Last week, I was lucky enough to head to Wellington with the Waikato Principals’ Association to attend meetings with leaders from the education sector. 

The highlight for me was the time spent at parliament with the Minister of Education, Hon Erica Stanford. Regardless of people’s perception and political persuasion, we can not fault the minister's passion and desire to provide the best learning outcomes for students, work conditions and support for our teachers and support staff. She spent time outlining her priorities and 5-year work plan, which includes changes to standardise testing and reporting to parents (which is covered below). She assured us that the budget today would be a win for Learning Support and the wider education sector. Fingers crossed that our school will benefit from the changes announced. 

While down in Wellington, we also met with leaders from the Ministry of Education, NZEI (Education Union), New Zealand School Boards Association, The Education Council, and Sport New Zealand. 

We were lucky with the weather, and the old saying was true, “You can’t bet Wellington on a good day!”

Unfortunately, while I was away, I missed the opening of the turf, which happened to coincide with Pink Shirt Day. The team certainly had fun while I was away! It was great to see the sea of pink on the new turf, but the main thing I love is seeing the turf used for many different sports and activities, including the community coming down and using it out of school time. 

We are so lucky to have such a resource, and sometimes you don't realise how much you were missing something, until you have it. Thank you to the PTA and our sponsors for our colour run, which contributed to the turf fundraising;

JVO Plumbing and Drain Laying 

Amp't Electrical

Cambridge Rentals

Ethan Foster 

Property brokers

Tag Business Services

Generation Homes 

Complete gas services 

Riverside adventures 

Illumography Photography 

We raised $212.80 for Pink Shirt Day antibullying support. Thank you to all that donated.

As mentioned above, one of the changes you will see as a result of the work coming through the Ministry will be evident in our Mid-Year reporting. The statements that we use and apply for our overall teacher judgements (OTJs) have been around since the days of National Standards and were “Above, At, and Below.”
The following is the information directly from the Ministry of Education's new website, which outlines the descriptors teachers will now be using in Mid and End of Year reports moving forward. These only arrived last week, and we have been working with our staff and Student Management Systems (SMS) provider, Edge, to update this in our Mid-Year formats. 
Our staff are now working hard to review what data and evidence they will be using to help make an informed OTJ, along with getting familiar with the new Descriptors to ensure they are confident in making their judgements. We appreciate what we write, and the judgments we make, can have a profound impact on both parents and whaanau, along with individual students. 

Above, I spoke about Standardised Testing that the Minister announced earlier this year for Year 3 and above students. The use of Progressive Attainment Testing (PAT’s) to help inform our OTJ’s is not new. However, we have deliberately moved to using this style of assessment more widely with our students to help prepare them for the future testing, to help inform us of gaps in students knowledge and to help us understand the next steps in teaching that are required. They are a great source of information. 

When we get to Mid-Year Reports heading home, I want to signal that this will look and feel different due to the language used. The curriculum is broken up into smaller learning progressions, and how we have to apply and use the new descriptors will mean the majority of learners will be in the “working towards” category at Mid-Year, with not many in the exceeding category. 

End of an era for the community using our hall with the sad news that Danie van der Linde from Karate Waikato is moving to Australia at the end of the month so the Karate Club will no longer be operating out of our Hall on Monday and Wednesday evenings. While Danie opened his doors to our whole community, I know that our students who have been part of the club over the years have enjoyed learning from one of the “masters” in the sport. Danie had represented New Zealand at the World Championships on many occasions. We wish Danie all the best for his new endeavours in Australia; he will undoubtedly be missed. 

This year is our triennial elections, which give community members who wish to be involved in the Board and oversee the school's governance the chance to stand.  It is always a fascinating opportunity for those who are keen to keep up to date with what is happening in the education world, with so many changes occurring in the past 18 months and another four years of changes signalled. 

At the beginning of Term 3, we will be calling for nominations for the Board for Parent/Community Trustees, so you may wish to consider putting your name forward. More information about the Board and being a Trustee can be found on the New Zealand School Boards Association website. 

We have finally finished the design process for the redevelopment of Block J & K (Rooms 12, 13 and 14). 

This has taken a lot longer than anticipated but we are now about to go through the tender process, which will be another month. Once we have been through this process, we will need to make a decision if we start the redevelopment this year, or wait for the end of the school year/beginning of next year. This will all depend on the main contractors and their timeframes for delivery the project before the start of Term 4, as we will require another teaching space.

Yesterday, we held our very first Parent Information session for our English as Second Official Language (ESOL) students. It was an opportunity for our parents of ESOL learners to come together, make connections and ask questions while hearing about how the ESOL programmes run at Cambridge East School. 

Our ESOL programme has grown from around 10 learners when I first arrived 11 years ago, to now consistently sitting between 40-50 students. This is reflected by the flags in the hall, back in 2014, we would have had around 10 different nationalities within our school community, now 31 flags represent the various countries and nationalities of learners at Cambridge East School. 

Over the years our programme has evolved to meet the needs of learners, it has clearly grown in numbers, resulting in more staff being involved in the delivery of the ESOL programme. We are lucky to have the experience of Mrs Linda Harrison, who has been part of the programme for over 20 years. Linda now works predominantly with our younger and new students in small groups in her own space, where as Christine Bryant supports our learners within their own classroom setting. The support they provide is often around building vocabulary, unpacking questions and 

As part of our inquiry learning focus in the Technology area of the curriculum, all our tamariki have had an exciting, hands-on experience with Hamish, an educator from MOTAT.

