Kia
Ora, Talofa Lava, Greetings, Malo e Lelei, Kia Orana, Bonjour, Nǐ hǎo, Hallo,
Hola, Kon'nichiwa, Namaste, As-salāmu ʿalaykum
A
warm welcome to Seb Pickering and Thor Daisley to Room 1.
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Tena koutou Muritai families,
What a wonderful world! We had an amazing time at our Art
Exhibition last week celebrating the finale of our ‘What a Wonderful World’
inquiry unit. Thank you for attending our art exhibition, we were so
delighted with the fantastic parent, family, and wider community
attendance. We received such incredible
feedback from so many of you - and we, like you, are so proud of all of
the learning on display from every class
in the school.
If you were unable to come along last week, take a tour around the
exhibition by clicking this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EzverjZH01e8uA6WPmKkDwURcULdNbLc/view
Our next unit is now beginning to take shape and is called No
Place Like Home ...you may like to check out the video that we are using to
launch the unit for the children!
We are very excited about the prospect of redesigning the
playground that used to house our old fort and can’t wait to see the children’s
new and creative ideas! We would like to thank the Home and School team
who, through their fundraising efforts, have given us the opportunity to
redesign this play space. We are very
grateful for all their hard work.
I look forward to seeing some of you at the disco this evening
which our amazing Home and School volunteer team are running - see you on the
dance floor!
Ngā manaakitanga,
FROM THE BOARD
Hello
Muritai Families
The
Board of Trustees have met again and as part of our meeting the Senior
Leadership Team presented the achievement statistics for terms one and two to
us. Our students are showing strong results which are a true reflection of our
excellent teaching team and leaders at our school, not to mention our hard
working students! Please see below for our up to date data. Our teaching team
are working hard to help all students achieve as best as they can and we were
encouraged to understand how many different interventions Muritai has at hand
for learners of all abilities to help them reach their potential and be engaged
and develop a thirst for life long learning.
On
Monday 19th August the Board was hosted by our Student Leaders,
Scarlett, Ned, Paris and Theo. They took us for a tour of our school and we
visited all of the classrooms and other resource rooms. It was great to see the
school in action and all the interesting and varied tasks being carried out by
students. We also talked to them about the highlights from their schooling so
far and any changes they thought we could help make happen. More to come on
this!
During
week nine we have our ERO review. This is a significant review that all schools
in NZ have and it happens to be our turn this term. Bec and our entire staff
are working hard to ensure we are ready for ERO to come and see all of the work
that goes on at our school and to ensure we are fulfilling our obligations to
our learners.
One
final exciting update….as you will be aware, our hardworking Home and School
committee have been raising money for our new play space outside the library
over the last 18 months and we are now in the design process to make this a reality.
This term our whole school inquiry focuses on technology and STEM and it is
called No Place Like Home. Our students will have a chance to participate in
the design process of the new play space by taking part in research and
prototyping. We look forward to seeing the designs mid way through term
four.
Our
new playspace would not have happened without the Home and School focusing
their efforts on such a big goal so we would like to thank them for their hard
work and commitment. We would also like to thank the school community for
participating in all the various fundraisers that have made this happen, every
hot dog, pizza and disco counts, so thank you.
Student Learning and
Achievement
Please
find below our overall student achievement data for terms one and two. The
Board of Trustees were pleased to see how well we are progressing towards our
targets and the provisions in place for those children who are not yet
achieving the end of year expectations.
National
Education Guidelines require us to report on the progress and achievement of
our Māori students. Our students who identify as Māori have tripled in numbers
over the past three years and now make up 7.4% of our school, 30 students. We
are delighted to see a growing diversity of students within our school.
While
reading achievement towards our end of year expectations are up on previous
years at mid year results, writing and maths achievement results are similar to
this time last year. As a result the Board has agreed with our senior
leadership team that we should continue our focus on maths and writing.
Both areas continue to receive
additional resourcing, including professional development for staff around
maths in particular. As we have reported
previously, this is undertaken by Julie Roberts from NZCER on behalf of the
funding we successfully applied for from the Ministry. We have appointed
additional staff in our learning support team who will continue to facilitate
the following programmes at Muritai School in 2019:
- Learning
coaches and teachers across the school who will run additional
interventions, e.g. early intervention groups, support groups for specific
learning difficulties, Reading Recovery, Quick 60, Steps Web. (These
interventions are designed to teach students the skills required to
become competent readers and spellers).
- Maths
support groups
- Writing
support groups
- Team
interventions focusing on specific needs identified from termly data
collection
- Reading Eggs
groups
- Support
groups for children who have English as a second language
- A wide range
of teacher aide support within classrooms to assist teachers in catering
for our learners’ wide and varied needs.
This
data is based on individual data and observations specific to each child.
