The Muritai School Newsletter: Thursday 28 November

Kia ora koutou,

Welcome back to Grace Manson and a big welcome to James Cowley who have started at Muritai recently. We are now at 476 with 3 more to come!!!

Approaching the end of the year

As we come to the final 3 weeks of the year we are starting to wind up proceedings with teachers completing documentation requirements. I am enjoying reading the children's reports and working with the staff to put our annual report together showing the progress we have made as a school in 2014. It has been a very smooth year (touch wood) and the school at the moment is in a very good space - classrooms are vibrant, the art work is beautiful with many, many fine examples and the children are getting on well with each other.

At this time of year we can hear the sound of the formal dancing which means our year 8 students are getting ready to move on from Muritai. They are in great shape - confident, bright, enthusiastic and really enjoying the environment they are in. Our year 8's are always a great measure of how successful we are as a school - we get to know them very well over the years and have seen them fly and have been there for the bumps along the way. What always impresses me in the last month of their time at Muritai is how close they are as friends. They have healthy respect for each other, and even though they are opposite gender there is genuine respect and friendship among the group. We are very proud of them.

A reminder that school finishes on the last day (Friday 20 December) at 1.00pm

Enrolment Zone is in place

Muritai School now has an enrolment zone in place. From now any new enrolments at Muritai must come from inside the enrolment zone. Twice a year the Board will advise if there are any out of zone spaces available and these will be published in this newsletter and the Hutt News. The details of our zone are on the school website here.

End of Year Interviews for year 1-3 students

As part of our end of year reporting requirements we will be holding parent interviews for our year 1-3 group to show how the children are either progressing towards or achieving against the end of year National Standard. These interviews are next Wednesday and Thursday from 3.15 - 7.30 and you can book by clicking here and entering the code - Q2QYZ

Year 4-8 Learning conferences

Next Tuesday afternoon is an opportunity for you to visit your child's class and let them take you through their learning journey for the year. Our children have done some lovely work in the last 6 months and we encourage you to enjoy seeing what they have done. The class teacher will be there to facilitate proceedings.

A reminder that teachers are always available anytime to meet with parents about student progress. If you feel the need to do this please do not hesitate to contact the class teacher of your child to set up an appointment.

Sue McCormack

At the end of the school year we will be saying farewell to our beloved Sue McCormack at the front office. Sue has been here since 2005 and is the heart of our school. She has been our first impression for 8 years and been a huge asset to our school, in particular her kind and caring nature with the children. She will be sadly missed by our community. Sue and Warwick have bought a property on Waiheke Island and are off on the next adventure in their lives.

Replacing Sue will be Jo Bentley. Jo has extensive experience in this role, including front office at a school. She is a parent of the school and is a well respected member of the Eastbourne community.

Zone sports

Last week our Year 4-6 Athletics team performed with distinction at the Hutt Rec against other schools in our cluster. The whole squad were fantastic and we managed to get up to 3rd place - 3 points behind the winning school Waterloo. We are the smallest school in the group so again a Muritai team has "punched well above its weight" in sporting competitions.

Those that placed at the event and have qualified for the Inter-zones are:

Relays -

Y6 girls - Phoebe Evans, Macey Caughley, Grace Olsen, Helena Cvitanovich

Y5 girls - Charlotte Humphries, Tessa Treadwell-Burke, Samantha Woolley, Charlotte McFarlane

1000m -

Y6 girls - Macey Caughley (1), Y5 girls - Charlotte Humphries (1),

Y4 boys - Henry Evans (2)

Long jump

- Y6 girls - Phoebe Evans (1), Macey Caughley (2)

- Y6 boys - Andrew Sutcliffe (3)

- Y5 girls - Charlotte McFarlane (2), Samantha Woolley (3)

- Y4 girls - Evie Wilson (2), Chelsea Summers (3)

- Y4 boys - Henry Evans (2)

High Jump

- Y6 girls - Phoebe Evans (1), Rosie Owles (2)

- Y5 girls - Tessa Treadwell-Burke (2)

- Y4 boys - Jack Evans (2), Ryan Swift (3)

Vortex

- Y6 boys - Lincoln Moffat (3)

- Y4 girls - Chelsea Summers (3)

Quoit

- Y5 girls - Tessa Treadwell-Burke (3)

- Y4 girls - Chelsea Summers (2)

Sprints

- Y6 girls - Macey Caughley (2)

- Y5 boys - Tom Griffiths (3)

- Y4 girls - Chelsea Summers (2)

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations to Maya Hahn, Macey Caughley and Ella Giles who were selected for the Wellington/Hutt Football Federation Talent Centre.

