As we pass the mid way point of the year our school moves from its past history focus in terms 1 and 2 to a future focus of what the coming year will look like for us. Our year 6 & 7s have been meeting with various secondary schools, deciding if they will be moving on next year or remaining in our bilingual unit which goes up to year 8.

We love them all dearly and are quite sad that some of them will be moving on. Our junior students have been fortunate to have our seniors as great role models that they can aspire to be like, we love how they show great responsibility managing things like Friday BBQ and Road Patrol. 

Junior students thrive with great role models. Photo: Supplied

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Our school is hard at work fundraising for camps at present, we have 3 camps planned for our years 5 - 7 students in term 4. Our students have been selling pinecones they collected, potatoes, toilet paper, made to order cheese rolls, butter and now Cadbury chocolates.

We also have the Friday BBQ, various discos, bake sales and other events which also contribute to the camp fund. It has been wonderful to see our community getting behind our kids, supporting them so that they can do lots of exciting activities while they are on camp. 

Fundraising success. Photo: Supplied

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Our students have been practicing ready for Polyfest on the 22nd of August. Polyfest is loved by all of our students and they all enjoy coming together to perform for the community. This has been an amazing opportunity for our students to experience the thrill of performing for hundreds of people on stage, proudly developing their Whanaungatanga (relationships and connections).

Polyfest is one of many exciting things our students have to look forwards to this term. Some other notable events are the earthquake simulator visit, the NZ Book Awards, sports competitions, REAP courses, Year 7 Tech and much more!

Polyfest, a joy for all students. Photo: Supplied

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Over the last few months we have had some student groups form in school including the 'Tinker Shed' and 'PALS'. The Tinker Shed team have been hard at work building planter boxes to sell in order to raise money for a new scooter jump, they were fortunate enough to have a drill donated to them from Mitre10 Gore which they have put to good use and are now on the hunt for more wood.

Mataura School proudly supported by Mataura Licensing Trust

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The PALS group have been doing art and craft activities during morning tea and lunch time, this has been particularly popular during the cold weather where some children like to have a break inside to warm up! We are very proud of our students for being in charge of the creation and direction of these groups, kā pai! 

Drill donated from Mitre 10 for the Tinker Shed team. Photo: Supplied

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We are excited to see what the rest of term 3 brings us!