Balmoral School Newsletter - 16 May 2025

Upcoming Events

Te Tumuaki / Principal

Kia ora e te whānau

Kia ora koutou,

Our school thrives thanks to the voluntary contributions of so many within our community, all for the benefit of our 770 students. I want to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude to all the parents who support our school in countless ways.

Whether it's taking time off work to lend a hand as a parent help on school camps /trips, dedicating energy to the PTA, bringing fun and fundraising to life by organising events like the Colour Run, coaching children in their sports teams, or making your school donation – every act of kindness, every moment of time, and every dollar contributed makes a real difference to the children.

This collective generosity of spirit ensures that all our tamariki have access to a broad and enriching education, laying a strong foundation for their future success and ability to contribute to the Aotearoa of tomorrow.

Looking ahead, we have our upcoming School Board elections. A strong and effective school board plays a vital role in shaping and strengthening our school's culture. Being a Board member is an opportunity to make a real difference for a wide range of our community.

Being a successful and positive board member isn't about having extensive business experience; it's about being a good person with common sense, a genuine commitment to treating everyone with respect, a passion for building a strong community and a willingness to gain insight into a thriving school. Great Board members are good listeners, can work collaboratively as part of a team, are committed to the school's success and the well-being of all within our school grounds, and are curious and willing to learn and understand the school governance role.

If this is you, we warmly encourage you to contact one of our current board members to learn more about this rewarding opportunity and whether it might be the right fit for you.

You are also welcome and encouraged to attend our next board meeting on Tuesday, 20th May (next week), @ 7:30 pm in the School Administration Block. You will experience an effective board in action and can ask any questions you may have about governance.

Your skills and perspectives could be invaluable in guiding our school forward.

Ngā mihi

Malcolm

School Closed Friday 30th May

Teachers will participate in a Professional Development (PD) day around the Curriculum refresh of Mathematics. This is the second of two Ministry of Education-directed Professional Learning days for Maths. 

Click here to book into the Village Square care at Balmoral School

School is closed for the children on this day.

Staffing Changes

We have been working through some staffing changes over the last month. 

At the end of this term we will be farewelling Deborah Gray. Deborah first began her connection with our school  as a parent when our primary school opened in the late 1990s. She was also a parent representative on the school board. After retraining as a teacher, Deborah returned to teach here in 2006. Deborah has been a team leader of both our New Entrant Team and our Year Two team. Deborah has been highly influential in establishing our learning through play in the junior school. Deborah hopes to return to our school in the future in a part-time capacity. Joining the year two team, created by this vacancy, is Nadine Bargallo-Riazantseva . 

Joe Teague is leaving our school to return to England with his family. Mia O'Donoghue will join the team as a classroom teacher. Dan Allen will be the Year eight team leader for term three. Congratulations also to Neville Smith, our new Year Seven team leader.

Niamh Cullen is joining our New Entrant Team and opening a new class in Term 3. She was previously a teacher's aide at our school and, more recently, has been teaching at another primary school.

We have been unable to find a music teacher to start in Term three. Christa Napier Robertson, who previously taught for many years at the Auckland Art Gallery, will be taking art education in Term 3. 

Wage Bargaining Teachers and Support Staff

The Board of Trustees has been informed that our school's support staff and teachers have begun the process of negotiating their new pay. This involves a formal pay claim. It's common during these times for staff to attend stop-work meetings, which can sometimes lead to changes in our usual school schedule.

We will ensure you are informed if any such disruptions occur.

Library News

We highly recommend getting to the Writers Festival this weekend.   https://www.writersfestival.co.nz/programmes/main-programme/  Look at the Family Events starting tonight gong through to Sunday afternoon.  The majority are free; they're are a few ticketed events.

We are enjoying a high turnover of books with the tamariki enthused about books and reading.  If you haven't seen one at home in a while, ask your child what they are reading. We can help if they're not keen.

Building a Community of Readers

It has been an exciting week in our quest to build a community who all find joy in reading.

On Tuesday a group of forty children from Year 5 to Year 8 headed into the Aotea Centre to listen to authors talk about their books as part of the Auckland Writers Festival. This is always a great day, and this year was as wonderful as always, with Jessica Townsend, author of the very popular Nevermoor series being a favourite for many of our group. As Liz and Nicola have mentioned above, the Writers Festival continues through the weekend and is well worth a visit.

