School Events
2024
Super Smash Cricket
Thanks to Northern Districts Cricket we were given a crash course in fun activities while learning to play cricket. The children showed their small ball catching, throwing and batting skills...including Mr May who could not resist picking up a bat.
Eat Right Be Bright - Vas Kovalski
We were fortunate to have Vas, the magician visit us at school with a very important message, conveyed through magic, about the need to eat a variety of foods - a rainbow of colours to keep healthy and have a bright and active brain and body.
Picnic Day and Swimming Sports
Our first event of the year will be our Picnic Day and Swimming Sports held at the Morrinsville Pools on Friday February 9th at 10 am.
26 - 30 August 2024
Each year we are very lucky to have Harold and the LIFE Education Caravan visit our school.
2023
Picnic Day and Swimming Sports
Our first event of the year will be our Picnic Day and Swimming Sports held at the Morrinsville Pools on Friday February 24th at 10 am.
Followed by Country Cluster Swimming Carnival & City Cluster Swimming Carnival
Junior Tabloids
Year 1-3 students take part in a range of activities with their Country Cluster friends
Maungatautari Sanctuary Mountain School Trip
The whole school visited Maunagatutari Sanctuary Mountain as part of our Science - Living world Inquiry into our Native Birds and tuatara which we were lucky enough to see.
National Library of New Zealand have partnered with Tauwhare School in the
With National Library support we have reinvigorated our Library, had new shelving installed, have had many beautiful books donated and have instigated a Parents in School Reading Programme. This partnership will continue into 2024 as we continue to work on developing life long readers in our school and community.
Every two years we partner with our School Community Officers to complete the Health Programme. Our Community Poice Officers sit alongside teachers as we deliver this incredibly important programme to our tamariki.
Kapa Haka
Our Year 4-6 students all participate in Kapa Haka to learn waiata, haka and poi. We also perform with the Kahui ako and school powhiri.
Book week and Grandparents' Day
We celebrated the wonderful world of books with a Scholastic Book Fair and a focus on reading and enjoying books in our classrooms. Students got together every morning after morning tea for Buddy Reading with older children reading to and listening to the younger children read their stories. After lunch teachers moved from class to class reading their favourite stories.
On Grandparents' Day we acknowledged the importance of grandparents in our whanau. Children performed songs, read books, shared their poems and writing about their grandparents. The children then showed their grandparents around the school and their work in the classrooms.
A shared morning tea completed our celebrations.
Each year we are very lucky to have Harold and the LIFE Education Caravan visit our school.
Cross Country
Each year we hold our own School Cross Country and then our Y4-6 students participate in the Country Cluster Cross Country Event. Our top runners compete in the City Cluster Event held at the Hamilton Gardens.
This year, thanks to Gallagher sponsorship we were luck enough to borrow House of Science Learning kits for our tamariki to Think Like A Scientist...
We borrowed kits: What Do You Think; Nano-chem; Dem Bones; Who Diddit; Magnetic Madness; Float My Boat; 3 2 1 ...Lift Off; Who Diddit; kits which covered a wide range of our Science curriculum.
2023 Calf Club Day and Group Day
We held a very successful Calf Club with many children proudly showing off their hard mahi, perseverence and resilience to train their animals. The children were proud of their animals and proud of their achievements in Leading, Rearing and Most Obvious Pet. The other children who did not have animals were in class designing and making Sand Saucers, we alos held a vegie in a container competitioner which had some fabulous entries. all of our photos of the animals and the flower creations can be seen in these photos.
Tee-ball Tournaments
Each year Tauwhare School hosts the Country and City Cluster Tee-ball Tournaments which is a fantastic day held on our back field. the trophy is hotly contested.
2023 School Production
Every odd year the whole school led by Year 5 & 6 students participate in a Show; this year it is Porridge.