The teachers have made an OTJ (Overall Teacher Judgement) which involves
drawing on and applying the evidence gathered up to a particular point in time,
in order to make an overall judgment about a student's progress and
achievement. Teachers have used a range of assessment tasks and observations in
order to accurately indicate each child’s achievements.
From
your Board of Trustees - Jeremy, Andrew, Kaye, Kurt, Marni, Deane and Bec
FROM THE SCHOOL
Onesie Day
The
Year 8 Charity Ambassadors have organised a ONESIE and/or DRESS UP Day next
Friday September 6th. Your child/children can come to school dressed in a
ONESIE, their pyjamas or dress up clothes. Please
note - there is no wacky hair please!
Your
child needs to bring gold coin donations as we are raising money for Wellington
Free Ambulance to help make sure they remain uniquely free and that they are
there when people need them most.
The
charity ambassadors will be collecting the donations from your child's
classroom. Please support this!
I am
looking forward to seeing all the colourful outfits!
If
you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Maureen Buckley.
Scholastic
Book Club
Issue
six is now available and orders will be closing on Friday the 13th of August.
Your order can be done either online at this link https://mybookclub.scholastic.co.nz/Parent/Login.aspx or by filling in the paper form in the catalogue and
sending it with the payment back to the school office. Please make payment by
cheque to Scholastic NZ as unfortunately we do not accept cash payments through
the school.
NETBALL
The winter netball has come to an end with some great results,
lots of new players and
plenty of fast action on court for the spectators!
Year 7 and 8 Allstars
After the school holidays and off
the back of an unbeaten round one we were
moved up a grade into Intermediate grade 6 and found the second
half of the season really tough going. These girls are all amazing
individuals and really came together to find an incredibly strong team spirit,
when the going was good and even more so when the going got tough, always
trying their best and never willing to give up or let each other down.
I am so extremely proud of you all.
Roger Moore
Head Coach - Muritai Allstars
Marshmallows
This team are here to remind us why sport is so great to get
involved in. Friendships, bonding, working together and getting a fair few wins
along the way ! We will miss you next season!
And from the Marshmallows mascot - hello, my name is Gareth and I
am the Marshmallows mascot. You may have seen me on the side lines. I am the
pink, soft thing that looks remarkably like a giant marshmallow. . Our hoodies
were specially made so that half the team wore white hoodies with Marshmallows
written in pink down the arm, the other half wore pink hoodies with
Marshmallows written in white. Just like a bag of marshmallows! The
Marshmallows were, in my opinion, such a happy team. The people who were off
court were always cheerleading on the side lines or shouting at the people on
court. We also had the privilege of having Stu as our coach, when he wasn’t
sunning himself in Fiji or skiing. While we may not have won every game we
always had a ball.
Year 5 and 6
Well done to both our year 5 and 6 teams. For some it's your last
year before 7 a side and it was a great chance to hone in some your skills in
preparation for next season.
Some great wins, willingness to try different positions and
learning from any losses.
Year 3 and 4
Wow! Three amazing teams in this year group. We were thrilled to
see so many new players.
Well done to our yr 3 team Magic who overcame injuries and
loss of players to finish the season with an amazing burst of fast
footwork and speedy passing for some
great wins to finish on. Tino pai!
Our yr 3/4 mixed team of Mantarays have gone from strength
to strength. The first round saw natural athleticism and competitive drive make
the team unbeaten. Round two showed how working together, building your
ability as a unit made you unstoppable. Loved all the smiles on court !
Our third yr 3/4 team comprised of all yr 4 players and one very
determined yr 3 superstar, Benji Farndale. Placed in the top grade, Meerkats
had an incredible work ethic. Never missing a training, playing in gale
force winds and rain. They were hard to get off court!!
Their desire to always improve as individuals and a team led to a
clean sheet of spectacular wins! Looking forward to new challenges next season.
Fantastic work !
Well done to all the year 3 and 4 players who were always so
willing to help out other teams who
needed extras. You demonstrated a great sporting attitude and made some new
friends along the way !!
A big thanks to the parents who have supported you all. A special
thanks to the many hours given by all the coaches and managers. There wouldn’t
be any teams without your time and effort.
WHANAU
HUI @ MURITAI
This
year we have had two Whanau Hui. They have been great! During our Hui in
Term 2 we discussed some priorities with our whanau and have developed an
action plan for these.
We
are really keen to seek assistance from our community in realising these
objectives. If you have an interest or are able to help out with any of
these we would love your support. Also if you know of somebody that would
be able to give us further guidance in any aspect of the above then we would be
very grateful.
