Awakeri School

Here was the......News in 2014

17 December Wow, school is over for the year. The last day was fun. The seniors did wrestling to warm up for the water fight. Finn Spod's crawling technique was very entertaining! Check out these cool photos of the senior social on the last night.
Great news from the local high schools, with lots of Awakeri students winning prizes. Altogether 61 different ex-Awakeri students won awards at the local high schools. They won 156 awards between them and 31 of them were top in subjects at their school. E.g. at Trident High School, Awakeri students were top in year 10 Maths, Social Studies, Spanish, Art, Fabric Technology.
Special congratulations to Katy White who was named dux of the year 10s at Trident, Sam Burgess who completed his year as head boy of Whakatane High and Hamish Inwood, named head boy of Trident for next year. Wow! And that's not counting those students who went to different high schools, boarding school etc. E.g. Savannah Jones got five awards at Fraser High School in Hamilton.

11 December This is the last ever entry I will be writing on the website!! Tonight we have the Yr 7 and 8 Social!! It should be really fun!! Also tomorrow we have the Water fight, which is the last night!! I have loved Awakeri and many other people have loved it too!! I will always love Awakeri!! I am going to miss Awakeri so much!! Good luck Awakeri and Bye... From Shardae Last!! Click here to check out some cool photos of Fancy Dress!
Many thanks Shardae you have been an excellent chief news reporter for the web site - Mr H

10th December Check out Room 13's page to see their information on our wonderful masks.

8 December It is the last week of school!! SCARY!! For the Year 8s it is their last ever week at Awakeri School!! Next year will bring on new students and teachers and hopefully another fun year at Awakeri!! This morning we had a Fanncy dress practice. It was the last practice before the real thing on Wednesday night!! Make sure you're there early on Wed. It STARTS at 7pm.

7 December Sadly, this is Mrs Merry's last week at Awakeri School. Go to Room 13's page to read her farewell message.

5 December This morning we had a fancy dress practice over at the hall. We did all the songs and dances fully. It all went really well!! We have another practice on Monday and then on Wednesday it is the real thing!! YAY!! Can't wait!! At assembly today we had the finals for the general knowledge quiz!! Finn Spod was the winner! Congratulations Finn! Well done to all the other contestants, they did very well too!!

4 December Welcome to new teachers for next year Mike Johnston, visiting today, and Sam Moore who visited on Monday. They are getting familiar with the school. Good luck to rooms 6 and 7 for their overnight camp today and tomorrow.

3 December Check out these cool photos of intensives last week.

2 December Yesterday we had the first round of the whole school General Knowledge Quiz. Seventeen students got into the semifinals on Wednesday. Twelve of them are boys!! It shows, the boys know what's going on around them in the world! Yesterday was also the first practice of dancing the Gay Gordons for the seniors. They did well!!
Today is the first walk through for Fancy Dress.
Tomorrow Keeley and Ella are organising a skipping fundraiser to help Starship Hospital, where Keeley recently had heart surgery. Lets hope lots of people bring a gold coin and skip at lunctime!

30 November Despite the weather, the year 7&8 intensives went off well. Many thanks to those who assisted, like Julie Kingi (boot camp), Lynda Walter (Tauwhare Pa), Te Teko golf club, Jeanine Bridge, Nigel Wilson, Luke Smits... Watch out for photos coming soon.
This week we have lots of things on, we are even having to have the kapa haka break up in a school lunch time (Thursday) to fit things in.

26 November Worried about your child slipping backwards in the holidays? Have a read of the library page to get some tips to prevent Summer Slide!!

23 November It was a great week at the marae. There were many highlights:
Room 14 getting a full on welcome, haka and teaching at the Mataatua marae. They were also the last to see the carving of the twins before it was taken down to be restored.
Room 13 being asked to help get a truck load of kiekie ready for weaving into tukutuku panels.
Senior kids teaching the juniors really well.
The powhiri each day were awesome.
Walking up to Toi's pa each afternoon.
Renske's kai. Her whanau being part of the week.
Parents doing their pepeha in the wharenui at night.
Just lying in the ho use.
Some awesome rakau moves, bat down games, girls v boys football.
Muriwai's cave.
Here are some more photos and highlights.

Ella teaches her students. She's telling them a story about the mural of Te Tahi and the Whale.	Te wahi takaro! Nicole is batting in bat down.Lochie hopes she gets a nick on it.
Hawea had a truck load of kiekie. He spotted people at the marae and asked for help to strip it down, so it could be scalded in the hot pools in Rotorua, then dried, dyed and woven into tukutuku. Room 13 were happy to help!	Emily, Tylah and Lucille are making up their own cool moves with the rakau.

17 November Room 14 will be heading off to the marae stay tomorrow. They will be welcomed onto the marae in the morning! Good Luck to them!!
I also have a very unfortunate and funny incident to share with you....On Friday at Assembly Room 14 had done some lovely art work and they were sharing them at assembly. One girl from Room 14 was just sitting there with her artwork in her hand when a bird unfortunately did his/her business right on her artwork!! OOPS!!

14 November Well the Marae Stay is coming up very fast. Room 14, 8 and 9 will be welcomed onto the marae on Tuesday....We are having a powhiri practice this afternoon. We will be practising our karanga and our whaikorero and our waiata. Good luck to those people who are going to be busy!
Congratulations to all our athletes who did extremely well at the interschool sports on Wednesday and Thursday. There were lots of excellent performances, lots of placings, ribbons won, relay wins etc. There was also exellent attitude and behaviour.