2022
Cross Country Events
Our third term finished with three Cross Country Events. Our School Cross country was run around the Cleland Farm which gives a truly authentic feel to a cross country including the cow pats. All of our Year 4-6 students then competed at the Country Schools Cluster Cross Country Event with the top runners going on to compete at the City Schools Cluster Cross Country Event run at the Hamilton Gardens.
WINTEC Performance 'Te Awa'
Thank you Wintec! How incredibly lucky were we to have this talented group of thespians performing for our tamariki. Staff and students said Te Awa was the best production we have ever had. We were all completely captivated throughout.
The songs, the very clever minimalist costuming, the set which captured the essence of the rivers and maunga and the talented actors themselves were all amazing. The story fits so beautifully with our new NZ Histories Curriculum and our local stories.
MOTAT School Trip
On a very wet day in September we travelled by bus to the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in Auckland as part of our Past and Present Topic Study to explore Colonial Life in New Zealand as well as the changes in technology over time. All the children were fascinated by the old Wainui School, sitting at old wooden desks and the rules on the blackboard. The communications area with the old telephones was hilarious for the teachers as we watched the children try to dial the old phones. We also had a ride on the tram, which was another exciting experience. Enjoy our photos here.
Book week and Grandparents' Day
We celebrated the wonderful world of books with a Scholastic Book Fair and a focus on reading and enjoying books in our classrooms. Students got together every morning after morning tea for Buddy Reading, with older children reading to and listening to the younger children read their stories. After lunch teachers moved from class to class reading their favourite stories.
On Grandparents' Day we acknowledged the importance of grandparents in our whanau. Children performed songs, read books, shared their poems and writing about their grandparents. The performance was opened by the Year 5 & 6 students playing recorder and closed with a performance by our Y 4-6 Kapa Haka group. The children then showed their grandparents around the school and their work in the classrooms. Morning tea completed our celebrations. Enjoy the performances here.
Matariki Celebrations
Matariki was celebrated in 2022 with a visit to the Hamilton Observatory to view the solar system through the telescope and to learn more about Matariki as a star cluster.
We also invited our school community to join us at school for a Matariki Breakfast. Ms Bradley made and cooked Maori bread with Room 4 children which was pronounced as delicious. A wonderful community gathering shared kai on the morning of 23 June.
Tauwhare's Got Talent
We had the most wonderful display of talent from the children at school today. Our judge Dane was amazed by how confident and brave the children were to stand up on the stage and perform. We had singing, dancing, acrodancing, gymnastics, magic shows, a play and piano recitals. What a lot of talent Tawhare has got.
Please enjoy the linked videos. We recorded the show using our swivl video which captured as much as we could, there are also separate videos for some acts.
Photos and videos of performances
School Picnic Day and Swimming Sports
Our first event of the year will be our Picnic Day and Swimming Sports held at the Morrinsville Pools on Friday February 18th at 10 am.
2021
School Events in Term 4
School Production - A Tale of Two Orphans
We had a very disrupted start to Term 4 but Ms Bradley, Mrs G and Mrs Reeve were determined that the school production would go ahead for the Year 5 & 6 students. Luckily COVID rules did allow us to have an audience of parents who thoroughly enjoyed the show A Tale of Two Orphans.
Athletics Day and A Surpirse visit from Santa Claus
During our athletics day Santa clause turned up in a police car and spent some time with the children. His visit was a lovely end to the school year.
School Events in Term 3
NED Mindset Mission We were very fortunate to particpate in a NED online session with Mat and NED to learn about growth mindset and also to learn the power of YET. Many of the children purchased yo-yos to pay forward to another school so they could also learn about growth mindset.
Never Give Up
Encourage Others
Do your Best.
Stu Duval visited us the day before Lockdown, sharing his storytelling, his art and his writing tips with all the students to encourage them to pursue their writing ability.
LIFE Education Sarah and Harold arrived at school the week after lockdown and shared their learning about growthe mindset, strategies to become more resilient as well as how to cope with and control strong emotions. The children all learnt so much from Sarah and Harold's tips and tricks.
