The Muritai School Newsletter: August 2016

FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Tena Koutou katoa

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai

A warm welcome to room 2 to Cooper Keenan, who joins the rest of his family at school this week.

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

It has been wonderful to hear the singing and watch some of the dance movements as our students are practicing their items for our upcoming Production. I have also heard some of our older students practising their lines for their parts and watched the ‘behind the scenes’ teams making the necessary preparations. It really is going to be amazing!

Look what I saw out of my office window on Tuesday. Absolutely amazing artwork by room 12!

Over the week as I have been around the classrooms I have also seen other great art work using a wide range of techniques and medium.

Portrait painting in room 2, collage zebras in room 5, printmaking in room 11, Room 4 and Room 8 buddies working together to create a mancala design and Room 16 creating aboriginal dreamtime art as examples to name a few.

Our Junior Science club have been working using mathematics, science and technology to create stable structures. The students have discovered that some of the shapes are stronger and more stable than others. They had a tower challenge and a pyramid challenge to complete. It is great to have a STEAM room for this. Thanks to Mrs Ryan and Mrs McKay for leading this with our younger students.

The Junior School held their own ‘Mini Olympics’ on Wednesday. They did silly shotput with beanbags, dizzy discus with paper plates, jolly javelin with rolled newspapers, happy hockey using cricket bats and potatoes as well as hurdles and running races. A fun time was had by all.

Thanks to Kate for coming in to add more plants to our gardens. They are looking great.

Thanks also to our Charity group for organising Daffodil Day.

Have a lovely weekend

Maureen

FROM THE SCHOOL

RIPPA RUGBY NATIONAL TOURNAMENT

Our year 5/6 Rippa Rugby team, representing Wellington, had an amazing time at the Rippa Rugby National tournament. The tournament was played over 2 days (Monday 22 to Tuesday 23 August).

Results as follows:

Day 1:

V Southland - L

V Wanganui - D

V Hawkes Bay - W

V Counties - Manukau - L

Day 2:

V Bluff - W

V Tasman - L

V Northland - L

Our overall rank for the tournament was 12th out of 20 teams. We are the first Wellington team to win any games in the 6 year history of the tournament, which is AWESOME!

The tournament and organisation of the event was well run and managed by NZ Rugby. A real highlight for the students was meeting the All Blacks on Monday night … just magic!

The Rippa Rugby National Tournament was a great opportunity. Special thanks to Deane McKay, Sally Bain and Nicole Manning for giving up their time to supervise.

ARTSPLASH AND DANCESPLASH

There are still tickets available to attend the ArtSplash & DanceSplash performances. Please ensure you purchase these before 9am on Wednesday 31 August as all remaining tickets will be going back to the Artsplash organisers. Please see Carole or Jo in the office to purchase these.

WHOLE SCHOOL PRODUCTION

Production rehearsals are underway! The senior children can be found tucked in corners writing scripts, dancing around the rooms, organising choreography and costumes, out in the grounds creating art works for the foyer, putting together creations for Artsplash Art and Artsplash Dance as well as music tracks and sound effect and lots, lots more.

Every student is taking a hugely active role and it is inspiring to see the whole team stepping up to make the production a success. Here are some shots of just one small snippet of the production preparation…

Production tickets are on sale from this week with performances on

Matinee— 1pm Tuesday 13 September

Evening—6.30 pm Tuesday 13 September

Evening—6.30 pm Wednesday 14 September

Evening—6.30 pm Thursday 15 September

Adults—$12 each

Children and Senior—$8 each

We are looking for donations to our Carnival raffle. If you know anyone who has a business that can donate products (e.g. sports items, beauty products, food, DIY tools, toys…for adults or children) or tickets or vouchers - anything that we can raffle or auction for the carnival, please contact Virginia Saunderson (Tots) on totsandrew@gmail.com or 021 854 128. The raffle is a big part of the fundraising for the carnival so we would really appreciate any offers no matter how big or small. Thanks.

We are also looking for businesses/people to donate cash sponsorship to cover the costs of rides, stalls, etc. If you can help in any way, please contact Suzanne Keoghan on suzanne.keoghan@xtra.co.nz

Donations of toys and sports equipment, books, clothes and old crockery are also needed for the school stalls. These need to be of clean and complete (ie all pieces) and of good quality. Anything made up of pieces such as board games, jigsaw puzzles, etc need to be placed in a sealable zip-lock bag to ensure they all stay together. These can be dropped off at the school office. Plants and pots can be dropped off at 7 Rona Street (leave on the doorstep). It’s a great time to start potting up seedlings - get your kids involved. All plant types welcomed and ceramic or plastic pots (not the plastic kind plants come in from the nursery though).

