Thursday 16 December 2015

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai

Kia ora koutou

FAREWELL TO OUR YEAR 8 STUDENTS

Last night we had a special celebration for our year 8 students and their parents. It was a lovely occasion and the sharing of many happy memories. Our head boy and girl Helena and Callan both delivered excellent speeches on behalf of the student group. We wish our year 8 students every success as they go onto their respective high schools next year. Many families have their last child leaving Muritai School and we thank them for their many years association with the school.

Tomorrow we have the end of year assembly at 11.00 in the school. All the students who we will farewell tomorrow have contributed immensely to our culture at Muritai School. Our leavers have many diverse qualities and strengths, but above all, they should feel that they have tried to be the best that they can be and leave with an appreciation for their peers, their teachers, their school and themselves. We congratulate them and thank them, and their parents, for the contribution they have made to Muritai and wish them all the best for the road ahead.

At last night’s prize giving the following cups and certificates were awarded -

Jacobson Cups for ‘Mathematics’ – Kieran Smith and Samantha Morphew

Debbie Bertaud-Gandar Memorial Cup for ‘Commitment to Science and Technology’ – Kieran Smith

Broadbent/O’Brien Family Literacy prize - Eva Oliver

Mills Family Cup for ‘Contribution to the Arts’ – Isabella Zabella and Rosa Wilson

Kyle Sturgess Memorial Cup for Music and Performance -  Rosie Owles

Swain Cup for ‘Leadership and contribution in sport’ – Tom Flynn

Beck Family Cup for ‘Best all round sportsperson’ – Macey Caughley and Lincoln Moffatt

Abel Tasman Cup – Caylie Robinson

Board of Trustees Prize for  Improvement in year 8  –  Matthew Jones and Milly Sheriff

Board of Trustees Cups for 'Endeavour'  –  Alice McFarlane and Matiu Inwood

Nicholas Bahler Empathy Award  - Mila Van der Wilt / Noah Daniel-Oakshatt

Fortescue-Willis Earthcare award - ‘Environmental Leadership’   - Eden Armstrong

Eastbourne Community Trust Cup for ‘Leadership’  – Neve McKay

Principal’s Prize – ‘ The quiet achiever’  - Prawa Kanjanaphat

Teachers Cup for ‘Being a joy to teach’   – Tomas Pajo

Pou Whirinaki - Reliability Cup - Callan Hughes

Kapa Haka   - Tom Flynn

Malama Family Cup for ‘The Inspiring Visionary’ - Eva Oliver

Stotter Cup for ‘Dedication and commitment’ –  Ben Cass

Clarke Cup for “Positive contribution to Muritai School” – Paige Schroder

Newton Family Cup for ‘Service to Muritai School’  – Emma Beevers

Board of Trustees Cups for 'Academic Excellence' – Samantha Morphew and Alexander Cox-Turk

Class of 61 Cup - “Outstanding Contribution to Muritai School”  – Helena Cvitanovich

Booth Family Cup ~ “The Student’s Student”   – Orla Longdon

This is the final newsletter for 2015 and I take this opportunity to thank the children, staff and the Muritai community for what has been another very successful year.

Through the regular newsletters and blogs parents will have gained an impression of school-life throughout 2015. School-life is always “full on” and the website, facebook, twitter and blogs certainly capture the moments of the many activities and exciting events your children have been involved in. Parents who have been keeping track of the school’s online life will also have gained an understanding of the beliefs, values and curriculum focus areas the school has promoted throughout the year. Through the newsletters, celebration assemblies, performances, and the school’s website, the school has celebrated and recognized the many successes of our children who have achieved in a variety of academic, sporting and cultural activities. The positive celebration of our successes throughout 2015 reflects the school’s vision statement “to be the best that we can be”. It is certainly a pleasure to say “thank you” to the large group of parents who regularly support the school and who have been actively involved throughout the year.

The children have been showing signs of excitement as they share their anticipation of what Christmas will mean to them. The Christmas season is indeed one of excitement and joy for them as they begin to dream about everything that sparkles and of course the gifts that are shared by families and friends! Christmas means many different things to each of us and our preparations take many paths as we reflect on our own personal understanding of Christmas and anticipate visitor arrivals, plan summer beach holidays or simply look forward to relaxing and enjoying time with our families.

Many families are leaving the school as they move on to different schools. Thank you for your support and commitment to Muritai and best wishes for the future.

