Tuesday 13 October, 2026

Tuesday 13 October 2026     Rātū te tekau ma toru 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

Tuesday 13 – Friday 23 October
Pohutukawa Team swimming

Thursday 15 October
Lego Challenge – school wide
Year 7-8 Cricket

Monday 19 October
Manu Tioriori Dress Rehearsal, 9am

Tuesday 20 October
Year 7-8 Inter-Zone Basketball
RPS Student Mock Election, Years 4-8
Manu Tioriori Choir Festival, Due Drop Centre, 7pm
Year 7-8 Epro 8, 4pm

Wednesday 21 October
Totara Team to Te Whatu Stardome
Year 5-6 Epro 8, 9.30am

Thursday 22 October
School Disco

Friday 23 October
Year 5-6 Touch
Whole School Assembly – Rooms 7 & 31 hosting, 2pm, all whānau welcome

Monday 26 October
Labour Day – School closed

Tuesday 27 October
Year 7-8 Athletics Day

Wednesday 28 October
Year 5-6 Athletics Day

Wednesday 28 October – Monday 2 November
Kahikatea Team/Year 7-8 swimming

Friday 30 October
Whole school assembly – Rooms 7 & 31 hosting, 2pm, all welcome

Thursday 5 – Friday 6 November
CM Games at Bruce Pulman Park

A MESSAGE FROM OUR ACTING PRINCIPAL
WELCOME TO TERM 4

Welcome to our final term of the year – how quickly the year has flown by! It was wonderful to welcome our tamariki back yesterday, refreshed from the holidays, full of enthusiasm and ready to embrace the learning that Term 4 will bring. We began the term with a pōwhiri to welcome our new students.

As always, we have a busy term ahead, filled with exciting learning opportunities. We will begin with two weeks of Sexuality Education, followed by the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme. Tamariki will then move into a Technology unit, working collaboratively to design, create and test products to meet a specific brief before sharing their finished creations.

Throughout the term, all teams will also take part in our swimming programme. As we prepare for the summer break, a key focus will be developing swimming skills and strengthening tamariki’s understanding of water safety so they can enjoy the summer months safely.

There will also be plenty of opportunities for tamariki to learn, participate and try new experiences beyond the classroom. Upcoming events include our Build the Change LEGO Challenge this Thursday, interschool sports such as cricket and touch, school athletics, swimming days at Massey Park Pools, and our end-of-year assemblies. We will keep whānau updated on these events and other exciting opportunities through our school newsletter.

I will continue in the Acting Principal role while the position is advertised and an appointment is made. If you have any questions, concerns or need support, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Members of our Senior Leadership Team are also available to help through the school office.

We look forward to another positive and successful term of learning alongside our tamariki and whānau.

Ngā mihi,
Andrea Bleakley
Acting Tumuaki

ATTENDANCE – EVERYDAY MATTERS

Our goal is to have all tamariki attending school regularly. Each week we give house points for the highest attendance and do a Lego prize draw. We also have winning classes with the highest weekly attendance from each team. At the end of the term Kotahitanga had the best overall attendance and Room 27 won our class challenge. We celebrated their win with a pizza lunch on the last day of the term. At the end of the term we also gave out 84 certificates and prizes to tamariki who achieved 100% attendance for Term 3.

As we begin a new term, we have a fresh opportunity to build positive attendance habits. We will continue our attendance initiatives. Every day matters!

Thank you to our tamariki and whānau for continuing to make attendance a priority. Every day at school makes a difference, and we look forward to seeing our attendance improve this term!

AIMS PRIZEGIVING

What a special way to wrap up an incredible AIMS Games experience! Our AIMS Celebration Dinner was a chance to come together, reflect on the journey, and celebrate the commitment, determination and achievements of our amazing tamariki.

ARRIVAL TIMES

We would like to remind families that students should not be dropped off at school before 8.00am.

We have become aware that some students are arriving at school as early as 7.00am. At this time, there are no teachers on site to supervise students. Our teachers are not expected to be at school until 8.00am, and therefore we cannot ensure the safety and supervision of children who arrive before this time.

Students must not be at school before 8.00am . Please make sure your child arrives at school no earlier than this time.

Thank you for helping us keep all of our students safe.

RPS MOCK GENERAL ELECTION

Students in Years 4–8 will have the opportunity to take part in our very own Mock General Election! Students will experience what it’s like to vote, including voting for a political party and candidate, as well as having their say on our school uniform and logo. With only around 20 general election opportunities in a lifetime, it’s never too early to learn about democracy and why every vote matters!

DUFFY BOOKS WENT HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

In the last week of Term 3, our tamariki brought home their latest Duffy Books!

Three times a year, each Duffy kid gets to choose two books from a catalogue of around 80 titles. The best part? These books belong to them! Our tamariki can enjoy reading them at home, share stories with whānau and continue building their very own book collections.

We hope everyone enjoyed exploring their new books over the holidays and sharing the magic of reading together. 

Choose a book. Take it home. Read it. Love it!

MANU TIORIORI FESTIVAL TICKETS

Tickets for the Manu Tioriori Festival are now available to purchase at our school office. Tickets are $15.00 and payments can be made via cash or eftpos. Last day to purchase tickets is Thursday 15 October. Unfortunately, there will be no door sales on the night.

KINDNESS COLLECTIVE AND LEGO
BUILD THE CHANGE

Kindness Collective and LEGO are hosting a special Build the Change event on Thursday 15 October in the RPS school hall. The theme is ‘Build Your City of the Future’, and all students attending RPS will have the opportunity to participate.

The event encourages creativity, imagination, collaboration and communication. Using LEGO bricks, students will have the opportunity to share their ideas, express themselves and work together to build their vision of a future city.

Every student who participates will receive a LEGO set to take home!

PRIMARY CHESS NATIONALS

What a fantastic achievement for our chess team!

Over the first weekend of the school holidays, Lex, Antonio, Gurshaan and Nephi competed at the National Primary Chess Championship held in Auckland, taking on teams from 32 schools across Aotearoa New Zealand. Our players showed great concentration, strategic thinking and determination as they battled it out across the chessboard, finishing 22nd overall.

A special congratulations goes to Lex, who placed an outstanding 4th in the individual competition — an amazing achievement!

We are incredibly proud of all four players for representing our school and Manurewa with such skill and sportsmanship. Ka pai, team!

FIRE DRILL

Last term, we held a practice fire drill. We are pleased to report that it went very well. Students and staff responded promptly, and everyone was evacuated safely and efficiently. Thank you to everyone for their cooperation and for following instructions so calmly and responsibly. Regular drills like these help ensure we are well prepared to keep our school community safe in an emergency.

SEXUALITY EDUCATION AT RPS

As part of the Health and Physical Education curriculum, over the next two weeks our tamariki will take part in sexuality education. We know this can sometimes be a topic that whānau have questions about, so below is information about what will be covered over the unit of learning for each year level.

At RPS, we use Navigating the Journey, a New Zealand Relationships and Sexuality Education programme developed by Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa. The programme provides age-appropriate learning about relationships, wellbeing, growing and changing, and keeping ourselves safe. Our approach is always age and developmentally appropriate, and learning is delivered in a respectful and inclusive way. We encourage whānau to talk with their tamariki about these topics at home as well, as this provides an important opportunity to reinforce messages about healthy relationships, safety and wellbeing.

If you have any questions about the sexuality education programme, please contact the school. We are happy to discuss what will be covered at your child’s year level.