DIARY DATES (staff may contact you with more details about these events)

Wed 31 Aug Artsplash Choir Evening Show

Thur 1 Sept Y7-8 NIWA Science fair

Fri 2 Sept Assembly

Y3-6 Zone Basketball

Wed 7 Sept ‘Starting School at Five’ information evening

Mon 12 Sept Production Rehearsal

Tues 13 - Production - Matinee on Tuesday

Thur 15 Sept Production - Evenings

Mon 19 Sept Y1-2 Parent Conferences

Tues 20 Sept Y1-2 Parent Conferences

Y1-2 Jump Rope for Heart ‘Jump Off’

Y5-6 Zone hockey

Thur 22 Sept PP Y5/6 Zone Hockey

LAST DAY OF TERM 3

TERM DATES FOR 2016

Term 3 = Monday 25 July - Friday 23 September

Term 4 = Monday 10 October - Friday 16 December

We have a teacher only day at Labour weekend.

Teacher only day two = Tuesday 25 October

TERM DATES FOR 2017

Term 1 = Thursday 2 February - Thursday 13 April (Easter)

Term 2 = Monday 1 May - Friday 7 July

Term 3 = Monday 24 July - Friday 29 September

Term 4 = Monday 16 October - Tuesday 19 December

We have a teacher only day at Queen’s Birthday on Tuesday 6 June

COMMUNITY NOTICES

TENNIS

Play tennis this season at Muritai Tennis Club

Registration for interclub is 4th September 11.00 - 12.00. Bring your racket and some friends and come for a hit or email michelle.fisher@outlook.co.nz. New family membership, discount for new members.

EASTBOURNE CRICKET

The Eastbourne Cricket Club would like to invite all it's current and any new members to the 2016 Eastbourne Cricket Club Annual General Meeting. The meeting details are as follows:

Eastbourne Cricket Club Inc - Annual General Meeting

Venue- Eastbourne RSA

Date: 28 August 2016

Time; 3pm

The future of the Junior Club will be discussed at the meeting on Sunday.

Be first to see Richie McCaw's “Chasing Great”, with friends

There are still tickets available to the pre-public exclusive screening of Richie’s movie at the Petone Lighthouse Cinema on Wednesday 31 August at 6pm. Kids $11.00 Adults $15.00. Please email Jo if you would like tickets bentley@muritai.school.nz.

After Match Party | Sat 3 Sep

There are still tickets available for the Eastbourne Shared Services Club fundraiser ‘AfterMatch’ party. It will be held at the Muritai School Hall on Saturday 3 September. It’s a great night out! Tickets are $75, which includes a live band, bubbles on arrival and 2 free drinks, canapés, dinner and sweets. Please contact Jo on bentley@muritai.school.nz for tickets and information.

FRIDAY 19 AUGUST 2016

Tena Koutou katoa

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

We have had another week where our students have participated in lots of fun and exciting learning opportunities. On Monday afternoon, our Year 6 students went over the road to visit and take part in a range of activities involving art, technology, sports and drama with the Year 7 and 8 students. It was a great opportunity for our younger pupils to build relationships with our senior students and the Year 7 and 8 teachers as well as familiarise themselves in preparation for their move next year. They really enjoyed the activities and were able to have their questions answered.

What a fantastic night the students had last Friday! Thank you to everyone who attended the discos and a huge thank you to the Home and School members who worked tirelessly for this event.

On Thursday Vane visited the Junior School. He delivered an exciting programme about Financial Literacy and the importance of saving and become clever Cash Kiwis. He visited Year 7 and 8 last week and will return in the next few weeks for years 3 to 6.

We welcomed Daniel Peacock who has been coaching some of our Year 5 and 6 students in golf.

Four of our students, Dan Walker, Tai van de Bar, Elodie Bain and Imogen Chappell met other students from around the Hutt Valley when they attended the ‘Sustainability Hui.’ Thank you Sally Bain for accompanying them.

Our Year 5 to 8 students attended a performance by 'Perform' Educational Musicals. The performance was named 'Myfriends.com' and covered the following key learning points:

• What is cyber bullying?

• Cyber bullying is a criminal offence in NZ.

• What to do if you’re cyber bullied.

• Bystanders – their choices and the implications of their choices.

• Keeping personal details to yourself.

• The risks of ‘friending’ strangers online.

• The risks of assuming a fake identity online.

• Cyber bullies can’t hide – how cyber activity can be traced.

• Cyber bullying is never your ‘fault’.

• Self esteem

• Communication

• Peer pressure

• Kindness

• Supportive friendships

Please discuss this with your child and ask them what they learnt.

Warmest congratulations to the following students who recently participated in the International Competitions and Assessment for Schools (ICAS) in spelling and earned high scores. Fraser Neilson in Year 5 got a High Distinction while Isabella Carroll, Jessica Park, Sage Pettus, Luke Tait, Scarlett Tito (all Year 5) Alexandra Irvine, George Walker (both Year 6) Leon Medcalf (Year 7) and Joshua Toomath (Year 8) received Distinction.