13 November Check out the Kiwi ideas on the Library page!

10 November Click here to check out some photos of athletics.

7 November Click here to check out some cool photos of the disco.
We had great days for the field and track events. Congratulations to Tawa house who won the inter-house relay. Their team of Lucille Smits, Lachlan Butler, Emily Julian and Finn Spod broke the relay record. There were a number of records broken. Linette Lengkeek broke a record that had been there since last century (well... 1999) in the 200 metres! Click here to check out all our school athletics records.
Here are some results of winners:

4 November The Senior and middle school Athletics were very unfortunately cancelled due to the horrible weather. We did fit in one event though. We had the girls 1500m race. This morning though we were able to have the boys 1500m race and one event before Room 13 headed off to Technology. The juniors are doing there athletics today and the seniors will be doing theirs tomorrow. We also have the Rhythm Interactive this afternoon. Check out these awesome photos of the School Disco on Friday.

1 November Awesome!! Awakeri's jump jam team came 3rd in their section out of the whole North Island! They got 2nd for technical excellence and 2nd for sportsmanship! Congratulations girls and the coaches Mrs Howard, Miss Dowzall and Miss Reeves. Click here to view some more photos.

These girls ended third in the North Island Jump Jam competition!! Well Done Girls!!

Want to check out some myths and misconceptions about reading.... go to Margo White's popular Library page!!

31 October Today the senior school had an inter-class relay competition as part of their practice....Room 13 won 4 of the relays and room 14 won three. It was very exciting. Also exciting is the fancy dress disco tonight and the Jump Jam North Island champs early tomorrow morning. Our team has been practising for months!

30 October Well we are working hard at Athletics which starts on Monday next week. Poor Korben Wilson had a very nasty accident this morning while doing high jump, so we wish him all the best!! We are starting to get ready for the marae stay coming up soon. The girls and boys who have the privilege to do a karanga or a whaikorero at the marae are also busy practicing. I know that Room 14,13, and 12 have been having waiata practices in Room 14 learning their waiata (songs) for the marae stay as well.

18 October Thank you to all of those who helped out on Friday. It was a huge success!! The food tent raised so much money that Mrs James is still counting the money. Oh she's just finished, it was $2447.70!! The ones who won prizes are off to Group Day!! Good Luck!!
We had a very unusual event that happened this morning. I won't mention any names but a certain boy got dared by his friend to stick his leg in a small gap in the playground and unfortunately got his leg stuck. It took a while to get it out!!

17 October Ag Day was a big success! Well done to all the organisers and helpers! Louise Paulsen's food tent worked solidly for hours. Check out these cool photos of Ag Day!

16 October Today we brought our flowers and things to school for making our Indoor Ag Day entries. The school looks and smells very colourful! Have a look at them in the Events Centre.

15 October Check out the new Library page message.... can you really judge?

12 October School is back tomorrow. Yay!! Everyone will be getting ready for Ag Day on Friday. If you want to look at the Indoor Show and Cooking sections, they are right here. Students will be doing Indoor show entries at school on Thursday and they need to have materials ready to make them. Cooking is done at home and brought to school on Thursday morning, by 9am. Cooking is optional, but fun!
Classes will also be right into athletics practices, so they need suitable clothing.
Have a good last term!

26 September Last night's performance was excellent. The full house really enjoyed it. As usual the kapa haka made a brilliant opening to the show.It was cool that Barry Cronin was in the audience, to hear Tawari announce that the performance was dedicated to the late Irene Cronin, along with Siri, AJ Barr and Andrea's uncle. We have added some photos of the kapa haka performance to the production photo page. Check them out!

25 September
Today is the last day of Term 3 for students in the production!!
Also tonight is the last night of 'Star Blaze.' For the Year 8's this is their last show at Awakeri School ever.......WOW!! Time flies very fast!! We are hoping to aim for a 10/10!! BREAK A LEG!! All tickets for tonight are sold out!!!
I would like to congratulate one very creative boy.......Matthew Reihana Asquith!! A while ago
Matthew entered a competition where you had to make an A3 poster encouraging and telling people what to do in a disaster!! Matthew did it on what to do in a volcanic eruption. I think that is a good idea with an active volcano (White Island) not far away!! He won the competition and won three free Frontier Helicopter rides!!! Congratulations Matthew!!! Check out the newsletter to see the TEACHERS for next year!! There have been some very surprising changes!!

23 September Opening night of Starblaze tonight. It should be great. The dress rehearsal went well yesterday. Check out these coool photos of the show. Break a leg everyone!
Thursday night is sold out. There are a few door sales tonight. Don't miss out!

19 September Well with that big storm last night we had a few branches and 5 trees down around the school!!! The caretaker will be busy!! 'Star Blaze' Tickets are selling out fast so remember to buy yours quickly!! They are on sale at the office!! Kids-$4 and Adults- $8!!

17 September Pirate alert! Pirate alert! Pirate alert! Don't go to the library page.

15 September Dress Rehearsal today!! Remember if you still need to buy tickets they are for sale in the office in the mornings. Adults-$8 Kids-$4!!!

14 September Dress rehearsal for Star Blaze tomorrow!

11 September $600 worth of tickets to Star Blaze have already been sold. Congratulations to Sophie Lawrence and Emily Julian who represented Awakeri at the EBOP Speech contest yesterday. Emily came 3rd equal in the Yr 7 & 8 section. It was great to see ex-Awakeri students Jessie Schuler and Caroline Paulsen there representing their high schools too.

9 September Tickets for our production Star Blaze go on sale tomorrow morning. They are available from the school office from 8.15am. Adults $8, Children $4. The shows are on Tues 23, Thurs 25th September at 7pm. There is also a matinee for our junior students and any grandparents who want a daytime show on Wed 24th at 10.15am.
The show starts with our wonderful kapa haka, then its a space musical written by Shade Smith and John Reynolds.

7 September The Ag Day Indoor program for next term is downloadable here.

5 September Go to Room 1's page to see a photo of their Fairy Tale Dress up day yesterday.

4 September Yesterday was the last day of Kapa Haka Intensive. Thank you to all those people who were a great audience yesterday for the main Kapa Haka rehearsal!! Check out some photos here. There are more coming. The kapa haka get a night off from practice, there is no practice on Friday this week.

