FRiday 21 December 2012

Birds Eye View

21 December 2012

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai 
Tena koutou katoa

It was our final day at Muritai School yesterday for 2012.  The last couple of weeks with our end of year EOTC programme provided a lot of rich experiences and challenges for the children. It is nice to get them out and amongst the outdoors, appreciating what our lovely environment in New Zealand has to offer.

A special thanks to you for your continued support for our EOTC programmes over the last fortnight. Our year 1-2 had a wonderful week and with year 3-7 on the go last week we do really appreciate the parent support to help these programmes operate. The year 8 camp to Abel Tasman was a special success, with beautiful weather helping the children and parents enjoy such a wonderful part of NZ. I would especially like to praise our teaching staff for positively making a difference at such a busy time of year. A lot of work went into organising and making these weeks happen, on top of a very busy work-load at a busy time of year.

Class lists, achievement reports and learning journeys went out last Friday. We hope that you took the time to sit down with your child and allowed them to share their portfolio of learning and talk about strengths and weaknesses in the achievement report. The report also informs parents of student achievement against the National Standards and teachers provided a general commentary of classroom performance.

We feel very proud of 2012. Our teachers and children continue to go from strength to strength and are a credit to their families. Teaching and support staff continue to work hard on using the National Standards to accurately report on how our children are doing.  The Fairfax ‘league tables’ showed Muritai to be one of the very top schools in Wellington with out national standards results. At the same time I have been able to report on a regular basis of our children experiencing success in a variety of curriculum, sporting and arts achievements across the year.

To the children who left Muritai School yesterday we all wish you every success in your future years at your new schools and thank you for your contribution to Muritai School.

Thank you all for ensuring that Muritai continues to thrive as Eastbourne's local state school.

Have a merry christmas and a safe and prosperous new year.

regards

Andrew Bird
Principal

CARNIVAL MOVIE
Parents of the school, Anja and Gunnar Schoenborn from Treetop Media generously produced a short movie of the Eastbourne Village Carnival. It is a wonderful snapshot of the vibe of our special day. You can view this movie by clicking here.

DATES FOR 2013

We are starting the 2013 school year on Monday 4 February and our last school day will be Friday 20 December.

Term 1 - Monday 4 February - Friday 19 April – 51 days
Term 2 - Monday 6 May - Friday 12 July      - 48 days
Term 3 - Monday 29 July - Friday 27 September   - 45 days
Term 4 - Monday 14 October -  Friday 20 December – 48 days

There are 2 teacher only days in 2013 - these are the Friday of Queen's Birthday and the Friday of Labour Weekend.

PRIZES 
On Tuesday night at our year 8 prizegiving we had 2 new cups donated this year - the Nicholas Bahler award for empathy and the Malama Cup for inspiration.  The following students received awards  -

·                Abel Tasman Cup – Gareth Severin

·                Improvement in year 8 award – Kahlia O'Connor and Elliott Hawes

·                Board of Trustees Cups for 'Endeavour' – Kia Jewell and Drew Cullen

·                Board of Trustees Cups for 'Academic Excellence' – Carlotta Fergert and Jack Wellwood

·                Jacobson Cups for ‘Mathematics’ – Carlotta Fergert and Martin Lai

·                Debbie Bertaud-Gandar Memorial Cup for ‘Commitment to Science and Technology’ – Finn Connell

·                Fortescue-Willis Environmental Leadership - Earthcare Award - Kieran Cotter

·                Broadbent/O'Brien Literacy Prize -Excellence in Literacy -  Rose Scott-Billing

·                Nicholas Bahler award for empathy - Gareth Severin

·                Swain Cup for ‘Leadership and contribution in sport’ – Moss Grenfell

·                Beck Family Cup for ‘Best all round sportsperson’ – Zara Costello/Hailey Griffiths and Xavier Manson

·                Mills Family Cup for ‘Contribution to the Arts’ – Rupert McRae

·                Eastbourne Community Trust Cup for ‘Leadership’ – Celine Malama and Tom Walsh

·                The Malama Family Cup for inspiration - Ben McElwain-Wilson

·                Principal’s Prize – ‘Character’ - Maddy Robinson

·                Teachers Cup for ‘Being a joy to teach’ – Cahon Holden

·                Clarke Cup for “Positive contribution to Muritai School” – Tom Walsh

·                Newton Family Cup for ‘Service to Muritai School’ – Jack Wellwood

·                Stotter Cup for ‘Dedication, commitment and all round achievement’ – Dorian McRae

·                Class of 61 Cup - “Outstanding Contribution to Muritai School” – Gus Reece

·                Booth Family Cup ~ “The Student’s Student” – Tom Walsh

HOUSE CHAMPIONS
Over the year house points are awarded in class for achievement, effort and conduct and joined up with the school competitions of swimming, cross country and athletics. This year the champion house was Sanson.

