Wednesday 28 August

Kia ora koutou,

We experienced quite a shake on Friday 16th August. It was very scary for the children but they were superb and put into action all the preparation work we have done in terms of drills and simulations. Firstly children went into a turtle to cover themselves and once the shaking had stopped we managed to file out into our safe zone on the field. We were very pleased with how the 'event' unfolded, particularly how the children were able to follow directions despite being very scared.

I would like to pay a special tribute to the senior students who act as assembly buddies and looked after our youngest children with maturity and courage.  They were quite remarkable and contributed hugely to  such a successful evacuation.

As we approach the middle of the term there is a lot going on. Our older children are in and out attending events and working towards their wearable arts show later this term.

We wish to acknowledge and congratulate Olivia Morphew for winning the ICAS medal for year 4 writing. This is a stunning achievement following on from Andrew Sutcliffe's medal earlier this year for year 6 science.  It is remarkable that the 2 children will receive medals for topping NZ in the same year. 

STAFFING
With Mikaela Cody (R4) and Rebecca Saker (R5) heading off on maternity leave at the end of this term we welcome Karen Houghton into room 4, and welcome back Hayden Ray into room 5.

Our next new entrant room starts in week 8 and Liz Sullivan will be teaching these children in Room 16. We welcome Annabel Smith back from maternity leave to work 2 days a week in room 3 for Maureen Buckley.

KEEPING OURSELVES SAFE
We welcome Constable Julie Orr who is working in the junior school at the moment with the NZ Police education programme called Keeping Ourselves Safe. 

SPELL-A-THON
This year's major fundraiser is the Spell-A-Thon with the testing next Tuesday 3 September. This is a more healthy alternative to the chocolate sales which we have done in previous years. Please help your children collect sponsorship so that we can raise money for high interest readers for the junior school, specialist art supplies for the middle school, tents for the Abel Tasman experience and some IT equipment for the learning support department.

SURVEY
The Board is currently surveying parents of the school so would appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please click here to access the survey.

ENROLMENT ZONE
In the next day or so you will receive a letter from the Board of Trustees about the enrolment zone. This is to inform you of the zone and the process. It also invites you to comment if you would like to.

PYJAMA DAY
Thank you to our charity group for organising Pyjama Day. We managed to raise $470 for Kidscan.

BEE HIVES
The Senior School are looking to put bee hives into the garden behind the senior school.  They need some technical support from an enthusiastic bee-keeper to help set up and look after any bee hives we purchase.  If you are keen to help and have the necessary expertise, could you please contact Melissa Coton at coton@muritai.school.nz 

WORLD OF WEARABLE ARTS - LOST WORLDS

Children in years 5 to 8 have been busy making masks and their costumes for our Wearable Arts production and will soon be ready for their rehearsals.  Shows will be at the following times:-

Tuesday 17 September        Matinee at 1pm
Tuesday 17 September        7pm
Wednesday 18 September    7pm
Thursday 19 September       7pm

Tickets are on sale in the office - Adults $10, Children and Senior Citizens $7.50 each.

ARTSPLASH
Our Artsplash choir is working hard with Ruth Hooke and they sound superb.  They will be performing at the Michael Fowler Centre on Monday 9 September at 7.45pm and tickets are available at the school for $5 each.

UPCOMING DATES
Thur 29 Aug - Y8 students attending HVHS visit ; Y7-8 Mathswell team competes
Fri 30 Aug - Assembly 1.45
Tue 3 Sept - Spellathon
Wed 4 Sept - Junior school jump off - 1.30-2.40
Thur 5 Sept - Juniors trip to Musical Stars; Y5-6 Mathswell team competes
Mon 9 Sept - Artsplash rehearsal and show 7.45
Wed 11 Sept - Starting school @ 5 at 7
Thur 12 Sept - Assembly 1.45; Staff at Gail Loane PD after school
Fri 13 Sept - Wearable arts staging goes up; Huapai District School visit
Mon 16 Sept - Room 16 starts; Wearable Arts rehearsal + show
Tue 17 Sept - Wearable arts - matinee and show
Wed 18 Sept - Wearable arts - show
Thur 19 Sept - Wearable arts - show

COMMUNITY NOTICES

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Food for Thought is delighted with the positive response from the Muritai school community! We now have a brand new website up and running www.fft.co.nz ! From here, you can access our weekly menu, order via email and pay via internet banking.

