Awakeri School

Here was the News in 2017

14 December Here are a few photos of last night's Fancy Dress. Haere ra!!!

13 December Reports went home yesterday and today the school magazine is going home. I hope everyone's report got safely home! No throwing it out of the window of the bus, or leaving it under your wet swimming togs! If your child wasn't at school, the report will be in the school office.
Tonight is Fancy Dress. It's usually fun (check out these photos of last year's one) . If you need ideas for dressing up, have a look at the funny ideas that website monitors in 2009 thought of!! It is also the school's prize giving and the farewell to our year eights heading off to high school.

8 December Today the Juniors produced an awesome production. It was called Some You Win Some You Don't. It was amazing to watch, with some humour, dances and some amazing acting. The story involved virtues that our school focuses on: Kindness, enthusiasm, Tolerance, Patience, Honesty. They portrayed it in a way that made it easy to follow and understand. I'm sure everyone enjoyed it. A lot of hard work was put into by the kids and the Junior teachers. Well done!!!

The awesome Room 6 and 7 ukulele group playing 'Try a Little Kindness.'	The Sheather-Fitzgerald family about to set off on their summer holiday.
Room 2 busting out their dance moves to Fight Song.	Cooper Pawson introducing our show 'Some You Win, Some You Don't!'

6 December Today we had a walk through of the fancy dress night. All the syndicates had a practice of where they were doing their items. Room 15 were lucky to have a swim afterwards. Lots of classes have been practising softball skills lately. Tomorrow afternoon Rooms 14 and 15 have a challenge.

29 November We are so lucky to have our great librarian Margo. Have a read of her last library update for the year. It will be worth it!! Great hints for holidays.

27 November Here are some awesome photos from intensives. They were great. The year sevens did heaps of team building and leadership training. The year eights had two cool days of doing stuff like indoor sports, water slides, skating, visit to pa site, playing golf....

23 November Swimming starts next week:
Rm 1 Mon Wed Thursday
Rm 2 Mon. Wed. Thurs.
Rm 3 Tues Thurs Fri
Rm 4 Tues. Thurs. Fri.
Rm 6 Tues Wed Fri.
Rm 7 Mon Tues Thurs.
Rm 8 Mon Tues Wed
Rm 9 Mon Wed Fri.
Rm 10 Mon Tues. Thurs.
Rm 11 Tues Wed Fri.
Rm 12 Tues Wed Fri
Rm 13 Wed. Thurs. Fri.
Rm 14 Mon. Thurs Fri.
Rm 15 Mon Wed Thursday

22 November Check out Room 14's page for some cool writing about their bit of the marae stay.

20 November The count down is on.... four full on weeks of school left. This week we are doing our last PAT tests in maths and reading. On Thursday and Friday the year 7 & 8s (plus the year 6s for part of it) are doing their intensive. The year sevens are doing leadership training. Who will have the best house chants, signs and flags for next year??
More good news from our ex-pupils with the best all round year 11, 12 and 13 students from Whakatane High all going to ex-Awakeri students. Well done Hannah Van der Horst, Emily Julian and Caroline Paulsen!

15 November Here are some photos of our days at the marae last week. Check out Ethan and Vinnie being fussy!
Also have a read of the Library page, Margo has a message on there about the joys of sad books! Read and 'enjoy'!

12 November A big thank you to all those who helped and supported us at the marae last week. The children who went gained a huge amount from the time. Sadly, because of the weather and a tangi shortening our stay by a day, Rooms 8 & 9 couldn't go on the first day and Room 13 had to only go for the day and not stay the night. Big congratulations to those children who did the karanga and whaikorero as part of our schools groups welcoming each other. They were excellent, as were the senior children who hosted and helped teach the younger children. Watch out for some cool photos coming. We had some excellent feedback from the elders at the marae and other parents and grandparents who came to visit.
Also, late congratulations to our outstanding ex-pupils Moana Lengkeek and Katy White who were jointly named duxes of Trident High School last week. Brilliant work!

3 November Check out the science experiment on Room 13's page. Today we had a powhiri practice for the whole school for the marae visits next week. Tino pai e nga kaikaranga me nga kaiwhaikorero!

2 November Today we had to race against the weather to finish the 11,12 and 13 year old boys and girls High jump finals. It started off with a practice jump at 1 metre. Then it started to get higher and higher. 1.29m was the highest jump, jumped by the winner of the Twelve year old boys Shaun Snow. Jake Laurent won the eleven year old boys. Mia Sutton won the eleven year old girls. Mikayla Jaimeson won the Twelve year old girls. Tawharangi Davis won the thirteen year old boys and Sammy Neale winning the Girls. The inter-school dates are Tuesday the 14 of November. The children will be notified by the teacher in charge about more details.
A number of jumping and throwing records were broken. Check out all our athletics records. Some have been there since 1999 (last century!)
Do you love Harry Potter? Check out the cool info on the Library page.

1 November Athletic sports is going well, with the track events successful on Monday. The field events are going well today. A surprise ending to the open 1500 metres this morning with twins Olivia and Teigan Nolan finishing in a dead heat in the girls race. Elijah Wetting-Davidson won the boys race.

29 October The Annual report of the Awakeri BOT to the Ministry of Education (from 2016) is now available here on the web site.

26 October Athletics training has started and the eleven year old girls high jump record has already been broken by Sophie Growden, jumping a massive 1.21 metres. She broke Lila Riddal's, Emily Julian's and Linette Lengkeek's record of 1.20 m. Next week on the Monday and Wednesday is the Track and Field events, weather permitting (!). All parents are welcome.

