Wednesday 12th November

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai 

Tena koutou katoa

As we approach the mid point of the term we see an exciting fortnight ahead of us. By the end of week 7 we will have opened our new library, held the Eastbourne Carnival and completed our latest ERO review. 

This Friday at 2pm we will be opening our new library. After many years of planning we are finally able to open this beautiful building and welcome our children into it to enjoy for many years to come. While we open the library to allow it to be used, its first actual tenancy will be as a classroom. Room 16 will move in there as we need to start our latest new entrant group with Liz Sullivan teaching this class until the end of the year.

The builders have moved onto the next phase of the project, which is to return the old library back to a classroom for 2015, build a deck out the front of the 2-story block and improve the access way to the south end of the building as well as a new formal entrance from Oroua St.

The organising team have done a terrific job on the Eastbourne Carnival for this year. We are so lucky to have such an outstanding team on board. Funds raised this year will go towards our ICT resources as we look to purchase new and replace old devices for our children.Everything is in place for the day and we just need 3 things now to make it work.

1.    Spread the word - tell your friends, work colleagues and the like, to get as many people to Eastbourne as possible. If 12,000 people all spend $5 inside the school then we make $60,000 for things for our children.

2.    We still need volunteers. The gaps are listed in the school foyer and this is filling up slowly, but positively.

3.    A fine day!

As we move into the last 5 weeks of term there is no let up for the staff and no let up for the children as well. Teachers are hard at work continuing class programmes through to the end of the year.  They are also required to complete important work to close off the year with reports being written, assessment folders completed, class lists assembled and preparation for 2015. As always however, if you have any concerns please feel free to contact them to discuss any issue you may have.

We are looking forward to our ERO visit in week 7. I have sent off the first wave of documents for the pre-review and felt pleased with the considerable progress the school has made since our last ERO visit. Our evidence shows the children are achieving really well, in good spirits and we are continuing to improve as a school in nice incremental chunks. It is all part of our strategic growth.

Recently we asked our children to give us feedback on a 'student survey' and we were pleasantly surprised to get a significantly positive review from our children. They really do feel that Muritai is a great place to come to school. Having said that there were some key issues raised and some comments that allow us to continue to work on building strong and effective relationships between the children to ensure all children feel safe and are happy in their school day!

FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

With many parents now on Facebook you can access information and school news events via Facebook. Presently we have had about 233 'friends' . You can sign up to Muritai School's Facebook page and therefore get regular updates of events.  Click here to join up. 

Alternatively, if you are not on Facebook you can also receive these updates straight to your cellphone via Twitter. Simply text 8987 and type in follow MuritaiSchool and you will receive updates, simple messages, reminders and cancellations direct to your cellphone.

NEW MURAL IN SENIOR SCHOOL

We were able to put up our latest mural art work in the senior school yesterday. A 'big' effort was required to put this together by our senior children. Thanks to Nancy Barclay and Lisa Allen for your co-ordination and expertise, and to our caretaker, Roger and the Menz Shed for their installation. It really is a wonderful piece of work for all to enjoy!

ATHLETIC SPORTS

The Y3-8 Athletic sports day was AWESOME!...Mr McKay organised amazing weather (and a great schedule) and all of the students did a great job competing and supporting one another. There was  a lovely atmosphere all day and it was an inspired choice to do the relays at the Rec!

Congratulations to our year group champions...

Year 3 - Rosa Blair and Marcus Ruane

Year 4 - Ella Young and Rory Moffat

Year 5 - Emily Jones and Jack Evans

Year 6 - Samantha Woolley and Theo Jones

Year 7 - Helena Cvitanovich and Lincoln Moffat

Year 8 - Brianna Kirkham & Milly Griffiths and Jake Murphy

Relay results...

Y3 - 1st Room 10, 2nd Room11, 3rd Room 9

Y4 - 1st Room 12, 2nd Room 8, 3rd Room 7

Y5/6 - 1st Room 15, 2nd Room 16, 3rd Room 13, 4th Room 14

Y7/8 - 1st Room 23, 2nd Room 24, 3rd Room 22

House Relay - 1st Cook, 2nd Sanson, 3rd Charters, 4th King

Festival Relay - 1st Teachers, 2nd Parents, 3rd Y7/8, 4th Y5/6 

Best of luck to the year 4-6 athletics team competing next week at the Central Zone sports.

PEDAL READY

The Y5/6 syndicate has been involved in the 'Pedal Ready' cycle skills programme over the past 2 weeks.  It has been a fantastic programme for all students as it has given them lots of up to date cycle safety skills as well as a huge amount of confidence in riding their bikes.  It has been a very positive experience for all and we are hoping to continue with the programme in 2015.

