Our Communication

Yellowtail Tournament Team 2023

Fri Mar 17 03:08pm

Kia ora whanau,

We are pleased to announce that the 2023 team is…

Ayla Styles

Desire Ret-Davis

Ella Davey

George Holland

The reserve is Huinui Lagrand-Ngatea.

Congratulations and many thanks to all of our applicants.

Nga mihi nui

Melissa

Hui-a-kura 2.15 today in Room 4. See you there!

Fri Mar 17 11:52am

Slip ‘n’ Slide Kickball – Sport Northland

Fri Mar 17 10:33am

Kia ora whanau,

Next Tuesday, the 21st of March, KC Maaka from Sport Northland will be bringing Slip ‘n’ Slide Kickball to Kororaareka Russell School. For your child to participate fully please make sure they have their togs, a towel and a change of clothes on the day.

Nga mihi

Melissa

Our new playground!

Fri Mar 17 08:32am

Kia ora whanau,

Our new playground is almost there. Next week the matting and bark will be laid and we plan to open it officially on Friday the 24th. Please watch the app for more info.

Nga mihi

Melissa

Yellowtail Team – team announcement postponed until Friday. Nga mihi, Meliissa

Wed Mar 15 07:54am

Pop-Up Lego Club Thurs 16th

Mon Mar 13 11:57am

Russell – Kororareka Lego Club supports the Teacher’s strike on Thursday. They will be holding Pop-up Lego Club on Thursday

Where: D’Vine Community Oasis (Home of Russell Baptist Church), 12 Wellington Street, Russell.

When: 2pm to 3pm

All ages of Russell Primary School children are welcome.

How it works: This is a free community group run by local parents. We bring the Lego. Turn up with your child/children and play Lego. Parent/Guardian to stay and watch their child please. 

This is a no-cost club. Gold coin donation to the Church is appreciated although optional. For more info contact Amy on 027 441 3179 or email: [email protected]

Playground construction is underway!

Mon Mar 13 11:49am

Kia ora whanau,

The construction of our new playground has begun. The job is expected to take a week and we hope to open the playground on Friday afternoon. We will let you know the arrangements for this on Wednesday the 15th.

Nga mihi

Melissa

School office closed – Monday 13th

Mon Mar 13 08:04am

Kia ora whanau,

Our office is closed today. Please make sure you ring us by 2.00 if you need to change your after-school arrangements. 

Nga mihi

Melissa

Strike Notice Homenote

Mon Mar 13 08:01am

This notice will come home with students today.

Nga mihi

Melissa

Notice of Strike – 16th March 2023

Mon Mar 13 07:18am

Kia ora whanau,

This morning we received Notice of Strike from the New Zealand Education Institute Te Riu Roa. 

The industrial action involves a complete cessation of all work by principals and teachers covered by these collective agreements from 07.00 am to 07.00 pm on Thursday the 16th of March.

Our school will be closed.

Many thanks for the messages of support we are receiving from our whanau. 

Nga mihi

Melissa

Fundraising Thankyou.

Fri Mar 10 09:39am

Morning all,

The stall at Wharf Sports was a great success. That is down to all the amazing support from you all. 

Thank you for all the baking. We really appreciate your effort. The bake stall alone raised $624.50 and was a sell out. 

The raffle was well received and we couldn’t believe how much we ended up with that we were able to have a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize. The raffle made $652.00 so again thank you for your support in sending in items and buying tickets.

The BBQ was hot work but well worth it. All the food was donated my Bay 4 Square, so if you see Wendy and Andrew the next time you are in the shop, please thank them. By the food being donated the only cost for this event was the drinks at $150. The takings were $981.40 minus the costing we made $831.40. 

We can’t do these events without your support in donating your time to man the stalls. As you can see the more people we have the less stressful it is and the more manageable the lines are. Thank you to those parents who were able to help yesterday. 

We can’t stress enough how thankful we are for your support yesterday. Thank you again. 

The $2,107.60 that we made from this event will go towards the replacement playground fund. The update on this is we are still approximately $13,000 short. If anyone has any ideas or contacts on how we can raise this shortfall please get in touch. 

Thank you,
FORS Committee.  