25 October Group Day went very well yesterday. Well done to the organisers, the day flowed smoothly and luckily we had good weather. School is very busy at the moment: people are trying to get some athletics skills practised ready for the sports next week, the seniors are having puberty talks with an educator from family planning, people are getting ready for the marae stay/visit which is only two weeks away, ag day, group day, two class trips as well...
Here are some details about the marae stay/visit:

Awakeri School Wairaka Marae visit 7 - 10 November 2017

Soon, our school is visiting Wairaka Marae (near the heads in Whakatane). We see this visit as an important part of a number of curriculum areas, with the focus being on Art, Social Studies and of course Maori language and culture. To give the students the best chance for learning, we are going in a number of groups on different days. The three rooms with yr 7 & 8s will be able to stay the night. If the marae is required for a tangi, the visit would have to be postponed.
Parents are most welcome to join us. The students involved will travel from school by bus at 9 a.m. on their day, returning at 3 p.m. Junior classes would appreciate some extra supervision on their day. Please contact your child's teacher if you can come and help.
Cost: For those staying the night, there is a charge of $8. For those visiting for the day, the cost is $2. Can this please be given to your child's teacher before their due day.
Food: Children visiting for the day need to bring their own lunch. Children staying the night will also need to bring their own lunch for the first day, but other meals will be provided.
Programme:
Tue Rm 14, 8, 9 to the marae. Formal welcome to the school group. Rm 8 & 9 return. Rm 14 stay night
Wed Rm 14 welcomes Rm 13, 11, 10. Rm 14 helps teach Rm 14, 11 & 10 return. Rm 13 stays the night.
Thur Rm 13 welcomes Rm 15, 12, 7, 6. Rm 13, 12, 6, 7 return. Rm 15 stays the night.
Fri Rm 15 welcomes Rm 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. All return in afternoon.
Activities: Marae protocol - welcome, how to behave History of the Whakatane area - the landing of the Mataatua waka Art - observing and drawing various wonderful visual arts at the marae, weaving, tukutuku Maori language - participation in welcome, senior children to give mihi (short speech) in meeting house in evening. Cross Age tutoring – senior students helping younger ones learn in art, music, language, PE etc Music, PE – waiata, stick games

Rm 13, 14, 15 children: Need to bring lunch for the first day, sleeping bag, a change of clothes, etc. Parents who were not able to be present at the welcome, are able to visit at any time. Just come! We need parents to stay to help supervise and do a little cooking. Help! Senior students also need to return the consent form.
Chief Cook / Flax instructor: If anyone would like to volunteer to be our kitchen chief or our weaving instructor for the week please let Barrie know urgently.
Kia ora koutou katoa Barrie Hawkes (on behalf of the school)

20 October Ag Day! A lovely day for it. About 160 animals came to school, in the different sections: lambs, kids, calves, dogs and pets. Yesterday everyone made lots of exhibits for the indoor show. It's all on display in the Events Centre. It looks and smells awesome: flowers, aqua jars, all sorts of art works..... There is some cool baking there too. Check out these cool photos of the day. Thanks to our senior student photographers and all the helpers and organisers.

29 September Mr J's last day. Sad to see him go. "Be careful how you go!"
All the middle and senior school filled out questionnaires for Room 14's maths investigations. There are some fascinating results on all sorts of topics. Check them out on Room 14's windows.
If you want to have a look at the Ag Day indoor show activities for the first week back at school, click on the link. We will be doing the activities on the Thursday so they are on display on Ag Day.

28 September Want to know what the most popular book in the whole school is? Want to know what's happening in the holidays for kids? Check out the library page!

27 September This morning we saw a brilliant dress rehearsal of our Yr 4 - 6 jump jam team, who are heading to Westlake College in Auckland for the national finals of the Open Challenge in a few weeks time (the 28th October). The team looked amazing, with their energy, enthusiasm, costumes, smiles and moves all shining out. Well done to the team, who have worked hard for many lunchtimes, and their coaches Nic Laurent and Jamie Maunder.

The Awakeri team is ready to go. They have trained four lunchtimes a week for ages, then they have dropped it down to twice a week for the last while.	There are fifteen people from years 4 to 6 in the team. They had auditions to pick the team at the start of last term.
"Awakeri! Let's party!!!!" calls out Summer and her team. The song is Don't Stop The Party, by Pitbull.	The coordination is awesome. The uniforms look bright, colourful and give a confident mood.

25 September The last week of the term, last week for Mr J.
Our Jump Jam Squad, who are travelling to Auckland at the end of October to compete in the nationals, are having a dress rehearsal on Wednesday 27th September at 12.20pm - you are invited to come along and see them in action.
If you are looking for something cool, exciting and educational to do in the holidays, check out the Science programmes offered by REAP in Whakatane. Click here. Spaces are limited, so be in quick. $30 per day.

22 September It's all over! A great final night show, awesome kapa haka.... Check out these photos.
Some welcome feedback:
Dear School. ......Production Team and Students. We attended the Production last night it was just amazing , fantastic, and entertaining. We also enjoyed the Kapa Haka Group brought tears to our eyes. They were super special....The work the Team has put into these Students to produce such a high standard is a credit to you all. Look forward to your next Production.

21 September Tonight is the last night of our school production which is sold out. Hopefully everyone's voices are mending. Yesterday we performed to the juniors of our school. Mr Sheather told the Juniors to Boo at the bad guys. When the princess was in her cell and the baddies were mocking her, the juniors booed at us. Halfway through the show our princess's voice went but came. On Tuesday night we had our opening night. Our opening night was amazing. Our talent acts also made the audience have a bit of a laugh especially Jake Webb's "tape face". The students from Year 5-8 have a day off this Friday while the teachers bring everything back to school.

19 September Valley of the Voodons shows are sold out! Dress rehearsal was a mission yesterday. We got through the show and practised some bits that needed extra work. A few funny thngs happened as well: Jamie slipping over when running onto the stage saying "Stand still everyone". Josh thought the white screen was a wall, leaned on it and fell over. The two destructor hands (Riley and Charlotte, Corban and Jake) having a lot of trouble putting the "trees" into the destructor!
Opening night tonight. Break a leg everyone!! Reminder to be there at 6pm if you are in kapa haka or a main lead, 6.20pm for everyone else.

