Friday 19th June 2026 Newsletter
- Jun 19
- 7 min read
Friday 19th June 2026
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Kia Ora Parents & Whānau,
It’s been an exciting week with World Cup fever in full swing. On Tuesday, some of our students gathered to watch the New Zealand vs Iran match. They proudly sang the national anthem before settling in to enjoy a great game — a lovely moment of school spirit.
We are very grateful to PGG Wrightson, who have kindly donated funds through their farmer fertiliser scheme. We’ve used part of this generous donation to purchase a table tennis table for our children, which I’m sure will be a big hit!. A huge thank you to them for supporting our school.
Next Thursday is our Art Exhibition trip, and we appreciate the parents who have volunteered their time to help supervise. We’re looking forward to seeing our children’s beautiful artwork on display alongside pieces from other schools and the professionals. A reminder that the decorated noodles handed out last week should be brought along on the day so children can place them on the tree in the foyer.
A special congratulations to Charlotte, who placed 6th at the Southland Cross Country event — an impressive achievement, especially after having to run the course twice due to some confusion for a few runners. What determination and resilience!
With just two weeks left in the term, excitement is building for our school disco on Wednesday 1 July. We hope to see lots of children there enjoying a fun evening together.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Mihi mahana,
Andrea Holt
BALFOUR SCHOOL VALUES AWARD - Toretto
Toretto, you are such a superstar!
Toretto is recognised for consistently demonstrating the values of our school.
Quietly spoken and unfailingly polite, he approaches every task with maturity
and purpose. He completes his work diligently, listens carefully to advice and
thoughtfully applies it to improve and grow.
Toretto is a joy to have at school. He is always smiling and brings a consistently positive attitude to every part of the day. He includes others in play, shows kindness to everyone, and treats people with genuine respect. Toretto exudes positive energy, approaches his learning with focus and enthusiasm and quietly gets on with his work without fuss. He is a wonderful role model for his peers and someone others can truly look up to.
Toretto displays all the Balfour School Values:
Be Respectful / kia whakaute
Be Positive / kia pai
Be Honest / kai pono
Be in Control / keite whakahaere
All in all, you are a wonderful asset to our school. Keep working hard - you will go far!
Thank you, Toretto, for everything you bring to Balfour School.
WELCOME
We would like to warmly welcome Danni to Balfour School. Danni and her family moved to Balfour earlier this year and Danni has joined Miss Humphrey and the class of Tui students. We would also like to extend a warm welcome to Danni's family to our school community.
CLASS CERTIFICATE RECIPIENTS
Ana- for showing a strong willingness to learn and making excellent progress.
Cyra - for perfect spelling in many tests.
Katie - for maintaining a positive mindset and working hard to improve each day.
Grayson - for improvement in spelling enthusiasm to write and type.
Maggie - for showing perseverance and continuing to work hard when learning becomes challenging.
Hazel - for consistently demonstrating excellent manners and setting a positive example through your caring nature in the classroom.
Sienna - for participating in the busking competition
PRINCIPALS AWARD RECIPIENTS
Isabella-Dixie - for showing exceptional empathy and insight in supporting others and finding different ways to help them overcome challenges.
Charlie - for maintaining a positive attitude and taking important steps forward in learning.
Ava - for being an outstanding student - courteous, kind, has beautiful handwriting, is enthusiastic, diligent and attentive.
BIRTHDAYS
Happy Birthday wishes this week to Arthur
We hope you had a super fun birthday celebration.
MATARIKI SHOW
On Friday, 3rd July, there will be a community Matariki Light Show taking place in Lumsden from 5.30–7.30pm, and we’re delighted that Balfour School students have contributed artwork to the display.
It should be a good evening with plenty of other things going on as well.
Please refer to the poster below for all event details.
CALENDAR OF COMING EVENTS - TERM 2
Thursday June 25th - Visit to Riversdale Arts Exhibition
Wednesday 1st July. - School Disco. ( see poster below for more Info)
Friday 3rd July - End of term 2
Wednesday 5th August - Board meeting 7.30pm, (anyone welcome to attend)
Tuesday 11th August - Korimako Class Speeches
Friday 14th August - Piwakawaka and Tui Classes Speeches
TERM DATES 2026
Friday 3rd July - last day term 2
Monday 20th July. - first day term 3
Friday 25th September. - last day term 3
Monday 12th October - first day term 4
To be confirmed - last day term 4
STAFF NEWS
We would like to let you all know that Natasha Humphrey has tendered her resignation from her teaching position at Balfour School. Natasha has given the required two months' notice and her final day with us will be mid August.
