Shotover Primary School

31/07/2026

It was a great couple of days for our Year 4–5 Ski Programme with NZSki!

While mother nature had the final say today with strong winds cutting our last day short, it certainly didn't blow away the great memories, new skills, and huge smiles from the past two days.

A massive shout-out and THANK YOU to:

Our amazing parent helpers: We simply couldn't manage a programme like this without you. Thank you for stepping up, gearing up, and supporting our learners both on and off the slopes.

Our resilient teaching team: A big thank you for seamlessly adapting back on site, re-aligning classroom programmes on the fly for the kids who ended up back at school today. Also, to those Mentors that managed the programme and supported the children up on the mountain and liaised with NZSki

Equipment Update: All skis and snowboards have been safely brought down the mountain today and delivered back to Kimi Āakau.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s mountain experience such a success. for our Year 4 and 5s... fingers crossed our Year 3's and Year 6, 7 and 8s get a piece of the action later this term!

Have a wonderful, well-deserved weekend!

29/07/2026

Yesterday, we had the absolute privilege of playing a small part in Owen Todd’s milestone 100th birthday celebration.

We decided that turning 100 means you deserve 100 (maybe a few more🤫) children singing to you! So, we gathered up an enthusiastic group of adults and children and headed up to the Arvida Queenstown Country Club.

Together, we sang, we performed a waiata and danced to our haka. This was our celebration of Owen's centennary with him and his whanau.

We love any opportunity to visit our neighbours at the Country Club and share these special moments of joy with our community.

Rā whānau ki a koe, Owen! Happy 100th Birthday!
We hope you had a great day!

Aroha nui - Shotover Primary sends you much love!

27/07/2026

Today, our Year 8 cohort proudly received their new Shotover Hoodies! They were super excited to receive them and are beyond grateful to everyone who helped bring this project to life.
A massive thank you to our hardworking Year 8 Hoodie Crew—Coco, Eva, Indy, Leticia, Millie, Sadie, and Zac—for all their effort behind the scenes.
We are incredibly fortunate to have the support of our generous local sponsors:

High Performance Academy
Shotover Engineering
Nordzco Joinery
Hapori Tiling
Manata Lodge
Impact Apparel and Merch
Educating Adventures
BDO
Anderson Lloyd
Thanks to their incredible community spirit, all 74 of our Year 8 students received a hoodie at no charge to their families. They are already wearing them with huge pride!

23/07/2026

We want to share some heart felt gratitude to Mana Tāhuna with our wider community.

When we reached out for guidance to Mana Tāhuna, the elders stepped forward with a level of wrap-around care, guidance, and manaakitanga (unconditional care and hospitality) that exceeded any expectation or hope.

Mana Tāhuna walked alongside Maite's family, the school and our community/ Hapori every step of the way, providing logistical and cultural wrap-around. This enabled our families, staff and friends to focus solely on honouring their attention to what mattered. Their guidance exemplified manaakitanga, reinforcing that true community support is rooted in genuine connection and looking out for one another.

We are feeling very grateful to be a part of a community where a group such as Mana Tāhuna and their leaders can offer such support to us all.

In time, we look forward to honoring and reciprocating this support in meaningful ways.

08/07/2026

Mānawatia a Matariki, Shotover Whānau! Happy Matarik to you all!

The Matariki star cluster is officially back in the winter skies! As it reflects over the waters of Kimi ākau and Kawarau, it’s the perfect reminder for everyone to pause, look back at the awesome year the school has had, and get excited for what's next. (We hope you all get some snapshots of time to do this with your kids over this break).

This is a great time to reflect on the past, consider the current state of play and plan forward. (Over the past weeks and those early in term 3, mentors are sending invitations to whanau and students to connect for their 3 way conferences. Please make an effort to ensure this happens for your child if it hasn't already.)

Our "Climate of Possibilities' is our main stay - we need to celebrate and highlight our epic support crew that help us maintain this focus. This includes everyone from our amazing parent helpers to the absolute legends at FOS (Friends of Shotover) and our wider community—You are the real engine room!

Whether it's helping out with sports events, coaching teams, attending class trips, going on camps, fundraising, supporting our enrironmental projects or just supporting from home, that backing is exactly why the tamariki get to dive into such a massive, varied mix of awesome programs.

Huge appreciation and gratitude to you all!

Looking back at the past half of this year, the kids have achieved so much—braving the learning pit, kaitiakitangi of the wetlands, and tackling new challenges head-on.

Meanwhile, hopefully, everyone gets a chance to rug up and spot the stars with the kids over the next couple of weeks!

The team is counting down to seeing everyone back fresh and raring to go when school reopens on Monday the 20th!

Ngā mihi o Matariki te kaupeka o te tau.

03/07/2026

Kia ora koutou... just another day of "Joy", "Collaboration" and in this case... "Growth Mindset" at Shotover Primary!

Mark, our expert instructor, from 'Dance Curriculum' has been working onsite at Shotover Primary over the past two weeks. alongside every child and their classroom mentors.

Today, we show cased our recent dance learning (a part of the Arts curriculum/ programme) with our families and it is fair to say the 'Joy' from getting involved in the Arts was obvious. Not only did our kids' smiles shine but our parents and grandparents got into the groove!

Thank you to so many of you that were able to attend the celebration and join in! This was a wonderful way to celebrate the end of Term 2! Have a wonderful two weeks!

22/06/2026

19/06/2026

There are some days that just make you smile...

The wins go beyond coming first and come back to celebrating who we are and our amazing place at Shotover.

As our Kapa Haka (Tuakana) team arrived back at school, our younger Teina group were awaiting ready to welcome them and celebrate their achievements by acknowledging them with the school haka.

This is a massive shout out to our amazing Kapa Haka group who competed at Haka Tū Haka Ora, today. Our Tamariki, staff, kaiako and community have been working hard to be ready for today and they did us proud in so many ways.

Ka mihi - Ngā mihi ki a koutou katoa!

18/06/2026

WHAT A SHOW! Shotover’s Got Talent 2026 Was Next Level! 🌟

Wow. Just… wow! Yesterday afternoon, our school hall was absolutely buzzing for the return of Shotover’s Got Talent, and we are still buzzing today!

First and foremost, a massive shoutout to every single student who stepped onto that stage. The sheer bravery it takes to perform in front of a packed audience of peers, teachers, and parents is incredible. You all showed immense courage, grit, and superstar confidence. We are so incredibly proud of you!

A huge, heartfelt thank you to our amazing panel of judges: Fi Stephenson (all round stage legend), Joe Cowie (Mountain Beats Dj Co.) and Mr D. Thank you for giving up your time and helping to make it such an amazing afternoon!

The judges noted that the feedback was incredibly positive across the board. In fact, the talent was so high this year that there were only a few points separating all of the acts. Fi, Joe, and Jonny had some seriously tough decisions to make, and we do not envy them that job!

🏆 And the Winners Were...
After much deliberation, the final standings were decided:

🥉 3rd Place: The Crazy Cart Kids for their absolutely fun and chaotic go-kart extravaganza! (The energy was unmatched!)

🥈 2nd Place: Nyah Vallance for her beautiful, moving, and graceful dance rendition of This is Me.

🥇 1st Place: Georgia O'Keefe for her absolutely fantastic, high-energy gymnastic dance routine!

🤝 Thank You to Our Incredible Sponsors
This event wouldn't be the extravaganza it is without the extreme generosity of our local community. A massive thank you to our sponsors for providing such epic prizes:

Shotover Jet
Strike Bowl Queenstown
i-SITE Trampoline

Thank you for backing our kids and helping us reward their hard work!