The
objectives are:
1.Building the capacity and capability of the staff
- Increase
confidence in personal use of Te Reo Maori
- Become
familiar with resources e.g. He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora
- Know and
understand the Tataiako document
2. Establishing a relationship with iwi (kaumatua)
- Make contact
with Pekaira and/or Karepa
- Connect with
Waiwhetu Marae
- Extend an
invitation for an opportunity to connect Iwi, Whanau and BOT
- Staff/students
Noho marae
- Feedback
from Muritai cluster enviroschool
3. Bilingual signage
- Identify
signs needed/wanted (and how many)
- Getting
brief for specifications
- Sending out
and getting quotes/look to community for expertise
- Think about
foyer and welcome area
- Explore,
Connect, Contribute in Te Reo - appropriate translation, locally
translated
4.
Kapa Haka
- Begin
Junior-Middle school Kapa Haka
- Employ a
tutor for the Senior Kapa Haka group
5. Develop the ‘Muritai School’ protocols (Kawa) - Linked to
the ‘School Values’
- Powhiri
This
whakatauki is a good reminder of how powerful we can be when we work closely
together for the benefit of our tamariki.
Naku
te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi
With
your basket and my basket the people will live
Nga
mihi nui
Deane
McKay
TERM 3 2019 DATES
|
|
15 August
|
BOT meeting at 6.15pm
|
16 August
|
SE Zone Swimming
|
30 August
|
School Disco
|
4 Sept
|
Starting School @ 5 at 7pm to
8.30pm in Room 1
|
5 Sept
|
Waterloo Exchange
|
6 Seot
|
Whole School Assembly - Tui
led
|
6 Sept
|
Inter Zone Swimming
|
10 Sept
|
EHS Sports Exchange 1pm to 3pm
|
12 Sept
|
Board Training from 6pm to
7.30pm
|
16 Sept
|
Year 5-8 Girls Futsal
Tournament
|
17 Sept
|
Artsplash Performance 5pm to
7pm
|
19 Sept
|
BOT meeting at 6.15pm
|
19 Sept
|
Waterloo School Exchange 1pm
to 3pm
|
19 Sept
|
Artsplash Dance from 7.30pm to
9pm
|
20 Sept
|
Whole School Assembly 1.30pm
|
27 Sept
|
Last Day of Term 3 - usual
finish time of 2.55pm
|
14 Oct
|
Start of Term 4
|
KELLY CLUB
BEFORE SCHOOL CARE is now available!
We are offering two sessions in the morning. 7.00am - 8.30am
(includes breakfast) or 7.45am - 8.30am. You don't need to enrol for
every day during the week, you might like to enrol for 3 mornings a week.
Each morning has a range of activities from craft to cooking to
building creations, as well as a chance for the children to come along and
enjoy a great start to the day. You can see all our activities on the weekly
planner.
REMINDER:
Booking is super easy for Kelly Club and everyone can enroll! See
below if you have something coming up and need childcare help.
1. Online at www.kellyclub.co.nz/muritai (you have until midnight the night before to enroll)
2. Drop in and see us for an enrollment form
3. Email us at muritai@kellyclub.co.nz
You do not have to enroll for a full week, you can enroll for one
before school care morning and two after school care during the week, once a
fortnight, or once a term.
We take casual bookings which means that if you get stuck with
childcare arrangements, we are here to assist you. If you have something pop
up, we can take your child for that afternoon, please let us know via phone
(027 218 4489) or email (muritai@kellyclub.co.nz) as soon as possible so we can
ensure we have enough resources and staff onsite to maintain the safety and
enjoyment of all children on the programme.
Cancelling bookings is also super easy. If you need to change your
booking you are able to do so online up to midnight the night before the
booking. Alternatively, you can contact us via phone or email before 12 midday
on the day of the booking to cancel. Cancelling bookings within the above time
frames is important as it means you will not invoiced for that session and it
also opens up space for another child to attend After School care.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards
Grace Gillard
Kelly Club Muritai - Programme Co-ordinator
TERM DATES FOR 2019
Term dates for 2019 have been confirmed by our Board of Trustees
as follows:-
Term 1 Monday 4 February to Friday 12 April
Teacher
only day on Friday 15 February
Term 2 Monday 29 April to Friday 5 July
Term 3 Monday 22 July to Friday 27 September
Term 4 Monday 14 October to Thursday 19 December
COMMUNITY NOTICES
2019
National Sport Stacking Championships
The 2019 National Sport Stacking Championships (cup stacking) are
being held at Cullinane College Gymnasium, 15 Peat Street, Whanganui, on Saturday 21 September 2019. The tournament is for all
ages from 3-60+, for Novice and Experienced stackers. Registrations and all
details of the Championships are on the Speed Stacks (NZ) website Tournaments
page: www.speedstacks.co.nz/pages/whanganui
Early
registrations end Friday 06 September. Entries close Friday 13 September.
