Nga mihi nui ki a koutou. Greetings parents, students and members of the Berkley Normal Middle School Community. 

I'm loving seeing the energy and excitement around school lately, as we prepare for a number of events.  The term two calendar is always full of WIMS events and we have had a number of students represent Berkley already this term, with more WIMS days coming up.  We have 38 students working hard to be ready for the annual Sports Camp week, which will be held at Totara Springs in week 9.  We also have nearly 200 students (that's a quarter of our school!) involved in our 2025 school production of Camp Rock, which we will proudly present in August at Clarence St Theatre.  In addition to all that, we have a number of teams and individuals, just named this week, to attend the 2025 AIMS games late in term three.  I'd like to acknowledge how impressed I am of all our students dedication and commitment to these sporting and art pursuits, which they are managing on top of their academic requirements - you should all be very proud of yourselves.

We are incredibly proud of our students who have recently participated in the Lit Quiz events.  We had two teams enter the Waikato schools event, along with 54 other teams earlier this term.  Our 'Quizzards of Oz' team placed 1st overall at that event, which gained them a place at the NZ National Final event in Wellington, where they had another outstanding performance and placed 4th overall in New Zealand.  Huge congratulations to Elliott Nicholson, Isla Duggan, Morgan Foley and Eva Hilton.

There are some more exciting opportunities coming up later in the year which students have been told about this week. We are pleased to be offering our international language trip to Noumea again this year as well as the chance for an outdoor experience in northern Coromandel with Hilary Outdoors.  There is more information on these trips further below, or students can collect an information sheet from the school office.

This year we have been doing a lot of proactive work to monitor and manage student attendance and help families manage absences where there are any difficulties or issues.  We are very pleased to see our year-to-date attendance rates looking much higher than the same period in 2024.  I would like to ask for your support in ensuring your child is arriving at school on time as we are seeing the number of late students creep up again.  We expect all students to arrive at school in time to make their way to class and be ready to start the day by 8.45am.  If you have any questions about attendance matters, please contact our school office.

With the change in weather upon us, we are seeing a number of colds and other mild illnesses at school.  Sometimes it can be difficult to know when you should keep a child at home or send them to school.  There is some useful information and guidance on the Health NZ website to help you.

We were disappointed to have to postpone the winter dance last night, but given the weather forecast we had to make a call for the safety and comfort of our students, staff and community.  We are looking forward to the event going ahead next Thursday - please remind your child to keep their ticket safe so they don't lose them before next week! 

I hope you all enjoy the long weekend.

Ngā mihi nui,

Nathan Leith

Principal