would like to be kept informed about Agricultural Day
4. Would like to organise to get a chicken or chickens

and you will be added to an email list for all future communication about this event.

Thank you

YMCA Holiday Progrmme

Music House Concert

Local Body Elections

NZ Police 

NZ Police recently launched a new non emergency number, 105. 

You can call us on 105 for all non emergencies, or you can go online at 105.police.govt.nz to report things like:

- Lost property, Theft for a public place or car, Intentional property damage, or to get an update or add info to a previous report.

In the event of an emergency, always call 111 - Things that are Happening Now.