Zerowaste - X-Man arrived in Week 9 as per usual and has continued the two year cycle of learning with Litterless Lunchboxes, Reducing Waste and Recycling. The children learn so much from these sessions about how they and their families can look after the planet and our country.
Cross country - we also managed to fit in our School Cross Country Event around our school grounds. Everyone from 5-11 year old competed around a variety of laps according to their age group. The children showed how well they had been training and getting fit as they crossed the finish line. You can see all the photos here.
School Events in Term 2
Eat Right Be Bright is a fantastic Magical Show teaching the children through magic and wonder how wating a rainbow of food colours leads to being healthy and bright. See the photos here.
Grandparents' Day & Book Week including Scholastic Book Fair. We had a fabulous turnout for Grandparents' Day with over 100 adults turning up to join in JUMPJAM, watch our performances celebrating books and poems, visiting our classrooms to be shown their work by the children and then joining us all for a scrumptious morning tea. Enjoy our photos here.
Young Leaders Day at Waikato University a select team of Year 5 & 6 students were invited to a day of collaboration and co-operative team work to develop their leadfership skills. Enjoy our photos here.
Keeping Ourselves Safe we enjoyed the co-operation and teaching alongside our Community Constables to upskill the students in the Keeping Ourselves Programme. The children and the teachers were fascinated by the paraphernalia carried around on their bullet proof vests, loved the police car (until one of the students pressed the siren) and enjoyed having another voice teaching them how to be safe and be resopnsible for their own bodies. Enjoy our photos here.
National Young Leaders Day
Ms Quinn had great pleasure in taking 21 Year 4 - 6 students to the National Young Leaders Day last Wednesday at Claudelands. The theme was Stronger Together and the speakers, who were very inspiring, told their stories of aspiring to their dreams through this message.
KNOW YOUR DREAM KNOW YOUR TEAM was a strong message about teamwork.
The children were buzzing during the breaks, and all took away messages to help them achieve their dreams, to accept challenges and to make the most of all opportunities. Lily grabbed the opportunity to be first on stage to show everyone how to welcome each speaker to the stage.
One consistent theme from all the speakers was the importance of failure, that success is not a straight line to your dreams but a very squiggly one, with lots of failure, repeats, dips and dives before attaining the dream, as this photo from Black Sticks Brooke Neal shows.
Failure is great…Mistakes are awesome
We have heard this need for failure a lot lately. Many businesses are no longer employing the top ‘A’ grade graduates from University but are looking for people you know how overcome adversity, can learn from their mistakes and will look for opportunities to grow as a person.
We will be giving the Year 4-6 students an opportunity to attend NYLD 2022. Look out for registration in the newsletter early in 2022.
Dog Safety
Zoe from Waikato District Council visited our school with her dog Chloe to complete the Dog Safety Programme with each class to ensure that childrn know what to do when they see 'a dog on its own - leave it alone' and 'when a dog's roaming free - stand like a tree'. How to ask permission to pat someone's dog and everything else to be safe around dogs. Enjoy our photos here.
Gavin Bishop
We were so lucky to have Gavin Bishop visit us this term. He brought all his books with him and shared the books, and the stories behind the books with all the children in each room. Gavin was kind enough to share his wealth of knowledge about writing, books and illustrating. Enjoy our photos here.
Pink Shirt Day
We were really pleased to participate in this worthwhile fundraiser. We followed the some of the activities to learn strategies to overcome bullying. We all dressed in various shades of pink which was great fun and then gathered for a whole shcool photos. Enjoy our photos here.
Sports Events in Term 1
Junior Tabloids - held at Tamahere School was a Space Theme for 2021 - a great day of co-operative games for our Year 1-3 students. Enjoy our photos here.
Interschool Swimming sports - Country Schools Cluster and City Schools Cluster - both held at Tamahere School Pool - a wonderful day of swimming competition.