BLUE DAY FOR DIABETES

Tomorrow, Friday the 14th, we are holding a Blue Day for Type-One Diabetes. We are helping to spread awareness in the community by asking students to dress in blue (you can dress up too if you want!) and bring in a gold coin donation to go towards helping youth with Type-One Diabetes. Try and make your costume as funky as possible.

Type One Diabetes is an 'auto-immune' condition which cannot be prevented but can be managed through a combination of medication, healthy food choices and exercise.  It is often confused with Type-Two Diabetes.

So, please dress up in blue, bring a gold coin, and help us raise awareness of diabetes in our community this Friday!

From Freya, Meike and Alicia / Muritai School Charity Ambassadors

CRICKET WELLINGTON COACHING FOR YEAR 3-4

Lee and Esther from Cricket Wellington came to Muritai School to promote Cricket.  Lee used to play for the Firebirds cricket team and knows his cricket!

Lee took us for wicket relays and we practiced running, throwing and catching.  We learned how to hit the wickets with underarm and overarm throws.  Our non-throwing arm we used for aiming at the wickets.

Esther taught us how to catch the ball correctly by making a basket with our hands.  We had to follow catching sequences in our teams and it was very tricky to remember the sequences at times.

We had lots of fun and would love them to visit us again soon!

By Room 9

RICHIE HACKNEY

Local Personal Trainer Richie Hackney has been coming in to school to work with the children from years 5-8 teaching fitness and boxing. It was really exciting because he is a professional boxer and he really knows what he is talking about.

Richie was fantastic.  Together we worked on our fitness and the correct way to exercise.  He told us about what muscle groups we were using and we spoke a lot about the importance of exercise.  Mr Bird would love him because he constantly reinforces that we need to be the best we can be. We were challenged but had a huge amount of fun doing it too.

A few of us have now joined his boxing group that he runs after school and love it.

Room 24

TERM DATES FOR 2015

The Board of Trustees have set the term dates for 2015. Please note the following - 

Term 1 - Monday 2 February –Thurs 2 April – 43 days

Term 2 - Monday 20 April - Friday 3 July - 53 days

Term 3 - Monday 20 July - Friday 25 September   - 50 days

Term 4 - Monday 12 October - Thursday 17 December – 47 days  

There are 2 teacher only days in 2015 - these are the Tuesday of Queen's Birthday and the Tuesday of Labour Weekend.

Please note in 2015 Anzac Day has been ‘Monday-ised’

DIARY

You can access a full calendar on our website under 'Noticeboard' on our website

Friday 14 Nov   Opening of the library at 2.00pm / Y5-6 Whitireia Show

Tues 18 Nov     Y4-6 Zone athletic sports

Thurs 20 Nov    BOT mtg 7.30pm

Mon 24 Nov      ERO visit / Swimming starts / Y1-3 parent conferences /Road patrol training 

Tues 25 Nov     ERO visit / Y4-6 Inter-zone sports / Y1-3 parent conferences

Wed 26 Nov     ERO visit / Starting School at 5

Fri 28 Nov        Assembly 1.45

Mon 1 Dec       Y1-2 EOTC week / Y5-6 Road patrol pool party

Tues 2 Dec      Year 4-6 Celebration of Learning 3.00 - 6.00

Wed 3 Dec       Y5-6 EOTC week begins / Junior school athletic sports

Thurs 4 Dec     BOT mtg 7.30pm

Mon 8 Dec       EOTC week for years 5/6 and 3/4 and Y8 to Abel Tasman

Mon 8 Dec       Year 7s to Matiu/Somes Island

Wed 10 Dec     Year 7s to Mt Holdsworth camp

Tues 9 Dec       Y5-6 2015 camp meeting

Thurs 11 Dec    Junior school Xmas concert

Fri 12 Dec        Reports go home

Mon 15 Dec      2015 classrooms meet together

Tue 16 Dec       Y8 leavers dinner

Wed 17 Dec      Y3-6 Xmas concert

Thurs 18 Dec    Last day of the school year / Final assembly 11.00      

                          School finishes at 1.00

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Eastbourne Junior Swim Club Starts Thursday 20 November – Register Now! It’s almost time for the Eastbourne Pool to open, and that means our community Swim Club for Term 4 and Term 1 next year is about to start.  We want to have as many Swim Club nights before Xmas as we can, so are only taking PRE-REGISTRATIONS.  Please sign your child up at the Eastbourne Library or at our registration morning at the Eastbourne Pool 10-midday Saturday 15 November.  $30 per child. All children aged 5 and older catered for.

NEW BALLET SCHOOL in Eastbourne next year! Children from 3-7 years of age are able to enrol now to secure a class place for 2015.  

Check out wellingtonballetstudio.co.nz or phone Hannah Ross ARAD RTS, on 021 207 6757 

FUNDRAISER FOR THE LOFT, EASTBOUNRE YOUTH GROUP, Saturday 15^th November in the Eastbourne Village, Rimu Street, 10am Cake Stall