Tawatawa News

28 May 2026

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

Southern Zones Cross Country

The children did so well at Southern Zones this week! We had 16 students qualify out of the 40 who participated. It was the best we’ve ever done!  Well done to all our competitors and looking forward to InterZones on 9 June for those who are through to the next round. 

Thanks so much to all the parents who helped with transport, crowd control, course marshalling, took photos and even took on the very special job of announcer!  

We had a lovely message from a parent and head photographer: 

“I just wanted to alert you to some amazing Ridgway behavior today I saw. Charlie after racing initiated a handshake with his fellow competitors at the end of the race....a great mentor our boys can look up to and showing the Ridgway values out and about. I looked over and saw it and thought ‘what an awesome guy for our young ones to have in their school’." As a school we totally echo this sentiment.  

One of the benefits of a full primary school is that our younger students have some awesome role models to look up to! Another thing we do really well here is supporting each other! All our runners were cheering the rest of the school on, there were even cheerleaders who were doing little dance routines and chanting the names of the kids as they headed to the finish line.  Our school spirit is strong! 

Penguin Houses on the South Coast

One of the awesome things about running our own technology programme is that we get to contribute to our community and make a difference. Two examples of this are the rat trips the children built in the first term and the penguin nests they are currently building to go on the South Coast. This is part of the Forest and Bird project ‘Place for Penguins’.  Once the 14 nests are built the children will get to install them on our very own south coast. Breeding season starts in a few weeks and if we get them in before the end of June the penguins might move in this year! Cute!

Enviroschool Event 

This week, a wonderful Enviroschools team came to school to teach us all about water. They explored a catchment model to learn how water travels down a valley and what the difference is when vegetation is present. They did an obstacle course to learn about eels and their migration. They also wove ti kouka leaves into fish ladders which will then be used in Owhiro Bay Stream. Who knew fish ladders were a thing?  (I didn’t even know fish had feet…) Hopefully your child can explain all about them! 

Gastrobug doing the rounds

Unfortunately there seems to be a gastrobug going around at the moment.  Health NZ Guidelines on this are that a child should stay home until 48 hours have passed since the last time unpleasant stuff came out of them (from either end) in an unpleasant way. 

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