We are also happy to introduce our prepay 12 combo meal system for $80 (which means a saving of $4.00). If this system sounds more convenient for you, please visit the website or email us at info@fft.co.nz. Thank you for your ongoing support! Carmen and Megan

BIG BUDDY MENTORING TRUST
The Big Buddy Mentoring Trust matches male volunteer mentors with 7-14 year old fatherless boys.  Big Buddy finds a male mentor for a boy who does not have a father or other male role model taking an interest in his life, fostering a long-term relationship similar to that of an uncle.  If you would like more information on this programme, visit their website at 222.bigbuddy.org.nz.

EASTBOURNE MARKET SPRING FLING

The Eastbourne Market Spring Fling is on Sunday 15 September 11am to 2pm!   Something for everyone, start your Christmas shopping early, gorgeous arts and crafts,  books, clothing, and more..... Come hungry and enjoy the famous Rotary sausage sizzle or feast upon bacon butties, soups, chutneys and sweets.   Like us facebook.com/EastbourneMarket

JUNIOR TENNIS REGISTRATION
Junior Interclub Registration and Coaching Enrolment will be on again this Saturday 31 August from 12.30 - 1.30pm at the Muritai Tennis Clubrooms, 356 Muritai Road.

Thursday August 2013

Kia ora koutou,

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai 

Tena koutou katoa

Welcome to Jorja Herbert and Sophie Mouat  who have joined the Muritai School community recently in room 1. Our roll is currently sitting at 446.

As per usual the school is humming along. Sometimes it does feel like we are an event management company but rest assured all our activities are around helping our children develop a love of learning and to be the best that they can be. We have had a fantastic 3 weeks and it is a pleasure to walk through the classrooms seeing the children so connected to their learning environment and the tasks that they are doing. Despite what you may experience with the variety of grunts and groans that children offer to the question, ..'How was school?'.. rest assured they are very busy at the moment.

We welcome six teacher trainees to the school until the end of term. Muritai is a great place to come as part of your teacher training as the environment is so settled you can get your teeth into teaching and creating learning experiences. For our children it is so nice to have an extra pair of hands in the classroom.

So we welcome - Rob Arrowsmith - room 9; Polina Jalina - room 15; Julie Small - room 24; Belinda Evans - room 22; Aimee Hartstonge - room 1; Emma Skillington - room 2.

HOME AND SCHOOL NEWS - THE MURITAI SPELLATHON
This year is our non Eastbourne Village Carnival year. In previous years we have sold boxes of chocolates. This has been very lucrative and raised around $9000 per fundraising venture. This year we thought we would try something a bit different...A Spellathon!!!

The children will be given a set of words to learn or prepare to spell for 'The Muritai School Big Spelling Test' on September 3rd. Year 1 will learn 10 words, year 2 = 20 words, year 3 = 30 words and year 4-8 = 50 words. The words selected for each list are tricky, relevant, useful words.

The children need to collect sponsors who will pay them for the number of words they spell correctly. If every child manages to attract $10 sponsorship then we will raise $4500. But I am sure we might be able to squeeze some extra money, because after all we all want our children to be spelling well...it is a nice challenge!

The Home and School Committee have worked hard on this and organised through local sponsors and friends of the school some great prizes to be won.  Money raised will be used to purchase a new series of high interest readers for the junior school, some specialist art supplies for the middle and senior school ...new tents for the Abel Tasman and Forest Lakes experience and another couple of Ipads for the learning support team. So all  the money raised is going back to the children in one way or another!

DISCO
Last Friday's disco was a huge success. The children had such a blast and the evening just flew by. The Home and School Disco team were ably assisted by volunteer parents who helped at the door, in the kitchen or on the BBQ. The BBQ was a great initiative and we were able to double our fundraising overall, because we managed to get the sausages through a very generous donation from Barry and the team at the Eastbourne Butchery. Thank you for your support for this event.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR

The Scholastic Book Fair held in the last week of Term 2 sold $4003.50 worth of books. Due to our sales being over $4000 we are entitled to 35% of that total in Scholastic book stock, which comes to $1401.22. We took $705 worth of books from the fair and have another $696.22 still to spend. Thanks go to coordinator Liz Alderson, and the volunteers who helped look after the fair, and a special thanks to the parents who supported us by buying books and making this event so successful.   

ARTSPLASH
Our school choir are working very hard with Mrs Hooke to perfect the songs for the Artsplash concert at the Michael Fowler Centre on the evening of Monday 9th September at 7.45. Tickets to  the show are available for $5 from the school office.

2013 WEARABLE ARTS SHOW - LOST WORLDS
This year's Wearable Arts show is starting to take shape. Based on lost civilisations and the mysteries of our world. Join three teenagers as they discover how interesting the real world is.  Performances, in the school hall, are as follows:

• Tuesday 17 September 1pm and 7pm
• Wednesday 18 September 7pm
• Thursday 19 September 7pm

Tickets $10 per adult and $7.50 per child or senior citizen can be purchased from the school office.