Industrial Action – March 16 Strike

Fri Mar 10 09:37am

Kia ora whanau o te Kura o Kororaareka

You will probably have heard that New Zealand teachers and principals have failed to reach a satisfactory update to our Collective Agreement. We are planning industrial action in the form of a strike next week, on Thursday the 16th of March. This means school will be closed. Official notification  will be published on Monday the 13th of March.

Nga mihi mahana

Many thanks to you all…

Thu Mar 09 04:30pm

Kia ora whanau,

Thank you so much for your support today. We had so many volunteers on the stalls and helping out with the organisation of the day that we couldn’t quite name you all, but please know how grateful we are to you.

For some of our children that was their first Wharf Sports and for some, it will be their last. We were so impressed with their commitment and their confidence.

By supporting our children you build their resilience and confidence to try new things. By supporting our stalls you bring us closer to paying for the playground that will be installed next week. We look forward to opening it to our children as soon as we can, so please watch the app for an invite.

Nga mihi

Melissa

Wharf Sports tomorrow

Wed Mar 08 05:28pm

Kia ora whanau,

We hope to see you at our 2023 Wharf Sports tomorrow. Events are held for our students 8 years and over and all younger or non-swimming students will be supervised by one of our teachers.

All of our staff and volunteers have been working flat-out to make this a success. You can come down for a sausage, bacon and egg sandwich, a cool drink and cakes. There are also two stalls run by our students – a second-hand book stall and a worm wee stall. There are tickets for beautiful grocery hamper raffles.

Many thanks to the Clifford whanau in particular whose services to the school make the day possible, and to FORS who have organised such great fund-raising activities for the day. Every sausage or raffle ticket you buy contributes to our new playground.

Ka kite apopo

Melissa

Yellowtail Team

Tue Mar 07 09:02am

Kia ora whanau,

Thank you to all those students who sent in wonderful letters of application to be a part of our 2023 Yellowtail Tournament team. 

We will make our decision about the team and let our studnets and whanau know on Wednesday the 15th of March.

Nga mihi

‘Melissa and Jo

Our Wharf Sports Team – Corrected, many thanks. Please let me know if you think I’ve missed anything.

Mon Mar 06 08:11pm

Kia ora whanau

Please find attached our swimmers and divers for Thursday’s Wharf Sports. 

Many thanks to all our volunteers who are coming along to help. We will be starting to set up from 8.30 am. There is always plenty to do, so please come and give us a hand if you’ve got some extra time on your hands.

Congratulations to our swimmers and divers, we are all looking forward to an awesome day.

View PDF

Office Closed Tuesday

Mon Mar 06 08:02pm

Kia ora whanau,

Our office will be closed tomorrow. Please make sure your children know what their after-school arrangements are. If you need to change these it is important to ring before 2.00 so that we can make sure your message gets through.

Nga mihiu

Melissa

Message from Bay Bush Action regarding a Possum Control operation.

Mon Mar 06 02:26pm

 

View PDF

Cake stall – Wharf Sports

Mon Mar 06 08:12am

Kia ora whanau,

If you are able to, please send in an ingredient list with your goods. This is particularly helpful for our children with allergies. 

Nga mihi

Melissa

Yellowtail Competition

Sun Mar 05 01:07pm

Kia ora Room 2 students and whanau,

Don’t forget that tomorrow is the day that application letters for the Yellowtail Tournament are due. Thanks to those students who have already submitted theirs. Please remember they must be signed by a parent or caregiver.

Nga mihi

Melissa

Room 2 – don’t forget your togs tomorrow, we may have time for a swim. Nga mihi, Miss Jackson.

Thu Mar 02 08:31pm

School closes and the bus runs at 1.00 today for goal-setting meetings. Nga mihi.

Thu Mar 02 09:12am

Goal-setting

Tue Feb 28 08:17am

Kia ora whanau,

Don’t forget that school closes at 1.00 today for our goal-setting meetings. The bus will run at that time. All students must be collected from school as we cannot provide supervision for them.

Nga mihi

Melissa

 

There will be no Hui-a-Kura/School Assembly today due to other class activities. Nga mihi mahana, Mleissa

Fri Feb 24 08:39am

Goal-Setting next week

Fri Feb 24 08:15am

 

View

Tues 28th and Thursday 2nd – school closes and the bus runs at 1.00. Nga mihi.

