Filter Content
- Principal's Message
- 2026 Enrolment Processes
- School Absences and Lateness
- Sports Camp 2025
- WIMS Rugby 7's
- WIMS Netball
- Cross Country Events (School and WIMS)
- Year 9 Planting Day
- Student Writing - Warriors Writing Competition
- Berkley Student Success - Youth Pool World Champion!
- Homestay Families Wanted for 2026
- Community Notices
Nga mihi nui ki a koutou. Greetings parents, students and members of the Berkley Normal Middle School Community.
Our Camp Rock production last week delivered all it promised and more - an exceptional showcase of our students musical, dancing and acting talent! To deliver a production of this quality, with nearly one quarter of our students involved, requires a huge amount of passionate dedication from the students and staff involved. I would like to personally thank everyone who contributed to these amazing performances, and also to our community for supporting this special night - we hope you enjoyed the show.
As we look forward to the remainder of the term, I'd like to wish all of our AIMS games competitors the best of luck for week 8, when they head to Tauranga to compete in this National tournament week. Our teams and individuals have been dedicating their time to training and preparing for this week and we hope you all have a fantastic experience. Thank you in advance to all the staff and parents who are coaching and managing these Berkley athletes.
Our school board of trustee election process is now well under-way and all parents should have received their voting papers by email (or postal vote if requested). These elections are a critical process for all schools and I encourage you all to participate by casting your vote. If you have any questions about the voting process, please check your emails for information or contact our school office team.
Another important process for our school is feedback from our parents/caregivers on what we are doing well and where there might be opportunities to improve for our students and community. Our senior leadership team and our board of trustees is fully committed to the continuous improvement of all areas of Berkley - however big or small and we would appreciate if you could take a few minutes to fill out our parent survey before Friday 29 August. Just click the link below;
Ngā mihi nui,
Nathan Leith
Principal
Pre-enrolment and Ballot Procedures
We are currently accepting enrolments for 2026 for in-zone and out-of-zone students. The deadline for receipt of out-of-zone applications to be included in the ballot is 4.00pm, Friday 29 August. Students who live within the home zone should also apply by this date to assist the school with planning appropriately for next year.
Our preference is that all enrolment applications are submitted online, along with all supporting documents. However, if online is not an option, physical enrolment packs can be collected from our school office. Please check our school enrolment page for more information.
We will hold our ballot for out-of-zone enrolments for the 2026 school year on 12 September, 2025 and families will be informed of the outcome by email soon afterward.
If you have any queries regarding enrolment, please contact our school office by emailing office@berkley.school.nz
Lateness & Appointments During School Time
We are noticing an increase in student lateness at Berkley and would like to ask for parent/caregiver support to ensure your children are arriving at school on time. Our first bell goes at 8.45am and this is when we expect students to already be in class, with their bag away and ready to start the day. It's surprising how much time can be lost over the course of a week, term or year when a student is regularly late - even if its just a few minutes after the bell. Have a look at the picture below for an idea of how lateness can impact.
Please also remind your children that they MUST sign in at the office if they arrive late - if they don't sign in and have missed the morning roll in class, they will be marked absent for the whole morning.
We also see students often leaving during the school day for appointments. We understand sometimes medical or other important appointments can be hard to schedule, but we do ask that you try and schedule appointments outside of school hours, or at a time when it minimises the amount of time the student needs to be away from school. If you want your child to attend a regular appointment outside of school, then approval is required from our school Principal, so you will need to email office@berkley.school.nz or principal@berkley.school.nz to request approval.
Reporting Absences
Please ensure you provide the school with information about why your child is absent. We require a specific reason to be stated to ensure we code the absence correctly and ask that you communicate all absences with us before 9am each morning. To report an absence, please phone us on 07 856 6537 and select the absence voicemail option or follow this link on our school website to fill out an absence form.
If you have any questions regarding the above information, or absences in general - please feel free to contact our office team on 07 856 6538 or office@berkley.school.nz
At the end of Term 2, our team of top sports performers attended the annual Intermediate Sports Camp week. This camp was help at Totara Springs and attended by eight schools from around the Waikato.