2 September Yesterday was the first day of kapa haka intensive. This year we 'only' have about 50 people in kapa haka. We worked hard to learn our haka and the poi. Poi is such an amazing thing for multi-tasking: singing the words, keep the beat with your feet, get the poi action and timing right, get your facial expression going... and stay in time with everyone else!
Taryn's highlight was learning all the new moves in the poi. Her favourite action is the twinkling of the stars "kanapanapa ana nga whetu". Shardae's favourite action is the Z move, where the pois go from hitting your shoulder to your hips.
Korben liked learning the haka. He likes the start, repeating the "Tiwhanawhana ana" bit. Tawari likes the beat of the actions, because they go with the words, e.g."taku ringa mau tonu...."

29 August It is so cool seeing so many people dressed up to support those kids going to Singapore next year. There were some very cool costumes!! Click here to see some photos.

28 August Well it is really good seeing lots of people wearing Lucy's Quirky Funky neck Gaiters and lots of people with Alex's cute bookmarks. REMEMBER- tomorrow is the cultural dress up day to raise money for those kids heading to Singapore next year. Dress up as a country's dress culture and bring along a gold coin donation. Every coin counts!!
Classes have been going hard out in the Mathletics challenge this week. Mrs Howard has been giving out spot prizes to people on the World Top 100. Miss Reeves' room is often in the top classrooms in NZ leaderboard. The challenge ends 7am Monday morning.

26 August Lucy Knott from Room 11 is raising money for a trip to Singapore by making and selling quirky neck gaiters. They are $10 each. You can pick a pattern and a colour. Her friend Alex is also going to Singapore. She is selling cute little gobblem up corner chewer book marks at $1 each. Contact them in room 11.

21 August Have a look at the art on Room 14's page.
Does your child need to improve their reading, have a look at the advice on the Library page! Also today Room 6 and 7 have gone to visit a farm to learn about what they do on a farm!! We hope they are having lots of fun!! We are also having a singing practice this afternoon to look at few of our songs for production.

18 August On Friday we had a production read through. It all went very well and most people were good!!! This week we will be having some singing practices.

14 August We are starting our production read through tomorrow. So I hope all those people that have lines have learnt them by tomorrow. We are also starting singing practices soon too. Our production this year is 'Star Blaze'. The story line is sort of about a space ship that lands on the planet Zodark. It is full of space pirates. When they land, Odium the Ruler turns his back and is horrible to the pirates and the pirates are trying to capture him........I will not tell you the rest you will have to come and watch!!

12 August Check out the Kids Lit Quiz section on the Library page. Our four champions write about their time in England.
Also, click here to see some photos of the senior school Maths Celebration day.

11 August We have waved goodbye to Shirley and Harold and the Life Ed caravan. The senior school had some great lessons on the Warrant of Fitness topic. They learned about what to look out for with food and how our diets affect our bodies. They talked about getting the nutrients that our bodies need to grow and be strong.
Sadly this was the last time Shirley will be our Life Ed teacher. She is changing her work, so we hope our new educator will be just as great as Shirley. Thank you Shirley.
Check out these photos from the interschool football day last week.

8 August We had some great results at the EBOP Science Fair this week, including five special awards. Check them out on the science fair page.
Do you know Geronimo? Find out more on the Library page.

4 August Wow!! The new little kids playground is opening at lunch time today!! We have those who made it through to EBOP Science Fair are handing in their boards this afternoon and they have judging tomorrow. They will be taking the bus into town tomorrow. Good Luck to them.

30 July School is well under way now and we have lots going on!! This afternoon the senior school might be having a Maths Celebration afternoon but it is weather depending. Have a look on photo archives at last years 'Maths Celebration Day 2013.' Also Year 4 up are practising for Soccer/Hockey Day coming up on Wednesday next week. We are looking for some Referees for on the day. If you are interested give our office a call or talk to Mrs Petersen in Room 10.
We are also looking for some musicians to play in our schools production 'Star Blaze.' We need some high school students or adults that can play one of the following instruments: Flute,Trumpet or Trombone. If you are interested give Mr. Hawkes a call or come and see him in Room 14.

26 July Yesterday we had some photos taken of our school cheering to wish good luck to Karen Hanlen. We are very lucky to have both of her kids going to our school!! So we wish her Good Luck!! We also had prize giving today for the Science Fair. Those that got a placing or got highly commended will be going to EBOP Science Fair from the 4-8 August. Check out these photos from our science fair last week..

25 July Big Congratulations to all the science and technology fair successes! Linette and Lucille were first equal in science and Lachlan was first in technology. The range of topics was amazing: from tracking rats in wetlands, to designing slippers that light up when you put them on...
Here is the full list of results:

Technology
1st Lachlan Butler -Slow Down Don't Mow Down
2nd Emily Julian - Splash Em
3rd Shardae Last - The 'Write ' Tape
Highly Commended
Ollie Clements - Drip Drip Dry
Luella Howe - Luminator
Logan Calder - Fishing Scale
Commended
Zoe Bennett & Amelie Clements - Horsey Handbag
Ryan Magee - The COPS Machine

Science
1st Equal Lucille Smits - Phone-y Sprouts
Linette Lengkeek - Oh Rats!
2nd Ethan Patterson -What's The Best Insulator
3rd Jenae Brownless -Bake My Day
Highly Commended
Jana Longney - Black Black
Lilly Du Toit - Glow In The Dark Guide Ropes
Sarah Sheaff - What Environment Do Bananas Ripen Best In?
Matthew Webb - The Oceans Heat Effects
Commended
Noah Robinson - Green Signs Gone Wrong
Keeley Lawton - Super Charged
Ngaio Wilson - Energy Drinks, Perfect Performance?