Wed Feb 22 12:40pm

Cyclone Damage

Wed Feb 22 10:20am

Kia ora whanau,

We have been very lucky and suffered minimal damage from Cyclone Gabrielle.

On Saturday an arborist will come and take care of the beautiful pohutukawa and the trees around the dental clinic. We will then be able to repone the playground, but the memorial walkway will remain closed off until the builders come to reorganise the fencing.

Thanks for helping us keep our students safe.

Nga mihi

Melissa 

Waiatangi Trip and thanks to FORS

Tue Feb 21 07:54am

Kia ora koutou

Don’t forget that today is our trip to Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Students will need a drink bottle as well as their usual packed lunch. 

Many thanks to the FORS team who put on such a great pool party yesterday. 

Kia pai to ra

Melissa

Meet the teacher, sausage sizzle, and swim.

Thu Feb 16 12:52pm

Kia ora whanau,

On Monday the 20th of February we will hold our Meet the Teacher afternoon. Classes will be open from 4.30 – 5.15. FORS will host a sausage sizzle in the pool area from 5.00 – 6.00.

We’d really like to see you all there. After the stress of recent events, it is really important that our students know that you value what they do here at school each day. It’s also important to have met your child’s teacher informally before we hold goal-setting meetings at the end of Feb/beginning of March.

This is also an opportunity to come and chat about school-wide initiatives such as Positive Behaviour for Learning and our property projects. You are welcome to come and find me in the library between 4.30 and 5.00 if you would like to hear more about what will be going on this year. It’s also a great way to bring your preschoolers into school to get them more familiar with our grounds and people.

We do hope you will make time to come and join us.

Nga mihi

‘Melissa

Goal-setting meetings

Wed Feb 15 05:48pm

Kia ora ano

This year our student-whanau-teacher goal-setting meetings will take place on Tuesday the 28th of February and Thursday the 2nd of March.

As a staff, we have closely reviewed the feedback whanau gave last year in our gathering voice meetings at school and at Kainghoa Marae. Prior to our goal-setting meetings, we will be talking together about how to make sure we are setting aspirational goals and making it clear what supports we will all need to have in place to ensure the success of our students. Please be ready to talk to your child’s teacher about what help you can offer at home and especially what you are already doing to enhance the learning that matters most to you.

Please use the form provided to book your times. If you cannot make either of these sessions we will be happy to set up an alternative time and date for you. It is important for your child to be present, and to lead the conversation.

We look forward to seeing you all.

Nga mihi mahana

Melissa

Waitangi Trip Feb 21

Wed Feb 15 05:32pm

Kia ora whanau

We are planning to go ahead with our trip to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds next Tuesday the 21st of Feb. Your child will bring the attached note home tomorrow and we would appreciate a very quick return to help us get organised. 

We will need about 4 parent helpers who are happy to drive a carload of students as our bus does not hold quite enough. This is a suitable trip to bring your preschoolers on. 

You are welcome to email your permission to your child’s teacher or Ange on [email protected] if you are unable to get a newsletter home in the next few days.

Nga mihi

Melissa

School open on Thursday

Wed Feb 15 12:37pm

Kia ora whanau,

School will be open tomorrow, Thursday the 16th of February. Please use your own best judgment about whether or not it is safe for you and your children to travel to school. The bus will be running and we have every confidence in Arthur’s ability to navigate any remaining hazards.

There are some areas that will be roped or fenced off until arborists can check the trees. Please keep safe and avoid these areas. 

The safest drop-off point for children is the Baker Street parking opposite the Fire Station. 

Our pool will be closed for the rest of the week – for students and for the public.

Thank you for all your support in the last few days and I’d particularly like to thank Kelly and Jess on our Board who have helped make the big decisions and spread important information among our school community.

We look forward to seeing our students back and hearing about their cyclone experiences.

Nga mihi

Melissa

School Grounds closed – tree damage and hazards

Tue Feb 14 12:32pm

Kia ora whanau,

Please stay away from our school grounds today and tomorrow. We will begin our clean up when it is safe to do so. It is unsafe for children to be playing or walking through school due to damage to trees and possibly the junior playground.