This week has also seen the start of our buddy reading programme for the year, with groups of Year 8 reading to Year 2 in their library times. This activity is incredibly beneficial to both groups, and everybody enjoyed the first sessions this week.

Our first reading challenge - Read your Height in Pages - finished today for our Intermediate students. The aim was to read your height in centimetres in pages of a book or books in a two week time period. An easier challenge for some people than others! Those who completed the challenge get to watch a movie based on a book, with popcorn. The Reading Ambassadors are now working on the next challenge, this time for the whole school.

Listening to stories in the library, book reviews on the notices and around the school, and our Balmoral Readers logo-designing team getting underway with their designs have also got underway. It's an exciting time for reading.

If you would like to read more about why developing children who read for pleasure is so crucial, you can find lots of great work here https://www.aut.ac.nz/study/study-options/education/research/litplus-research-and-professional-learning-community 

Pink Shirt Day

Today we celebrated Pink Shirt Day, which is designed to raise awareness and money to stop bullying. The top court was a riot of pink at lunchtime as children took part in face painting, mural making, photo booths and many more activities. A huge thank you to Heidi and her class for all their work making this happen for us.

Road Safety Week has almost ended. Your tamariki have either newly learnt or had a refresher this week about how to keep safe on our roads.

There have been a few occurrences of parents walking their children across Brixton and Eldon Road during school rush hour. 

According to the Ministry of Transport (2023), there have been 24 fatal crashes, 283 serious injury crashes and 610 minor injury crashes where pedestrians are involved. Of these crashes, 23 people walking died, 281 walkers were seriously injured and 599 walkers suffered minor injuries. 

So please, remember to always cross the road safely by using the pedestrian crossings and traffic lights.

Let’s keep our tamariki safe!

Primary School News

Whānau Whetu

Margot: In Inquiry we have been learning about the 7 gods that Ranginui and Papatūānuku chose for special jobs. We started doing tableaux and then we did a soundscape and we also split into groups and did tableaux for each god in our groups. We also did some soundscapes where we made sounds with our bodies to create a summer's day and  stormy night. We learned how to make the sound of the wind, rain, and the trees rustling. 

Viaan: We have also been exploring the 7 gods in our writing through metaphors, similes and personification which has been fun! In inquiry we did lots of movement in Inquiry. I really liked being Tāwhirimātea because he’s stormy and wild and crazy. Tāwhirimātea would have big movements, he would put his hands up in the air if he was going to make a strong storm with rain and wind. 

Emma, Annabelle and Thea: At the end of last term we thought about what the school might look like in 75 years if the school had been rewilded and nature had taken over. This term we have been learning about Papaūānuku, Tangaroa and Tāne Mahuta. We created artwork to show what we think the three atua looked like. We have also been thinking about what the three atua would think about the school field and the orchard.

Intermediate School News

Hub 2 Inquiry

Next week our Year 8 whānau head off to camp at Motutapu. This is always a wonderful camp, and the teachers have put a lot of work into making it an incredible experience for everyone.

As part of the preparation for camp, Hub 2 have been looking into the history of Motutapu.

One of the times we have looked at is the 14th century which is when Rangitoto erupted, and event that covered Motutapu completely in ash. We learned there was also a lot of conflict between Māori who lived on the island at this time. We drew maps with half the island before the eruption and the other half after to show how the island changed.

We also learned that the island was used as an ANZAC base in order to strengthen both New Zealand and Pacific defences during World War 2. While we were researching this, we found that Motutapu was home to one of New Zealand's most important gun batteries during the war. We found out about the topography of the island in order to make accurate models of it. Once we had done this using papier mache, we added tiny cardboard sculptures of what was made during World War 2. 

We are looking forward to seeing all these things, and learning more about the island when we are there next week.

By Hazel, Alex, Jan, Lisa

Netball League

We have had a fantastic start to the netball season with 15 netball teams taking the court over the past few weeks. Balmoral has entered teams into every grade in the Windmill Park competition from Years 1-8. Years 3-8 are playing in grading rounds and will start their competitions in the next few weeks.

For the first time Balmoral School has entered teams into the junior Year 1/2 competition. Three of our Year 8 students have taken the role of coach/star helper for these teams. Alex Bailey, Amara Bruns and Elise Greenwell were very keen to take part and are using this learning opportunity to complete their Rich Challenges this term. It is great to see our most senior tamariki supporting our youngest tamariki to play netball. There were lots of smiling faces and lots of energy and enthusiasm on the court for these first games. 

Wishing all the teams well for the rest of the season.

Community News