Natasha has contributed to our school during her time here and we know many of you will join us in thanking her for the support she has provided to her students. We will ensure there is an opportunity for students and whanau to acknowledge her before she finishes.
We will be advertising for a new teacher immediately. Our goal is to appoint someone who will provide a warm, stable and high quality learning environment for our students. We will keep you updated as the appointment process progresses.
In the meantime, teaching and learning in the classroom will continue as normal. We are focused on ensuring a smooth transition for students and maintaining the strong routines and relationships already in place. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.
FIRE WISE VISIT
This week we were fortunate to have a representative from the Fire sevice visit our school to speak with the children about fire safety, what to do in an emergency, and how to keep themselves and their whānau safe at home. The children were really engaged and took a lot from the session. As part of their visit, the Fire Service has offered support for anyone in our community who does not currently have working smoke alarms. If this applies to you or someone you know, please let us know and we can arrange for the Fire Service to help with supplying and fitting smoke alarms.
BOARD MEETING DATES FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR
TERM 3 TERM 4
5th August 28th October
9th September 2nd December
KORIMAKO - Week 9 has been another exciting and productive week for our class. In Mathematics, students have been working on multiplication and division strategies to strengthen their number knowledge and problem-solving skills. In Writing, students have been exploring exciting story ideas from Writing Legends and focusing on editing and improving their narratives. We have also been busy preparing our assembly play, based on the Māori traditional story of Rūaumoko, the god of earthquakes.
The excitement of the FIFA World Cup has also been felt in our classroom. Students enjoyed taking part in World Cup-themed activities as New Zealand began their World Cup campaign with a draw against Iran. The children showed great pride and enthusiasm by singing the New Zealand National Anthem before the game and cheering on the team throughout the match. Well done to everyone for another fantastic week of learning and participation. Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.
Ngā mihi,
Anish Krishna
Korimako Class Teacher
PIWAKAWAKA Kia ora,
This week in Piwakawaka, we have been doing lots of math and we have been learning about parentheses. It's a little confusing. We have also been doing four letter words in handwriting every day. We have been looking at erosion in science. It was cool. We got to make piles of dirt, sand and small rocks.
We have been writing letters, one of them was a practice writing a formal letter to Mr. Mayor (aka Rob Scott) about a new part of the playground. A couple of us are going to type our letters to send to him!
Other stuff we have been doing is Riversdale arts. We have been making Purere Hua, weaving baskets and plaiting ropes.
Today we have been learning about Firewise. It was cool. There was a video of a fire, we also got to practise getting away from a fire.
Year 4 is also finishing the last iDeal lesson for Stage 3!
Nga mihi
Judy Finlayson.
Piwakawaka Class Teacher
TUI Kia ora whānau,
This week for writing we have been working on sentence expansion and how to turn a fragment into a sentence. We have started with ‘ck’ sounds and CVC words working with iDeal. For Maths we have been working on numbers bonds to 5 and 10, skip counting, and multiplication and division facts. We have also successfully finished our paper weaving art for the Riversdale Arts Exhibition which have turned out amazingly! On Thursday we were also lucky enough to have a firefighter come in and talk to us about safety around candles and what to do if a fire happens in the home.
Ngā mihi, Natasha Humphrey
Room Tui Kaiako
Watching opening game of World Cup
HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPIENTS
Todays Hot Chocolate recipients,
Ava, Charlie and Isabella-Dixie
,
Dear Whānau,
Possible ski trip
Lumsden School have asked whether we’d like to join their ski trip. This trip is optional. For those not attending, school remains open for a normal day of instruction.
As a parent, you must attend and take your child or organise someone else to take your child.
We are not able to provide transportation.
Chains are required to be carried for all vehicles.
Any other family members attending are the responsibility of the parents.
Outside of lesson time, supervision of the students is the responsibility of parents.
To give you an idea of costs from last year, see below:
$120 per child (lesson, ski/snowboard hire, lift pass)
$240 per adult (ski/snowboard board hire, lift pass)
$175 per adult (full day lift pass only)
It is more than likely that these costs will be higher this year.
At this stage, we are just getting an indication of how many students would be interested in attending this ski trip. Please indicate below and let us know by Wednesday, 24th June.
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Possible ski trip
If the ski trip goes ahead, my child/children will be attending this trip in Term 3.
Name ________________________________________________________________
Number of school children skiing ______________
Family members skiing _____________________
Family members ski skiing ___________________