15 September Here are a few photos of our dress rehearsal yesterday.

14 September Check out the Library page for news of the winners of the poster competition and some awesome Space themed reading to go with our Valley of the Voodons show. Tickets are selling well for the two public shows next week. Get your from the school office. $10 adults, $5 children (including high school students).

11 September Congratulations to our 11 runners who braved miserable conditions at the AIMS Games cross country yesterday. The course turned into a slip and mudslide in places, with some runners climbing a hill only to slip back to the bottom again! Big congratulations to Teigan Nolan (26th place), Elijah Wetting-Davidson (29th place), Olivia Nolan (41st) in their respective races.

6 September Good luck to all our runners competing in the AIMS Games cross country this Sunday at Waipuna Park, Welcome Bay, Tauranga. There are over 800 runners doing cross country (in four races: Yr 7 boys / girls and yr 8 boys / girls). Getting in the top 100 will be a good effort!

3 September Some photos from kapa haka intensive last week. Tino ataahua!!

30 August Today is the second day of kapa haka intensive. We have 65 kids in our group. They did really well on Monday, so hopefully there will be another good step up today. We have a concert for parent at 6pm in the events centre lounge, so you can see how they are going.
A good turn out at the Ag Day meeting last night, we now have plenty of people to run the day. Thank you to all those who volunteered.

29 August Details of our fantastic BOP Science Fair success:
Kieran Butler won in the Intermediate Technology section, the Best Overall Technology entry and his was the 2nd best entry in the entire fair.
Liam White won the Judge's Choice and was 3rd in Intermediate Technology.
Sophie Peat won the Science in Farming special award.
Joshua Broadmore was highly commended.

26 August Good news / bad news.
Good news: Kieran Butler won over $800 in prizes at the BOP Science fair yesterday, including Best Intermediate Technology entry. Liam White was also up in the hundreds of dollars in prizes. Details of what the awards were that our students won will be published as soon as they come to hand.
Bad news: The Whakatane District Council has given our booking for the Little Theatre to someone else!!! (You might ask how they could do that!). We now have to perform our Valley of the Voodons and kapa haka production a week earlier, so our rehearsal and organising time has been reduced. There might also be clashes with other things that we would have avoided, e.g. high school open days. Fingers crossed that we can do it!

24 August Today we had 15 students at the BOP Science Fair at Rotorua. Ours was the biggest school group from the EBOP. We are waiting to hear if we are getting any awards. It will be tough, up against 110 other students. Prize giving is tomorrow. If you are in Rotorua, you can view the fair at the Convention Centre on Fenton Street up until prize giving at 1pm. Here is a recount from one of the children who went there. Today we went to the science fair. Today I got up early to go to the B.O.P science fair. We left at 6 45 to travel in a van to Rotorua. It was very noisy because of Bonnie and Teigan singing their silly songs. When we got there we had to unload our exhibits out of the van and into the convention centre. After that we had to wait a while before we got interviewed. When we were waiting to get interviewed we had to wait by our exhibits. To pass time we were allowed to bring a device. We had to wait for Mr Hawkes becuase he was a judge because each school had to donate a judge. On the way back we stopped off at Manawhae bay to have some fresh air. If you scroll up the page you will see the results of the BOP science fair.
Yesterday had the first read through of our Valley Of The Voodons production. On Monday and Wednesday next week is the kapa haka intensive. Kapa haka people will get a notice about it tomorrow afternoon at their practice.

20 August We have some more news about staff leaving... Mr J has got a promotion with a job at the Whakatane Intermediate School. Good luck Mr J, Room 11 will miss you. Mrs Robbie is leaving to work fulltime at the Berry Farm. It will be hard to replace all her knowledge about the computers and all he extra things she does. Good luck Kate!
Production rehearsals start this week. Woohoo! BOP Science Fair on Thursday and Friday too.
Welcome back to Rooms 12 and 9 from their camps at the snow. Sounds like they saw a LOT of snow!

17 August Here is a link to the words of all this year's kapa haka items. It opens in a new tab. Learn ... practise!
Check out the cool latest ideas from Margo on the Library page. Poem in Your Pocket day is coming up next week!

14 August Good luck to Room 12 heading off on camp today. Let's hope the snow is welcoming! Room 9 head down to camp on Wednesday, with Room 12 heading back.

10 August Today the year sixes were given two brochures about their upcoming time as year 7s next year. One was from our school, click here to have a read(opens in new tab). The other was from the tech department (see news below, on 8 August). Any further queries, please call in and see us.
A reminder too about the Events Centre meeting tonight, 7.30pm.

9 August Welcome back to Peter and Cathy Fitz! Farewell to Sarah Plews and family, all the best for their move to the Hawks Bay.
Sadly the soccer/hockey day this Friday has been cancelled, for obvious reasons!

8 August Today all the year 6s were lucky enough to go visit tech at Edgecumbe College, so they know what to look forward to for next year. Room 14 was there, the year eights were doing electronics, making some speaker systems that can be plugged into a cellphone, tablet etc to play music. They had all personally designed them. This was the last of their three days making the project. The year sevens were doing biotech. Today was all about carbon dioxide. They had made lemonade scones and were about to make ginger beer and hokey pokey. Amber, Jessica and Ben, our ex-pupils showed us around and gave us something to eat and drink.
Edgecumbe College's technology is so good that the Ministry of Education made videos of them at work as an example to other schools! Check them out here, here and here. Quite a few Awakeri kids are in them too.

6 August Wow, after a big day of judging on Thursday, the winners of our science fair were announced at prize giving. Congratulations to Elijah Wetting-Davidson and Liam White who won their sections. Here are the photos and all the results!
Don't forget school photos on Wednesday.

2 August There is a new cool message on the Library page. Check it out!
Science Fair judging tomorrow. There is a great variety of science and technology entries. Everyone is welcome to come and view the fair in the Events Centre lounge tomorrow from 5pm till 6.30pm, and Friday 8.15am to 9am. Prize giving is 12 noon Friday at the Events Centre. All welcome!

