We had another successful fundraising quiz night on Sunday night with a great number of raffle and auction prizes up for offer. This is due to the great support we've had from local businesses in New Brighton and throughout Christchurch. Your support really does make a difference to us. 

If you'd like to learn more about our awesome business supporters please go to Our Supporters page and make sure you mention our name when you go to visit them. 

Rawhiti School has been lucky enough to have won a beautiful new garden, which is now in place outside the school library on the north side of the school building.
POD OASIS is an award-winning garden created lovingly by the team at Greening the Rubble and for a number of years it was located in at Re:Start Mall in the centre of Christchurch. However with the future of that mall uncertain Greening the Rubble decided to give away the garden to a community group that could make use and love this garden for many years to come. 
It is our honour that Rawhiti School was chosen as the recipient for this amazing garden and after many hours of work and labour from the Greening the Rubble team, the teachers, the students, the PTA and families from the school the garden is in place.
Now we have a garden to treasure, a space for the children at the school to have a haven, a quiet place within the chaos and clutter of the playground to just sit and contemplate. Somewhere to chill out and read a book or somewhere to sit with friends and have a quiet chat.
We believe our children deserve inspiring and beautiful spaces too. 

In conjunction with the local Christchurch branch of the NZ Red Cross we were able to host two free 7 hour training sessions in the Rawhiti School Hall on the subject of Psychological First Aid (PFA) training. 

According to Red Cross Secretary General Tony Paine says, “At its core, PFA is about providing a safe, supportive response to someone who has just been through a sudden disaster and in need of support. PFA helps people feel safe, connected to others, calm and hopeful, able to access physical, emotional, cultural and social support, and feel able to help themselves.”

Our participants from the school community now have the knowledge to provide practical and emotional short-term support for individuals, reduce distress and foster the ability to adapt following a disaster or emergency situation, such as an earthquake or traumatic event. What an amazing opportunity for us. Thank you Red Cross New Zealand. 

The Court Jesters from the Court Theatre put on a great, laughter-filled show for us to enjoy last night to liven up a wet and cold evening. With hot food (our famous nachos and sausage sizzle) from 5pm, a photo booth to remember the night and lots of fun and games to try it was a successful and fun way to end the term. 

The wonderful crew at Greening the Rubble decided to run a competition to giveaway the POD OASIS outdoor spaces to a community group in Christchurch. The PTA at Rawhiti decided to enter the competition to try and win these amazing pod gardens and seating for our school children as an outdoor classroom and reading space, and to also be used by our local community on weekends.
Last week we found out that we were shortlisted in the top 3 for this competition and last night at ReStart Mall we were thrilled to learn that Rawhiti School was the winner!!! POD OASIS will be making their way to our school sometime in Term 2 and we look forward to making a beautiful garden around this space. We are so lucky to have won these. Thank you Greening the Rubble!!

Rawhiti School and the PTA were given the opportunity to sell food at the Kathmandu Coast to Coast finish line at New Brighton beach. After a mammoth task organising the menu, volunteers, cooking up a storm and getting together all the necessary equipment we got there. And what an event it was. A brilliant day was had by all and we were able to start raising money for new playground equipment for the junior students at the school. 

Our busy little PTA 'fairies' made up 30 prize packages to give away as raffle prizes.
​All the prizes came from food items donated to the school for last week's Mufti Day and extra items were purchased with coins that were donated. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that supported our rootin' tootin' heck of a good time Hoedown on Saturday night. What a doozie! And we raised a phenomenal $3000+ which we'll be putting towards the new bike track at Rawhiti School.
Special mention to the PTA members who put in so much hard work, to Switch Espresso New Brighton for the brownies, Ribbons and Rosettes for the fantastic sashes, to The Dear Ones Photo Booth Co. for the crazy photos (Nick was awesome) and especially to The black velvet band for bringing the whole night together!
Check out our wee video below and email us if you want copies of any of the photos.

Helen and Steph were invited as guest speakers to the Seaview Lions Club luncheon meeting down the road from the school in the Diamonz Tap Studio on Leaver Terrace, with our host Jan Ruardy. We enjoyed great conversation, a delicious lunch and we were able to talk about what's going on at the school and what issues there are in the general neighbourhood that we could try and address. 
After discussing the plans for the Bikes in School bike track around the back field of our school the Seaview Lions Club very generously agreed to fund 3 bicycles for us, handing us a cheque there and then. And then they fed us! What lovely neighbours the school has, we're so very lucky!

Jan Ruardy, the director of Diamonz Tap Studio and Chairperson of the Seaview Lions Club would love to invite parents at the school to come along on a Friday morning and enjoy a free hot cuppa and biscuit. If it's a cold day, why not pop down the road and have somewhere nice and warm to sit and chat. She generously opens her studio every Friday morning from 9am - 11am for our community to enjoy. As long as the Coffee sign is there, she will be there. Don't be shy! 

Thanks to everyone who showed up to buy the old school furniture and special thanks to all the volunteers who helped out on the day. What great fun we had and the stuff was flying out the door.
All funds raised will be going straight back to the school.