Term One
Picnic Day - Friday 27 February at the Morrinsville Pools 10am - 2pm
Our school year starts off with Picnic Day which is an opportunity to mix and mingle with other families. It is also the venue for our School Swimming Sports and Y 5 & 6 Cup Race which is hotly contested over 50 metres.
2020
Term 3 - Nanogirl - Dr Kate Sparkes comes to visit
We loved nanogirl during lockdown so we invited her to school to show us what Science, Engineering and Maths looks like... and it looked like a lot of fun. She also took the staff through a range of science concepts which could be used in classrooms to teach science. Have a look at the fun and scientific videos of Dr Kate's visit here.
Madagascar Junior - School Production 2019
In Term 4 the whole school was involved in the Production Madagascar Junior. The Year 5 & 6 students played lead roles and the Year 1-4 students played the parts of many different animals and characters telling the wonderful story of the Zoosters escape from the New York Zoo and their adventurous trip to Madagascar. Check out our photos and videos here.
2019 School Trip to Whale Bay in Raglan
Leaving school by bus by 9am on Thursday 28 February 2019. Please book this date in your diary and join us for a fabulous day of fun and learning.
We will be identifying and observing the sea creatures and plants which live in Rock pools as part of our Living World topic.
Inter-school Swimming Sports
South East Hamilton Country School Swimming Sports Friday 22 March held at Tamahere Model Country School - team to be selected
South East Hamilton Primary Schools Swimming Sports Thursday 28 March held at Tamahere Model Country School - team to be selected
Junior Tabloids
Every year the Junior Students have a wonderful day out at Tamahere School participating at the Junior Tabloid Sports Day. The children rotate amongst various activities that cater for all sorts of physical challenges with the emphasis being enjoyment.
2019 Gumboot Friday
To support I Am Hope Foundation to help all children receive free counselling we held a Fun Day wearing our gumboots and brought a gold coin donation. We raised over $200 for I Am Hope. The photos and videos of our fun afternoon can be found following this link. Gumboot Friday
2019 National Young Leaders Day
Organised by Mrs Cook, the Envirogroup and Leaders from Year 4 - 6 are invited to attend.
2019 Pink Shirt Day
Bully-Free NZ Week
The 13th - 17th of May is Bully-Free New Zealand Week. Our school will be using this week as an additional opportunity to highlight the important message that any kind of bullying is wrong. Each class will be participating in a variety of activities throughout the week, including a Pink Day on Friday 17th May. On this day students are asked to wear a pink item, a little or a lot. They are also asked to bring a gold coin donation which will go towards projects supporting anti-bullying including the mental health foundation.Our ambassadors are doing a great job at Friday assemblies identifying bullying and describing ways to speak out and support each other. Listen to Room 2's presentation to assembly here.
Term 2
JumpJam Competition
Our team competed in the Strictly Jumpjam Y4-8 with Blame it on the Boogie. We were first on the stage, very nervous but pumped and ready. Brett was extremely complementary of our routine and our entrance and exits to the stage. We received and Award for Best New School as this was our first competition and also Merit in technical Execution. Please enjoy the videos which were taken by JUMPJAM
2019 Maths Roadshow
World of Maths comes to school for one day each year with a range of equipment and problems for the students to solve in groups. All of the contexts are authentic and the children extend their mathematical thinking while having a lot of fun.
2019 Scholastic Book Fair
Scholastic deliver a range of their wonderful books for the children, parents and grandparents to selelct and a percentage of the profit is available to be spent on books for our school library. During this week we have a whole school focus on reading and our love of books. Each day in our houses the children participate in Buddy Reading, the teachers swap classes and read their favourite books and we all choose a book or poem to perform a play or show some art or recite a poem.