Class Projects
Science
1st Emily Robbie -Ice Shapes
2nd Valerie Singh -Ice Shapes
3rd Stacie Martin -Plants & Light
Technology
1st Rhylee Mahy -Recycled Jewellery
2nd Robbie Perkinson -Fire Rope

24 July Mrs White has written a challenging Library column. Have a read on the Library page.
Today the school science and technology fair is being judged by scientists and technologists from Fonterra and Carter Holt Harvey Tasman. The students are being interviewed. The results will be available when it opens o the public tonight 5 - 6.30pm and tomorrow 8.15 - 9am in the Events Centre lounge. All welcome. There are some very cool exhibits.
Prize giving is 12 noon tomorrow (Friday at the Events Centre. All welcome.

21 July School is off to a good start!! We have two new relieving teachers in our school their names are Miss Duncan and Miss Hardy. We wish them happy days in Awakeri School!!
It is 'Maori Language Week' this week. I will be looking out for any activity in the school to do with it. I know Room 14 is learning a Maori poem called 'Te Kaititiro o te Po' na Katarina Mataira. It sounds very interesting.

18 July School is just around the corner! The seniors are all sweating over their science fair projects. They are due in by Wednesday 9am.
The juniors have got a special treat coming. A new playground (see photo on the title page) is waiting to have bark under it and a border put round it, before it will be unwrapped and ready to be played on.

10th July Awakeri's Kids Lit Quiz team came 3rd in the world Final on Wednesday morning. After starting slowly, Awakeri caught up well to be placed behind the last ditch winners United Kingdom (City of London School for Girls), who pipped Australia (Canberra Grammar School) for the title. Congratulations to the team: Finn, Ben, Emily and Alex and coaches Ann Petersen and Margo White.
See the cool photos and commentary on their Facebook page. Now all Finn needs is for Germany to win the World Cup on Monday morning!!

3rd in the World. Wow! Mrs Petersen, Emily, Alex, Ben, Finn and Mrs White represent their school and country with excellence.

4th July The year is going super fast! Term 2 is already over!! I can not believe it!! This is the last day at school today and we are about to go to Unity Hour!! We have loads of diferent activities to do like Dodgeball, Soccer and Looming!! Sounds like it is going to be fun!
Happy Holidays, and Keep Safe!! See you next term!!

3rd July On Monday we had Awakeri Idol. We had Jadyn Wilkinson, Alex Robbie and Marco Turner!! The school had a very hard job deciding who they would vote for!! Yesterday Mrs. Elliot announced the winner! The winner was....... Marco Turner!!! Congratulations Marco!!
This morning we farewelled the Kids Lit Quiz team!! At 10:30 they said their goodbyes and headed off to Auckland in a mini van!! They looked nervous!! They are definitely doing our school proud!! They will be competing in England in the holidays!! We wish them loads of Good Luck!!
We were also very lucky to have the Rangitaiki Tai Mitchell team visit us and do their haka!!! We have three boys in the team, Lachlan Butler, Jack Young and Ryan Magee!! They are going to a tournament in Rotorua!! We wish them Good Luck as well!! Check out these cool photos!!

"Jack and Jill went Up the hill".... Alex Robbie sang a song from 'Matilda'.	Jadyn Wilkinson sang 'The One That Got Away' By Katy Perry!!
Marco sung 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams!!	"Smile for the camera!" The Kids Lit Quiz are geared up and ready to go!!! Go and Conquer the World: Finn Spod, Ben White, Emily and Alex Robbie.

2 July Well I have got some results from yesterday's BOP Cross Country. Year 4 Girls: Kaia Skipps 2nd; Year 7 boys: Kaya Hodson 1st; Year 7 Girls, Jana Longley 1st, Emily Robbie 2nd; Year 8 girls, Jenae Brownless 2nd!! Well done to all the runners who competed yesterday!!
Also we have half a day today and tomorrow!! School will be finishing at lunchtime (12:25) cause of Parent Teacher Interviews!!We have just had scripts handed out to those that have auditioned for our production and have got parts!! Our production this year is called 'Star Blaze'. We will be starting rehearsals in the third week of next term, so those with parts have 4 weeks to learn their parts!!
At 12 noon today Cote D'Ivoire beat Nigeria in our World Cup final. The whole school watched and it was a hard fought skilful game.

1 July Well the year is going fast it is already July! At the moment we are having an Awakeri Soccer World Cup. We are having our last semifinal and our final tomorrow!!! Our BOP runners have headed off to a sunny start! Good Luck to them!!

30 June On Friday we had a Book Charcater Day to raise money for the Kids lit Quiz who are heading off to England on Thursday. We raised $585.00on Friday which will all go towards getting to England!!

26 June I just want to say a Thank you to the two student teachers who have been in control of Room 10 and Room 8 in the last couple of weeks. Miss Spence and and Mr Johnson have been helping and teaching in Room 8 and Room 10 for most of this term.. This is their last week this week. So we wish them happy days to come and Good Luck!! Also a reminder that tomorrow is 'Dress up as your Favourite Book Character Day!!' Dress up and bring along a gold coin donation to help the Kid Lit Quiz team get to England.

25 June Well Done to those who compted in the EBOP Cross Country yesterday!! We did have some winners such as: Kevin Paulsen 1st, Kaya 2nd, Jenae 1st, Emily 7th, Jana 1st, Nakisha 10th, and Cody 4th. Congratulations!! Emily said "It was Muddy, Wet Slippery but Fun!!"
Remember about the sausage sizzle tomorrow!! Bring along $2!!

24 June Well the EBOP cross country team have headed off this morning to a rainy start. Good Luck to them!! The Awakeri Idol finalists were announced on Friday they are, Alex Robbie, Jadyn Wilkinson and Marco Turner.Good Luck to them as well!! Also just a a few reminders that on Thursday there is going to be a Sausage Sizzle to raise money for the Kids Lit Quiz who are going to Cornwall in England in a couple of weeks time. So bring along $2 to buy a sausage and help the Kids Lit Quiz get to England!! Also on Friday there is going to be a 'Dress up as your Favourite Book Character' day to help raise money for the Kids Lit Quiz team as well!! You dress up as your favourite book character and bring along a gold coin donation!! Also remember to book your teacher interviews. Scroll down to June 15 for code and link!!

