Kia Ora, Talofa Lava, Greetings, Malo e Lelei, Kia Orana, Bonjour, Nǐ hǎo, Hallo, Hola, Kon'nichiwa, Namaste, As-salāmu ʿalaykum
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Tena koutou Muritai families,
What’s happening with School Events?
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, we have been reimagining , re-thinking and rebranding the events that we traditionally do at school from now till the end of the year, and planning how we can start to host these with safety and wellbeing at the forefront of all decisions made. We have put a lot of time into thinking through options for our usual events and I’m pleased to have some updates for you below:
Cross Country: This event will run as usual with all students invited to take part in the competitive races, with an new extra bonus event in the afternoon for the non competitive runners and competitive runners to have some fitness fun.
Reporting to Parents:
We are hosting Learning Conversation evenings where you will be able to book a time to connect with your teacher. The dates for these are 5th and 12th of August. This year your child’s progress will be discussed with you at a learning conference capturing learning success from this year so far, and looking towards next steps in your child's learning.
Following the conference you will receive a written summary of what is discussed, including the learning goals and focus for terms 3 and 4 as our mid year reporting.
We will send the booking link out for these conferences in a separate email early next term.
Camps:
We are so pleased to confirm that our planning for both our Kererū ‘Makahika’ camp, and both of our Kāhu camps are back underway at Level 1. We will be holding our Kererū camp in late Term 3 and our Kāhu camps in late Term 4. Keep an eye out in your email inbox if you have children in these syndicates for updates.
Assemblies: These will begin again in Term 3! For now, the classes have shared some learning with you electronically in an Essembly - Please click this link to view the learning and fun: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11KDoq69q4vrimqMaKg_NfjoTtUx2RMQ5/view?usp=sharing
2020 Arts Event: This year we will be hosting an arts event combining dance, drama, movement and music that you will all be invited to - our first ever Muritai School Masked Parade! The students are working on our current inquiry ‘Dare to Dream’ with the key learning concept of ‘potential’, and writing our own futures. Save the date : Thursday the 27th August in the late afternoon for our arts event of the year!
Arriving to School, Absences and Lateness at Level 1
We have a new sign in system for all visitors on site during class time. If you are visiting us at school or popping in for a meeting, please visit the office first to sign in. It’s important that we keep an accurate register of who is currently onsite in case of an emergency.
Our new sign in is also used for students who are arriving at school after the roll has been completed. We regularly have 95% of all children arriving at school at the correct time, however If you are running late and your child arrives after the second morning bell, please direct them to the office to sign in. Being here on time is really important for our young people - not only does it teach them the value of being on time, they risk missing out on the settling in time and the setting up of the day's key messages from their teacher.
It is equally important that our learners do not arrive before 8:15am. There is no supervision provided until 8:30am in our classrooms, and our teaching staff use the morning as important preparation time for the day ahead.
We offer the Kelly Club supervision option onsite which provides before and after school care solutions. Please check out our website for the latest information: https://www.muritai.school.nz/kelly-club-at-muritai-school
Finally, if your child is to be absent, please do let us know by either emailing the office in advance, phoning us on the day of the absence if unwell, or texting our absentee phone (027 531 1772). Our office staff spend a great deal of time each day locating children who have not arrived in class, and it certainly helps if you have advised us of their whereabouts.
Teacher Only Days
During the negotiations for teachers and principals collective agreements last year an additional 8 teacher only days were established to be used during the term of the current agreement. In order to meet these requirements in 2020 we will hold two teachers only days - one in Term 3, and one in Term 4. We will attach both of these days to a weekend, so that hopefully the timing allows you a long weekend opportunity. The terms of this agreement have until June 2022 to be completed, and I will update you on the days for 2021 and 2022 towards the end of the year.
Both of the days provide a rare opportunity for our staff to meet together as a group, with a focus on refreshing and refining our local Muritai School Curriculum and staying up to date with current pedagogy.
