Westport South School

11/09/2026

Yarns with Mr A…
A reminder that we have a Teacher Only Day coming up on Monday 14 September, so the school will be closed for instruction.
Our staff will be spending the day focused on professional learning around the refreshed curriculum. This is an incredibly important area of work for us as a school, and the day will provide valuable time for our teachers to unpack the changes, consider what they mean for our classrooms and continue developing our approach to teaching and learning.
A huge thank you to Kylie Bellis from the Ministry of Education for the support and expertise she has provided us. Her input has been incredibly valuable as we work through this next stage of curriculum implementation.
Next Friday is the Kapa Haka Festival, being held at Buller High School. This is always a fantastic day for our community, with schools from across the West Coast coming together to celebrate Kapa Haka, culture and our students.
There has been a huge amount of organisation going on behind the scenes to get the day ready. Our Westport South group will be performing at 8.45am, so we are looking forward to getting the day off to a great start.
For all of our students involved, please keep an eye out for a logistics note with the important details around the day.
And, of course, Westport South has a very important job to do – cooking 200 burgers! We are looking forward to getting stuck in and helping feed everyone. A massive thank you to those who have already put their hands up to help.
Behind the scenes, we have also started the process of looking ahead to 2027. We are beginning to work through class placements and having discussions around the physical makeup of classes and teacher placements.
There are a lot of moving parts to this process, and we want to make sure we take the time to get it right for our students and our school. If there is anything you feel we need to be aware of as we work through this process, please get in touch with me. While we cannot always accommodate every request, we are certainly happy to listen and consider the information you provide.
As part of one of our leadership groups, students had to design an activity and work with a small group of students from Room 7 today. The photos below look like they had lots of fun!

10/09/2026

It was awesome to have a surprise visit at assembly today from the Buller Rugby Union with the nameless lion. The kids certainly had their fave! Head along to their Facebook or Instagram to cast your votes!
DENNY
COLIN/COAL
TORA THE ROARER

09/09/2026

Just a reminder...
Monday (14 September) is a Teacher Only Day.
School is closed for instruction.

09/09/2026

This weeks newsletter 09 September 2026.

08/09/2026

We're cooking burgers and we need your help! 🍔

The Kapa Haka Festival is happening on Friday 18th September and we're looking for some wonderful helpers to help our team in cooking and preparing lunch to keep the kids going!

We are looking for 2–4 volunteers who would be willing to help us between approximately 8.00am and 2.00pm.

Together We Can!

05/09/2026

A fantastic display of your talents Rooms 9 & 10. The judges had a very hard time picking a winner and thought all your creations were incredibly well put together. You may retrieve your own at 4pm. If you are not able to I will take them back to school for you.
Mrs Clem

04/09/2026

Room 9 and 10 children were busy today putting together their Fairy Gardens for the Westport Garden Club Spring Flower Show. They all look amazing. Would highly recommend popping out with the whanau tomorrow to see them. They are on display at the Carter's Beach Hall. A big thank you to our senior students for their help organizing, such wonderful leaders!

03/09/2026

Yarns with Mr A…
I hope you have had the opportunity to read the information we recently shared about our three new teaching appointments for 2027. This is genuinely a really positive piece of news for Westport South School and provides an exciting opportunity as we continue to build our team for the future.
We will share more information about some of our valued staff members who will be retiring in due course. We are incredibly grateful for the contribution these people have made to our school and will ensure they are appropriately acknowledged and celebrated.

Today, I am asking our wonderful school community for a little help!
Teacher Aide Relief…
Throughout the year, and particularly during the colder months, we occasionally have Teacher Aides away due to illness. We are looking to build up a small group of willing community members who may be available to provide occasional relief cover when needed.
If you have some flexibility in your day and think this might be something you would be interested in, we would love to hear from you.
From an organisational perspective, it would be particularly helpful if you are already Police vetted through school. However, this is absolutely not essential, and we are happy to talk with anyone who is interested.
Kapa Haka Festival – Friday 18 September…
Our second request for help is for the upcoming Kapa Haka Festival at Buller High School on Friday 18 September.
This fantastic event brings together schools from across our community, and Westport South School will be helping by running a food stall on the day. Our job is a reasonably big one… we need to cook 200 burgers!
We are looking for 2–4 volunteers who would be willing to help us between approximately 8.00am and 2.00pm.
If you can help with either our Teacher Aide relief pool or the Kapa Haka Festival food stall, please get in touch with us ASAP!
As always, we are incredibly fortunate to have such a supportive community around our school, and we really appreciate any help people can offer.
Together We Can!

03/09/2026

29/08/2026

A big thank you to our wonderful Year 7&8 Netball coaches Izabelle and Mikah for all their hard work this year. The team's rounded out the year with a movie and awards ceremony at the NBS Theatre this afternoon. Thank you also to all the players for showing HEART on and off the court this year. You have been great representatives of our school out in the wider community. We would also like to thank Mrs Jones for her superb organization of netball at our school this year. Finally a big thank you to all the parents and supporters for getting down there each week to cheer us on.