Wednesday 15 October

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai 

Tena koutou katoa

Welcome to our new students -  Paris Moore (R9), Mason Donnelly (R13), Adreeta Acharyya (R1), Ava Hosking (R1), Cameron Johns (R1), Makenzie Reddaway (R1) and Romy Olsen (R5) who have all joined our Muritai School community. We begin the term with our roll sitting at 454 pupils with 15 children still to come towards the end of the year which means we should finish the year on a very similar number to last year.

We also welcome Janelle McKay who has started in room 11 replacing Jess Savage who is on maternity leave. Hayley Skilton is leading the year 3-4 team. We also welcome Sally Velvin and Sally Ingram back to Muritai to join our part-time teaching team for this term.

The term has begun quietly and the children are straight back into their learning. This nice atmosphere reflects how well the students are focused, organised and into a nice rhythm from their previous terms. The school is very settled and in good heart.

Term 4, and the run through to the end of the year, is always very busy. Our term plan looks very manageable but the teaching staff  do have a number of administrative requirements to attend to as we close off 2014 and prepare the school for 2015. The senior management team is putting the finishing touches on our school structure for 2015 so if your plans are changing for next year, please let us know as soon as possible.

Term 4 often passes very quickly. There is much to be done and over the next few weeks the children will be required to continue to do their best work to show that they deserve a good quality report at the end of the year. This should not be too tricky as we always try to do hard to ‘be the best that we can be'. As always the work will be a little bit tougher, and a little bit faster, to keep up with the momentum of progress and growth. There will be a healthy dose of fun, exploration, creativity and interest mixed in with it all to keep the children engaged with their schooling.

One thing remains important however and that is to keep in close contact with your child's class teacher. Our next reporting round is at the end of the year with learning celebrations and written reports but you may feel that it is necessary to touch base as the term progresses to get feedback on your child's progress. Our doors are always open for this to happen and it is actually a regular occurrence.

TEACHER ONLY DAY

A reminder that school is closed for a Teacher Only Day next Friday 24^th October (Labour Weekend). The teaching staff will be moderating assessment information in preparation for end of year national standards reporting. This gives families an opportunity to have an extra long weekend. 

2015

If your plans are changing for 2015, and your children will not be at Muritai next year, please let the school know as soon as things are confirmed. Many of you have done this and it is much appreciated.

DEBATING FINALS

At the end of last term we were entertained by some exceptionally talented year 7/8 children in the Big Debate. Two year 7 and two year 8 teams debated hard to find the best debating team and the best speakers. The quality of the writing and speaking was just stunning and at the end of it Emma Beevers was selected Best Year 7 Debater and Beth Brodie the Best Year 8 Debater with Mia Treadwell-Burke winning the overall prize as Outstanding Speaker Award and the Pointon Cup for Senior Speech.

You can view the debates by clicking here.

INTER REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY

At the end of last term we were excited to receive the news that 3 of our students placed in the inter-regional cross-country in Hanmer Springs.

Congratulations to –

• Macey Caughley – 2^nd
• Charlotte Humphries 6^th (now at Samuel Marsden )
• Samantha Woolley 18^th

This is the result of some very serious extra training to enable them to perform at this very high level. A lesson for all of us about how hard work can bring the results we want. These efforts helped Wellington to win the Phil Costley Shield for the first time in a while.

ATHLETICS

Our school athletic sports (Y3-8) are on Thursday 30 October. It begins around 9.15 and goes through to 2.30. Deane McKay is coordinating this and will provide updates before the event. Deane took the staff through a professional development session on Monday and passed on some excellent coaching techniques. As the children are training regularly for athletics, appropriate footwear is recommended.

D.A.R.E

We welcome Constable Julie Orr here for the next few weeks working in the senior school on the Police education programme 'DARE - to make a choice'. Julie has been doing this for a few years now and it is an excellent programme.

YEAR 7-8 FITNESS

We also welcome Richie Hackney who is working with the year 7-8 children in the next few weeks on physical strength and fitness activities. The children have enjoyed the initial sessions... it is a great opportunity. 

