There were some very excited children arriving at school this morning, as we prepared for our whole school excursion to the Waihi Beach Hop Warm Up Party....one of the biggest events of the year for Waihi!  And what better way to travel there, than to utilise a local treasure that is right on our doorstep, and catch the train to Waihi, departing from Waikino Station!  Each child was issued with their own train ticket, before boarding the Goldfields Historic Railway for the scenic and leisurely train ride to Waihi.

Arriving in Waihi Train Station, we met with our wonderful parent helpers, and headed into town to check out the amazing collection of hotrods and muscle cars assembled.    The atmosphere was pumping, with rock 'n' roll tunes belting out, people dressed in costumes, dancing, and cars of all colours, shapes and sizes.  The children had a great time wandering around, and checking out all the sights and sounds. 

Thank you so much to all the parents and whanau who came along today, and supported us during this outing.  We couldn't have done it without your help.  It was such a great opportunity for the kids to get out and see a great event, that happens in our area.

Here's some photos of the day....

What an amazing effort by the army of helpers at our Step into Spring Garden Working Bee on Friday? Wow – we are so lucky to have such a fabulous bunch of whanau & friends at Waikino School! Not only are they not scared of hard work, they are not scared of the rain either!
Keep scrolling down for heaps of photos

​On Thursday night a group of Waikino School piano students had an exciting night out in Hamilton. The students attended “Swing into Spring” at the Claudelands Arena and enjoyed a full concert by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, joined by the Rodger Fox Big Band and international trumpet virtuoso Allen Vizzutti.

We would like to thank Ting, our fantastic piano teacher, for organizing the trip and encouraging the children to go. It was a great opportunity for our students to experience a full symphony orchestra in a light and upbeat way – everybody loved the jazz twist! The brass band magic with saxophones, trombones, trumpets, bass, guitar and drums left everybody in awe and was a huge inspiration for our young music students.
​
Even though it was a freezing cold night, and a long drive back from Hamilton, everybody had a great time and agreed that a night at the symphony is a wonderful treat!

Congratulations to our 10 gymnasts who represented Waikino School at the 2016 Gym Sport Competition in August.

​Competing at Gym Sport requires students to take on the responsibility of learning their 2 routines and their vault skills all by themselves and the hard work and practice mostly happens at home. We are thankful to parents for supporting our gymnasts - it was clear that the children took this responsibility very seriously and practiced hard at home.

The Waihi Event Centre was buzzing with children jumping, tumbling, balancing, rolling and stretching. The Waikino kids competed with pride and confidence against teams from as far afield as Whangamata and Kerepehi. Boys perform a mat, floor and vault routine and girls perform a floor, beam and vault routine. 

​We cleaned up in the boys competition, with Angus taking first place, Duncan taking second place and Stuart fifth place. Sianna triumphed in her group, claiming a well deserved first place. Well done however, to the entire team, you made us proud. It looked like you had loads of fun and that is, as always, the most important!

​Thank you to Mrs Bartram for coordinating our students this year and for the a very special treat she surprised the children with after the event!

​Enjoy the photos.

We are so lucky to have parents (and younger siblings - thanks Lewis) who are game to jump in and help out in the garden. This past Wednesday we had a fantastic turnout for the Garden Gang's first gathering. We managed to make a huge dent in the weeds - well done team! What we did find out, is that the Waikino garden is a very fertile place - the soil is jam packed with huge, fat worms. No wonder the weeds have grown so well! If you ever have a bit of time to spare, come and join us - it's a great way to catch up or get to know each other better.
​

Join us as we celebrate our older netball players - Casey Davies tells us more about the Year 3-4 team's  successful season.

This year saw a first, for both the Waihi Netball Association and Waikino School, as the Year 3-4's participated in 5 a side version of Netball. The aim is to build on the skills they learnt last year while introducing different positions, such as attack, defend and centre.  Like with the Year 1-2 teams, there is a focus on fun and encouraging star helpers to continue supporting the players during the game. As the players continue to move through the different levels of the ANZ Future Ferns, they are given the opportunity to embed the basic skills of passing, catching, movement, stable base position, defending and shooting.
 
Our team consisted of Zara, Erana, Lasini, Shavarn, Skye, Asha, Lachie, Lucy and Sianna. Although half our team hadn’t played netball before they quickly began to find their strengths and gain confidence in themselves - from those that mastered the art of shadowing and reading players to our point scorers and those that enjoyed connecting the two ends of the court continually running back and forth. The team where given skills, support and space to grow as individual players and together in partnership with each other. Their progress as a team was noted and I look forward to working with them again next year.
 
A massive thank you to the parents who show up every week, your commitment and support is appreciative. Thank you to Grace for her work on court supporting the players.