Congratulations to Maya (6th), Gus (5th) and Andrew (4th) who all qualified for the New Zealand cross country championships in Hanmer next term and to Jack who finished 6th. We are all very proud of you.
In the last week 500 people have visited our Muritai TV blogsite to view our movie on reporting. Hopefully this was useful. If you haven't seen it click here, but it helps to explain and summarise our reporting process. We are heartened by this response and have enjoyed sharing the school's process of reporting against the National Standards. For many, the process of reporting will be enlightening and give clear affirmation that their child is on track or making even bigger progress steps than anticipated. We do appreciate that there will always be some children who are not yet on the national standards achievement level, however this shouldn’t necessarily give cause for concern. Rather here is an opportunity to identify ‘next step’ learning requirements and plan forward progress.
Our first session with parent interviews went extremely well - many staff saying they were the best they had been involved in. With 90% parent turnout over the 2 days and some interviews conducted beforehand we thank you for your positive engagement. With parent interviews this week our teachers and parents will need to think about how to involve the children in the reporting process. The reporting requirement is between the teacher and the parents, and we need to be careful that we don’t place the children in a situation where we undervalue their progress due to expectations that we place upon them. We do encourage parents to talk through their interviews with children, however I suggest the focus for each child should be on the positive progress already made as well as the next steps that can lead towards improved learning.
Staffing
Next term we welcome Barbara Ryan back to the staff and into room 1. Barbara has been on leave on a Science Teacher Scholarship with the Royal Society. She has documented what she has been doing in her science blog which is very interesting.
Thank you to Margs Mills-Smith for her work this term. Margs will be back teaching in the senior school next term and returning to start our next new entrant class, room 16 in term 4.
Dates
Fri 2 July - Green Day for Orphans of Nepal
Fri 2 July - Assembly 1.40 and School finishes at normal time
Mon 19 July - First day back, Term 3
Term dates for 2011
At the Board meeting last week term dates were confirmed for 2011. Next year is a bit different because of the Rugby World Cup - the consequence of which is we have a very short term 4 of about 8 weeks. The dates for your diaries are as follows -
Term 1 - Wednesday 2 February - Friday 15 April
Term 2 - Monday 2 May - Friday 15 July
Term 3 - Monday 1 August - Friday 7 October
Term 4 - Tuesday 25 October - Friday 16 December
There will be a 4 day weekend at Queen's Birthday with a Teacher only day on Friday 3 June and Monday 6 June as Queen's Birthday.
Mantle of the Expert
This enrichment programme for year 3-4 students has been chugging away one day a week for a term under the tutelage of Priya Gain. It has garnered some significant interest in Wellington and across the country. You may like to have view the Mantle blog where Priya explains in detail what they have done each week. It is a very nice record of using drama and inquiry to create a learning process. Click here for the blog.
Matariki
Monday 14th June saw the start of Matariki, the Maori new year. To celebrate this the students who attended kapa haka with Raihania Chadwick on Wednesday participated in a range of 'creating' activities and learned how to play whai (string games). The year 3 and 4's learned whai and the 5/6's learned how to weave putiputi (flowers). The year 7/8 students made tukutuku panels using the traditional materials of raupo and harakeke.
This was yet another fantastic opportunity for the year 7/8 students to be leaders and teachers of the juniors.
Physical Activity Leaders programme.
Another initiative that is very successful is the PALS programme which involves year 7-8 students running lunchtime activities for younger children. I viewed 4 senior children yesterday successfully working with 30 year 3 children in the hall running a game called pirates. Well done seniors!
Year 5-6 Speech finals
Matt Skilton and I had the pleasure of judging the year 5 and 6 speech finals. We were blown away with the quality of the speeches and picking a 'winner' was extremely difficult. The 6 finalists were all winners in our view - so congratulations to Billy Richardson, Harry Crawford, Matthew Sutcliffe, Carlotta Fergert, Louis Sutherland and Olly Evans. The year 5 champion was Billie Richardson and the year 6 champion and winner of the RD Harrison Cup was Olly Evans. Thank you to the teachers and parents for having the children so well prepared.
Year 7-8 Science fair
Thank you to the many parents who have visited the senior school and viewed the science fair. I am sure you will agree that the topics investigated were very interesting and reflect the children's strong interest in science. Twenty projects have been selected to go through to the NIWA science fair next term. The fair is running through to the end of the term for those still wishing to have a look.
Orphans of Nepal
This Friday is Green Day. We are raising money for theorphanage that we have a link with in Nepal. Children can come dressed in green and donate a gold coin to the Orphan of Nepal trust. Money raised will be used to purchase seeds and vegetables for the orphanage garden.
