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ECS Update Term 3, Week 3 – Friday 1 August
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Kia ora Parents and Caregivers,
Next week, we’ll be celebrating Book Week at Emmanuel!
Books are a wonderful way to communicate ideas, share stories, and grow in understanding. The characters we remember from books we’ve read, or had read to us, can bring colour, joy, and insight into our daily lives.
On Tuesday, we’ll be holding Book Character Day. This is a fun opportunity for students to come to school dressed as a favourite character from a book.
As we think about Book Week, I’m reminded of the incredible gift we have in God’s written Word. We’ve had access to the Bible in English since the 1500s, beginning with William Tyndale’s publication of the New Testament, followed later that century by Miles Coverdale’s full English translation of the Bible. The efforts of these early translators, and many who have followed, have made the Scriptures widely accessible.
According to 2024 data from Wycliffe, the entire Bible is now available in 756 languages, and 3,756 languages have at least some portion of Scripture. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, an additional 70 million people gained access to some Scripture in their own language.
Please continue to pray for the incredible people involved in Bible translation projects. And may we, who have God’s Word so readily available, never take this blessing for granted.
Blessings,
Alistair
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This newsletter contains information on the following:
- Important Dates
- School Board Update
- School Board Elections
- Book Character Day
- Paid Union Meeting – Early Finish Monday 25th August
- Scholastic Book Orders
- Christchurch School of Music 70th Anniversary Performance
- Lunch Orders
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Tuesday 5th August – Book Character Day
Thursday 7th August – Year 3 & 4 Swimming Sports
Monday 25th August – Early finish (12:30)
Wednesday 27th August – Cultural Day
(The School Calendar including 2025 Term dates can be found here)
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Kia ora ECS parents
Thank you to those of you who have contributed to recent activity as the Board has considered the last few years and what our ECS strategy should look like for 2026 – 28. We need to submit this to the Ministry of Education at the end of this year.
We received a small number of responses to the survey we released at the end of last term. The recurring themes which emerged in your feedback reminded the Board that it’s important to consider individual and diverse needs of all of our students, that it’s important to create student leadership opportunities in both our junior and middle school and that as we plan for growth we need to make sure our community culture and communication with parents remains strong.
The Board is now taking time to further work on the details of our strategic plan for 2026 – 28. This will be focused around two areas:
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Akonga – the Learner and their Learning
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Whanaungatanga – Community
We expect to be ready to share more detail about our strategic plan by Term 4, and will welcome ongoing feedback from the community.
Finally, a reminder about the school Board elections which are happening this term. We have two positions to be filled. We welcome nominations from across the school community so please prayerfully consider if this could be you.
Nominations close next Wednesday 6 August.
Your board can be contacted any time by email at board@emmanuelchristian.school.nz
Warren Rosser
Emmanuel BOT Presiding Member
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School Board Election – Nominations Close Monday 6th August at noon
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Nominations are now open for the election of 2 parent representatives to the Emmanuel Christian School Board. Schooled Election Pilot have been appointed as the Returning Officer for this election.
All eligible voters will have received a nomination form by email, or if we do not have your email address it will be sent to you by post. The nomination pack will include a cover letter explaining the nomination process as well as a nomination form. You can use this form to nominate yourself, or you can nominate someone else in the community. (If you are going to nominate someone else, ensure they are aware of your nomination and are willing to accept the nomination). Information on who is not eligible to be a School Board member is provided with the nomination form.
If you need additional nomination forms, or forms in Te Reo Māori of a different language, please contact the Returning Officer directly on 0800 VOTENZ (0800 868 369) or election@electionpilot.nz.
Nominations close at noon on Wednesday 6th August. Nominations can be submitted by email, through the Election Pilot system at www.electionpilot.nz or by returning the completed nomination form to the school office. You may provide a candidate statement and photograph with your nomination.
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Book Character Day – Tuesday 5th August
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Next week, Emmanuel is celebrating Book Week!
Our Librarians have organised a number of activities students can get involved during the school week, from bookmark creating competitions to quizzes!