31 July The senior school had their Maths Celebration on Friday. It was really cool. The Maths extension people did a great job organising some cool maths challenges, which everyone got to do for an hour and a half. Well done to Mr Sheather and the maths extension students, especially those who had to replace the ones who were sick. Click here to see some cool photos of the activity!

28 July As most of you know we had a group of eight students fly over to Singapore in the holidays. One of those people was Oscar Mahy. He is a year seven in Rm 14 and he wrote a recount about his travels. Here it is:
'I went to Singapore for 8 days. It was an exchange trip for our school with Wellington School. Awakeri School has a trip to Singapore every two years. It was great, we did loads of interesting activities. We all went to a cool science centre. This person showed us how to use microscopes. We looked at our own spit mixed with ink. We saw lots of weird shapes and different sized blobs! There was a mirror maze, which was really difficult. There was a lazer dodge challenge. We had to deactivate the lazers to escape out of the room! Some of us went to the Zoo, the Aquarium and a water park. At the zoo there were big snakes and white tigers. One of the snakes was 5 metres long! We got to touch a little brown and black snake. There was also a yellow snake of the same breed. We had to stay with billets. The billets were staff members from the school. In my opinion that was the most fun part. The billets were really cool people. They were very different from us. I really liked them, they were kind. The food was really nice. My Indian family had naan and some delicious sauces that you dip the naan in. I made some new friends through the billets and the school. The school had six storeys of classrooms! We went into their classrooms. They were doing maths, mother tongue (language) and some English. They have about 40 students in each room. For my first experience going to a different country, I really liked it!'

27 July We always have a few queries about what our school offers our year 7 & 8 students. There are of course lots of things, but sometimes these are taken for granted. We are planning an information brochure about our Yr 7&8s and also a trip for our current year 6s to visit the technology that our yr 7&8 students do at Edgecumbe College. We think the technology learning that our students receive at Edgecumbe is outstanding. More information soon. We are very proud of our year 7&8 students and their achievements, but we are not after enrolling extras. We have had a lot of inquiries this week for out of zone students to be enrolled, however, our classes are full!

24 July Welcome back to Term 3. This term, there is a lot going on with the seniors. Firstly the annual school science fair. The school science fair happens every year and the senior children have to pick if they want to do Science or Technology. The science fair starts next Tuesday the first of August. Another major thing happening this Term is the school production this year it is 'The Valley of the Voodons' you can see some pictures from the last time we did it in 2011. We will be starting to learn the production in four weeks time. If you want to see the production look out in the news letter for when the tickets are on sale. The show is normally on the last Tuesday and Thursday night of term.

23 July It sounds like the trip to Singapore has gone very well for our group of students. One highlight was winning the international football game 3 - 2 in 33 degrees heat! Well done Awakeri! Another was having a meeting with the NZ High Commissioner to Singapore. No doubt we will hear of lots more highlights and what everyone learned when they get back.

The High Commissioner Johnathan Austin has a meeting with the Awakeri School group. He talked to them about his job as a diplomat. He also heard about Awakeri's adventures as part of their relationship with Wellington Primary School in Singapore.	Wellington School hosts and Awakeri School guests are out and about in Singapore.Jamie, Fearghus, Ethan, Ollie, Liam and Oscar are in the front row. Charlotte is in the group and Vinnie must be hidden!

7 July Today we had Miss CT, Mr J and Mr Fitz shave their heads to raise money to fight cancer. They started at 8 30 with Mr Fitz then Mr J and finally Miss CT, who went shortest of them all and shaved all her hair. She was left holding her pony tail. The Beacon came and took pictures and interviewed them. This all happened on the staff room deck. Well done to all of them for shaving their hair. They raised over $700, well done!!
Today was also Mrs Prodger's last day. We had a special assembly to farewell her. Lots of classes said poems or speeches and gave her things, like cards. Mr Fitz and Mr Grindrod made speeches and we sang a song to Mrs Prodger. Click here to read the words. Mrs Prodger made a speech too. Happy holidays everyone. Good luck to all the seniors who have got Science Fair projects to work on.

Broc Young helps give Mr J a very short haircut!	Haylee Young shaves Miss CT's hair. It all comes off in one piece!
Mrs Prodger's farewell. Mr Fitz is the MC. The first room up to farewell Mrs Prodger is room 14. Kalib Schuler and Bonnie-Marie Wetting-Davidson read some memories. Mrs Prodger is sitting between BOT members Brett Grindrod and Rhonda Webb.	Mr Fitz surprised Mrs Prodger with some things he said in his speech! Click here to see a few more cool photos of the farewell.

6 July Big congratulations to Mrs Laurent and the jump jam team for making it through to the national finals in Auckland in October! Today is the second day of teacher-parent interviews. We hope your ones go well!!
Here is a video that is being shared with our senior students about keeping safe with Snap Chat and other social media. Worth a look!

5 July Today the Rangitaiki Tai Mitchell rugby squad visited our school on their way to tournament tomorrow. Ethan Forbes and Vinnie Te Maipi spoke on behalf of the team. They then did a very strong team haka. Good luck Rangitaiki, for your tournament at Mt Maunganui!
Today and tomorrow are half days because of teacher-parent interviews.
Mrs White has some good Holiday recommendations on the Library page. Check it out!
REAP are running some pretty cool science holiday programmes these school holidays. Look out for them. Or email REAP.

Rangitaiki Tai Mitchell team members from our school meet with Mr Fitz after their speech and haka. Fearghus Byres, Mikaere Te Maipi, Vinnie, Mr Fitz, Ethan, Jamie Julian and Liam White.

3 July Well done to all those people who auditioned today for acting, singing and orchestra roles for this year's production. Some people were really well prepared. They knew their scripts and were expressive. Some people were sick today, so there will be more auditions for them on Wednesday. Hopefully people will know on Friday if they have a role.
Don't forget, year 7&8s, if you need a science fair board, they are on sale for $6 at the office.

