Tawatawa News

23 October 2026

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

Ridgway School Inaugural Quiz Night

The competition is already hotting up. We are hearing rumours of outrageous costumes and outlandish team names!  

We’ve already had raffle donations from:  La Cloche, Gramercy, Zealandia, Sprig and Fern, Shut up and Dance, Arobake, Baron Hasselhoff's, Cloudbuster and Apostle Hot Sauce. 

It would be great if every family could support in some way, either through donating a service or an item or taking part in the quiz.  Please email us at fundraising@ridgway.school.nz with any offers for the auction and if you’re able to help out as an auctioneer. 

Teams of up to 8 per table - $25 per person - $200 per table  (includes food). We only have room for 15 tables so keep your eyes peeled for the form to register your team!  

Hero app - finding stuff and getting things via email!

If you find you’re missing messages because things go directly to the Hero app, you can change the settings so you get it via email as well.  Just go into ‘Account’ and scroll down to ‘Notification Preferences’.  You can click ‘email’ which means it will appear in your inbox too. 

Also, if you can’t find a notice in Hero and you know it’s there somewhere, there is a good search function which will locate what you need. Click on ‘Feed’ down the bottom and the search bar appears up the top. Pop the key word into there and what you’re looking for will appear. 

Community consultation 

The first stage of the community consultation has been completed.  Thanks to those families who gave their time to meet with our Board members.  The second stage of the consultation is a survey that is sent out to everyone to validate the findings from the initial conversations. We’ll get this out to you soon. 

Spotlight on Hauora: Mitey, Mental Health, and Wellbeing at Home

We use Mitey (developed by the Sir John Kirwan Foundation) to support our tamariki in understanding and managing their mental health and wellbeing. Mental health education is an essential part of everyday learning, helping our ākonga build resilience, recognize their emotions, and know where to turn when they need support.

A powerful aspect of this learning happens outside the classroom. By role modelling healthy emotional expression and normalising conversations around mental health at home, we create a safe, supportive environment where tamariki feel comfortable sharing their feelings.

To help bridge home and school learning, each fortnight we will provide an optional wellbeing challenge for whānau to try together.

Fortnightly Challenge 1: The "Daily Check-In" Kōrero

Whānau Challenge: Try a daily 'Weather Check-In' at dinner or bedtime. Ask everyone: If your mood were today's weather, would it be sunny, calm, windy, or cloudy? Remind tamariki that all weather passes and every feeling is okay!

Thank you for partnering with us to foster positive hauora/wellbeing across our school and home communities.

No netball over Labour Weekend

Stay in bed instead!

Halloween Dress Up Day

We always get children dressing up at school for Halloween, so let's make it official!  They’re welcome to come to school in their costumes on Friday 30 October.  Even the teachers may have something planned…👀

Also, how lucky are we?

As a city school, we are so lucky to have all this space!  Lunchtime duty is epic on days like this - so much space for the kids to play. Today there was football, tyres rolled down slides, swinging, bike riding on the pump, skills and main track, playing in the trees on the bank, walking barefoot on the grass, sitting under the trees chatting, basketball, conga lines and general fun! We’ve got so much room it’s always hard to believe there are around 230 children out there playing. 

Upcoming events

• 26 October - Labour Day School Closed

• 27 October - Teacher Only Day (Rascals available)

• Friday 30 October - Halloween dress up day

• 3 - 5 November - Noho marae for Year 5 - 8

• 5 November - Southern Zone Athletics

• 6 November - Kākā Shakespeare Performance

• 9 November - Road Patrol Training for Year 5s

• 14 November - Brooklyn Twilight Festival

• 23 - 26 November - Year 7 & 8 at Camp Makihika

• 27 November - Quiz Night!

• 4 December - Ridgway’s Got Talent

• 10 December - Year 8 Leavers’ Celebration

• 11 December - final assemblies

• 16 December - last day of school, 2pm finish and no Rascals

• 17 and 18 December - Rascals

Community Notices

Spooky Disco at Vogelmorn!

Join us Sunday 1 November, 3–6pm, for an afternoon of spooky fun.

The Vogelmorn Precinct is coming alive with ghoulish delights.

HERE’S WHAT’S IN STORE:

~ Spooky snacks

~ DJ Monster and his terrifying tunes

~ Prizes

~ Tunnel of Thrills

~ Spooky movies (G & PG)

~ Face painting

And more!

ENTRY BY DONATION

We’ll have donation buckets and EFTPOS available. We can’t give change for cash donations, so please break your notes beforehand. This also helps keep the emergency exit clear. Thanks for understanding!

ACCESSIBILITY

The historic Vogelmorn club rooms are not wheelchair accessible. Vogelmorn Hall is wheelchair accessible but has no accessible bathroom. Need accessibility info or a hand with anything before or during the event? Get in touch at vogelmornbc@gmail.com

Sarah Patterson
Principal/Tumuaki
Te Kura o Tawatawa - Ridgway School