HATS

Term 4 signals warmer weather (hopefully) and the return of hats at school.  Can you please ensure your child comes to school this Term and Term 1 next year with a wide brimmed hat to be worn at all outside play times.  You may also like to consider putting sunblock on them before they come to school.  

EOTC WEEKS

Staff are currently planning our Education Outside The Classroom programmes for the end of year. Preparation is well down the path for the Year 8 students’ big camp at Abel Tasman in week 9.

It may be helpful to add these dates in your diaries as you may like to join in the activities.  We can confirm that each syndicate will be on EOTC at the following times –

Year 1-2 - week 8 - December 1-5
Year 3-4 - week 9 - December 8-12
Year 5-6 - week 8/9 - December 3-12 (this is over 2 weeks)

Year 7-8 - week 9 - December 8-12

DIARY DATES FOR TERM 4

Friday 17 Oct – Assembly 1.45 / Sustainable Coastlines and beach clean Up

Thursday 23 Oct – Y1-6 Rapunzel Show; BoT meeting 7.30pm

Friday 24 Oct - Teacher Only Day

Monday 27 Oct – LABOUR DAY

Tuesday 28 Oct - Y5-6 Zone cricket

Thursday 30 - Y3-8 Athletic Sports

Fri 31 Oct – Assembly 1.45

Mon 3 Nov - Y5-6 Pedal Ready programme (runs for a fortnight)

Tues 4 Nov – Photos for R1 and our recent New Entrants

Wed 5 Nov - Year 7-8 Touch tournament

Thursday 6 Nov – Year 8 testing at HVHS / Y1-2 trip to Musical Stars

Friday 14 Nov – Assembly 1.45 / Y5-6 Whitireia Show

Tues 18 Nov - Y4-6 Zone athletic sports

Thurs 20 Nov - BOT mtg 7.30pm

Mon 24 Nov - Swimming starts / Y1-3 parent conferences /Road patrol training for 2015

Tues 25 Nov - Y4-6 Inter-zone sports / Y1-3 parent conferences

Wed 26 Nov - Starting School at 5

Fri 28 Nov - Assembly 1.45

Mon 1 Dec - Y1-2 EOTC week / Y5-6 Road patrol pool party

Tues 2 Dec - Celebration of Learning afternoon

Wed 3 Dec - Y5-6 EOTC week begins / Junior school athletic sports

Thurs 4 Dec - BOT mtg 7.30pm

Mon 8 Dec - Y3-4 EOTC week and Y8 to Abel Tasman

Tues 9 Dec - Y5-6 2015 camp meeting

Thurs 11 Dec - Junior school Xmas concert

Fri 12 Dec - Reports go home

Mon 15 Dec - 2015 classrooms meet together

Tue 16 Dec - Y8 leavers dinner

Wed 17 Dec - Y3-6 Xmas concert

Thurs 18 Dec - Last day of the school year / Final assembly 11.00 School finishes at 1.00

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COMMUNITY NOTICES

Fundraising for The Loft -  Eastbourne Youth Group – Car Boot Sale, Muritai School, Sunday 19th October 10am until 1pm.   $10 to register your car.  Phone 5626282 or 0276788924.

Bake Sale

A group of locals went to the Forum on Child Poverty held in Wellington before the election and decided we would like to do something as a community to help those children who don't have what they need to thrive. If you would like to know more, there is an article raising awareness of the issue on page 5 of the Sept Eastbourne Herald. The three local churches are getting together to do some fundraising for communities in need. We're starting with a bake sale in the village Sat 18th Oct 9am -12pm to raise money for Natone Park School, a Decile 1 school in Porirua. If you and your children would like to support our stall, you can contact Sarah White by text (0221650258) or bring some baking down  to the stall on Rimu St at 9am on Sat. We are so fortunate to live in this beautiful community where our children prosper while in other parts of our city, children have so little.

NITSY PIXIES - The Natural Magical Cure for Nits!

In-Salon Treatments done for you! Or do it yourself safely at home?

Call Lisa on 0800 nitsypixies (648 797) or visit www.nitsypixies.co..nz 

Currently a 25% discount if you mention you saw this through your school notice till the end of November!