30 June Today is Room 6&7s's Matariki celebration day. They started early this morning in the frost. Check out Issy Lambert's version of events on Room 7's page. Today is also pie and doughnut day, raising money for the flood affected in Edgecumbe.

28 June Everyone is warmly invited to our last assembly of the term on Friday 7th July. We are saying goodbye to Melva Prodger. She is retiring after over 20 years of excellent work in the school office as our secretary. Assembly is at 2pm. There is an afternoon tea afterwards at 3pm if you want to stay for that.
Today names are being taken for auditions for this year's show. The auditions are on Monday. People can try out for singing and or acting roles, big or small, of the percussion orchestra. The show is a good one - Valley of the Voodons. People who audition for acting roles will be given a page of script to learn for Monday.

The Beacon was here today, doing an article on Summer Jones in a series they are doing on young sports people. Summer, who plays football for Miss CT's team Awakeri United, was interviewed, videoed and photographed. The article should be in Friday's Beacon next week, with more footage on their website.	Also here today were a lot of Trident High School sports students, who had designed games using lots of different skills. They tested them out on the B Block classes. They had to teach the game, get the kids to play it, modify it if necessary, then get them to evaluate it. It was good to see ex-students Emily Robbie, Nicole Curtis, Robbie Perkinson and Tessa Dodson back here.

26 June Reports go home tomorrow! BOP cross country tomorrow too. On Wednesday Constable Bicknell is doing cyber safety with the senior rooms, also Trident High School is here teaching the middle school some games. On Friday is the pie and doughnut day, raising funds for Edgecumbe people, also it is the seniors Maths Celebration day. It's a very busy week!

22 June Eastern Bay of Plenty Cross Country. More great results:
On Tuesday this week 29 children represented Awakeri in the Eastern Bay of Plenty Cross Country. This event was held under perfect conditions at Woodlands School in Opotiki. A big thank you to parents who were able to provide help and support on the day. We would not be able to participate in these events if it wasn't for you. Here are the results of the children who came in the top 5 in their race.
8 Year old girls Aramia Hanlen—5th
8 year old boys Archie Plews—2nd
9 year old boys Kobi Wetting-Davidson—3rd, Ryan Somerville—4th
10 year old boys Joseph Spalding—3rd, Joseph Bateson—5th
11 year old girls Teigan Nolan—2nd, Olivia Nolan—4th
11 Year old boys Elijah Wetting-Davidson - 2nd, Kalib Schuler - 3rd, Jamie Julian - 4th (this group were missed out of the newsletter - oops!)
12 year old boys Cody Hall—5th
We also had Teigan Nolan, Joseph Spalding and Elijah Wetting-Davidson represent the Rangitaiki Cluster in a tough 4 by 1.5km relay. The Rangitaiki team came first in both the boys and the girls relays. This was a tough effort at the end of the day. Well done to these runners. Here are some nice photos of the day.

20 June Good luck to our 30 runners going to EBOP cross country at Opotiki today. This Friday is a pizza lunch day, raising money for the group going to Singapore. Orders need to be at school Wednesday or Thursday. Friday is too late! Friday assembly is the final of Awakeri's Got Talent. Good luck to the finalists.

14 June Speech Finals

Bonnie-Marie gets the special old shield from Mr Fitz. Her name is the 39th one on it!	Jamie, Bonnie and Cody were the place getters.

Congratulations to the seven finalists who all delivered excellent speeches last night.
1st was Bonnie-Marie Wetting-Davidson, who spoke about the point of Fitness
2nd was Jamie Julian, who had the same topic
3rd was Cody Hall, who spoke about Self Confidence
Our other finalists were Kieran Butler (keeping a healthy liver), Ayla Rowe (body image), Frank Butler (earthquake safety) and Asha Stevenson (skateboarding safety).
Many thanks to our independent judges: Alison Barr, Jill McLeod and Peter Fitzgerald.

19 June A couple of photos from the Singapore group disco on Friday night:

Joy at the photo booth: Charlotte, Danielle, Sonny, Acacia, Mikaere and Vinnie.	One of the games at the disco. Ollie is supervising the Lolly Pong.

9 June Today was the senior speech semi finals. The 14 semifinalists did a great job. We aklso heard from year year 6 speakers, who spoke on their dream careers. Kennedy Annan, Joseph Spalding and Radha Carrington did a great job of that. There will be seven in the Speech Finals on Wednesday night. Congratulations to Ayla Rowe, Asha Stevenson, Frank Butler, Jamie Julian, Kieran Butler, Cody Hall and Bonnie-Marie Wetting-Davidson. You are invited to hear them speak on Wednesday at 7pm. They are excellent.
The hundreds board on the concrete outside the library has been repainted. The 9 is no longer upside down!

8 June A brilliant day at the interschool cross country yesterday. Place getting results and photos are here! Special congratulations to Bailey Le Prou, Elijah Wetting-Davidson, Teigan Nolan and Ayla Rowe, who all won their interschool races. Great team efforts too with Awakeri teams coming first in 6 of the 8 races. An amazing result in the 10 and 11 year boys where Awakeri runners filled all the first seven places!
Have a read of Margo's very thoughtful article on reading that can help children deal with the difficult world situations that seem to be happening so often these days. It is on the Library page. Good work Margo!

6 June The space net was very popular before school today. Rooms now have a timetable when they can use it in break times, including before school. Some classes will use it in school time too for fitness and phys ed.
Congratulations to these year 7&8 students who have got into the semifinals for the speech contest: Marshall Foxx, Sophie Peat, Ayla Rowe, Kieran Butler, Bonnie-Marie Wetting-Davidson, Isabel Lambert, Cole Hendl, Jamie Julian, Megan Dreyer, Elijah Wetting-Davidson, Frank Butler, Cody Hall, Jake Webb and Asha Stevenson.

2 June The space net is now open! Thanks very much to Craig Robbie, John Chelley, Leigh Carter and rooms 11, 14, & 15 who spread bark around and to Neil Bragg who built the fence. There will be a timetable next week for which age groups can use it in break times.