We farewell Stu Devenport, Sarah Richardson, Anand Ranchod and Shelley Frith from Muritai and thank them for their great work and incredible commitment and kindness to the children of Muritai. We wish Briana Lee well for 2016 with her new baby which is due to arrive shortly.

Muritai runs on people and we are very lucky with the team we have here. I would like to thank the leadership team – Stu Devenport, Maureen Buckley, Hayley Skilton and Deane McKay for their tireless organization of the teaching and learning for staff and students. They run a very busy school and do it so well.

Hayley Skilton has been acting AP this year while Jess Savage has been on maternity leave. She has done an excellent job and been an integral part of the senior management team.  Jess is returning to Muritai as a class teacher and Hayley will continue the Y3-4 AP role on a permanent basis.

To Mel, Chrissy and Dan in our after school group, who put in many hours to look after our children after school – we say thank you. Not an easy job but one that is always done with a smile.

Thank you to our teaching staff and specialist teachers, who every day, do their very best for our children with skill, organization and enthusiasm.

To our teacher aides and support staff, who are often called upon to drop everything and change tasks, and often do the most difficult work around the school, we thank you for your sunny disposition, high level of skill, can do attitude, kindness and care. Best wishes to Pauline Davies who is leaving the team and returning to Auckland.

Finally a huge thank you to Carole and Jo in the front office who do such a great job and for accommodating, with a smile, the numerous extra requests we get from parents on a daily basis. In addition they do so much managing of the nuts and bolts and time consuming tasks required by the Ministry and the school operates very smoothly as a result. We are very grateful for your service to Muritai.

Our children are very lucky to have such a great team working with them and we really appreciate the nice thoughts, comments and gestures from parents received recently, in appreciation of the contribution we make in your children’s lives.

Our Home and School team have raised and donated about $20,000 to the school through their fundraising efforts this year. This is fantastic and we are so grateful for their time and effort and contribution to raising funds for our children’s education. As a result we will have our new ‘Learning Hub’ up and running for 2016.

To the Board of Trustees - Muritai is in good heart and governed extremely well. We are blessed to have such a supportive team that enables so many opportunities and developments to come to fruition.

All the team joins with me in wishing you all a very happy and safe Christmas with family and friends.

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NO BUS ON THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL - School is finishing at 1PM ON THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER.  The bus will not run on this day so please pick up your child/ren from school if they usually catch the bus.

YEAR 8 ABEL TASMAN CAMP

The year 8 students had a wonderful week down at Abel Tasman in what was Stu Devenport’s last trip as camp leader. I just wanted to pay tribute to the staff - Stu, Annette Borgonje, Ruth Hooke and Carole Lowe for their extra efforts to make this camp go smoothly.  Also to Penny Stock who helped Carole as ‘camp mother’ this year and the wonderful parents who spent a week away from home working very hard with their children. What a success!

We would also like to thank Leo O'Sullivan, Pak'N Save Petone, who gives us enormous assistance with all our food requirements for both the Abel Tasman and Mt Holdsworth camps.  

SENIOR SCHOOL MINI MARKET

From So They Can = Our kids on the ground in Africa wanted to thank you and all your gorgeous years 7 and 8s for the Mini Market.  They were overwhelmed by how much you raised and that children so far away care.  They also wanted to thank all the Muritai children that came and supported through buying all the delicious products and took part in the games.  As you can see in their photo, they are very grateful.

YEAR 5-6 MINI MARKET

As part of the advertising and consumerism study the year 5-6 children have been working on, they ran a mini market ‘selling’ the products/services they had created.  The market was excellent and the younger children thoroughly enjoyed partaking in the adventure. As per real life, some businesses did better than others, and lots of lessons were learned along the way. Photos of the market are on facebook.

EOTC WEEKS

Thank you all for contributing to our EOTC weeks through supervision and support. The whole school has been abuzz over the last 2 weeks as our children have taken part in a series of activities outside the classroom. Our kids love this experience and they benefit hugely from it as people. It is a real opportunity to be challenged, and spend time with their mates doing it….so in the last fortnight we have seen kids visiting Matiu/Somes Island, Mt Holdsworth, Mindlab in petone, Y5-6 Triathalon, Days Bay, and the Amazing Race, sewing bee,  beach clean up, the Bush Walk at Muritai Park, teddy bears picnics, lots of games and JumpJams and so much more!

Thank you the junior school and years 3-4 who have entertained the community with their Christmas concerts. They prepared and practiced well and were very entertaining, helping us get into the mood for Christmas!