We are also delighted to congratulate Fergus Gloag and Eli Wylie from Room 1 for completing the Reading Word Wall. A great effort by them both. We also congratulate Bodhi Kane for completing his spelling rocket to become a super speller. Well done Bodhi!

Teaching staff have also been learning. On Monday, Michelle Ducat who facilitates the Enviroschools programme in the Hutt Valley came and discussed Sustainability and our Green Gold status.

Two staff members attended a wonderful music workshop involving intercultural songs from Madagascar, West Africa, South America and the Pacific on Wednesday. We know that oral language underpins all learning so on Thursday evening twelve staff attended a workshop on strategies to enhance oral language development in our classrooms.

Congratulations to Mila Emerson who is this week’s winner from the ‘Golden Box’ for students and Mrs Allen from the staff.

Well done to Room 4 who are our Schoolgen award winners this week.

There will be a ‘Starting School at Five’ information evening in room 3 for parents of preschool children on Wednesday September 7th at 7 p.m. This evening is to answer parent and caregiver questions to ensure the transition from preschool to school is a smooth one for everyone.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION - You may already know about the upcoming paid union meetings for teachers, principals and support staff. The reason for these meetings is to discuss the concerns held within the profession about the proposals being put to Cabinet for consideration in reviewing the way in which funding is delivered to schools.

N.Z.E.I. and P.P.T.A. are the unions that represent more than 60,000 teachers and support staff from preschool to Year 13. They have asked all members to attend meetings in September to hear more about the funding proposal and help determine the education sector’s response.

All union members are entitled to attend two paid union meetings per year. N.Z.E.I. do not hold meetings in school time unless the issue is highly significant. Our teaching and support staff will be attending a meeting on Thursday September 8th 2016 at Walter Nash Stadium from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Staff will be leaving school by 12.30 p.m. on that day. You are welcome to collect your child by 12.20 p.m. if you wish (please let your child’s teacher know if you are going to do this). Otherwise students will be supervised for the afternoon and can be collected from the school hall at the usual time.

2017 - I am looking ahead and planning has begun for next year. If you have a child who is turning five and will be joining our Junior School could you please contact Jo in the school office and let her know name, date of birth and your contact details. If you have a child/ren who is leaving at the end of this year could you please email me and let me know.

We wish our Rippa Rugby team (Rosa Blair, Jack Roche, Elodie Bain, Ben Drummond, Barney Cass, Greta Woolloff, Lola and Mia Campbell, Tom and Daniel Brownsword all the best in the Air NZ Rippa Rugby Championship next week. I know that they will try their best.

Thank you so much for your continued support.

Maureen Buckley

FROM THE BOARD

Many thanks to all those who took the time to do the online survey about what you valued at Muritai and would like to see improved, as we embark on the search for a new principal. We had more than 200 responses which is terrific and some clear themes have already informed our person specification. These will be further discussed by the Board and shared with the school community in the near future.

As we further analyse the responses, alongside the face to face consultation, key points will be considered as part of our shortlisting and interview process over the next two months or so.

Advertising for the position is beginning today online, and will follow in the Education Gazette hard copy early next month.

Nga mihi - your Board of Trustees

FROM THE SCHOOL

SENIOR SCHOOL

Here are our teams enjoying their Art, Tech challenge, Sports and Drama when the Year 6s came to visit.

Put the Eastbourne Carnival date in your diaries. This is the school’s biggest fundraising event and we need all families to help in some way. We will be advertising in the newsletter and sending out requests via email for assistance.

A number of popular stalls will be back in force this year. Once again students from the senior school will be taking the lead (with parent help!) of the Toys and Adopt a Bear Stall. This was hugely successful last carnival with all proceeds being donated to Kidscan. Other stalls in need of donations from the schooling community are the Book stall, Smash Palace, Plants and Clothes Stalls.

Spring is around the corner so a good time to sort through those cupboards and elsewhere around the home. The following donations are needed:

books
toys and sporting equipment
clothes (includes shoes, bags and blankets)
old crockery (chipped bowls and plates)
plants and pots (drop off 7 Rona Street-leave on doorstep). September is a good time to start potting up seedlings - get the kids involved, it’s their carnival! All plant types welcomed and ceramic or plastic pots (not the plastic kind plants come in from the nursery though)

It is super important please that all donations are of good quality and are clean and complete (i.e. all pieces). Items that are not do not sell and need to be disposed of, this created a lot of extra work last carnival. We will let you know where to take all your items in the next newsletter.

It is also super duper important that any items which involve pieces (e.g. board games, jigsaw puzzles, sporting items etc…) are placed in sealable zip-lock type bags (many pieces became homeless last carnival when boxes were picked up and pieces fell out!).

A crowd carnival favorite is the face painting stall-as yet we have no one to run this. If you can face paint, or know of someone who can please let Jo or Carole in the office know asap.

Lastly, if you have an idea and you’d like to run with it we’d love to hear it!! Please speak to Jo or Carole in the office.