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Newsletter T4W10
12 December 2025
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Congratulations to our Year 8 prize winners and the whole Year 8 cohort who enjoyed a wonderful celebration of their time here at Glendowie School yesterday. There were some lovely speeches from graduating students who spoke beautifully about their time at our school. The day was capped off with a fantastic dinner and dance in the evening. Thank you to the parent helpers who made the graduation dinner possible.
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Well done to our awesome PA who keep turning out great event after great event. The Colour Run was again a huge success last Friday with a lot of fun to be had by all who attended. Of course it will be our last with Mr Kloppers keeping everyone in line. I’d also like to acknowledge Richard Leaning who has for many years kept the waterslide running and helped with various other school events.
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End of the Year and the Beginning of the Next
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Don’t forget that school finishes at 2pm on Tuesday (16th) next week! We will see all returning students on Tuesday 3rd February 2026.
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Move up day will be on Monday. All students will meet their 2026 teacher. In 2026 we will have the following classes across the school:
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We say goodbye to Laurelle Azzopardi at the end of this year. Mrs Azzopardi has been a very dedicated Learning Support Assistant for the last 13 years teaching literacy to those who need support in reading. We wish her well for the future.
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On behalf of our whole staff I wish you all a safe holiday and a wonderful festive season!
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Paul Crowhurst | Principal
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The office will be closed for the summer break and will reopen from Thursday 29th January 2026. School will start for students on Tuesday 3rd February, 2026. Office emails will be checked periodically during the holidays if you need to contact the school:
office@glendowie.school.nz
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The next Board meeting will be held on Monday 15th December, at the earlier time of 6.00pm in the boardroom. Anyone is welcome to attend and a copy of the agenda is available from the school office from 3pm on the Friday before the meeting.
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Year level stationery lists for 2026 are now available on Glendowie School's website or click here to order through the Office Max website.
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If your child is leaving Glendowie and you have uniform which is still in good condition, we welcome donations for our office spare uniform supply and for the PA second hand shop. Thanks for thinking of us if you are doing a final clean out!
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A reminder to please let the school know if your student / students will not be returning to Glendowie School next year.
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Lost property tables will be outside the office next week. Anything remaining on Tuesday will be repurposed if not claimed.
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East Auckland Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon
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Weetbix tryathlon will be on Sunday the 22nd March 2026 - There will be a Glendowie School Gazebo and sausage sizzle organised by the PA. Register here.
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Glendowie School’s annual food drive
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Tuesday 16th December (last day)
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Students can wear their own clothes on the last day of the term, our 'Be yourself day' (Uniform Free Day), and bring in non-perishable food items to support the food bank at our local marae in Glen Innes.
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Please contact the office if you can help with the collection before school and with the delivery of the collected food on Friday morning.
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Year 0 Celebration of our Learning
On Wednesday 3rd December, Rooms 30 and 8 proudly shared their recent learning with an audience of siblings, parents, and grandparents.
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This term, students have been exploring how people choose materials for specific purposes, and how ideas and feelings can be expressed through stories and music.
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To deepen this understanding, students investigated the properties of different materials and experimented with the sounds they create. Using this new knowledge, they designed and constructed their own musical instruments.
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They used the instruments that they made to play music as they sang.
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The students also showcased their creativity by making masks and props for the play that they performed, “The Three Groups of Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf Pack.”
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Year 4 - Unit of Inquiry: How The World Works.
Our recent Year 4 inquiry revolved around the central idea of how the earth’s forces have an impact on people and our environment. We learnt about the ring of fire, tectonic plates, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. We discovered how they are all inter-connected and what effect they have on our world.
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Rooms 4, 5 and 6 enjoyed a visit from the Auckland Museum Volcano Van, where we learnt about the different types of volcanic rocks, how they were formed, and how to identify them. We discovered that pumice is a pale, lightweight rock filled with air bubbles. It is actually a type of glass, as is another volcanic rock - obsidian, which is much heavier, black and shiny and is formed from quickly-cooled lava. Kayla (Rm 4) shared, “Before the volcano van visit, I didn’t know what pumice was. Now I know how light it is and that it can be used to get rid of old skin.”
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We were fortunate to have a special guest speaker, geophysicist Errol Anderson, explain to us how geothermal fields work. He has worked all over the world as a geothermal scientist, exploring the potential of rocks to conduct electricity, in order to set up geothermal power plants. We also learnt from him that if we didn’t have geothermal fields, we probably wouldn’t have gold! Nathan (Rm 4) was inspired while hearing about such an exciting career, and liked how Mr Anderson had used his brain to change the world. “Maybe I will do your job when I am older?” he pondered.
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Our personal inquiry projects focused on the beneficial outcomes of these natural forces, such as tourism, agriculture and energy. We presented our discoveries to our team and buddy classes. So many questions were asked and we all learnt a lot. Perhaps there will be a future volcanologist, seismologist or geophysicist amongst us?
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Glendowie Parents' Association
That's a wrap on 2025 from the PA. Thank you to all the kids and families who made the most of our events this year, from Camp Night, Movie Night, The Disco, The Parents Quiz Night, Runathon, The Expert Speaker Evening and finally The Colour Run! We love running the events and seeing the Glendowie community thrive.
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Special thanks to the Leaning family for orchestrating the phenomenal Colour Run waterslide for the final time, we wish you all the best at college. A big thank you to the Mt Wellington Fire Brigade for coming to Colour Run and making the slide super fast. Of course, none of our events would run as smoothly as they do without the enduring support of Mrs Robyn Sinclair, Mr Peter Kloopers and Lewis.
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Our first event of 2026 will be Camp Night on Saturday the 14th of March - save the date!!
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Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday.
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This is a great midway step for parents who can’t commit to joining the PA but wish to help with events on an ad-hoc basis . We’re grateful for any support, please email us (glendowieprimarypa@gmail.com) if you’re interested.
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Upcoming Events
- Monday 15th of December - Class "Move Up" Day
- Monday 15th of December - Board Meeting, 6pm - Boardroom
- Tuesday 16th December - Non - Uniform Day - please bring along a non-perishable food item
- Tuesday 16th December - Last Day of Term 4 - School finishes 2pm
- Friday 30th January, 2026 - Second Hand Uniform Shop, 8.30 - 9am
- Tuesday 3rd February, 2026 - First Day of Term 1
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Community Notices
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Register here - Glendowie Students receive a 10% discount.
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