2019 Grandparents Day - Wednesday June 19
Our Book Fair week culminates in an invitation to all our parents and grandparents to visit the school for the morning. This year the whole school sang some of our signature tunes, Room 4 recited Lewis Carroll's poem 'The Jabberwocky' and Room 2 performed a flash mob, "Gotta Keep Reading" using Black Eyed Peas - Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night in response to their research into how books inspire music. The parents and grandparents were then invited to visit each classroom to see their grandchildren's work, art displays and to meet the teachers. The children accompany their grandparents to our Scholastic Book Fair to choose a book if they are very very good and lucky. Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who came to school, we love meeting you all.
2019 School Tractor Pull
As there is no Field Days School Tractor Pull competition this year Tauwhare School has decided to run their own tractor pull competition and has invited other schools to participate. Thanks to Mrs G and Mrs Brown who have organised sponsorshipand a tractor to practise with.
2019 Calf Club Day and Group Day
Once again we had a smalll calf club day with lambs and kids due to Microplasma Bovis. The children were proud of their animals and proud of their achievements in Leading, Rearing and Most Obvious Pet. The other children who did not have animals were in class designing and making Sand Saucers and Vegetable creations, the results of which are quite stunning as you can see in the photos.
The calf club photos of the animals and children can be viewed here.
2019 Tee Ball Competitions - City and Country Cluster
Each year Tauwhare School host the tee ball competitions for our country cluster and our city cluster. We have 10 diamonds on our back field and host 20 teams for a great day of friendship and competition.
This year the Country Cluster Competition places were:
1st and 2nd Newstead Model Country School
3rd Tauwhare School
The City Cluster Competition places were:
A league - 1st Hillcrest Normal
B league - Joint 1st Tauwhare & Newstead
Discos
School Discos are held in Term 2 & 3 to raise money for our Year 5 & 6 School Camp. Our disco in Term 2 will have a Space theme so the Tauwhare Hall should be full of aliens, planets, stars and astronauts. Glenn Robinson is our DJ and the children have a wonderful time dancing with their friends.
2018 Marae Trip to Waimakariri Marae
The entire school visited Waimakariri Marae early in Term 2, 2018 and we were honoured to be welcomed on with a powhiri and to then be offered an abundance of kai. The students, staff and families alike were fascinated to learn more about the history of Waimakariri from the kaumatua of the marae - we could have asked questions all day! The students then engaged in workshops in weaving, sketching, myths and legends, traditional games and rakau.
Waimakariri Marae are amazing hosts and we always feel so welcome. Thank you to all those at Waimakariri who make these visits possible.
2018 School Trip to Whakarewarewa Living Village in Rotorua
As part of our citizenship and cultural heritage topic of learning and as a complement to our trip to Waimakariri Marae in Tauwhare we visited Rotorua to enhance their lives for cooking, heating and bathing. We were honoured to be invited up on stage to perform with the Kapahaka group to sing Tutira Mai Nga Iwi.
2018 Matariki Celebrations
After a whole term of studying Matariki, reading a range of Maori legends, looking at the stars and performng plays we celebrated Matariki on Friday 29 June. Each room performed an item around the legend they had been learning. Each class had also been designing and creating a star as part of our Matariki Art installation which was revealed at our Celebration Day and hung in the Multi-Purpose Room. Each class used a different medium to express their understanding of Matariki.
The Kapa Haka group are honoured to have been invited to attend and perform at two different festivals this year - Te Tai Ohina Maro to be held at Hillcrest High School on Friday 31 August, and then at the Matamata-Piako Cultural Festival to be held at Morrinsville Intermediate on Thursday 6th September.
Cricket Awareness
Two professional cricket players came to teach the children some skills and some fast fun games to encourage them to play cricket. the childrne learned to bat, catch and field then played a fast two batter game to consolidate the hitting, batting and fielding skills as the fielders were not allowed to run with the ball, they had to throw to another fielder.