Two key dates included in this are:
Tuesday the 5th – Book Character Day
Students are able to come to school dressed up as a book character. In the morning, weather permitting, we will have a whole school parade to give an opportunity to showcase the wonderful characters we are dressed up as.
For students that don’t want to dress up, they can come in normal school uniform.
Wednesday the 6th – Mobile Library Van
The Christchurch City Library van is coming back to school! If your child does not have a library card, now is the time to start thinking about it. You may go into one of the branch libraries and do it yourself, or – easier still – get an application form from the school office or the school library. That way you do not have to organise your own ID. The school does it for you!
Even if you live in Rangiora, Kaiapoi or Rolleston, you are entitled to this service for free until your child turns 19. This gives children access to 21 local libraries around the city, as well as many amazing online resources, which include e- and audio- books and books in many international languages.
With a library card, your child may borrow books from the library van on the day.
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Paid Union Meeting – Early Finish Monday 25th August
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Over the past few months, the NZ Education Unions have been renegotiating employment contracts that affect all school staff. This morning we received formal notification that NZEI will be holding a series of union meetings for its members.
As a result, this will impact our staffing on Monday 25th August.
We kindly ask that, where possible, students are collected at 12:30pm (the beginning of lunchtime) on Monday 25th August.
A number of staff will remain on site in the afternoon, and we will provide supervision for students who are unable to be collected early. Supervision will be available until the usual end of the school day.
Further details will be shared early next week.
Thank you for your understanding and support
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Scholastic Book Orders – close today
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Closing date : Friday 1 August 2025, 6pm
If you would like to order any of the books, this can be done online on LOOP. For your first time you will need to register in order to make a Book Club LOOP login.
We cannot take orders/payment via the Office so please order online.
Instructions are on the back of the brochure.
Once orders close, they will be sent to school and will come home with your child. On all orders the school earns 15% in scholastic rewards which benefits our school library.
Emmanuel Christian School does not endorse all material that is available for purchase from Scholastic Book Club. Please use your discernment when selecting reading material for your child.
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Christchurch School of Music 70th Anniversary Performance
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This last weekend, a number of talented Emmanuel Christian School students performed at the great town hall.
Various orchestras, ensembles and stringendo, performed what they had been working on this year.
The Christchurch School of Music has been running for 70 years, and invited their best groups to perform as a celebration of 70 years! What an honour to have so many of our brilliantly talented students chosen to perform!
You have made us proud – well done!
Minah (violin) Ella (cello)
Belinda (violin) Yiling (flute)
Elly (cello) Adam ( violin)
Cecilia (cello) Alina (violin)
Seanna (trumpet) Bethany (viola)
Noah (violin) Kiarn (viola)
George (violin) Kimberly (flute)
Matthew (cello) Seungki (cello)
Michelle (violin / viola) Lucinda (cello)
Mason (violin)
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Lunches are available through Lunchonline for delivery on Tuesdays and Thursdays during term time. Orders can be placed in advance (so you can set up orders for the whole term in advance). Orders must be made before 8.30am on the day of delivery. Please ensure you click ‘submit’.
The Sushi Factory is our lunch supplier on Wednesdays with a range of lunch options including sushi, rice balls, dumplings, pies, sausage rolls, sandwiches, burgers, muffins and brownies.
Subway is our lunch supplier on Thursdays. The Subway menu includes 6 inch subs, 12 inch subs, salad bowls, cookies, drinks and fruit squirts.
For more information and to open your account, visit www.lunchonline.co.nz
If you have any queries please give lunchonline a call on the number below.
To view the current menu and prices:
https://orders.lunchonline.co.nz/home/ViewMenu select “view school menu” then select Christchurch and Emmanuel Christian School from the dropdown menu.
If your child is new to the school and you haven’t used Lunchonline before we can give you a $5 voucher so you can give it a try. Please pop in to the Office to collect your voucher.
Please note – the Village Bakehouse is no longer able to provide lunch on Wednesdays due to low order numbers.
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