If you see visitors or tourists on our grounds please ask them to leave for their own safety.

Nga mihi

Melissa

School closed Wednesday 15th Feb

Tue Feb 14 09:47am

Kia ora whanau,

Once again we have made the decision to close school tomorrow, Wednesday the 15th of February.

We strongly encourage you to only travel for essential reasons and to take notice of all warnings from MetService.

After this part of the storm is over we will need some time to clean up at school before we can all safely return. 

If you are able, please email either me at [email protected] or your child’s classroom teacher to let us know if you need anything or if you are all okay. We would appreciate hearing from you. Remember that you can send messages via the absentee function on the app.

Please make sure taking care of yourselves and your whanau is your number one priority and that you reach out for help if you need it.

Nga mihi

Melissa

Pool Key Holders – Pool closed to the public until at least Friday 17th. Nga mihi, Melissa

Mon Feb 13 12:47pm

School Closed Tuesday 14th

Mon Feb 13 11:54am

Kia ora whanau,

Due to the severe weather warnings still in place, Kororaareka Russell School will remain closed again on Tuesday the 14th of February. We hope to be open again for our students on Wednesday. Please keep watching the app or our website for information. If you know a friend or neighbour isn’t receiving our messages, please pass on the critical information.

Stay safe and please reach out if we can help you during this time.

Nga mihi

Melissa

School closed Monday – Severe Weather

Sun Feb 12 07:51pm

Kia ora whanau,

We are taking advice from the Ministry of Education and MetService and closing Kororaareka Russell School tomorrow and probably also on Tuesday. We will let you know about Tuesday as soon as we have enough information to safely make a decision.

Our snorkeling trip for Room 2 will be postponed.

We hope you are warm and dry. Please contact me at [email protected] if you need any help during the next few days. 

Our power and internet connections are very patchy but teachers will do their best to communicate a few ideas for your children’s learning. Please take care of each other and we look forward to seeing you as soon as possible

Noho ora mai

Melissa 

Pool closed to the public/keyholders this weekend

Sat Feb 11 11:33am

Kia ora whanau 

to ensure your safety and the pool area from damage we will be closing the pool to keyholders/members of the public until Monday afternoon at 3.15.

Nga mihi mahana

Melissa

Back to school – Meet our teachers!

Thu Feb 09 09:10pm

Kia ora whanau,

On Wednesday the 15th of February the Friends of Russell School invites you to join us between 4.30 and 6.00 at school. Classrooms will be open and you can chat with our teachers about school routines, our curriculum, and the classroom programme. 

The pool will be open for all from 5.00 – 6.00 and there will be a sausage sizzle from 5.15.

Please come along and make connections with new whanau, teachers, and old friends.

Nga mihi

Melissa

Room 2 Snorkeling Trip 16th Feb

Thu Feb 09 08:02pm

Kia ora whanau,

Next week Room 2 will walk over to Oneroa/Long Beach to take part in the Experiencing Marine Reserves snorkeling programme (weather permitting). 

We will need several parent helpers who are confident in the water. This is a great way to get involved in our curriculum and spend time with your child and their mates.

The attached homenote will come home with your student tomorrow. Please return it by Tuesday the 14th of Feb.

Nga mihi

 

FORS meeting tomorrow

Tue Feb 07 02:47pm

Hello Russell School Community!

The Friends of Russell School (FORS) would like to invite you to our upcoming meeting tomorrow evening – Wednesday 8th February.

After the successful quiz night from the end of last year we look forward to holding more of these fun events for our community and getting the ball rolling for our year ahead. We would love your support in strengthening our school community culture and supporting our hardworking teachers and staff.

It would be wonderful to see a good mix of our wider school whanau sharing ideas, the more we have at the table the more we can make it happen. The meeting will be at:

9 Wellington Street (Ms Fulton’s house) at 5:30pm with Drinks and nibbles provided.

We will be discussing some fun upcoming events and future fundraising projects. Feel free to approach any of us with any questions you might have about joining and we hope to see you there!!

Warmest Regards Erin, Kirstine, Amy, Rachel, Bronwyn and Kelly

School starts tomorrow – the bus is running as usual. Welcome to our new whanau, we look forward to seeing all our children tomorrow.

Wed Feb 01 01:36pm