Friday 30th October 2026 Newsletter
Friday 30th October 2026
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Kia Ora Parents & Whānau,
It has been a short week at school with Labour Day on Monday and some changeable weather throughout the week. Despite this, there has still been plenty happening!
We celebrated our wonderful teachers today as it is Teacher's Day - they bring so much to our school and we are very grateful they are here.
The Korimako class has been getting into the camp spirit ahead of their Dunedin Camp next week. Students have been busy practising their acts for Balfour's Got Talent, which will be held one evening during camp. Today, our Year 6 students also enjoyed their transition/taster day at NSC.
Next Friday is Gumboot Friday, and students are invited to wear their gumboots to school to help raise awareness and funds for the I Am Hope Foundation.
We have also received an invitation for our Year 5 and 6 students to attend the Northern Cup Sports Tournament in Mossburn next week. We know this is quite short notice, but we are looking for a few parents who may be available to help with transport. If you can assist, please let the office know as soon as possible.
We wish our Year 6 students a fantastic time at camp next week. They have a busy week ahead filled with exciting activities, new experiences, and plenty of fun.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Mihi mahana,
Andrea Holt
PRINCIPAL'S AWARD
Toretto - for consistently demonstrating our school values by showing respect, making positive choices and trying his best.
Addie - for being an "awesome chick" who exhibits all the school values consistently and cheerfully.
Iyana - for making really pleasing progress with your positive attitude and effort towards learning. You have shown that you can take on board feedback and put it into action. You should be proud of your positive mindset. Keep shining!
CLASS CERTIFICATES
Arthur - for asking thoughtful questions and writing great sentences.
Grayson - for great persistence and determination.
Xavier - "Top bloke award" For being an all-round legend, a true gentle-man and a brilliant mate! You show kindness, consideration and care to everyone.
Nikau - "Top bloke Award" For being an all-round legend, a true gentle-man and a brilliant mate! You show kindness, consideration and care to everyone.
Evie - for showing kindness, positive attitude and respectful behaviour towards others.
Marcos - for being responsible, staying in control and giving your best effort in work you do. (Marcos was absent today)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Birthday wishes this week go to Katie Gilkison. Happy birthday to you and we hope you had a super fun birthday celebration.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!
CALENDAR OF COMING EVENTS - TERM 4
2nd - 5th November - Year 5/6 camp - Dunedin
Tuesday 24th November - Production 1pm and 5.30pm
Tuesday 1st December - Production reserve date
2nd - 4th December - Y3/4 camp - Omaui
Monday 14th December - Leavers ceremony
Monday 14th December - School closes 12.15pm
TERM DATES 2026
Monday 14th December - last day of Term 4
Tuesday 2nd February 2027 - Beginning of term 1
BOARD MEETING DATES FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR
TERM 4. - 9th December - 7.00pm
SWIMMING POOL CLOSED
Due to maintenance issues, the pool will be closed until further notice. Apologies for any inconvenience.
BALFOUR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY POOL
Would you like to be a Friend of the Balfour Community Pool?
For many years, our pool has served as a safe and enjoyable place for the students of Balfour School and local families to swim during the summer months.
We have been fortunate to have had a full enclosure upgrade funded by the Ministry of Education back in 2025, which has safeguarded its potential for many years to come. However, the equipment running our pool is old and in desperate need of replacement.
As a valuable and locally enjoyed fixture of Balfour, we are looking for community partnerships to keep our gates open and help fund the upkeep of our facilities.
We would love to partner with sponsors to help cover some of the costs of running our pool. Your contribution would go directly toward pool expenses, such as chemical, equipment upgrades and maintenance.
To be a sponsor you don’t need to be a business. You may just be a community focused local who would like to help keep our Pool open for many years ahead.
We have 3 tiers of sponsorship available. Including a one off donation. If you would like to know more, please get in touch with Kate Eaton by emailing, texting/calling. ewl.balfouroffice@gmail.com
As a thank you for your kind donation, your name will feature on our
“Friends of the Balfour Community Pool” board that will be proudly displayed inside the pool enclosure.
BUS CHANGE REMINDER - PLEASE READ
To help ensure your child's bus arrangements are communicated safely and in a timely manner, please do not email bus changes to the school. Emails are not always checked during the afternoon and there is a risk that important messages may be missed. If your child has a change to their usual bus plans, please send a text message or phone the school office instead. This ensures we receive the information promptly and can pass it on to the appropriate staff member before the end of the day. Thank you for your cooperation in helping us keep all students safe and accounted for at dismissal time.
BUS CHANGE / EMERGENCY CONTACT FORM
This form was emailed and sent on Hero to all parents at the beginning of last week. We require this to be filled out at the beginning of each term and returned to school even if there is no change from last term. Can you please get these back in next week.
ASSEMBLY
Assembly is held on Friday mornings at 9.00am. Everyone is welcome.
You will receive a text message if your child is receiving a certificate, except if it is for a birthday certificate where we will presume you know they will automatically be receiving a certificate.
When we message to tell you your child is receiving a certificate can you please keep it as a surprise for them. Thank you in advance.
RECYCLED UNIFORMS
Recycled Uniforms Available
We have the following recycled school uniform items available:
2 × Size 8 Polo Shirts
3 × Size 8 Hoodies
If you are interested or would like more information, please contact the school office.