Our Year 4 to 6 children took part in the Invent-a-Machine programme, where they worked collaboratively to design and build machines that could carry an object from one side of the room to the other. This immersive activity encouraged creativity, engineering thinking, and teamwork, as students experimented with including a lift mechanism in their designs.

For our younger learners in Years 1–3, Life Hack! Egg Drop provided a fun and engaging way to explore the design process, emphasising testing, adapting, and resilience. 

These experiences have sparked curiosity, encouraged collaboration, and helped our learners develop valuable problem-solving skills through the lens of technology.

We’re excited to see how these experiences, along with our inquiry learning immersion activities, have ignited our learners’ curiosity as they now move into the questioning stage of their inquiry.

As many of you will be aware, the New Zealand Government has introduced a nationwide ban on mobile phones and personal digital devices during school hours. This new regulation applies to all state and state-integrated schools, including primary schools like ours.

The goal of this policy is simple but important: to support focused, calm, and engaged learning environments where students can thrive without the distractions of personal devices.

What This Means for Our School

While we understand that many students carry phones for safety reasons, particularly when walking or biking to and from school, it’s essential that these devices do not interfere with learning.

Students are still welcome to bring mobile phones to school however, they must be handed into the school office upon arrival and can be collected again at the end of the school day.

Unfortunately, we’ve recently had several instances where phones left in school bags have rung or received notifications during instructional time. These interruptions can disrupt the learning of not just the student, but the entire class. This is exactly what the new guidelines aim to prevent.

How You Can Help

We’re asking for your support in reinforcing this message at home. Please talk to your child about:

If there is an urgent need to contact your child during the school day, please continue to do so through the school office. Likewise, if your child needs to reach you, they are always welcome to come to the office and we will assist them.

We appreciate your understanding and partnership in creating a learning-focused environment for all our tamariki. Together, we can ensure school is a place of connection, concentration, and calm.

We have noticed an increase in our learners arriving at school before 8.30, and whilst we appreciate their enthusiasm for learning, we need to remind whaanau that children must not arrive before 8.30, unless they are going to Journey Kids Before School Care, as we cannot provide teacher supervision before this time.
Conversely, please ensure that your children are at school before the bell for the start of the day at 8.55am. It is essential in setting our learners up for success each day that are at school on time. This minimises disruption to both your child and the others in the class.

As part of our commitment to enhancing digital learning, we encourage more students to participate in our Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program. Having access to a personal device in the classroom allows students to engage more actively in their learning, develop digital skills, and take greater ownership of their education.

To ensure a seamless learning experience, we recommend Chromebooks as the preferred BYOD device. Chromebooks are affordable, easy to use, and integrate well with our school's digital platforms, making them an excellent choice for students.

Thank you for supporting our efforts to create a future-focused learning environment!

 We know that it is tough out there to keep household budgets in order, it’s as challenging to keep the school budget in order in the current climate. If you would like to take advantage of setting up a weekly/fortnightly payment to help cover trips, stationery supplies and unforeseen costs associated with school, please come and see the office crew. They are great in helping set up regular payments to go towards your child/rens accounts.  If you are setting up payments to our school, please note that the legal school name on our bank accounts is Cambridge East School Board of Trustees.

REMINDER - There is no assembly this Friday, it will be held next Friday, 30 May.

Change of Clothes
A reminder to pack a changes of clothes, particularly for our junior learners, as the weather begins to change and puddles start to appear around the school.

Donations of Tissues and Canned Fruit
With the change of seasons upon us, we are asking our community to donate a box or two of tissues for us to distribute to the classrooms. We are also asking families to bring in a can or two of fruit if they are able to supplement the weetbix at Breakfast Club. Please bring them into the office. Thank you.

Contact Details
If you have moved or any of your contact details have changed, please let the office know either by email office@cambridgeeast.school.nz or by calling 07 827 7651. It is really important that we can contact you about your child.

Term 2 Upcoming Events
As we near the halfway point of the term we wish to advise whaanau (families) of the following up coming Term 2 dates:

Further information will be sent home about all of the events listed above as they occur. Remember to check the calendar on the website for upcoming events and activities.

2025 Term Dates
2025 Term Dates are available on our website under the "Important Dates" button on the home page.

Pizza Lunch
Pizza lunch is back next Friday. Click here to order. Orders close midnight, Wednesday, 28 May.

Entertainment Book
Grab your Entertainment Book online at www.entertainmentnz.com and choose Cambridge East School as your fundraiser - 20% of your purchase goes directly to support our school!

Vet Post Fur-raising Programme
We are excited to announce that Cambridge East PTA has joined the Vet Post Fur-raising Programme!

You can now support us simply by purchasing your pet supplies and products online at Vet Post. Every time you shop at Vet Post using our unique link https://vetpost.co.nz/?linkId=lp_299255&sourceId=cambridge-east-pta&tenantId=vetpost , a percentage of the sale will be donated to our group.

It's an easy way to get the best for your pets while supporting our cause. Thank you for your continued support!

Please consider downloading the app for our Student Management System, Edge. Parents and caregivers can use the app to view their child's attendance and school report, pay their school account, and advise us of an absence. Follow this link to view a copy of their information document below to help you set up their App or Parent Portal.

Koru 1  

Koru 3  

Koru 4 

 Room 10 

Room 11 

Room 15 

Auaha M