To recap how good these shows have been here are the highlights from the last show in 2011.

COFFEE, HOT CHOCOLATE and COOKIES on FRIDAY MORNING
As part of the senior school fundraising for the Abel Tasman expedition at the end of the year, our year 8 children are running a cafe in the foyer on Friday morning. Coffee, hot chocolate and home baking are for sale. 

We would like to acknowledge and thank Mike Pullin for his generous donation of coffee and supplies for our fundraising stall. 

PJ DAY
The charity team, as part of Pay it Forward, have organised a pyjama day for tomorrow. So the children can just roll out of bed, do their morning chores and come to school, without getting dressed! please bring a gold coin donation  for our nominated charity this year - Kids Can.

WELL DONE...

Olivia Morphew was recently chosen as a child extra for the Royal New Zealand Ballet's 60th Anniversary of Swan Lake. She and another boy from their dance school played the roles of two children attending the Prince's birthday party.  They had to run around the stage acting excited, and they had to tell the grown-ups when the Prince was about to arrive.  Olivia also gave the Prince's mother a bouquet of flowers while curtsying.  Attending the daily rehearsals and all of the performances left Olivia with little time for other fun during the school holidays.  Olivia says it was hard work, but worth it.

SCHOLASTIC BOOKS

The last day for Lucky Book Orders is Friday 23rd August.  Please note that you need to pay by credit card or cheque made out to Scholastic. It is also very important to fill in the name and room number of the student ordering the books.

LEGGINGS AND TRACKSUIT PANTS NEEDS
We are in need of leggings for little girls and tracksuit pants for little boys for our medical room to change children into when they get wet or muddy.  If you have any age 5 to 10 leggings or tracksuit pants, please drop them off at the office with Carole or Sue.  

UPCOMING EVENTS

Fri 16 Aug -      Pyjama Day; Assembly 1.45
Fri 29 Aug -      Y8 HVHS children Science experience at HVHS
Fri 30 Aug -      Assembly 1.45pm
Wed 4 Sept -    Junior School jump off
Thur 5 Sept -    Junior school trip to Wgtn - Musical Stars
Mon 9 Sept -     Artsplash - rehearsal 11.00 and evening show 7.45
Thurs 12 Sept - Assembly 1.45
Fri 13 Sept -     Stage going up for Wearable Arts
Mon 16 Sept -   Room 16 new entrant class starts/ Wearable arts community show
Tue 17 Sept -    Wearable arts matinee and evening show
Wed 18 Sept -   Wearable arts evening show
Thurs 19 Sept -  Wearable arts evening show
Thurs 26 Sept -  Assembly 1.45
Fri 27 Sept -      Last day of term

TERM DATES

Term 3 - Monday 29 July - Friday 27 September - 45 days

Term 4 - Monday 14 October - Friday 20 December - 48 days

A reminder we have our second teacher only day on Friday 25 October (Labour Weekend)

COMMUNITY NOTICES

MURITAI TENNIS CLUB
JUNIOR COACHING ENROLMENT AND INTERCLUB REGISTRATION DAY 
for the new 2013/2014 season is at 356 Muritai Road 
We will be enrolling all juniors for coaching and/or interclub teams on Sunday 25th August from 10am - 12.30pm (or Saturday 31th August from 12.30pm - 1.30pm), at the clubrooms. Please bring your payment on the day (cheque or cash).

OLD EASTBOURNE MOVIES
The Lions Club of Eastbourne and Historical Society of Eastbourne will be showing a collection of silent and sound movies, including 'Sunshine and Sands' about early Days Bay, and 'Hometown Boomtown, 1983' a documentary of the development of the Wellington central city region. 
Screening at Muritai School Hall 2pm and 5pm on Saturday 7th September
Prices - $5 single and $10 family.

Integrated Learning Therapy
Help your child reach their potential.  Identifying and treating learning barriers through movement, sound and play therapy.  Contact Carole at 567-5568;  www.integratedlearningtherapy.co.nz  ilt@clear.net.nz

Fun French at Muritai School

Is continuing in term 3.  Some spaces are available.

Tuesdays and Thursdays at lunch time: 
Lots of games, fun activities, games crafts, music to help learning.

The best way for kids to learn a language is through play .

For more information or to register ring Stefi Plimmer-Blattner on 562 8211
or email me:  stefi@lcfclubs.co.nz