School structure/ Composite classes

We are very close to confirming our final school organisation and staffing profile for 2014. What we do have next year is that we will start with around 415 children and our starting lineup looks like this -

Year 7-8 - 3 year 7-8 composite classes of 26

Year 5-6 - 4 year 5-6 composite classes of 25

Year 4 - 3classes of 24

Year 3 - 3 classes of 22

Year 2 - 3 classes of 22

Year 1 - 1 class of 20 and 1 class of 7 (and growing quickly)

This indicates that we will have no spare teaching space in the school for 2014 as by the end of the year we will be operating 4 more classrooms than MOE funding expectations provide for.

A reminder that composite classes work just as well as straight classes. They enable us to organise children into even class group numbers and also provide children a chance to work with older and/or younger children and splits long term combinations up for fresh starts. This is healthy and a good challenge as children get older. The NZ Curriculum and class learning programme is not based on the year level the children are at - it is organised around the learning needs within the room. Teachers are highly skilled at planning and preparing learning programmes that best fit the children in front of them and so the learning is appropriate to each classroom.

Bare feet

We have noticed that some children are coming to school in bare feet. This is not appropriate. We do our best to keep the surfaces clear of debris but there are significant hazards around the school that require footwear. The biggest challenge is the significant asphalt area where seagulls drop shells to open them and the shells fragment into quite sharp pieces.

There is NO assembly this Friday afternoon.

Health and Physical Education Curriculum consultation

The Board of Trustees are required to consult with the community about the delivery of the Health and Physical Education Curriculum at Muritai School. We are interested in what you see as priority topics and welcome your ideas about how we might be able to do things better. Can you please complete the survey by clicking here.

Term dates for 2014

The Board has settled on its term dates for 2014.

Term 1 = Monday 3 February - Thursday 17 April

Term 2 = Monday 5 May - Friday 11 July

Term 3 = Monday 28 July - Friday 26 September

Term 4 = Monday 13 October - Thursday 18 December

There are 2 teacher only days in 2014 at Queen's Birthday and Labour Weekend

Diary Dates for Last 4 Weeks of Term 4

Monday 2 December - Friday 6 December - Year 1-2 EOTC week.

Wednesday 3 December - Learning celebrations - 3.00 - 5.30

Wednesday 4 Dec - Year 1, 2 and 3 national standard parent interviews,

Thursday 5 Dec - Year 1, 2 and 3 national standard parent interviews, BOT mtg 7.30

Sunday 8 Dec - Year 8 go to Abel Tasman

Monday 9 December - Friday 13 December Y3,4,5,6,7,8 EOTC week

Monday 9 Dec - Year 7 go to Mt Holdsworth

Tuesday 10 Dec - Year 5-6 2014 camp mtg

Wednesday 11 Dec - Y1, 2 Christmas concert

Friday 13 Dec - Student reports and class lists go home

Monday 16 Dec - 2014 classroom morning

Wednesday 18 Dec - Year 8 Leavers dinner

Thursday 19 Dec - Year 3,4,5,6 Christmas concert

Friday 20 Dec - Last day - final assembly at 11am. School finishes at 1.00pm

Technicraft Visits

This year for Technicraft, Year 7 and 8's have been learning ukulele as one of their five rotations. After completing the sessions, Mrs Hooke organises for us to go and visit rest homes for the elderly, kindergartens, playcentres or early learning centre. Our particular group went to Petone Beach Kindergarten. We played a selection of songs we'd learnt and then five songs suited for young children so they could join in with us. The kindergarten staff and parent helpers were also entertained. The kindergarten supplied snacks for us and then we played outside with the children till it was time to say farewell. It was great fun - we loved having a chance to play at the kindy! We would like to thank the parents who provided transport for this trip.

Written by Blair Kuchenbecker and Harry Crawford.

During our technicraft sessions some Year 7/8 students give up their time to spend an hour and a half at East Harbour Kindergarten. Around 4 - 5 students walk down just after the end of morning tea to play and help out with the little children. We have lots of fun dressing up, reading them stories, playing in the sand pit, pushing them on the swings and eating lunch with them. Most of the older students that go down used to go there when they were younger and its nice to revisit their childhood kindergarten. The kids really enjoy our company when we come down on a Wednesday and always look forward to seeing a new set of pupils next time. A lot has changed since 2004 when Monica, Frankie and I attended East Harbour Kindy but its always nice to get to know some of the future students that might attend Muritai School.

Monica, Frankie and Ella

Room 24

Today we had the exciting task of picking up the painting that Jason Kelly kindly did for Room 24. We love it! A few of us from Room 24 took a trip to Ripe on Waione Street. Their logo ‘Nice Coffee, Nice Guys’ is certainly true! Jason Kelly has been spending a bit of time there painting. They kindly invited us in and Jason shouted us all a hot chocolate. Scrummy! Definitely a place to visit for a yummy treat. After Jason Kelly showed us his work, Clint the Head Coffee Roaster showed us how to make coffee. We were all amazed that coffee beans were a greeny colour before they got roasted. Thanks heaps Jason! We think you are the best! As for the Ripe Crew… you are pretty cool too. Thanks for a great visit!