23 June Well it was a big week last week with lots of stuff going on! The seniors went to see the Whakatane Highschool Production on Friday. It was called 'Foot loose'. The dancing and the singing was pretty amazing!! It has given us lots of ideas for our own school production coming up. It is going to be a busy week this week as we have the Production auditions on Friday and we have the EBOP Cross-Country tomorrow. Good Luck to them!

19 June This morning we have had Wayne Mills at our school to hand over the Kids Lit Quiz trophy to the Lit Quiz team. In 2 weeks they are heading off to Cornwall in England where they will compete in the world finals and meet famous authors and to do some fun things like go to shows and go to the Tin Mines!! They will be very tired today!! They had the TV cameras at school most of the day yesterday interviewing Wayne Mills, the team and Mr. Fitzgerald and teachers and having a look around our school!!! They will be on Seven Sharp tonight!!
Click here to see some photos.

18 June Well Done to the 8 speakers who spoke at the speech finals last night!! Jana, Matthew, Sophie, Emily, Finn, Luella, Keeley and Lucille spoke last night. Congratulations to Emily Julian who won the speech contest with Sophie Lawrence coming 2nd by a whisker and Jana Longley following through at 3rd place!! It is the second year in a row that Emily has won the oratary shield!! Well done Emily!! The judges said out of the years that we have judged the Awakeri School Speech Contest, it would have had to be the best crop yet!! The judges also said that it was a very hard job deciding the winners and that they had a lot of arguments. Click here to see some photos.

15 June Invitation
Parents, grandparents and friends of the school are invited to the official presentation of the New Zealand Kids Lit Trophy to the Awakeri Team.
9am Thursday 19th. June at the Awakeri Events centre.
Hear Wayne Mills speak on the importance of reading and the history of the International Kids Lit competition.
Wayne is an educator at the University of Auckland, whose commitment to children's literature was rewarded when he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's New Year's Honours in 2011.
Following the presentation you are invited to tour the school, view classes in action and share in morning tea in the school staffroom.

Parent - teachers interview bookings are now open for interviews in the last week of the term.
Go to http://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/
Booking Code 3H7JC

13 June We had the Senior Speech semi-Finals today. All speakers did very well. After the semi finals the 4 teachers had a very hard job to decide who will get in. The 8 people who made it in are: Jana, Lucille, Emily J, Matthew, Keely L, Luella, Finn and Sophie. Congratulations!! The finals will be held in Room 13 on Tuesday night, 7pm. All welcome to come and watch our finalists!!

12 June Tomorrow we have the semi finals of the senior speech contests. We have 16 year 7 & 8 speakers and three year 6 speakers. Good luck, especially to Luella. She is speaker number 13 on Friday the 13th!!!

10 June Congratulations to New Zealand KLQ champions Ben, Finn, Alex and Emily (and Mrs Petersen and Margo and Mr Fitz)!!!! Now they're off to the World finals in England in a few weeks (if they can find the money!!!!)

Updates from the Kids Lit Quiz team in Wellington:
Update 1, Sent at 12:00am: We have just arrived at parliament and all the other 14 teams are arriving and we are very nervous!! We need to beat the Southland school!! Their coach is Kelly Scholes, who used to teach at Awakeri!
Update 2 Sent at 1:20pm: Round 1 has just started, the subject is 'Authors'. There are 13 questions in each round. There are 5 rounds.
Update 3: Round 1 has finished and we are in 4th place with 12 points and the winners have 16 points. Round 2's subject is 'Picture Books.'
Update 4: After Round 2 we are 3rd Place 4 points behind the winning team. The next rounds subject is 'Novel Openings.'
Update 4: After Round 3 We are coming 1st!! WAHOO!!
Update 5: Half Time. We are still in first place!! Awakeri: 24 Balmoral (Auck): 22 Southwell (Hamilton):19 Tahuna (Dunedin): 18.
Update 6: Round 4 has finished and we are still in first place 2 points ahead of the other team. The next rounds subject is 'Beasts'.
Update 7: Final round... up by 4....up by 6 ....
Update 8: 6 questions to go...... Ahead by 4.
Update 9: 4 questions to go.......ahead by 4.
Update 10: 3 to go.......Ahead by 4.
Update 11: Final Question...... WE WON!!!!!

9 June Good Luck to the Kids Lit Quiz, Alex Robbie, Emily Robbie, Finn Spod and Ben White who are heading to Wellington this morning. We will do updates tommorow from 1:30pm. Here are some of the teams they will be competing against, Feilding Intermediate, Manawatu, King's School Auckland, Balmoral School Auckland, Tardale Intermediate Hawkes Bay, Southwell School Waikato and loads more. Good Luck!!!

6 June Yesterday was the Inter- school Cross Country. Around 60 people from Awakeri school competed. Most people did very well.
Blake said that " There is one hill that you practically crawl up. It is just about vertical." Here are some team results: Junior Boys: A Team: 1st. B Team: 2nd. Intermediate Boys: A team: 1st B Team: 2nd. Senior Boys: A team: 1st. Junior Girls: A Team: 1st B Team: 2nd. Intermediate Girls: A Team: 1st. B Team: 3rd. Senior Girl: A Team: 1st. B Team: 2nd.
Well done to the individual winners, Kaia Skipps, Cody Hall, Jana Longley, Kevin Paulsen, Jenae Brownless and Jacob Davis. Click Here to see some photos of the big day!

Well done to all teams and all individual runners!!

30 May Well Done to the Lit Quiz Teams who did very well last night!! The A Team Came 1st with 81 out of 110. The B Team came 6th with 64 out of 110. The A team are going to go to Wellington to compete in the Nationals. The A team were lucky enough to win 1,000 dollars and $10 Whitcoulls Voucher. The best category for both teams was the 'Animal' Category. The A team got 9 out of 10 and the b team got 8 out of 10. Both teams were very surprised when Wayne (Quiz master) told them Lorde was in he Lit Quiz World finals 5 years ago. They had some funny moments when a Question was asked about what type of cat it was. Both teams put Siamese as a joke and guess and it was correct!!
Click here to see some cool photos of the BOP champs!!