TERM DATES FOR 2016

Term 1 = Monday 1 February - Friday 15 April

Term 2 = Monday 2 May - Friday 8 July

Term 3 = Monday 25 July - Friday 23 September

Term 4 = Monday 10 October - Friday 16 September

Easter = Friday 25 March - Tuesday 29 March

Teacher only day one = Monday 7 June

Teacher only day two = Monday 25 October

SPORT

Basketball

Congratulations to the Year 7&8 basketball team who won their grade this term. A great way to finish the year lads. I would like to thank Barbara McKenzie for all her hard work coaching and all the parents for their continued support. The team consisted of Lincoln Moffat, Tom Flynn, Ben Cass, Tobias Knight, Finlay Steel, Matiu Inwood, Matthew Jones, Tomas Pajo and Callan Hughes.

Touch Rugby

Well done  to all the teams that took part in the Term 4 competition. A big congratulations to the Year 3&4 mixed team who won the grade and also the Year 7&8 girls who won their too. A great result for the school.  Thank you to all the parents who helped out this term.

Sorry Rosa and Rosa

In the last newsletter I wrote that Rosa Wilson was a member of the Y4 relay team that performed with distinction recently. It was actually Rosa Blair. My apologies for making that error.  

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Ensemble Music Classes for Children

Next year Priya Gain is offering itinerant music classes for juniors, middles, and senior school students at Muritai School on a Thursday morning.   Classes will be based on the Orff approach to music education.  The Orff approach is rooted in rhythm and integrates experiences of singing, movement/dance and ensemble playing experiences.  It is centred on the playful exploration of the elements of music and opportunities to improvise.  Classes will be taught to small groups and are a good support for students already learning instruments as well as for students who have not yet had the chance to learn music formally.  For more information please email: priyagain@gmail.com

Piano lessons with Vanessa Tindle

If you have a son/daughter who is interested in taking piano lessons with Vanessa at school, she has a few vacancies coming up for 2016. Vanessa has a FB page “Piano Lessons with Vanessa Tindle” if you would like to find out more about her teaching practice. Please make inquiries with Vanessa before the end of term ph 562 7663.

LIQUIDATION SALE

PERFECT PRESENTS FOR CHRISTMAS - NOTHING OVER $20!

WOMEN’S QUALITY NIGHTIES, PYJAMAS & BRAS

SATURDAY 19th DECEMBER      10am – 3pm

Or contact HELEN on 0274405205 for viewing times outside of these hours

5 TAUNGATA ROAD, YORK BAY

CASH / CHEQUE ONLY PLEASE

BIRD’S EYE VIEW

December 8, 2015

Kia ora koutou

This newsletter aims to give some background to two key elements of finishing the school year – school reports and classes for 2016. It also provides an explanation of composite classes to the parent community and why we operate them at Muritai.

SCHOOL REPORTS
On Friday children will bring home an envelope with their end of year written report and a letter and a list that shows their class and teacher for 2016.

This report will show how your child is progressing against the national standards processes using your child's ‘teacher judgment’ in reading, writing and maths.

Children receive information and feedback on how they are doing at school all the time, everyday, specifically related to their next steps for learning. To read, write and do maths well the children have to show many different skills at various times of the year. To summarize children into a simple box that indicates whether they are well below, below, at or above - against a very wide standard - is quite tricky. The curriculum achievement report gives rich information about some specifics within the disciplines, as well as commenting on work, class conduct and study skills. The general comment that concludes this report provides a brief commentary of how the children have performed, what they have done well or struggled with, and what they may focus on next year. 

In our view, at this stage, our visual presentation of the national standards, and the school report is the clearest way to inform you of how well your child is doing against firstly the national standard, and secondly the NZ curriculum. Generally, at best though the national standards provide a ‘snapshot’ position of your child within the disciplines of reading, writing and maths.

If you need further explanation of progress please try and touch base with the teacher before the end of the year.

CLASS STRUCTURE 2016

Class placement notices will be coming home this Friday. The last fortnight have been a bit topsy-turvey with a constant stream of information coming my way, from staff changes and replacements, and notification of students leaving, therefore impinging on the structure of each class. We have settled today on our final line up of staffing and classes.

With a starting roll in 2016 of 390 Muritai will start with 18 classrooms and grow to 19 through the year, with maybe a 20^th required in October, depending on our new entrant intake. Our finishing roll in December looks to be about 435.

In establishing classes - we have taken into account – and committed staffing to match the following -

·       the expected children (45) coming to Muritai through the year.

·       the need to have learning spaces available for the children. At this stage all of our main classrooms will be fully used by July.

