Tuesday 21 October, 2025

Tuesday 21 October 2025     Rātu rua tekau ma tahi o Whiringa-ā-nuku

Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Sat Sri Akal, Namaste, Talofa, Mālō e lelei, Fakalofa lahi atu, Bula Vinaka, Salam & Warm Pacific Greetings to you all

WHAT’S ON AT RPS

Wednesday 22 October
Year 5/6 Touch

Thursday 23 October
Strike Day

Monday 27 October
Labour Day – Public Holiday, school closed

Tuesday 28 October
Year 5/6 Softball

Tuesday 28 – Friday 31 October
Celebrating Diwali

Thursday 30 October
Disco to raise money for Counties Manukau Games

Friday 31 October
Diwali Assembly, hosted by our Bollywood group
2pm, all whānau welcome

Monday 3 – Friday 7 November
Kahikatea Team swim

Monday 3 November
Year 5-6 interschool Athletics

Wednesday 5 – Friday 7 November
Counties Manukau games at Bruce Pulman Park 
Netball, Volleyball, and Touch

Friday 21 November
Teacher only day – school closed

STRIKE ACTION

Thank you to all whānau who returned the notice that was sent out last week. 

Teachers who are members of the NZEI (Primary Teachers Union) are striking on Thursday, 23 October 2025.  Randwick Park School will be open for supervision only, with non-union teachers and support staff supervise students.  

If your child needs to attend school on that day and you have not yet returned the slip, please contact the school office as soon as possible.

All children requiring supervision are to meet in the school hall at 8:40 a.m., where they will be allocated to a supervising teacher. Students will also be dismissed from the hall at the end of the school day. Children must wear full school uniform and bring a packed morning tea, lunch, and water bottle from home.

CELEBRATING DIWALI

Diwali is the “Festival of Lights”, celebrated by multiple religions, including Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, all over the world. Its name means “row of lights” in Sanskrit, referring to the oil lamps called diyas that are lit to symbolize the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and prosperity. The five-day festival often marks the start of the Hindu New Year and falls between October and November based on the lunar calendar. Celebrations include lighting oil lamps, decorating with lights and colourful rangolis, wearing new clothes, exchanging gifts, sharing festive meals, exchanging sweets and performing prayers.

Get Ready to Shake Out! – Thursday, 16th October

Last Thursday, RPS took part in National Shake Out Day, a nationwide earthquake drill designed to help students and staff practice how to stay safe during an earthquake. 

ShakeOut is an important opportunity to prepare for emergencies, review safety procedures, and build confidence in how to respond during an earthquake. We encourage families to talk about their own emergency plans at home as well!

Let’s stay safe and be prepared. When it comes to earthquakes, practice makes perfect!

ASSEMBLY CERTIFICATES

Ka pai tamariki ma! Well done to the students below who received a certificate at our assembly last week.

LUV A PIE FUNDRAISER –  2026 YEAR 5/6 CAMP

EPRO8

There was a Year 5-6 Epro8 technology competition held at Clayton Park School on Thursday, with 15 teams taking part in the competition. Miss Stickney had practised with us and taught us how to use the equipment. We had three hours to complete our challenge. Our team name was the “RPS Fuse Busters”. Students had to work in teams of four to build a challenge chosen by the team. We followed the given instructions inside the Epro8 book. Our team was Mosese, Emmanuel, Ibrahim, and Marshall. We chose to build a barrier arm, and we were judged by how long it took us to finish each criteria in the book, how we took care of our workspace, and how good our communication was. During the competition, we blew a fuse, which meant we lived up to our name! Overall, we struggled, but we still tried, finishing in 8th place. 

Year 5-6 team

At the Epro8 competition, my team and I took on the challenge of making a foosball table with the aluminum and electronics provided. After communicating and discussing how everything would work, we got the basic frame and surface done. Each criteria we completed gave us a certain amount of points. One moment we were first, then second, third, even sixth and seventh – it was like a rollercoaster of placings. Using the sliding rods and minifigures, we got the players in position. As the time ran closer and closer to zero, our foosball table was coming together beautifully. We added a laser and counter to keep track of our scores as we played, until finally…“Time’s Up!” We were stressing about our place, but the final inspection bumped up our score enough to secure a spot in the semi-finals.  What an experience it was.

A very big thank you to Mr. Lologa and Mrs Stickney for preparing us for the big day.

Aarush Raj / Year 7-8 team

YEAR 7-8 TOUCH TOURNAMENT

Our Year 7/8 Touch teams had an excellent day at the Central Counties Touch tournament last week, with the Girls’ and Boys’ teams taking out their respective grades. They will both go into compete at the Counties Zone Finals on 29th October. Thank you to Mr Moses and Mrs Savali for your coaching!

LET THE HOUSE CHALLENGE BEGIN!

We have launched our very first whole-school Inter-House Competition! Every student has been put in a house and will have the chance to earn house points by showing our school values in class and around the school.

Each Friday, we’ll tally up the totals to see which house comes out on top for the week!

Our four houses represent the values that make our school special:

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

Only 50% of Randwick Park School students attended school regularly in Term 3. The Ministry of Education and our school have set a goal for at least 80% of students to attend regularly — we have some work to do RPS.

Regular attendance means having fewer than five days off during the term. We need your support to help improve attendance across the school. Fridays and Mondays are currently our lowest-attended days. Please ensure your child attends school every day, unless they are genuinely unwell.

If your child is absent please ensure you let us know by phoning us on 0800438777(select the attendance line option), using our Hero app or emailing absences@randwickpark.school.nz (please include your child/rens full name, class and reason for absence). 
If you need support, please contact our school social worker (Chad Robertson), school counsellor (Brenda Paschke) or liason officer (Dot Henson) through our office. 

Well done to this week’s top three students who have completed the most lessons on Reading Eggs/ Reading Eggspress over the last week:

READING EGGS
1st: Shreya Room 19
2nd: Eriana, Room 17
3rd: Zion Room 6

READING EGGSPRESS
1st: Eldrich Room 17
2nd: Naairah Room 17
3rd: Jasraj Room 4

Mrs Lindsay will call you over for a prize!

If you are unsure of your child/rens Reading Eggs/Eggspress login please see their class teacher or Mrs Lindsay our Learning Support Co-ordinator through the office.

WEETBIX TRY-ATHALON

Please contact Mrs Savali (r.savali@randwickpark.school.nz) if you are interested in entering your tamariki. This is held at Mountfort Park (Manurewa) on Tuesday 25 November. You will need to provide your own bike and pay the entry fee. Please visit the website for more information.

https://tryathlon.co.nz/locations/south-auckland/

HEADLICE

We are experiencing problems with headlice in a few of our classrooms. We ask that whānau please check and treat your tamariki. For more information, please visit: https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/head-lice