After Room 14 , 15 and 11 had spread bark under the space net, they were a free climb to try it out. This is Room 14.	On Teacher Only Day, the teachers took their chance to try it out too!

1 June A reminder about Teacher Training day tomorrow June 2nd. School is closed for children. Queens Birthday is on Monday. Happy long weekend! The junior end of the school put together a lovely farewell assembly for Mary Guest yesterday. She heads to her new job in Rotorua next week. We wish her well. Emma Munn is taking over room 2 till the end of the year, welcome!

26 May The results from cross country are on our Cross Country photo page. Congratulations to everyone who ran at their best, especially those with high placings. We will now be training a squad to go to interschool, which is back at Manawahe this year, so any hill training you can do might be useful! New records were set by Teigan Nolan and Bailey Le Prou. Check out all our sports records.

24 May Cross country day. The races went very well today. The weather was thinking about raining on us, but it was fairly kind in the end. Well done to our record breakers. More details coming soon. Here are some cool photos, thank you photographer Kate Robbie.

22 May Last Friday Rm 14 held their fundraiser to help pay for their camp. They had been planning for ages and they wanted to do it last term but Cyclone Cook had other ideas. So, it was postponed to Friday which gave the groups more time to plan. There was 3 food stalls and three activities. The activities were The barnyard where you got to pat animals and brush them, The haunted house where you went into the spooky house a.k.a the canteen and finally the Challenge Games where you had to test your skills on the different games. The games consisted of dart throwing, fishing for cups and sack races. It was a great afternoon with The Kai Kings food group making $408.90. In total the whole of room 14 made $1132.90. Check out these cool photos!!
In other news the frost has started to set in and this morning people had their rulers out scraping it off the picnic tables!

18 May Cross country is on next Wednesday, we are walking the course tomorrow. The course has changed a bit because of the boggy ground. Seniors are starting speeches next week too. Good luck, be brave and confident!

12 May Kapa haka starts today, in the Events Centre from 3.15 till 4.15pm. Please make sure your child is collected promptly at that time.

11 May Last night the Awakeri Kids Lit Quiz teams travelled over to Hamilton for the Waikato/Bay of Plenty final. It was a huge night with over 60 teams competing. The teams were sitting very close together so every thing had to be hush hush. It was a very hard quiz with topics like Amphibians, Cattle, Accidents, etc. The Awakeri teams did well with the A team: Sam, Sophie, Jake and Kieran coming nineteenth and the B team Shaun, Olivia, Isabel and Oscar coming 32nd. These were very good placings considering that there were 65 teams. All in all, a good night had by everyone. Well done to the winners Southwell School, with Cambridge Middle School second.
The teams next year will be a bit different with Jake and Kieran leaving but this opens the opportunity for lots of new kids to come in and give it a try. You can check out our fantastic past history of Kids Lit Quiz on the Academic Archives page.
You can practise or test yourself out on the official Kids Lit Quiz app, costs about $3. Follow the link on their web site.

9 May Good luck to our two Kids Lit Quiz teams travelling to Hamilton tomorrow for a very tough regional! A long trip back late at night as well!

7 May Kapa haka starts this Friday, after school 3.15 to 4.15pm. Open to year 4- 8. Enrolment notices were given out on Friday. If you missed one, see Mr Hawkes or the office. Please hand in your enrolment by Friday. Nau mai, haere mai! All welcome!

4 May May the fourth be with you....... This weekend is Bayday the start of the football season and all the teams have been training. Bayday starts at nine and finishes around one.

1 May Welcome back to the new term everyone. Congratulations to Miss Hardy who got married in the holidays, she is now Mrs Guest! Miss Moore became Mrs Morris, a big congratulations to her too! Also welcome to Miss Dennis who is a student teacher in Room 13 for the next eight weeks.
The virtue for the school for the next five weeks is Kindness. Hopefully the weather will be kinder to us all this term! Cross country is only four weeks away, so most classes are going to be practising every day. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the school will start the day with Jump Jam out by Room 3. This year we have groups of students who will be leading jump jams.
Today lots of people noticed that the lines on the big hundreds board on the concrete have been repainted in the holidays, then they noticed that the 9 was upside down! At assembly Mr Fitz said people could stop telling him now because he knew!

13 April Awakeri School is closed again today. Hopefully everyone got the message in plenty of time yesterday.
Let's hope the impact of the coming weather system is less than last week. All the best for the holiday break, specially to those displaced by the floods. Kia ora tatou katoa.
Last night Awakeri was due to have three teams competing in the Kids Lit Quiz regionals in Tauranga. These were eventually cancelled and the school is now invited to compete in the Waikato regionals in May.

9 April We have our own water supply, that is tested and clean, and our effluent system and toilets are working well. If you live on the plains you are welcome to fill up water containers at the school. There is a tap on the pool fence that faces the car park.
Thanks to all those who helped out at the welfare centre based at the school on Saturday and Sunday.
Room 13 & 14 fundraiser that was to be held on Thursday has been postponed till next term. People have enough to worry about.
Best wishes to all.
Kia kaha.
Peter Fitzgerald

7 April Yesterday afternoon we had to close the school, a big thank you to parents for coming to collect their children. We are sad to see the flooding and the massive effects that it will be having on some of our families. Our best wishes to everyone affected.
Today school is open again, but the buses are not running today (because of Whakatane District Council direction). The buses will be running again next week. We have a bit over half the students at school today. Room 13 will be arriving back from camp at Waitomo early afternoon.

6 April Because of Cyclone Debbie and heavy rain today most of the schools in the EBOP are closed. Lots of children are leaving to go and check on their houses and animals. But Awakeri school is still open. At the back of the field near the maize paddock has been flooded by the Mangaroa drain. At school we have talked about the flooding lots. Some children went kayaking on their back lawns, some went swimming in their paddocks. Room 14 wrote some poems:
Cyclone Debbie's fault
Evacuating the chooks
A shock to us all
(Isabel Lambert)
It was funny because cyclone Debbie (Ayla's mum Debbie) turned up to collect her children. Even the bus driver was funny about the flooding because Steve was driving past the hot pools last night and he said "and to your right you'll see Lake Awakeri!"