29 May Good Luck to the Lit Quiz team who is competing in the Bay of Plenty competion tonight. Both a and b teams will be competing . A Team: Emily Robbie, Alex Robbie, Ben White, and Finn Spod. B Team: Amelie Clements, Linette Lengkeek, Tayla Jones and Blake Fortune. Good Luck!!!

28 May Well The Manawahe Cross country teams has been hard training lately for next week when we will be crawling up hills, tiring our little legs out!!
On Friday our school will be singing our hearts out for Music Month. We are going to be singing 'Islands' which is the song for music month!! Come along 2:30pm this Friday at the Awakeri Events Centre for our assembly to hear us sing Islands.

27 May Please excuse the lack of updating of the school web site over the last few weeks. The school's computer systems have been getting SNUPped. This was a major overhaul of all our networking. After many kilometres of cables have been installed, many new connections in each classroom, hours of work, we are now ready to start using computers again!! The web site monitors will have to start making up for lost time!!
Lookin forward to it all working well instead of frustrating us. The monitors will have some training this Friday.

19 May Well Cross Country went very well on Friday. There was some very close runs and even a record broken, by Jake Laurent in the 7 year old boys. Every one should be proud because everyone did very well. Here are some the 1,2,3 Place getters for the 8-13 year olds.
8 and 9 year olds Boys: 1-Cody Hutchings 2-Oliver Young 3-Regan Henderson
8 and 9 year old Girls: 1- Kaia Skipps, 2- Lara Longley, 3-Neeve Kushnirenko.
10 and 11 year old boys: 1- Kevin Paulsen 2- Kaya Hodson 3- Campbell Forsyth,
10 and 11 year old girls: 1- Jana Longney 2- Emily Robbie 3- Luella Howe,
12 and 13 year old Boys: 1-Jacob Davis 2- Lachlan Butler 3- Korben Wilson,
12 and 13 year old girls: 1- Jenae Brownless 2- Emily Julian 3- Nakisha Rangiaho.
They are not the only ones who did well!! Congratulations to everyone!!!

14 May Cross country is postponed till Friday. Check out the lovely tribute to Irene Cronin on the Library page.

13 May Cross country is on tomorrow. The course is tricky.... blackberries, prickles, holes, gates.... Remember your house colours.
Today Juan Propato was at school taking a girls only football session. There is another one next week for 7th and 8th grade girls, then another on Friday 30th for the rest of the 11th and 13th grade girls.
Also, teams are practising for the interschool rugby / netball day on Thursday. The rugby is at Matata and the netball at Te Teko.
Mrs Petersen is taking over Mrs Cronin's job in the library. Good luck Mrs Petersen.
Mrs Elliot gave out the NZ Music Month song for everyone to learn. It's called Islands. It was written by three year eight girls from Auckland last year. We are going to sing it at assembly on Friday 30th.

8 May Well Awakeri School has been doing lots of Cross country training and we look all ready to go as we have Cross Country and Netball/Rugby Day next week. We also have Kapa Haka practice this Friday which is exciting. We also have soccer starting this weekend. So the teams will be playing hard!!

4 May Very sad news.... Mrs Cronin passed away yesterday. She will be sadly missed by all the students, staff and community of Awakeri School. She was an excellent teacher. She also put a lot of time into the BOT, the school library and was a big supporter of the kapa haka. Her funeral is 2pm Tuesday at the Awakeri Events Centre. School is closing at 12.30 on Tuesday, with buses running then so all those who want to can attend the funeral.
Our best wishes are with her family. Moe mai ra e te whaea. Arohanui ki a tatou katoa.

16 April Yes, the new rooms have passed inspection and Room 12, 13 and 14 have moved in! The rooms are big and blue!!

The rooms are so big, Mrs Merry and Ms Sisam had a camp meeting with both their classes and they easily fitted in!

15 April Room 14 have been making some web pages on how to do things. Go to their page to check them out. We are hoping tomorrow to be allowed into Rooms 12, 13 & 14. Our furniture is in there already.
We also hope that it will be fine on Thursday afternoon for Unity Hour. It's in the afternoon and everyone can choose from lots of different activities, like Awakeri Rulz, bullrush, playdough, computer suite, etc. Then on Friday the holidays start. Happy holidays everyone!!

13 April Hopefully this week Rooms 12, 13, 14 will be moving back into their larger, renovated classrooms. Everyone is looking forward to it. The blue walls give the rooms atmosphere and there is an extra 3 metres space.
It also means we can have Room 2 for an extra junior room next term. Ms Sisam and her Yr 6 & 7s have enjoyed being down the junior end of the school though. They have joined in things like Jump Jam and created Maths games for them too.

10 April The school is having a turn at badminton today and tomorrow. Classes are having turns at learning some basic badminton skills in the Events Centre. Matthew managed to injure his hammy doing the quick stepping exercise!
Bullrush is popular at the moment. Today there were about 100 kids playing at lunchtime. It was fun because rain made the field slippery.

8 April It is with the utmost regret that Irene Cronin must take timeout from her teaching position at Awakeri School. Due to the advancement of cancer she feels she is no longer able to fulfil her responsibilities in the classroom.
She says:
"The regard, love and respect I feel for all those at Awakeri School: Peter Fitzgerald, the management team, colleagues, support staff and of course the children is immense. All of the above have been such an important part of my life since 2000, and I write this with so much sadness.
I have been so fortunate to earn my living doing something that I have loved so much; in fact there is so much more that I would still like to cover and do with the children.
Irene Cronin"
We wish Irene all the best and our thoughts and wishes are with her.
Peter Fitzgerald

8 April The Touch day tomorrow has been cancelled because of the weather forecast. Thanks to all those who were coming to play and to referee. Check out some cool photos of the Fun Raiser on Friday.

