Tawatawa News

27 June 2025

He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa
Bonjour à toutes nos familles

Mid Year Achievement Summaries

These are coming your way today! They should be safely tucked in a wee envelope in your child’s bag (hopefully not wet). For children who we know have two houses, these will be emailed to both parents. If you’d like an emailed copy, please let the office know.

We are holding Learning Conferences on Wednesday and Thursday of the first week of term and this is a good time to talk about the summary and find out more about your child’s learning. The booking form will be emailed out to you on Monday.

In order to get through all of the conferences, we would like to run these from 1pm on Wednesday 16th July (this previously said Thursday 17th but we have swapped it). If you’re able to collect your child early that day, that would be amazing. Otherwise they will be supervised at school by our teacher aide team.

Shout Out to Our Road Patrollers

A huge thank you to our amazing Year 6 road patrollers who show up rain or shine to help keep everyone safe at the school gate.

Wednesday was one of those wild Wellington mornings—cold, wet, and windy—but our patrollers stood strong despite the challenging weather.

Unfortunately, we also witnessed some unsafe and concerning driver behaviour near the Mills/Ridgeway Road and Mornington intersection. This included:

· U-turns made right on the intersection

· Cars overtaking stopped buses into oncoming traffic

· Excessive speed through the school zone

These actions make it incredibly dangerous for our students and whānau at drop-off and pick-up times.

Please slow down, follow road rules, and drive with care around our school. Our students are doing an outstanding job—let’s all do our part to keep them safe.

Next time you see a road patroller please thank them for the great mahi they do!

Rongoā Garden and Food Forest - working bee

A few newsletters ago, we mentioned we’ve received a grant to plant a food forest and rongoā garden (thanks again to Otto’s dad Peter for making that happen!) and that we’d be looking for working bee volunteers.

All going well, we’ll have a couple of empty skips arrive at the end of the first week of Term 3.

That weekend (Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July) we’d really appreciate some parent help in digging up clay “soil” and filling those skips!

The following weekend (Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 July) we’ll have some mountains of new and improved soil to spread around into the garden.

It’s an ambitious schedule (especially over winter!) so any little bit of help you could offer would be hugely appreciated. Bring your friends, your neighbours and even that stranger down the street!

BYO shovel/spade and rake!

Please fill in the form if you are keen to help out, and let us know your availability.

Basketball

All our teams have had a great season! Our experienced players have increased their skills while our new players are learning all about the game! Looking forward to another great season next term.

We are looking for a few more players for our Year 3/4 team for next term. It’s a great sport and we nearly have enough to make two teams at this level.

Noho Marae

With some expert searching from our office team, we have found a marae for our noho. However, due to the location and space restrictions it is unlikely to involve the Year 4s. Sorry Year 4s!

The plan is to run it every second year in non-camp years. That way, everyone gets at least one noho over their time at Ridgway and most get two when they stay for our amazing Year 7 & 8 programme.

This will be the night of the 19th of August for one group and 20th for a second group. Details at this stage are still vague as we are trying to secure the marae for an extra night so we can take all of our Year 5 - 8s. Watch this space!

Swimming next term

Whoops! Mistake in the last newsletter. Year 1-3s swim on Tuesday and Year 4-5s swim on Friday, just to keep it interesting! This starts in the second week so don’t worry about locating the lost goggles and forgotten swim cap over the holidays.

Bowls Wellington

This week, students had the opportunity to take part in fun lawn bowls sessions with instructors from Bowls Wellington. More information about joining a club in the Community Notices below!

Upcoming Events

School holidays, back at school on 14 July (sign up for our holiday programme here )
Term 3: Year 1 - 5 weekly on Tuesday from second week
Learning Conferences: 16 and 17th July
Swimming from second week of term: Year 1-3s Tuesday starting 22 July, Year 4-5s Friday starting 25 July
16, 23, 30th July - Touch Rugby sessions across the school
31st July and 7th August - Softball sessions with Year 3 - 8
6 - 14 August - Life Education Trust (Harold the Giraffe)
19 and 20 August - noho marae for Year 5 - 8s
22 August - Calendar Art orders due

Community Notices

Lawn Bowls

Lawn bowls isn’t just for adults—it’s a fantastic sport for children too! Whether your child is keen to play socially or ready to take on more of a competitive challenge, lawn bowls can be as relaxed or serious as they choose. Local bowls clubs welcome young players. Usually a club will have sets of bowls available for newcomers, just ask. You can even join up as a family! Social members are welcome at clubs.

So if your child is interested in giving it a go, get in touch with your local lawn bowls club or contact Brady at Bowls Wellington: brady.amer@bowlswellington.com

Island Bay Bowling Club, 260 The Parade, Island Bay, Alison Stewert: 021 209 8127, https://ibbc.co.nz/

Lyall Bay Bowling Club, 53 Apu Crescent, Lyall Bay, John Toohill: 021 217 1375, https://www.lbbc.co.nz/

Victoria Bowling Club, 125 Pirie St Reserve, Mt Victoria, Robyn Rintoul: 027 322 5225, https://www.victoriabowlingclub.org.nz/

The Vogelmorn Indoor Bowling Club is part of the Mornington Golf Club. It is a social and competitive club - members can go on to competitive events.

The season runs from March until October. 7:15pm every Tuesday, just turn up on the night.

Mornington Golf Club, 80 Stanley St, Berhampore, 04 389 6816