·       the available funds to pay teachers required to be in front of these classes.

·       the fact that each year group does not fit nicely into small groups of even sizes, with a number of bulges in year groups and some gender imbalance. So some give and take HAS to be accepted.

·       our geography, with a split site for Y7-8, has to be catered for.

The Ministry funds the school on the following ratios - 1 teacher to 15 children for new entrants, 1 : 23 in years 1-3 and at 1 : 29 at year 4-8. It is nearly impossible to apply these ratios in practice across the 8 year levels at Muritai and so there needs to be some ‘ups and downs’ in structuring the groups. In addition to this, due to our decile rating and high student achievement performance, the school receives limited funding for learning support, reading recovery and extension programmes – this has to be allocated out of operational funds. It is an extremely tight financial scenario and the Board and management team has grabbled with various line ups and possibilities and has settled on the one that provides best value for money, a consistent strategy and is within budget. It would be nice to have another classroom in operation but this is just not possible.

What the school is able to provide in 2016, on average is class sizes of 19-24 in year 1-2; 5 classes of 19-21 in year 3-4; 5 classes of 27-28 in year 5-6 and 20-22 in year 7-8. At the same time the Board is committing all parent donation funds to additional teaching resources and not into the general running of the school. 

PLACING CHILDREN INTO CLASSES

Over the year we have observed the children and have noted who works effectively together and who doesn’t. In addition to this we use parent information and teacher observation throughout the year and we have formed 18 classes that we think will be very successful. It is important to note that not all children’s wishes and wants can be realised. There will be some changes for some children as we look to expand their friendship groupings and make sure that the classes are even and have a workable dynamic about them. In particular the year 4 group will be go from being in three classes in 2015 to being spread across 5 classes in 2016 so it is a big change for them, but a useful one as well as part of their growth and maturity.

Children will spend time in their new classes on Monday between 9.30 and 10.30 and get to meet their new teacher. If I may I ask you to be supportive of the school through this process. What may seem as a disappointment to some children, needs to be seen as an opportunity for them. They have all been placed with lovely children and excellent teachers.  It is always a juggling act to fit around 390 children into classes. Any change can have significant ramifications for many other children's placements. We shared our school policy on class placements early this term and asked parents if they had any educational concerns to let us know. A few did this. Whether parents or children don’t get the teacher they want their children is not really justification for making changes to class lists after they have been issued and does challenge the equitable process for placing 390 children into working groups.

We really want Friday to be about the school report, and not the class list. I request that you take the envelopes home and open it there, rather than opening them at school and then having a frenetic free for all in the playground, where people wind each other up about which teacher your child has, and which children are with who. I urge you to take a deep breath when the lists come out on Friday.

SUMMARY OF STAFF CHANGES

We have had a couple of resignations lately and have made some subtle changes accordingly to make up next year.   I thought I would summarise that changing landscape for 2016.

·       Stu Devenport is off to be principal of South Makirikiri School. Replacing him as AP of senior school is Annette Borgonje and she will teach room 24.

·       Replacing Annette as a year 5-6 class teacher is Julie Small and she will teach in room 14.

·       Anand Ranchod is teaching at Wellesley next year and replacing Anand in the senior school is Carl Woodhams. Carl is very keen to pursue his teaching career with older children and so is keen to take up this opportunity in year 7-8 due to Anand’s departure.

·       Replacing Carl Woodhams in room 15 is Jordana Phillips.  As mentioned previously Jordana joins us from Thorndon School.

·       Shelley Frith has recently resigned from Muritai to take a short break from teaching. Replacing Shelley in room 13 for 2016 is Michelle Hollard. Michelle joins us from Chilton St James and is a very experienced teacher with many years service – in fact she was teaching at Muritai when I arrived and left here for promotion! It is nice to have her back in the Muritai team.

·       Briana Treder is taking maternity leave and will be replaced by a returning Jess Savage who will take the Y3-4 class in room 11. It is great to have Jess back in the Muritai team again.

·       Liz Knowles will take the year 1 class in room 4 replacing Margs Mills who resigned in the term 3 school holidays.

·       Sarah Richardson is moving to being full-time Masters student at University next year and Lisa Allen replaces her as our Learning Support teacher.

Whew – there goes…we have a few changes, but in all that only Jordana is actually new to Muritai – the rest we know very well, and they know Muritai extremely well. This provides strong levels of continuity but also some difference.