7 April 2014 Well this morning there was huge excitement in Room 14 because we received a letter from the Prime Minister. It was to say a thank you for sending our thoughts and designs through to the parliament about what we think the NZ flag should look like and what it should represent. Room 14 shared their flags a while ago at assembly and then they voted for a few to go to parliament. They were very glad of the feed back.

6 April The Fun Raiser was a huge success. Well done to all the business groups who organised their stalls and activities, and a big thank you to ll the customers who came and spent some money and hopefully had lots of fun, and to all those parents who helped in various ways. There will be some cool photos of the day coming this week.
Over all the Fun Raiser earned over $2100 for Rooms 12, 13, & 14 camps. Some groups made a lot of money, e.g. the Sherbet Gallery made $291.80.
On Thursday we had some great success at the EBOP Swimming Champs. Emily Julian won 4 events, Jamie Julian won 3 events and Jenae Brownless won one. Taryn Forbes, Cambell Julian and Linette Lengkeek also got places. Congratulations!

4 April Lots of excitement, today is Rm 12, 13 & 14's Fun Raiser. Hopefully lots of kids will have brought bit of money to school and they can go spend it at lunch time. There are heaps of different activities, from patting a pony through to food stalls, a Hippy House, horror tunnel, throwing wet sponges at Mr Fitz, etc etc. There should be lots of fun raised!

30 March Check out these cool photos from Top School.

27 March Don't forget Teacher Training Day tomorrow!!!

25 March Feeling hungry? There's a tasty entry on the Library page this week! Thanks Mrs White!
Did you know, in the 29 years Mr Fitz has organised Top School at Awakeri, the school has raised over $450,000. Wow!! Next year is the 30th anniversary of Top School. It'll be a big one!

24 March Wow!! What another outstanding year of Top School. Actually it was an even better year because we made more money, the cheerleaders did better, and the Top School team was amazing. Their first event was Stitch in Time, it was an excellent start to the day with a total of 15.6 points. Luckily they stayed first in that for the rest of the day, thanks to Kevin and Kaya for their good team work in the front. Their second event was the carpet ride. Now they never really do well in that event, but this year was a surprise to all of us. They were going really well at the start but then the last 30seconds they were nearly at the end and everything went crooked, which was annoying but they still came fourth. Their third event was the bunji. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,beeeeeeep Kaya was off a great start to the event with a 5 pointer everyone cheered, he set the standard high. Emily was certain she could make it in............... and she did, the crowd went wild again. The score they were trying to beat was 27 and guess what. They beat it. "Yeah!!" they all said. They ended up with a score of 43 points so they got eight 5 pointers and three 1 pointers. Their fourth event was the Watchorns Castle. They went off to a really good start until someone, not saying any names, dropped his bucket, and all the water was gone. He still pretended that he had water in his bucket so he still faked putting the water in the barrel Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!! And the last event was Up Up and Away. This was a very exiting event to watch. Last year they were really lucky to even get a ball into the barrel, and this year it was like a ball was flying into the bucket constantly. Thanks to Kaya for his amazing accuracy and Tawari for his excellent throwing, also great pulling to Linette and Emily.
"What a great day," Mr Fitz said at the start of prize giving he handed the microphone over to Ann Tolley (she is sort of in charge of the cheerleaders). Awakeri School won for the biggest squad and got second overall. So they were very pleased. The team was even more nervous than before the event. Then Mr Fitz said that they were first in their section with 3 firsts and 2 fourths. Then it came to the overalls They were even more nervous than before. Sadly they didn't come first but they did come second overall so they were very pleased with themselves.
Finally it all came to an end. Even though Awakeri scored more points than Kawerau South in almost everything, in their section they got more firsts than us, so they were deserving winners. Overall it was an outstanding day. There will be photos of the action coming soon.

19 March Top School is coming around the corner very quickly and we are at work getting ready. This year the money is going towards things like a Junior play ground.
Te Reo extension has now started and we are in mixed age groups and we have been focusing on our pepeha.The Netball season has started already. It started early this year because we wanted the good weather. Last Saturday we got on really well and we are looking forward to the coming games.

16 March Sadly, AJ Barr, husband of our special needs teacher Viv, passed away on Friday. An email has been sent to all school families re arrangements on Tuesday. Please make sure you read it. The funeral is at 2pm on Tuesday at the Events Centre. Our sympathy and best wishes to Viv, Matt, Simon, Emma and all the family.

14 March This week Room 11 have been on camp at Rotorua, hopefully they get safely home before the rain arrives.
On Tuesday Awakeri's swimmers were in great form at the Rangitaiki Interschool meet. Awakeri won the relay. Jamie Julian, Cody Hall, Cambell Julian, Emily Julian and Tawari Stanley won by about ten metres! Here are some photos of our school swim sports last week.
The Top School squad are training hard.
Do you love animals? Check out the Library page.

5 March Room 14 had an awesome time at camp!! There were not many possums this year to wake us up and scare us!! It was both a educational and fun camp. Eveyone seemed happy and everyone came back to school buzzing with excitement. Click here to see some photos of Room 14 camp. Also a couple of weeks ago room 8 went on camp to the Lions Hut. Click here to see some more photos of Room 8 Camp.

3 March Swimming sports went well today, despite the weather making things rather cold for the swimmers. Tawa won the relay.
Congratulations to two of our teachers who both had babies today!!!! Mrs Fletcher and Mrs Broadhurst gave birth this morning, to Billy and Addison respectively.

25 February Room 14 has gone to camp today. They are going to Aongatete Lodge in Katikati (Nibble Nibble). They are coming back on Friday. Room 9 went on camp yesterday. They went to Lake Whakamaru. And Room 10 is going to camp tomorrow to Lake Whakamaru because Room 9 is coming back tomorrow. So we have got a lot of people on camp at the moment!