These two dates will be:
Term 3: Friday 7th August 2020
Term 4: Friday 23rd October 2020 (This is also Labour Weekend with the Monday a public holiday)
We thank you in advance for your support around these days - if you require supervision for your children on these two days, Kelly Club will be running a holiday programme during both teacher only days. More information to come in our next newsletter.
Principal Awards
Every two weeks in Assembly there are two awards given to each class - this week I awarded these personally in class, which I will do again in Week 12, to celebrate those students who have been recognised as our Principal award winners.
Please find our winners below - congratulations to you all!
Kororā
Tūī
Kererū
Kāhu
Ngā manaakitanga,
Bec Power, Principal
FROM THE BOARD
Kia ora Muritai Families,
Last week the Muritai School Board of Trustees had our first face to face meeting since the Lockdown, it was great to see everyone and sit around the table to conduct our meeting.
We had a very full agenda and have some exciting updates for you:
The new Muritai School Playspace is well underway in the design phase! Thanks to all the hard work from the Home and School Committee over the last few years in fundraising for the Playspace and also the amazing support of the school community, we are now nearing sign-off of the final design. You will recall the school ran a competition last year to design the Playspace and it's very exciting to see various aspects flow through into the new design.
Bec and the team have been working hard with the Playground design company we have engaged to ensure the amazing designs our talented Muritai learners came up with are represented. We think it's going to be a pretty special place! All going well work should be able to start sometime late in term 3/early term 4. We will keep you posted with actual timings once we have them confirmed.
Another important part of our meeting was to start the review and refresh of the Muritai School strategic plan and charter. A critical part of designing the future of our school is to engage with our community and we therefore look forward to inviting your contributions. We will be back in touch with how that will look and when we would like to hear your views.
Finally, it was very reassuring to hear that school is getting back to ‘normal’ in many ways. The children seem to have settled into their learning very well and many other school events are getting locked in for the rest of this year, such as school cross country and the much anticipated school camps!
We would once again like to acknowledge our amazing teaching and support staff who are still working very hard to ensure that the transition back to ‘normal’ is as smooth as possible for all.
The Muritai School Board of Trustees
Andrew, Kaye, Jeremy, Kurt, Lisa, Bec and Felicity.
FROM THE SCHOOL
Cross Country and Fun Fitness 2020
Our Muritai School Cross Country is coming up next week on Thursday 2nd July 2020. We are adapting the format for our Cross Country after collecting student voice and looking at what other schools are doing for their Cross Country event. We are planning on running 2 events, a competitive event for those children that are wanting to take part in competitive races and possibly be selected for the local yr 4-8 Zone Cross Country, and something new and exciting called the Fun Fitness afternoon for those that do not wish to run in the competitive races.
The competitive Cross Country will be on Thursday 2nd July from 9:30am - 12:00pm for Years 0 - 8 at the HW Shortt Recreational Ground. This will be run in a similar format to other Muritai Cross Country events.
The Fun Fitness afternoon is the whole school taking part in a Fun Fitness circuit of obstacles and activities. Children will run for about 20-30 minutes around this non competitive, fun circuit. Children will have the opportunity to run with their little buddies and take part in the bubble zone, army training, hopping skipping and jumping their way around the Fun Fitness circuit. This is an opportunity for children to still be involved in developing their fitness, but in a fun, non competitive way. This will be on Thursday 2nd July from 1:30pm - 2:30pm for Years 0 - 8. This will be held at Bishops Park Grounds.
Here is all the information about this whole school sporting event.
When and Where:
Competitive Cross Country - Thursday 2nd July 9:30am - 12:00pm at HW Shortt Recreational Ground (RSA/ESSC Field)
Fun Fitness Afternoon - Thursday 2nd July 1:30am - 2:30pm at Bishops Park Grounds
Times for Competitive Cross Country:
Leaving school: 9:00am
Welcome: 9:25am
First Race: 9:30am Sharp
Finish Time: Approximately 12:00pm
Year
|
Order
|
Approx. Start Time
|
Y3 (800m)
Y4 (1km)
Y5 (2km)
Y6 (2km)
Y7 (3km)
Y8 (3km)
Y0/1 (300m)
Y2 (600m)
|
|
9.30am
9:40am
9:45am
10:00am
10.15am
10:45am
11:00am
11:30am
12:00pm
|
Times for Fun Fitness Afternoon:
Leaving school: 1:30pm
Welcome: 1:50pm
Start Circuit: 2:00pm Sharp
Finish Time: Approximately 2:30pm
While we are unable to give exact times of when individual children will be running, this is a general race order and approximate times or year group races.