So the 2016 line Teacher / Classroom lineup looks like this – 
3 year 7-8 classes of 20-22 – Annette Borgonje/Ruth Hooke, Carl Woodhams, Melissa Coton
5 year 5-6 classes of 27-28 – Deane McKay, Julie Small, Michelle Hollard, Carol Algar, Jordana Phillips

2 year 4 classes of 20-21 - Richard Dobson, Karen Chao,

1 year 3-4 class of 21 – Jess Savage

2 year 3 classes of 22 – Mikaela Cody, Hayley Skilton
2 year 2 classes of 24 – Morag Roberts, Janelle McKay

2 year 1 classes of 20-21 – Liz Knowles, Barbara Ryan
2 new entrant classes starting with Maureen Buckley and then Liz Sullivan in June. 

Learning Support = Lisa Allen, Gabrielle Heath (RR)

The TEACHING teams look like this –

Senior School = Annette Borgonje (AP), Carl Woodhams, Melissa Coton

Year 5-6 = Deane McKay (AP), Julie Small, Michelle Hollard, Carol Algar, Jordana Phillips

Year 3-4 = Hayley Skilton (AP), Mikaela Cody, Jess Savage, Richard Dobson, Karen Chao

Junior School = Maureen Buckley (AP), Morag Roberts, Janelle McKay, Liz Knowles, Barbara Ryan, Liz Sullivan

COMPOSITE CLASSES

I am occasionally asked about composite classes so here is a detailed explanation as to why composite classes operate at Muritai School.

It is a reality that composite classes play a part in the organisation of Muritai School as they do in most New Zealand schools. Composite classes seem to cause some concerns to parents who may not fully understand why schools have them. In 2016 we will be operating 10 / 18 composite age classes.

Composite classes is the term given when two year groups are placed together e.g. Y5/6, and they are very common in New Zealand schools. Some schools may have mainly straight classes (all one year group) and use composite classes at different levels when it is necessary to ensure student numbers are manageable and equitable in all classes. Other schools in New Zealand choose to have every class as a composite throughout the school. Muritai School has used a combination of both straight year classes and composite classes. All schools have different reasons for the structure they implement, but there is no evidence to prove that one or the other provides a BETTER academic environment. At Muritai we tend to run straights in the first 4 years if possible, and then composite from year 5/6 onwards. Our experience is that this model best suits our children.

It is an undisputed FACT that in any class there is a range of ability, maturity, interests and focus, with children working above, at or below their age and expected curriculum level. All classes regardless of whether they are composite or straight year groupings are based on recognising differences and not seeing students as the same; children are taught according to individual need, not age. Rather than the old fashioned notion that we teach the entire year group something just because of the year they are in, we have for a number of years taught according to identified needs.

New Zealand has led the way globally in teaching the individual student. Once teachers have established what the children’s learning needs are, they group them for instruction at a common level. So your child will participate in reading, writing and maths lessons in small ‘ability’ groups regardless of the structure of the classes. As your child’s learning needs change, they may change groups within the class. At other times it is important that children are grouped differently, sometimes socially so that they can experience working with different people in their class.

Early research by Vygotsky (1896 – 1934), showed that learning happens most effectively when a person is provided learning that is challenging at their own level. By following this concept, learning should never be boring because it is too easy and neither should it ever be too difficult so a child struggles. What this in effect means is that all classes, whether they are composite or not, will be operating groups at a variety of levels at the same time as part of the normal delivery of the curriculum.

There is not and never has been a set learning programme at each particular year level, rather there are expectations set at curriculum levels. It is also possible that a class, whether composite or same-year level, may have teaching and learning programmes that cover more than the one curriculum level. Teachers are very skilled at adapting a learning task in order for it to challenge one set of children while being achievable for others.

Socially older children in a composite class get more leadership opportunities and frequently build self-esteem, they become role models to the younger class mates, while often younger children aspire to do work like the older children in the class. Research has shown that in terms of benefits socially and for maturity, older children make positive gains in this arrangement.

As I have mentioned earlier in this newsletter, all classes (including composites) are formulated considering a total balance in each classroom considering social, behaviour, ability, gender, and age range etc. Children unfortunately do not enrol in school in nice tidy multiples of 29, 23 or even 18, which are the suggested MOE class sizes for New Zealand schools. Private or integrated schools are able to run straight classes because they can manage their roll and have waiting lists. Muritai can’t do this as we are a state school. By combining two year levels in one class, state schools can successfully keep class sizes at a manageable level. If only straight classes were only ever considered it is possible that one year group (in middle to senior school) could have 33 children in each class while another year group only has 22 children in each class. This also impacts greatly on staffing and to employ another staff member to cater for numbers is just not feasible.