STAFFING
Zaynor McLean
Many families will already know Zaynor McLean as one of our teacher aides. Zaynor has recently been granted a Limited Authority to Teach (LAT), enabling her to provide classroom teaching support when needed. While she will continue in her teacher aide role, there may be occasions when she steps into a teaching position to support learning programmes and maintain continuity for students. We are fortunate to have someone with her experience, knowledge, and strong relationships with our students and whānau as part of our team, and we appreciate the flexibility and commitment she brings to our school.
ACTIVE SOUTHLAND SURVEY
Active Southland are asking caregivers/whānau to complete this linked survey. Please disregard the survey if you have already completed it via a sports organisation you are connected to.
BALFOUR SCHOOL PRODUCTION
Calling all creative parents and whānau — we need your help. Our school production is coming up, and we’re looking for support with costumes and props. If you can sew, build, paint, or design, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us, if you’re able to lend a hand.
KORIMAKO - It was a short but busy week in Korimako, with Labour Day on Monday. Students continued working hard in class while getting ready for some exciting activities ahead.
SMART Assessments: This week, students completed their SMART assessments in Mathematics, Reading and Writing. We completed these before heading away to our Dunedin camp next week.
School Production: Preparations for the school production continued this week. A big thank you to Kath Dillon for giving her time and helping our students get involved and prepare for the upcoming performance.
Swimming: Students enjoyed their swimming lesson on Wednesday as part of our regular swimming programme.
Year 6 Transition Visit: Our Year 6 students visited Northern Southland College to experience a day at college. This was a valuable opportunity for them to become familiar with the college environment and get a feel for the next stage of their learning.
Coming Up – Dunedin Camp: We are very excited about our Dunedin camp next week, from Monday 2 November to Thursday 5 November. Students will have opportunities to explore new places, take part in educational activities and create wonderful memories with their classmates.
We look forward to an exciting week ahead and appreciate the support of our families in helping make this camp a memorable experience for our students!
Ngā mihi,
Anish Krishna
Korimako Class Teacher
PIWAKAWAKA Kia ora,
This week, Piwakawaka has been industrious in many forms.
SMART: We have commenced our SMART assessments for the end of year. This week we completed Reading and Writing which all the students made great effort in. Next week, we will complete the Math assessment, and continue with other assessments for the end of year such as iDeal spelling and Reading Skills.
Production: We have been rehearsing some of our acting, learning songs and making props. Notes will come out shortly about costumes and what will be worn underneath.
Maths: We have been looking at fractions, graphs and completing a general revision of concepts learnt through the year.
Students have continued to work hard on their reading aloud, spelling along with swimming lessons.
Nga Mihi,
Judy Finlayson and Piwakawaka students.
TUI
Kia ora Whanau
A short week this week, with the added bonus of Monday off for some.
Our learning programme is pretty much status quo at the moment.
Maths - we continue to explore number and looking at basic facts, doubling/halving, numbers before/after and adding and subtracting
Reading/Writing - we continued with daily reading and writing practice (swimming mucked me up a little on Wednesday - you may have noticed the same book came home). We are trying to get everyone reading for homework, creating really good habits around reading and understanding what we are reading. Remember, reading the same book as many times as we can, helps to improve our fluency as our confidence to tackle tricky words gets easier. We get to hear what it should sound like fluently.
Production - hopefully you all received a note via Hero regarding costumes for the production. I will put a copy in the class newsletter on Monday if you didn't. We have been busy making props, singing, rehearsing our part in the production and growing more and more gray hairs.
Swimming - went exceptionally well on Wednesday and watching the children's progress in such a short space of time is amazing. And they are all speedy at getting changed!!
Hope everyone has a great weekend
Jill Robb & Sarah McLean
Room Tui
HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPIENTS
Due to a technical issue with photo storage we were unable to publish this week's photo but will include it in next weeks newsletter
This week's Principal's Award recipients enjoying their Hot Chocolate with Mrs Holt were Toretto, Addie and Iyana.
CHILDREN"S AFTER SCHOOL GOLF
Our “School Pupils” Golf Club will begin again today 23rd October. For the benefit of any
new players, I have outlined some of the details about this activity below.
This Club is open to all pupils from year 3 and above, and will meet at the Riversdale Golf
Course each Friday during the summer terms.
Sessions times will be 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm. There is no cost for these Friday sessions and all clubs and balls are provided but children are welcome to bring their own.
If your child is interested in being part of this activity, or if you have any questions about this
club, please do not hesitate to phone Debbie Schriek on 0210462596.
JUNIOR TENNIS
The season is fast approaching and we are asking for you to make contact if your child is keen to play either B or C grade tennis. Coaching will also available. Beginners most welcome.
Contact: Helen McFelin 021 0279 5269
BALFOUR YOUNG FARMERS
Balfour Young Farmers are excited to be holding the 2027 Southland/Otago Young Farmers Regional Contest on Saturday, 13 February.
At this event, Southland/Otago FMG Young Farmers will go head-to-head for the opportunity to take the one spot representing Southland/Otago at the New Zealand FMG Young Farmer of the Year contest, which is being held in Christchurch in July 2027.
The Agrikids and Junior Young Farmers contests will also be taking place as part of the event in February, with schools from across Southland and Otago invited to participate. We are excited to bring this amazing event to our community and hope to see everyone getting involved!
We are getting in touch as it would be fantastic to see some of our local schools entering teams in either the Agrikids or Junior Young Farmers contest.
Registrations for these two events open to the public on Monday, 12 October at 10 am (the first day of Term 4). So set a reminder, because spots sell out fast!
Here is a link to find out more information: Agrikids and Junior Young Farmers Info, or please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
We are looking forward to seeing lots of our local schools getting involved and having teams take part!
