Friday 1st May 2026 Newsletter

5 hours ago
5 min read

Friday 1st May 2026

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Kia Ora Parents & Whānau,

It’s been a short week with ANZAC Day, but certainly another busy one. It was lovely to see so many of our students and their families at the service on Saturday. We’re proud of the respect shown by our students as they represented both the school and the wider community.

Duck shooting season begins this weekend, and Camo Day at Balfour brought plenty of excitement. The dress‑up day and duck‑calling competition were a real hit, with students showing great creativity and enthusiasm.

Earlier in the week, four of our Korimako students travelled to Invercargill for the EPro8 competition, kindly supported by Mrs Schriek. This science and engineering challenge saw the team build a moving car, and they placed an impressive fourth overall. A fantastic achievement and a great experience for everyone involved.

Cross country is coming up toward the end of the month, and we’ll share more details with you soon so you can plan ahead.

Wishing you all a happy and safe weekend.

Mihi mahana,

Andrea Holt

WELCOME

Last week we welcomed Jacob, Maggie and Hazel to Balfour School. Here they all are proudly displaying the certificates they received in assembly today.

CERTIFICATE RECIPIENTS

Archer - Leadership skills and willingness to help out.

Flynn - for quietly doing the right thing.

Beauden - for beginning the term with a positive attitude and

a willingness to Learn.

Toretto - for showing self-control and making great choices in class

Albie - for doing great independent writing.

Arthur - for showing great commitment to go above and beyond

with your maths and writing.

PRINCIPALS AWARD RECIPIENTS

Charlotte - for beginning the term with a positive attitude

and contributing in class activities.

Sienna - for outstanding positivity especially with challenging work.

Thea - for a positive start to the term and for showing integrity and

honesty in your actions.

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Hayley, Charlie D, Jerrol, Charlie W, Bjorn, Cooper, Lydia, Ana, Flynn, Hazel, Ellie,

and Maggie.

CALENDAR OF COMING EVENTS - TERM 2

Wednesday 6th May. - Board of Trustees meeting, 7pm

Friday 22nd May - Cross Country

Monday 1st June - No School - King's Birthday

Wednesday 3rd June. - Northern Cross Country

Wednesday 10th June - Firewise

Thursday June 25th - Visit to Riversdale Arts Exhibition

Friday 3rd July - End of term 2

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

PERMANENT BUS/EMERGENCY MEDICATION FORMS

WE HAVE SEVERAL OF THESE THAT HAVE NOT BE RETURNED. CAN WE PLEASE HAVE ALL OF THESE FORMS RETURNED ON MONDAY. WE NEED THESE FILLED IN AND RETURNED PLEASE AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH TERM EVEN IF THERE ID NO CHANGE FROM LAST TERM. PLEASE ENSURE THEY HAVE YOUR CHILD/RENS NAME ON AND THEY ARE SIGNED.

SWIMMING POOL - KEYS RETURNED TO THE OFFICE PLEASE

The swimming pool is now closed for the season and we would appreciate it if all keys could be returned to the office.

BUSES

Our three bus drivers are Robin McGregor, Megan Ballantine and Graeme McGaughey. As a courtesy we ask parents to text the bus driver if your child is off the bus in the morning. Also please do not make alternative arrangements for your child to travel on another bus unless you have checked with the driver that they have room. Please also notify the school office. Please note that the office is only open until 1.30pm so any last minute notices must be sent to the mobile phone otherwise they will be missed.

Please remember that if your child is going home with someone else, the school must hear this directly from you. For safeguarding reasons, we cannot accept messages passed on by another parent. Thank you for helping us keep everyone safe.

Robin 0272217112.

Megan. 0274086164

Graeme 0274044577.

FRIDAY ASSEMBLY

From Friday 1st May, Celebration Assembly will be held on Friday mornings at 9.00am. This timing fits much better with the flow of the school day and will also allow us to send out the weekly newsletter in a more timely and consistent way. As normal, all parents are welcome to join us. If your child is getting a certificate, we will notify you on Thursday afternoon.

BOARD MEETING ATTENDANCE

Our school board meetings are held in public, and members of the community are welcome to attend and observe. These meetings are not public forums, so visitors do not have speaking rights and are unable to participate in discussion. At times, the board may move into a public‑excluded session to consider sensitive matters, and visitors will be asked to step out during that part of the meeting. If you have questions about how board meetings work or would like to attend, please contact the school office.

MAINTAINING CLEAR COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

A reminder that all matters relating to your child’s work, behaviour, or welfare should be directed to their class teacher. Support staff are not able to respond to messages or queries outside of school, and all communication should go through the appropriate teaching staff. Thank you for helping us maintain clear and consistent communication channels.

KORIMAKO Week 2 was a short but productive week for our class. In Mathematics, students explored angles in triangles and learnt how to measure angles accurately using a protractor. In English, we continued with our reading programme and introduced persuasive letter writing, where students began learning how to express their ideas clearly and convincingly. We are also proud to share that four of our students represented the school at a science competition in Invercargill, finishing an impressive fourth out of nine schools. Well done to them for their effort and achievement.

Ngā mihi,

Anish Krishna Korimako Class Teacher

PIWAKAWAKA Piwakawaka have worked hard again this week on their learning. We are continuing to practice for cross country with fun running games for 10 to 15 minutes each morning. This early exercise certainly helps us settle into our work with quiet focus. In Maths, we have continued to practise subtraction strategies appropriate for our year levels. In iDeal, Year 3 looked at the soft c sound which is followed by an i,e or y in words such as pencil, fancy or centipede. Year 4 learnt words with the long i spelling igh. Daily diary writing has continued this week along with an introduction to contractions and typing on keyboards. Have a great weekend.

Nga mihi

Judy Finlayson. Piwakawaka Class Teacher

TUI Kia ora whānau,

This week we explored phonics sounds, focusing on ‘at’ and ‘ch’ sounds. With maths we focused on place value, addition, and subtraction. With writing we focused on letter formation of ‘q’ and ‘r’, including the ‘who’ and ‘what’ of a sentence, sentence stems ‘because’ and ‘but’, and developing questions for ‘who’ ‘what’ ‘where’ ‘when’ and ‘how’. We also finished our poppy artwork from last week and are beginning to explore how all living things grow and make connections to this through the story Jack and the Beanstalk as well as photos from when they were younger.

Ngā mihi, Natasha Humphrey Room Tui Kaiako

ANZAC DAY