Volume 4Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai
Tena koutou katoaDear Parents / Caregivers,
Welcome to Brodie Parker and Harrison Allen who are our latest additions to the Muritai family.BOARD OF TRUSTEE INFORMATION PACKIn the next day or so you will receive some communication from the Board of Trustees. In the correspondence you will find a letter about the additional teacher subsidy, activity fee and Technology fee for year 7-8 students, the corresponding invoice for these, a summary of the recent ERO report, emergency contact details that need reviewing and an internet permission form. EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURESThe recent events around the Pacific Rim have many people very concerned and unsettled. Over the next 3 weeks we will be conducting two earthquake drills, (one at class time and one at playtime) and a tsunami drill. I will also post our extensive emergency procedures on the website so parents can all view our plans for the various emergencies that may occur. Muritai School is a civil defence centre so we are well stocked to cope in an emergency. As mentioned in the last newsletter should an emergency occur children will be retained at school and we will ensure that - • Students will be instructed to stay at school• The school will begin contacting parents/caregivers with a priority given to those parents/caregivers who are known to work out of the Eastbourne area. The school has the facility to text parents, as well as inform parents by email. The message will contain information around collecting children from school as soon as conditions allow by reporting to the school office. Parents will be informed that students are accounted for and are currently being looked after by school staff.• School emergency food supplies will be used if needed.• School facilities will be used to house and care for students. • Staff will stay with all students who are not able to be placed in the care of the parent/caregiver or family emergency contact.RED AND BLACK DAYWhat a successful fundraiser this was with Muritai School raising over $2,400 for the Christchurch earthquake appeal. The sock dude raffle, organised by Karen Chao and room 11, raised $750 alone which was a fantastic effort. The staff XI v Christchurch XI football game resulted in a very hard fought victory to the Christchurch XI by 4-3.YEAR 3-4 SWIMMING SPORTSLast week, on a beautiful sunny day, the year 3-4 team held their swimming festival at Eastbourne pool. What a wonderful event, the children tried their very best, things ran very smoothly and it was a nice way to finish the swim programme.HOMEWORKAt Muritai we provide opportunities for students to support their learning at home through 'homework'. Our focus is very much on providing an opportunity for parents to be part of their child's learning experiences, to encourage and provide support for their children as they grow with their learning. The aim of homework is to embed the learning done at school and generally homework should not be a struggle at all. We are very realistic and we believe strongly that children need to be able to pursue activities out of school and we understand that the home is a busy place with families already doing many activities after school. The risk of burn out or combustion is high but if you look at our suggested outline we are mainly encouraging children to read at home - this can be done together or individually by the child. We also suggest that visiting the Eastbourne library is by far the best place to support a home reading programme and a very good habit to get into. At the same time being able to spell key words and recite basic facts quickly are essential to access writing and maths successfully.A suggested guide of how much time is spent is the following• Year 0-2 - 10 minutes a night - mainly reading and spelling • Year 3-4 - 20 minutes a night - mainly reading, spelling, basic facts • Year 5-6 - 30 minutes a night - mainly reading, but also spelling, basic facts, current events • Year 7-8 - 40 minutes - mainly reading but also maths, inquiry and spelling YEAR 5 AND 6 CAMPWe welcome our year 5-6 team back to school after their ‘week away’ at Forest lakes in Otaki. The 2011 camp was just superb with a great team of adults and a group of enthusiastic, vivacious children giving 100% to all the activities. We know this because many children are still exhausted. A huge thanks to the teaching team of Stu, Melissa, Lisa, Ruth, Pete and Matt for coordinating the week.TRIPS AND VISITS
No comments:
Post a Comment