Composites are not a cost saving exercise. In fact, because there is no difference in the academic opportunities children receive in either structure, it becomes very difficult to justify spending extra money just to have straight classes when we know it is the teacher who makes the biggest difference not the composite/straight organisation. There is evidence to support that, whether a child is in a straight class or a composite class, there will be no difference in overall academic progress. All published research backs this up…the biggest study, and most frequently referenced by Veenman (1995) found that there were no consistent differences in student achievement between multi-year and single-year classes. The overall median effect size for cognitive outcomes was 0.00. Therefore Veenman concluded that the academic performance of pupils in composites may “simply be no worse and simply no better” than that of pupils in single-age classes.

As an educational professional I am convinced composite classes are not something to be concerned about and structurally we have to have them due to inconsistent group numbers. The quality of the relationship between your child and their teacher has been proven to have a far greater impact on the learning that takes place. Our own renown NZ researcher John Hattie states from his research titled 'Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 MetaAnalyses Relating to Achievement' (2008), that it is in fact effective and pertinent feedback (ie: telling students what they have done well, positive reinforcement, and what they need to do to improve, corrective work, targets etc, as well as clarifying goals), that will have the biggest effect size (impact) on student learning.

I hope this clarifies any questions for those people who may have had concerns regarding composite classes.

FRIDAY 4 DECEMBER

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai

Kia ora koutou

Less than 2 weeks to go.

As discussed we are farewelling Stu Devenport and Sarah Richardson. Last week we sadly received the resignation of Anand Ranchod who has secured a teaching position at Wellesley. This has caused a review of teacher placement and some juggling and I will issue a newsletter on Monday with the teacher placement for 2016.

SPECIAL ASSEMBLY TODAY

This morning we celebrated the wonderful service of three of our stalwarts - Barbara Ryan (20 years service), Margs Mills (retiring 21 years) and Mandy McMaster (26 years as community Dental Nurse. It was lovely to be able to celebrate as a school and with their families their wonderful service to Muritai with a powhiri and celebratory speeches. We also saw the year 3-4 extension choir in action which was just lovely.

THANK YOU

We said farewell to Ruth Vaughan on Thursday. Ruth has been teaching in room 4 this term after the sudden resignation of Margs Mills and we really appreciate her good work with the children of room 4. Trish Theobald will finish the year off with the children.

BUTTERFLY GARDEN

We are looking forward to our butterfly garden attracting lots of Monarch butterflies again this year.  You may have noticed the butterfly garden outside Room 3 is netted at present as our swan plants need time to grow. Please do not put any monarch caterpillars or butterflies in the garden - they will come in their own time.

EOTC

The children are really enjoying the outside the classroom experience at the moment and we really appreciate the parent assistance to make the events special. Year 8 head to Abel Tasman on Sunday for the week and I am sure this ‘last’ experience will be special for them.

SPORTS

Regional Athletics

We are so proud of our team that represented Central Zone at the regional athletics competition on Tuesday. We had some outstanding results and these children placed in this event which was effectively the ‘Wellington Champs’ ...

Relays

Y5 girls (5x80m) Mia Campbell, Lola Campbell, Risha Smuts-Kennedy, Phoebe Tait and Rosa Wilson - 1st

Y5 Boys (4x100m) Luca McKay, Fraser Belliss, Tom Brownsword and Joe Dickson - 2nd (in a photo finish)

Y6 Girls (4x100m) Emily Jones, Sophie Van Rooyen, Grace Thompson and Grace Manson - 3rd

Long Jump

Y4 girls Rosa Blair - 1st

Y6 boys Jack Evans - 3rd equal

High Jump

Y4 girls Rosa Blair - 1st equal

PARENT MORNING TEA

On Tuesday 15 December at 10.30 we are hosting a parent morning tea to say thank you for all the parent help we have had throughout the year. We  are so grateful to how much support we receive from the community and this is a just a little way to say thank you.

DIARY DATES FOR TERM 4

6 Dec Year 8’s at Abel Tasman camp for the week

7 Dec Year 5/6 EOTC week begins

9 Dec Christmas Concert and Party for Juniors in the afternoon

9 Dec Y7 Mt Holdsworth camp

14 Dec New classrooms and meet your teacher

15 Dec Leavers Dinner

16 Dec       Y3/4 Christmas Carols

17 Dec Leavers Assembly (11am) and Last Day of Term 4

17 Dec EARLY FINISH - 1.30pm