5 April Rooms 10 and 11 made it back safely from camp. They managed to do most of their activities, even with the rain. Room 13 has had to adapt their plans a lot because of the rain, but they are still in the Waikato. The Waitomo Caves are closed which is a shame for them.
Only one week to go till the Kids Lit Quiz regionals. The teams have been training hard, lots of reading, quizzes etc. This year we have three teams:
The A team: Jake Webb, Sophie Peat, Sam Smith and Kieran Butler.
B team: Oscar Mahy, Shaun Snow, Issy Lambert and Olivia Nolan.
Junior team: Addie Dodson, Caitlin Eivers, Radha Carrington and Mary Bragg.
Awakeri School has an extremely proud record in the Kids Lit Quiz, one of the best in New Zealand. Check it out on the Academic Archives page!

3 April Three rooms are going on camp today. Room 13 is going over to Waitomo, to go in the caves, stay on a marae, get muddy etc. They just heard that they will have to change maraes because their main one has a tangi on for the first day. Rooms 11 and 10 are going to Tui Ridge at Ngongotaha where they will do lots of outdoor challenges. Hopefully the rain leaves them alone! The playground will be quiet without all those students!

29 March Sadly the interschool touch day tomorrow has been cancelled. Our fields are still very wet and muddy in some parts after Top School. We will be having lunches on sale still: Sausage and bread $2.00; Candy Floss $3.00 a bag (because there are just a few left over from Top School they will be limited to only 1 per person, senior and middle school only. To be taken home and eaten there. Not at school.)
Check out an interesting before-school challenge on room 14's page.
On our library page is a great list of picture books about the weather, lots of NZ authors in Margo's top ten.

27 March Yesterday was the annual Awakeri Top School and there was so many things to do like, Support all our teams, get some food, play some gala games, buy some plants, grab some bargains at the garage sale, and shelter from the RAIN. The Awakeri Top School team did great coming third in their section with Kawerau South winning overall, after winning section C. Whakatane Intermediate year 8s won our section, while Ashbrook won section B. The cheerleaders did amazingly as well, even through the rain. They also came third, with Tarawera and Thornton coming first equal in the cheerleaders. Check out these cool photos (no photos after lunch in the rain sorry!).

24 March On Tuesday our swimmers did really well at the EBOP swim sports. Two of the relay teams (the 11 and 12 year old boys and girls), featuring Awakeri children won their relays. We also had a number of swimmers get good placings in their events. Jamie Julian won all six events for his age group.

23 March Today the building of all the Top school events have started. The up up and away has alreasdy been built. Mr Kirby has been at school all day helping children with their cricket skills like batting, catching and bowling. Hopefully the weather is good for Sunday.

22 March Today we have eight swimmers representing the Rangitaiki schools at the EBOP champs. We know they will do well.
If you want to see our benchmarks for what your child should be able to do at the various year levels, go to Helping Your Child (the link is on the left) and choose to look at the benchmarks. They have just been updated. Your child is also assessed against these benchmarks on the final written report.

21 March Sponsors of Top School 2017
1XX, Opotiki New World, Sun FM, JA Russell Ltd Whakatane, Kopeopeo Lions, Floatron, GF Builders Ltd, Heikell Transport, AB Contracting & Fencing, Watchorn Transport, Horizon Services, Professionals Rural Real Estate, Focus Chartered Accountants Ltd, Julian's Berry Farm, Haddocks Spray Painters & Panel Beaters, White Cross Orchard, Ultra Scan, Affco NZ Ltd, Silver Fern Farms Ltd, Whakatane New World, Whakatane Pak'n'Save, Coastline Electrical BOP Ltd, EBOP Plant Services, Christie Electrics, Harbour View Electrical Ltd, Inghams Chicken, Fonterra Edgecumbe, Farmlands Whakatane, New World Kawerau, Jewelz Whakatane, Rangitaiki Home Kills, Red Barn Bakery Café & Gift Shop, Jacks Machinery Whakatane, Bay Milking Equipment, Baxter's Café, The Good Garden Company, Husqvarna Chainsaws & Mowers Whakatane, Tony Rees Motorcycles, Stirling Sports Whakatane, Poppy's Café, Life Pharmacy Whakatane
Thank you again for your continued support.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS WHO SUPPORT US!

17 March Today is St Patrick's day and there are a few kids and teachers walking around in green. The Inter-School touch tournament is soon and all the kids from year 4 up have been practising in their teams. Today there is an assembly and Room 14 are going to share some of their creations from tech. They have some great woodwork and sewing work. They will tell us all the skills they learned to be able to make the boxes and swimming bags.

15 March Top School advice from Margo, backed up by research.... check it out on the Library page.
Our Top School squad's first training today. The squad did some fitness, then worked hard at throwing and catching under pressure. The girls struggled badly in the first round, but managed to beat the boys in the final round.

10 March Very sad news today that our pianist from the last few school productions, George Hannah, passed away. He had been ill for a few months. George was always a very positive accommodating person working with the children and staff on our musicals. He also taught piano to several students recently. Our best wishes to Marie and family.

8 March Rain, lovely rain. No beach trip for room 1 and 2 though. The Top School team squad was named today. Congratulations to the following people who got in, well done to all the others who tried out.
Ethan Forbes, Ollie Forsyth, Jamie Julian, Elijah Wetting-Davidson, Cody Hall, Kalib Schuler; Ayla Rowe, Sammy Neale, Teigan Nolan, Mikayla Jamieson, Leanna Roebuck, Taya Hori.
Also parent teacher interviews are tomorrow, and start at 1:30 so make sure you have booked a time slot with your teacher.
Photos of room 15's camp at the Lions Hut are here.