SUPPORT STAFF
It is the time of year to thank many of our people but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to our support staff at Muritai. These people work around our teaching staff, either with children who have high or moderate learning needs or in administration to make sure things are functioning smoothly. We have many additional staff at Muritai and they all play a vital role in our school. Many have been here for a while and I am continually impressed with how well respected they are by our children, as they play a key support role in their lives as well. 

Thanks to Abby, Romy, Carolyn, Hillary, Sandra, Diane, Francie, Narelle, Angela, Carolyn, and Ann Harris.

From all of us here at Muritai we say a big thank you for all your efforts to help make our children do their very best. 

PART-TIME RELEASE TEACHERS
With the additional layer of administration required in schools we are very lucky to have a highly skilled, experienced part-time teaching staff to maintain consistency when staff are attending to their release needs. Most of these teachers have been at Muritai for a very long time and it is lovely to have them as part of our team.

Thank you - Vanessa, Ruth Hooke, Sally, Ruth Holmes, Liz, Hayley, Jo, Sue and Trish and to our very regular relievers Claire and Alan 

SPORTS UNIFORMS

We are still waiting for touch rugby uniforms to be returned to the school. Despite regular notifications we still have many outstanding.  We will be invoicing in the new year  for a replacement. 

LIBRARY BOOKS/JUNIOR READERS

Please have a look in children's bedroom for any school resources. If it has a Muritai School label on it then it should be at Muritai School.

SPORT

Cricket

Gareth Severin, a Year 8 pupil, scored his first century in a Zone cricket match for the Lower Hutt Rep side against Wellington South.  Gareth scored 114 runs, not out off 80 balls.  Congratulations!

Athletics 2012

Our athletes finished the year off very well and here are the results of the inter-zone and regional athletics sports competition.

Inter-zone Athletics 2012 results 1000m Y4 Girls – Charlotte Humphries – 2nd Y5 Girls - Macey Caughley – 1st Y6 Boys – Liam Lamb – 1st Relays Y4 Boys – 2nd Y4 Girls – 1st Y5 Girls – 1st Y6 Girls – 1st Quoits Y4 Boys – Rufus Rusholme-Cobb – 2nd Y6 Boys – Jack Healy – 2nd Long Jump Y4 Girls – Samantha Woolley – 3rd Y5 Girls – Macey Caughley – 1st Y6 Girls – Charlotte Wilson – 1st Sprints Y4 Boys – Tom Griffiths – 1st Y5 Girls – Macey Caughley – 1st Y6 Boys – Ben Grenfell – 1st Y6 Girls – Charlotte Wilson – 2nd High Jump Y4 Boys – Flynn Healy – 3rd Y4 Girls – Samantha Woolley – 3rd

Regional Athletics 2012 results Relays Y6 Girls – 1st 1000m Y5 Girls – Macey Caughley – 2nd 80 m Y5 Girls – Macey Caughley – 2nd 150m Y5 Girls – Macey Caughley – 1st 200m Y6 Boys – Ben Grenfell – 1st Long jump Y6 Girls – Charlotte Wilson – 3rd

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Fencing 2012 & 2013 Holiday Programmes

9am – 3pm (Under-9s 9am -12.30pm)  $130 per 2-day programme  9am-3pm  

Discounts for more than one participant per family per programme or for attendance at more than one course.

Dates:

Thursday 20, Friday 21 December 2012

Tuesday 15, Wednesday 16 January 2013

Wednesday 23, Thursday 24 January 2013

Contact Susan  Tel: 9383090  Mob: 021-02761922  Email: comgt@paradise.net.nz  for holiday programme or for enrolments for 2013.

Fun French at Muritai School 

We have had heaps of fun this year! Our Fun French classes will be continuing in 2013 and I am now taking registrations now for the new term.

Tuesday lunch-time for older students 

Wednesday lunch-time for younger members. 

Lots of games crafts, fun activities to help learning.

Free trial available.  For more information or to register ring Stefi Plimmer-Blattner on 562 8211, email stefi@lcfclubs.co.nz , Website: www.lcfclubs.co.nz