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. 

There were quite a few boxes of PTA stuff dutifully packaged up from the old schools prior to the merger.
A week ago we thought it was about time we sorted through these boxes and had a good ol' clean out. At the bottom of a box we found three rolls of stickers (1000 per roll) all with the message 'Reminder: PTA Meeting' in vivid green.
Not seeing much of a use for these in this digital era we were about to throw them out when someone suggested that the little kids down in Rongo ma Tane are always looking for 'junk' to turn into 'treasure'.
So we dropped them off down there and thought little more about them until coming into class today I came across a whole group of kids getting super creative with our old PTA stickers.

Oh man, what fun they were having with these old stickers!

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.

The PTA recently learnt there were only a handful of sandpit toys left at school to share between the junior and senior sandpit areas and lots & lots of children who wished to play in the sandpits. This was a dilemma we could solve! Here's how we did it...

Research
Trish and Steph hung out and chatted to the children in the large sandpit to see how they played and what toys they might like. Shovels to dig with and some buckets with sandcastle shapes were the most common requests. One thing we did notice was how nicely everyone was playing together in the sandpit, how much collaboration & sharing was going on and how much imagination they had to use due to the lack of equipment. We thought this was actually a good thing!

Quality & Choice
We checked the quality of the tools they already had and found they were good quality, heavy duty plastic. After looking in the school supplies catalogue and visiting the Playcentre Shop in Sydenham we found that the Playcentre Shop stocked the exact same good quality items as in the schools catalogue, except they were half the price. They also had a really good range of sandcastle making moulds which we thought were even better than buckets, and would encourage a lot more creativity & options. We thought a good selection of basic items plus some more interesting items would be useful to continue to inspire the children to use their wonderful imaginations.

Numbers
We thought it would be a good idea to limit the number of new items purchased, so the children could continue working collaboratively. We also felt less items might encourage children to show a greater appreciation, and be more inclined to look after them.

Storage
We needed to consider where the new items would be stored. Rongomatane have a large wheelie bin. The children are in charge of packing it up at the end of the day, and the teachers store the bin in the classroom foyer at night and at the weekends. Trish investigated wheelie bin options and actually discovered an abandoned wheelie bin at the old Freeville site. It was in excellent condition apart from missing a lid, so she located a replacement lid from a local supplier in Chch, and planned to “pimp” the bin with orange paint to make it look cool.

Looking After the Toys
The children from Tane Mahuta and Tawhirimatea use the senior sandpit the most, so we have asked the teachers from those classrooms to see if they can arrange for monitors to pack away the new toys at the end of each day and store them in their foyer in the new bin.

Dilemma Solved!
So now the Rawhiti School children have a great range of sandpit toys to keep them busy at breaktimes. And that means happy kids. Like we said, it's the little things that matter!

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! 

Sick of the cold? Want a change of scenery from road cones?
Dream of taking your family to Hanmer Hot Springs for a nice relaxing break? We have a treat in store for 3 lucky Rawhiti Whanau ...
1st PRIZE
Hanmer Holiday Home Voucher (Worth $200) Hanmer Hot Springs Mini Group Pool Pass (Worth $50) BP QE2 Fuel/Gift Cards (Worth $40) BP QE2 Hot drink and Muffin vouchers (x5) for the car ride there (Worth $25) BP QE2 Car Wash (Triple Pack) to wash the car when you get home (Worth $45)
2nd Prize
1 Day Hanmer Hot Springs Mini Group Pool Pass (Worth $50) BP QE2 Car Wash (Triple Pack) to wash the car when you get home (Worth $45)
3rd Prize
1 Day Hanmer Hot Springs Mini Group Pool Pass (Worth $50) BP QE2 Car Wash (Triple Pack) to wash the car when you get home (Worth $45)
Tickets $2 each, Limited to 500 tickets ONLY (better odds than Lotto!)

Get in quick! Tickets on Sale before & after school outside the School Office until sold out. Look for the balloons! Raffle drawn the last week of term.

The PTA has got together with the Senior students to bag up a truck-load of kindling (literally). Between us all we got stuck in and bagged more than 300 bags of kindling to sell at $6.50 for a fundraiser. The profits of this will be split 50/50 between the PTA and the Senior Students. 

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.