There is a jar of jellybeans in the office. Children can guess how many are in the jar, each guess costs $1 and the winner of the jar will be announced in the final assembly on Friday. Sarah and Alana will be in the office each day to collect guesses.
Trainee Teachers
This Friday we say farewell to Vaishally Ghandi who has been working in room 7 for the last 6 weeks with Richard Dobson. Vaishally has fitted into Muritai superbly and done a tremendous job with the children - she will be sorely missed. We wish her every success in her future endeavours.
Last week we hosted 6 trainee teachers from Malaysia. They were in room 2 - Mikaela Cody; room 15 - Stu Devenport; and room 22 - Kirsten Berry. Tajultatah, Afiq, Qish, Myra, Nadiah and Christina will be teaching English in Malaysia and are in NZ for 2 years as part of their 5 year teacher training. This was wonderful for the school and contributed to our increasing cultural diversity at Muritai. Sarah, Verity and Ryan have put together an interview and this will be up on Muritai TV shortly.
Book Fair
Thank you to Sue Fieldes, Jo Salisbury, and their team of parent helpers who have put together the Annual Book Fair in the library this Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. The school library normally earns over $1,000 worth of extra books as part of this fundraiser.
Artsplash
Our Artsplash Choir made up of 82 students from Year 4-6 will be performing at the Michael Fowler Centre on August 19th at 8.00pm. On Monday they went to a cluster rehearsal at Hutt Intermediate and met with the conductors Ella Hanify and Ruth Armishaw and sang through the repertoire along with a hall full of children from schools in the Hutt Valley. They are practising hard and sounding fantastic!
Room 14 will be performing at one of the Artsplash Dance concerts at the Michael Fowler Centre on Monday 16th August at 8.00pm. They learnt a Bollywood dance with Mr G, who was based in the class for 8 weeks this term and will be performing this dance at the show.
School Holiday Programme
This is your last chance to book into the School Holiday Programme. All applications must be into the school office or with Cath Barker at After School Care by Friday. All payments are to be made through the school office. To view what's on, check out the After School Care Blog.
SPORTS
The Water Polo and Flippa Ball season to date has been very successful. The year 5 and 6 Flippa Ball team have only lost 1 game and that was due to not quite having enough players. The first half of the season is now over and the competition will begin again on Wednesday the 21st of July - the draw is already up on the website for that round. A special thanks to all of the parent support the teams have had.
Wellington Cross Country
The Zone and Inter Zone Cross Country's have both been very successful. The Regional Cross Country took place in Waikanae on the 29th of June and we had 5 runners from Years 4-8 competing. They were: Jack Healy (year 4) Matthew Sutcliffe, Maya Hahn (both year 5), Gus Reece (year 6) and Georgia Crawford. They were placed:-
Mathew Sutcliffe 4th; Gus Reece 5th
Jack Healy 6th; Maya Hahn 6th;
Mathew, Gus and Maya children all qualify for the National Cross Country Champs to be held in Hanmer later in the year. Well done!
For all sport at Muritai, check out the sports blog at http://www.muritaisports.blogspot.com/
COMMUNITY
Experienced Nanny/housekeeper available
11 years experience with all ranges of children including special needs. Please Ring or text Abby 0277396594 anytime.
Piano Lessons with Vanessa Tindle (ATCL, BSc, dipTchg)
Vanessa currently teaches at school on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Next term she will be at school on Thursday mornings also. If you would like your child to learn piano with Vanessa please contact her directly to discuss. Ph 562 7663.
Eastbourne Scouts Quiz Night
Eastbourne Scouts invite you to our Quiz night/auction to be held on Sat 31st July at Muritai school hall starting at 7pm. It will be a fun night out which will also help our scouts to raise money towards the jamboree in December.
$20 per head, tables of 6-10. Cash bar and supper provided. Get a group together or come as you are and we will match you up with a table.
For tickets please phone Julia 576 0577 or Robyn 473 4206.
Capital Coaching Tennis Holiday Camps
Camp 1: Monday 5 July to Thursday 8 July
Camp 2: Monday 12 July to Thursday 15 July
Times: 9am to 12pm or 1pm to 4pm session $125/week
Full day sessions (9am to 5pm) $220/week
Individual half day sessions $35/session
Venues: Muritai Tennis Club or Thorndon Tennis Club or Kilbirnie Tennis Club.
Term 3 Coaching set to start Monday 26 July. Be in quick to book your preferred time. After school session from 2.30pm onwards.
Contact: Andy Wheeler on 027-4599-321 or 499-8190 andywheels@hotmail.com
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