7 March The Rangitaiki Swimming Sports went very well today, after a cool start. Lots of Awakeri students gained places. These people won events: Ryan Somerville, Layla Rowland, Mikayla Jamieson, Jamie Julian, Charlotte Paulsen, Fletcher Nolan, Teigan Nolan. Sadly there was no time for the inter-school relay.

3 March A reminder that Monday is teacher training day. No school for students. Awakeri Football Club notices have been given out at school. If your child is keen to play, please make sure they enrol, follow the directions on the notice or on the club web site.
Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the Edgecumbe Earthquake. Quite a few students were talking about their parents being at school during the quake and their grandparents' memories of it. If anyone was at Awakeri School during the quake, they might remember things like climbing the hill behind the old Awakeri hall because of fears the Matahina Dam was going to break, 60 people sleeping in the school library that night, seeing the teachers all knocked off their feet by the quake (we were all outside sitting in our class lines). They might even remember a song about it: Earthwuake Rock. The lyrics are on Room 14's page.

1 March There are some Fabulous reading ideas on the Library page. Check them out! Tomorrow is an important day in Awakeri School history..... 30 years since..... where were you on that day?
Today Tom Bayliss came and gave the rooms from 9 - 14 a demo for the Whakatane Music School. They are having enrolments this Saturday at the Intermediate School. 9 - 11am. We have enrolment forms.
Here are some pics from room 8's camp last week.

28 February Here are some pics from room 14's camp last week.

27 February Swimming sports was a big success today. Well done to Tawa for winning the house relay. Kowhai were second. Everyone did well in the heat and the sun.
Rooms 8 and 14 had very successful camps last week. Watch out for reports, photos etc coming soon. Tomorrow Room 15 are off to the Lions Hut for their camp. Many thanks to all the parents who make time to go and help on the camps. Well done to Rodney Lambert for providing the most hard fought case in room 14's mock court!

17 Febuary Today is a wet and cloudy day so there will probably be no assembly. There are also lots of classes getting very excited for their camps in a few weeks, Room 14's is next week and they can't wait! By room 5 there is a massive nest at the bottom of the agipanthers and hundreds of wasps. The exterminator came today in a full suit and has dealt to them. It looked like he was pouring something onto them and had cans of Raid at the ready. If you see this, stay away they are dangerous!

15 February There is a cool new message from Margo on our Library page, with some very useful links. Have a read.

14 February A big congratulations to two of our ex-pupils who have had tremendous success at Trident High School. Moana Lengkeek was the Top Scholar in New Zealand and Outstanding Scholarship in the 2016 NCEA Scholarship examinations in the Earth and Space Science Scholarship Examination. Katy White achieved Scholarship In Classical Studies in the 2016 NCEA Scholarship Examinations. Both Moana and Katy were only year 12s and still have another year to achieve even more!
The principal of Trident emailed Mr Fitz and said "I would like to congratulate you and the staff of Awakeri for lighting the flame of learning in both of these students."

10 February Today the web site monitors were selected. There are 19 of them. They have put their first entries on their class pages. Today also were the House leader elections. There were some great speeches and it was hard to choose the four leaders. Here they are:
Kowhai: Ethan Forbes, Tawharangi Davis, Sophie Peat & Ella Forbes.
Rata: Ollie Forsyth, Fearghus Byers, Maddison Short, Cate Robertson
Rimu: Isaac Clements, Summer Bailey Reece, Vinnie Te Maipi, Shaun Snow
Tawa: Kieran Butler, Cody Hall, Ayla Rowe, Jamie Julian
There were promises of help and encouragement whenever it is needed, knock knock jokes, raps and rhymes, dramatic moves and a lot of new ideas.
One liners:
I'll take the s and h out of school and make school cool.
I'm not that good at running but I'm good at swimming and I will always try my best. I'll run beside you little fellas and you big fellas too
I want to make the most of my last year by being a house captain for you.
I'll run beside you and cheer you on the loudest
Shaun Snow's speech was pretty cool:
Hi I am Shaun as some of you probably know. Well for starters I wasn't always this confident. I had help from teachers and friends, for example Josh here has been loyal and is always beside me ready to give a helping hand whenever I need one. So with me as house captain I can do the same for you. I will find a solution to any problem, I will encourage you in the darkest of times, I will provide a helping hand for those who seek one. We will make Rimu great again! In races when you can't run any faster and you are just about to give up, I will teach you to break the barrier.
Imagine it like this: we are the light in a light bulb, but we can't reach past the glass. Well I say grab that hammer and smash the glass but if you can't reach the hammer, I will reach it for you.
Together we can reach many goals.

9 February House leader elections tomorrow. Web site monitors application forms in today please. First Top School team trial at lunchtime today.

7 February Barbecue / meet the teachers & BOT tonight from 5pm. Come and have a game of cricket or football with your kids, have some kai and meet people!

3 February Wow our first week is already over! It is great to see lots of seniors trying to participate in extra things, e.g. 36 people have put their names forward to stand for House leader elections, 32 people have put their names down to try out for the Top School team.
Have a great long weekend everyone!

1 February Our library page is up to date with a great message on it. Check it out!

31 January Welcome back everyone. Congratulations to Laura Duncan who got married on Friday and is now Mrs Edgecombe! Welcome to our new teachers Mrs Derbyshire and Miss CT.
Individual class pages on this web site won't be updated until we have new web site monitors in place.

26 January Quite few people came and sorted out their stationery this morning. The updated class lists are on display at the start of school, so you can get the required stationery. Stationery shop open again tomorrow (Friday) from 9am till 12 noon. Happy last days of holidays everyone!

23 January 2017 Happy New Year everyone! This week the teachers have training days on Wednesday and Thursday. Welcome to our new teachers! School starts for students on Tuesday 31st January, at 8.50 am. Try and be here by 8.45am at the latest!!
A reminder that the stationery shop is open at school this week, Thurs and Friday 9am - 12 noon, and next week before school. They know the requirements for each particular room.
Good luck to our ex-year eights as they get ready to start high school next week.

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 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 or even 2002 and before.