All the students involved in sports camp dedicated a large amount of time throughout term one and two (early mornings, lunchtimes and evenings) to practises and preparation for the camp. They were rewarded with a large number of successes which are listed below our team photo. We are incredibly proud of their commitment and well earned success - well done everyone!
Special thanks to Mr Hansen and Mr Purcell for all their mentoring, coaching and support. And to our parent helpers, also pictured below - you were amazing, thank you so much from the whole team!
Rugby 7's
Both our Girls and Boy's 7's team competed in their WIMS tournament days earlier this term. Our girls competed in Morrinsville in Week 3 and came up against some tough competition but kept their chins up and played through their pool games, unfortunately not making play-offs. Well done girls, for taking up the challenge!
The boys team had an extra week to train as their tournament day was held in Week 4, hosted by Matamata. They smashed through their pool play, winning all three games. They progressed to playoffs and ended the day in 3rd place overall, after winning 4 of the 5 games they played. An impressive day - well done boys. Thanks to Mr T for his coaching and support.
On Tuesday 19th August our Year 7A and Year 8A Netball teams headed to the WIMS Netball Tournament, held at Minogue park. The teams have been working hard this season and doing fantastically at their Saturday games while also training hard for this WIMS event and the upcoming AIMS games.
Our 8A team managed to win 3 of the 5 pool games played, but were defeated by a strong Matamata team in their must win game. The 7A team had a great day, fighting through a tough pool and having some very close finishes. The results of pool play unfortunately meant that neither team progressed to play-offs but the girls showed exceptional Berkley values and took plenty of learnings away to help prepare for AIMS Games. We wish you all the best for AIMS!
Thank you very much to Mrs Mac and Whaea Mikayla for your work all season training and supporting these teams - your amazing!
Berkley School Cross Country
In the first week of Term 3 we ran out annual Berkley school cross country at Jansen park. We were very proud to see so many of our students giving this a go, and even more proud to see those students who are not competitive runners still running for fun and being amazing supporters for their peers. Congratulations to the top place-getters listed below
WIMS Cross Country
The students listed above also qualified for WIMS Cross country, but we would like to thank the reserves who ended up attending WIMS as some of our qualifiers could not attend. Well done to the teams who travelled represented to WIMs Tokoroa August 12th Week 5:
Our Year 9 students recently took part in a special planting day at a Whatawhata farm, adding 850 native seedlings (which were grown right here at Berkley!) around a Kahikatea stand to provide shelter for new growth.
All Students threw themselves into the mahi – digging, planting, walking long distances down the farm race, and even braving the mud and the odd cow pat – before finishing with a well-earned Subway lunch.
This experience was more than just planting trees. It gave our students the chance to see how small actions, when taken together, can make a big difference. By contributing to a local environmental initiative, they saw firsthand how caring for the land and taking responsibility in their own spaces plays a vital role in protecting our environment for the future. We are excited to continue this partnership, with the next batch of seedlings being planted in October and future plantings planned for years to come.
We are very proud to share this impressive writing piece from Maggie Hansen, Year 8. This piece was submitted to the Warriors Writing Competition, which was open to entries from all schools across New Zealand and Maggie was deservedly named as one of the two exceptional FINALISTS in the Year 7-8 Category.
We are delighted to share that Cash Te Hira-Carter, Year 8 is a Youth world champion in Pool! Cash recently attended the 35th world VNEA Junior International Championships in Rochester, Minnesota, USA as a New Zealand Representative. Cash took out the world NVEA title of Male Single Youths (under 12yrs) division - which gave him the title of 2025 VNEA Youth Male World Champion.
Cash also competed in the team event, where his team the Predators placed 3rd in the minor (under 16) Division. An impressive outcome! Well done Cash!
Cash is pictured far left of each of the pictures below.
We are looking for anyone interested in hosting long term (6-12 months) homestay students from Japan and China in 2026. The students are aged between 11-13 years old and will be attending Berkely while they are here.
Homestay families will be paid a weekly amount for hosting. If you are interested, or know anyone that might be interested, please contact Sandra Woods in our school office, by emailing Office@berkley.school.nz