23 February Congratulations to these year 7 & 8s who made it into the Top School training squad. They came through five rounds of trials with flying colours. Jacob Davis, Kaya Hodson, Finn Spod, Tawari Stanley, Lachlan Butler, Kevin Paulsen, Lucille Smits, Linette Lengkeek, Emily Julian, Jenae Brownless, Taryn Forbes and Nicole Curtis.
Unfortunately, one boy and one girl will be reserves on the day. However, they are all training hard every lunchtime to improve their skills, strength, fitness and team work.

19 February This week we have been straining our brains doing lots of PAT tests. After interval today was Maths. Zoe Bennett used an unusual guess to get one of her answers correct. "The answer I got wasn't there, so I divided it by two and circled that one!"
Mr. Hawkes sometimes plays soccer with the students at lunch time when he isn't busy, and when a certain someone (Emma Paine!!!) bugs him all week if he could start a game! All the participators always come back again when the next game is on, they love it so much! Tackling Mr. Hawkes can be a bit scary though, he's just too tall!! He also plays in sneakers so you might want to watch out if you're planning on tackling him!
Here are some photos of the seniors' trip to study the estuary last week.

17 February The new classrooms are coming along well! The seniors are hoping to be back in their rooms by next term! The builders and roofers are currently in the middle of putting the roof on. Very interesting to watch. One of the roofers is in fact Robbie Perkinsons' brother!
Today PAT tests started. Everyone's brains are working overtime!

13 February Want a laugh?? Get some great advice on the Library page!
Room 8 seem to be having some good weather for their camp at the Lions Hut. Go Room 8!!
Seniors Science field trip tomorrow. Parents - meet on the tennis courts by the Events Centre car park

10 February Congratulations to all the Yr 8s who tried out for house captains. This morning at the Monday morning assembly the house captains for 2014 were announced-Kowhai: Tawari, Taryn, Liam, Chloe Brown. Rata: Sarah, Chloe Howard, Marshall, Linette. Tawa: Emily, Korben, Finn, Jadyn. Rimu: Ollie, Jenae, Poppy, Micheal. I am sure they will do a great job as the leaders of the school.

7 February This afternoon the year eights did a great job teaching their houses the new house chants that they made up last year. The elections went very well, with some inspiring speeches from the candidates. The new leaders should be named on Monday.
Talking about leaders... congratulations to Sam Burgess on being named Head Prefect of Whakatane High School. Other ex-pupils to be made prefects there are Kurt Turpie, Kelsey Haddock and Caleb Robertshaw. Awesome! No doubt other high schools will also be choosing Awakeri ex-pupils for their leadership teams too.

5 February Well the weather at the moment is great and the sun is shining. Tomorrow is a public holiday and we all have the day off with our families. On Friday we have house captain elections where the Year 8"s have to sell themselves to the little kids so that they can hopefully become house captains.

4 February A reminder that the PTA barbecue is on tonight. Come and play a game with your kids, from 5 pm onwards.... there is cricket, soccer and long ball. Meet the teachers, BOT and PTA. Have some fun!
Today the website monitors were selected and they had their first learning session. Most of them have started work on their class pages. The monitors are: Shardae Last (Rm 1 & News), Valerie Singh (Rm 3), Ella Leckie (Rm 4), Cambell Julian (Rm 5), Linette Lengkeek (Rm 6 & 14), Michelle Grindley (Rm 7), Zoe Bennett (Rm 8), Haylie Schuler (Rm 9), Emma Paine (Rm 10 & News), Lucy Knott (Rm 11), Ben White (Rm 12), Poppy Rika (Rm 13 & News), Stacie Martin (Rm 14 & 15).
Tomorrow is the first Top School trial.

3 February Today the names were taken for people to try out for the Top School team. This year we can only enter a year 7 & 8 team. The first trial is Wednesday lunch time. Lots of boys are trying out, not so many girls. Today people had to have their names in for the web site monitor jobs too. They will get some training tomorrow.

31 January Today we had our first Friday assembly. We are having them under the oak tree by the library in term one. It's at 12 noon. Emily J and Nicole C were the presenters. They said their pepeha / mihi and then introduced Mr Fitz and Mrs Howard to do the notices. We atlked about houseleader elections next week. It looks like there will be lots of year eights trying to become leaders. Finally, Room 14 finished off with a Spanish language exercise for us. Eight kids had to do lots of greeting to each other, using the right greeting for the times of day and the right title for the person they were greeting.

30 January The library page and newsletter are updated. We will get the class pages going when we have selected and trained some new web site monitors. Application forms for this important job are going out to interested seniors tomorrow.

29 January 2014 Congratulations to Mrs. Howard, who last year was called Miss Robb. She is now happily married and back to work again!! We are now onto the second day of school and everything is running smoothly!

28 January 2014 Welcome back to a brand new year. Everyone is happy and settled in class at the moment. It is the last year for the Year 8s which is exciting and our ex pupils are curiously waiting to start high school! The builders are busy at work on classes 12, 13, 14. We have totally changed our buses. They are now bright yellow and have very big bold writing on the side saying AWAKERI SCHOOL BUS.

27 January 2014 Happy New Year everyone! Reminders:
1. School starts on Tuesday 28th. Be here by 8.45am, in class by 8.55!! Make sure you have a pen / pencil!!
2. Finalised class lists are on display at school.
3. Stationery can be bought at school. In the ITS Room (it's round the corner by the caretaker's shed). Each class's requirement will be available.
4. Temporary room changes because of building work in C Block. Mr Hawkes will be in the Computer Suite, Mrs Merry will be in Room 15 and Ms Sisam will be in Room 2.
The Calendar is up to date, but is subject to changes.

Old News Do you want to look at the news from last year and before that? It is reeeeaaallllly cool. Click here to find that interesting old news from 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 or even 2002 and before.