If you are interested in helping out during the Muritai Cross Country can you email jpower@muritai.school.nz. We need a few parents to be marshalls positioned around the course.
Runners are to wear comfortable running clothes and dress appropriately for the conditions, e.g. poly-props / tights / beanies, warm tops, house colours etc. They will need to take a drink bottle and a packed morning tea. We are really wanting the children to get into their house spirit, especially in the Fun Fitness afternoon. So please use this day as an opportunity to dress your children up in support of their house colours!
Thanks
Jamie Power
The Dental Van was due to visit Muritai School in June. However, due to COVID levels 3 and 4, they have had to reassess the van visits to schools and unfortunately are now unable to complete all our van visits for this year. They will not visit Muritai School at this time but will be prioritising our school early in 2021.
Appointments are available at their hub clinics if you have any concerns regarding your child’s dental care, or need to update contact details. Please contact them on 0800 TALK TEETH (825583).
Back in action !
Really great couple of weeks for Muritai's netball section. After a long break, our excited teams are back on court, training hard and looking forward to their matches.
Great to see so many familiar faces and a huge welcome to all the many new players.
We have an amazing new team of coaches including Miss Dalziel, Miss K Williams and 7 new parent coaches. Many thanks for your time and energy !
Hope you have a fun season.
Whakawhetai koe me te waimarie pai!
Term 2 2020 Dates
| |
2 July
|
School Cross Country Competitive Races 9.30 to 12
|
Fun Fitness afternoon 1.30 to 2.30
| |
3 July
|
Postponement day for Cross Country
|
20 July
|
First day of Term 3
|
4 August
|
SE Zone Cross Country
|
5 August
|
Learning Conferences at 3.10
|
6 August
|
Postponement day for SE Zone Cross Country
|
7 August
|
Teacher Only Day
|
11 August
|
Boostrix vaccinations for Year 7’s
|
12 August
|
Learning Conferences at 3.10
|
16 August
|
BOT Meeting
|
18 August
|
Inter Zone Cross Country
|
20 August
|
Postponement day for Inter Zone Cross Country
|
27 August
|
Masked Parade
|
4 September
|
School disco
|
8 September
|
Regional Cross Country
|
8 September
|
BOT Meeting
|
10 September
|
Postponement day for Regional Cross Country
|
25 September
|
Last day of Term 3
|
Term Dates 2020
Term dates for 2020 have been confirmed by our Board of Trustees as follows:-
Term 1 Wednesday 5 February to Thursday 9 April
Term 2 Tuesday 28 April to Friday 3 July
Term 3 Monday 20 July to Friday 25 September
Term 4 Monday 12 October to Thursday 17 December
COMMUNITY NOTICES
Kids Yoga in Eastbourne
In partnership Hutt City Libraries, Kutumba Yoga & Seeling Yoga, we are excited to be hosting three Kids yoga classes in our local libraries!
Tuesday 28 July, 3.45pm - Eastbourne Library
Upcoming classes: Wednesday 26 August, 3.45pm - Naenae Library and Wednesday 30 September, 3.45pm - Taita Library (Walter Nash Centre). Come and join us at your local library for a fun 45 minute session! Suitable for children aged 5-10. You’ll have to be quick - spaces are limited! Secure your spot and register now through Event Finda (https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2020/kids-yoga2/lower-hutt) Mats are provided, or you are welcome to bring your own. Children are to wear comfortable clothing and to bring a water bottle. Koha donation on entry is appreciated.
