Waitara East School

15/06/2026

PUANGA CELEBRATION

Please come and join us on Thursday 25th of June at 7am, we will start with our mihi whakatau (so if everyone could be here at 6,30am please) as we celebrate Puanga together followed by a shared breakfast.

Manaaki Coffee will be joining us for those of us who would appreciate a great coffee first thing 🙂

Please note school will finish at 1pm on this day

12/06/2026

Here are this weeks Mana Focus and Principal Award recipients.

Ka pai koutou!

11/06/2026

He Manu Tūhono syndicate took their learning outdoors yesterday with a trip to Lake Rotokare Wildlife Sanctuary. Taranaki’s very own predator free haven for Kiwi, Invertebrates, Birds and many other native creatures.

Although we didn’t get to see any Goldstripe Gecko, Kiwi or Giant Wētā, Tamariki were excited to see plenty of Toutouwai, Piwakawaka and Tīeke. We were able to share experiences of our own trapping success within our Kura.

Big mihi to our facilitators Whaea Georgina and Cassie for guiding our tour and sharing information all about Lake Rotokare and its inhabitants. We all learnt so much!

10/06/2026

Today we hosted Central School - Te Kura Waenga o Ngāmotu for Interschool Sports. Great competition all round!

Waitara East took wins in Netball and Rugby while Central claimed victories in Soccer and Chess.

Well done to all players who showed great sportsmanship and mana!

09/06/2026

Thank you New Zealand Community Trust (NZCT) for your generous grant that enabled us to buy new playing shirts for our tamariki.
Our basketball team love them!

05/06/2026

Here are this weeks amazing winners of our Mana Focus and Principal Awards! Mīharo Koutou 👏🏽

05/06/2026

Wow! We had a whole crowd of Singers, Pop-stars and Rockstars at school today! The Tamariki (and staff) really turned it up for our ‘Singer Dress up Day!’

From Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish to Boy George, Taylor Hawkins and Madonna!

Students got their dance on, rocked their guitars and microphones while performing for the rest of the school.

And of course the very obvious fave artist of the day was Michael Jackson with around 20 students dressed as MJ! To end the day, they had a Billie Jean dance off which was very entertaining! 💃🏽🪩🎸🕺🏽🎤🎷

04/06/2026

Tomorrow Friday 5th June, Tamariki can come dressed as their favourite Singer. We look forward to seeing who they choose to dress up as!

There will even be Prizes up for grabs. How EXCITING!!
💃🏽🕺🏽🪩🎤🎧🥁🎸🎷

04/06/2026

03/06/2026

Here’s some snippets of what our Garden Club have been up to over the last 3 weeks. The plants and vegetables have had some good growth thanks to the recent rain and sunshine.

Tamariki have had the usual watering, weeding, planting and harvesting going on. They have learnt to use stakes and twine to support beans and peas.

Over the next week some of our classes along with the Gardening Club will be creating and installing new garden beds
to fill with more green goodness.

Thank you Amy! Community Garden and Waitara Foodbank - Pataka Kai