Pakiri School

Ukuleles alive and strumming! Our ukuleles are sounding better and better each week. The improvement in confidence, rhythm,
and teamwork has been awesome to see. This is a great example of excellent teaching and learning in action AKO! — students leaning in, giving it a go, and growing their musical skills together.
Big thanks to Aunty Cherry and Aunty Di for helping teach! If anyone in your whanau has one, please let your tamariki practise. So far they have learnt C, Am, F, G, G7, and C7. Some are tricky
and being able to change between them, without looking, is great for practising your muscle memory. Read the rest of the newsletter at https://www.pakiri.school.nz/ click on NEWS

Last week, Pakiri School proudly opened our beautiful new playground — a project that has truly been a labour of love.

Parents, students, and local community members gathered to bless the new space, to acknowledge and celebrate the hard work that has gone into achieving this milestone, and the people connected to it. It was a wonderful way to begin this new chapter for our school.

With Pakiri School’s 150-year celebration coming up next year, the new playground feels like a lovely connection between the school’s rich history and its exciting future — honouring where we’ve come from while creating new memories for generations to come.

We were also thrilled to see the opening featured on the front page of Mahurangi Matters newspaper!

There are more exciting things planned for the school site in the near future… so watch this space! And have a wonderful long weekend.

On Friday, our teachers and tamariki proudly wore pink to fundraise for Pink Shirt Day. We also created little 'T-shirts' of kindness to deliver randomly in the area to spread a little kindness where we could. (Check your mailbox - you may have a little message!)

Run by the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand since 2012, Pink Shirt day gives us a great reminder as a school and community to stand together to celebrate kindness, inclusion, diversity and aroha, and to reject bullying and prejudice. There is still time to get involved, with the official day on 15th May - visit https://pinkshirtday.org.nz/ for more info on how you can support this great initiative.

✨ Pakiri School 150th Jubilee – Planning Begins! ✨

On Tuesday 5th May at 5.30pm, we’ll be holding a Jubilee Committee Meeting at school.
If you’d like to be part of bringing this significant and historic event to life, we’d love to have you join us. Everyone is welcome.

To help us plan ahead, please email [email protected] or phone the school on 09 422 6076.

🌟 150th Jubilee – 2027
Matariki Long Weekend
Celebrating our past, shaping our future 🌟

This week at Pakiri School our tamariki took part in several activities - including making ANZAC biscuits, and a beautiful ANZAC wreath made of recycled egg cartons — simple but meaningful way to reflect on an important day in Aotearoa.

ANZAC Day is a time to remember the courage, sacrifice, and service of those who came before us, and to honour the values of resilience, respect, and community - as important now, as ever. Through hands-on learning, our students are beginning to understand why remembrance matters, and how small acts and traditions can show gratitude and respect.

Lest we forget. 🌺

We've had a great start to Term 2 this week - it's been awesome to see everyone back and ready to take on new challenges. And as we move into Autumn it is also a great time (for us all) to revisit our goals and hopes for the year.

Our tamariki worked together at the start of the school year on their class treaty; a set of agreements to live and act well in and around school. As the seasons change, and with a fresh new term, it's the perfect time to check in on our shared values and approach the coming term with renewed energy and enthusiasm. 'Have WAKA!'

Whether you celebrate Easter with a time of reflection, hope for new beginnings, connection and time with whanau, or a good old marshmallow choccy egg, we wish you all a fantastic Easter break!

We had a great time yesterday at the Te Kohuroa Matheson Bay Learning Day along with our friends at Leigh School. A fantastic hands on learning session, including a guided walk identifying native plants, a sandy-shore scavenger hunt, shell identification and traditional games.

Thank you to Te Kohuroa Rewilding, our Rodney Park Rangers, and all the volunteers and helpers that made this such a special day and a wonderful learning experience for our tamariki.