Wearable Arts Show
The teachers and children have been working all term on our wearable arts using a variety of art techniques culminating in our show on thursday afternoon. Each room was different from Room 7 with their masks, Rooms 5 & 6 in their African costumes, Room 4 as chinese dragons from our Inner Mongolia study, Rooms 1 & 3 Trash to Fashion and Room 2 Kiwiana fashion. It was a visual feast for all and the kids had a ball. There was s lot of group learning this term, co-operating, listening, compromise and relating to others.
John Parsons
Talk to the children on keeping safe online - this was an excellent talk to the Y3-6 students all about their identity online and the importance of parents being in control of use of devices to keep children safe in an online world. He gave some very strong messages to the children on being a good citizen on or off line.
Hiwi the Kiwi - fishing for the future
The Minstrel and Mrs Minstrel came back again to spend a lovely morning with the students teaching them all about the rules of fishing and how to ensure that there will be fish in our seas in the future. He also covered safety at sea, using life jackets etc. He has a wonderful show which gives his message through song and humour.
Envirogroup planting at the Badger’s Farm
Mrs Cook took the envirogroup to the Badger’s farm to help plant the native trees. This was the first time that Mr Badger had seen our kids plant and he was very impressed and will ask our help again next year.
Olympic Ambassador Visits.
We have had two Olympic Ambassadors visit this year, in Term 2 we were priviledged to listen to Genevieve (Gen) Behrent, the Olympic Rower and in Term Sara Cowley, the pentathlete visited the school and spoke to the children giving them inspiring trips into the world of being an Olympic Athlete. Both Ambassadors inspired the children to achieve and to keep trying even when the going gets tough.
The Year 6 organisers of this Year's Tauwhare's Got Talent did an excellent job encouraging so many children to perform on stage. Some individuals sang solos, some groups danced, we had two magic shows and an original play. The children are so talented and brave to get up on stage in front of the whole school and parents to show their talents.
Room 1 Fun Gala
was organised as part of the children's learning around financial literacy. They designed their businesses, their products, posters to advertise, bought their supplies and made their stall. Miss Ross had organised for prizes for the Best Business and the business which made the Most Profit. Everyone had a fun afternoon getting their hair styles, shooting baskets, kicking soccer goals, slurping on ice cream spiders, buying bracelets (pet ones as well) and more. This was a fundraiser for our Y5 & 6 camp.
Zerowaste Education
X Man (Paul) has returned to teach the children all about Rubbish, Reusing (upcycling) and making Compost.
LIFE Education Trust Caravan
Nicky and Harold have returned on their two yearly cycle with a new upspec van and programmes to help the children deal with all sorts of issues. We requested programmes which would help the children with their mindfulness, playground incidents, friendships. All of the children have responded very well to Nicky and Harold.
St John's First Aid Course - sponsored by the ASB
Michelle from St John's visited our school to teach all the children first aid skills appropriate to their age. This is a great opportunity for all the children to upskill in case they ever have to save anyone.
Year 5 & 6 Speech Contest
Each year the Year 5 & 6 students write a speech on a topic of interest or passion and deliver it to their class. If they are successful they will be chosen to present to the senior school in the semi-finals and from their our top 8-10 students present to the whole school and parents in the finals. The winners of the School Speech Contest will represent the school in the Country Cluster Speech Contest.
Year 5 & 6 Camp
12 - 16 November 2018
We have had the first camp meeting with parents and the information is available on the link below. Miss Ross, Mrs G and Mrs McLeay with support from Ms Quinn will be organising camp. If you have any questions please contact one of the teachers.
Peter Snell Youth Village photos - click on the link to see the photos of camp - what an amazing bunch of children making the most of the terrible weather and the camp activities.
Agricultural Day (Calf Club) 2018
Unfortunately this year due to Microplasma Bovis our Calf club was held with only lambs and kids. The other students who did not have an animal participated in Flower Show activities designing and making sand saucers and vegetable creations. It was a wonderful rural day for everyone.
Have a look at our photos here.