TUESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2016

Kia Ora, Talofa Lava, Greetings, Malo e Lelei, Kia Orana

A very warm welcome to Olive Sellars, Sofia McDonald, William Hammond and Kira Wester and their families as they join our school family.

FROM THE PRINCIPAL
It’s hard to believe that it is the fourth week of the term and that it is already November. The students have been very busy over the past two weeks especially undertaking a range of assessments. Teaching staff are currently analysing their progress and achievements and are writing reports ready to share this information with you later in the term.

Each week I have seen the students outside practising and learning new skills in athletics and the Years 3 to 8 students are especially enjoying their Athletics Day today. The Years 0 to 2 will have their Athletics Day later on in the term.

Our exciting Carnival is only four weeks away and plans for this great event are well underway so please put down your name to help out over that weekend and look out for all the notices coming your way.

Thank you to Suzanne Levy for her very informative talk about adding restrictions to devices  and to the parents and caregivers who attended her session.

Thanks also to all the parents who are giving up their time to speak about their career pathways to our Year 7 and 8 students. One student, Daan, is thinking about joining the police and he interviewed Sergeant Bradley Allan to see what was involved. Daan especially enjoyed his ride in the police car.


Congratulations also goes to Phileas Keller, who was the New Zealand Mathlete of the day. He earned a total of 7,567 points on October 15th 2016 while he practised his Mathletics. Well done Phileas!

Congratulations to Joe Dickson as well and his Petone Football team who finished their season with impressive results at the McCartney Tournament held recently in Taupo which included a win by the 11th grade Settlers. This was the team’s third tournament success this season. Great work Joe!

Well done and congratulations to the Junior School! They held their ‘Jump Off’ at the culmination of their Jump Rope for Heart programme at the end of last term. Due to their sponsorship we were able to send $698.30 to the New Zealand Heart Foundation to go towards heart research.

On Friday November 4th at 2.30 p.m. there will be a farewell afternoon tea for Andrew Bird in the school library. You are warmly invited to attend so come along and share some memories that you have of his time here at Muritai.

As it is term 4, we have a ‘Sunsmart’ policy. All students need to wear a sunhat while they are outside during school hours. Please make sure that your child has a named hat at school every day to wear. Please apply sunscreen to your child before school if they are our younger students.  Sunscreen (named) can be brought to school to reapply throughout the day. Students can wear sunglasses to protect their eyes as well.   

A huge thanks goes to the Menzshed for building our Buddy bench. Seren, Jasmine and the Year 7 and 8 art ambassadors are busy sanding and preparing the seat ready for painting before it appears in our playground later this month.


Next Tuesday November 8th, all students will be involved in a programme called ‘Sustainable Coastlines.’ As part of this, they will attend a presentation in our library and follow this up with a clean up of our local beach area. If you are available to accompany the students to the beach for this could you please let your child’s teacher know by this Friday November 4th? Years 3 and 4 and Years 7 and 8 need adults from 9.45 to 10.30 a.m. Years 0, 1 and 2 need adults from 11 a.m. to 11.45 a.m. and Years 5 and 6 need adults from 1.30 to 2.15 p.m. We need to abide by the Health and Safety Act which means we must comply with ratios of 1 adult to every 6 students so if you are available to join us that would be very much appreciated.

We offer congratulations to our new Principal, Mrs Bec Power. There will be a powhiri to welcome her to Muritai School on Friday December 2nd. Further details will follow closer to the time.

Planning for 2017 is well underway. We are shortly beginning the very detailed process of collating the makeup of classes for next year. We don’t take requests for placements from parents but if you have some information you think we would find useful about your child you are welcome to provide us with this. Please phone the school office to make an appointment to discuss this with me. If your child or family is leaving at the end of this year and you have not emailed me can you please do so to let me know?

Next Tuesday morning, November 8th I am having another ‘coffee morning - meet and chat’ in the staffroom from 8.45 a.m. if you would like to join me.

If you thought that Year 7 and 8 were busy with loads of opportunities as mentioned in our previous newsletter then have a read at some of what is on offer in Years 5 and 6.

Alongside their dynamic, responsive and student centred curriculum there are plenty of other activities to be involved in.

Fostering leadership both in and around the school, students are able to be peer mediators, Kahikatea leaders, P.E. shed monitors or Junior School lunch monitors during lunchtimes, or keep our students safe on the road as road patrollers. They can take part in Schoolgen and Enviroschool teams along with being big buddies in buddy classes.
A range of extra learning opportunities is also available with students able to take part in attaining the different levels of the library awards, Maths masters, Otago Problem solving, ePro8 challenges as well as a range of competitions including ICAS, RSA Essay writing, Speech and Mathswell.

If the students want to get involved in the arts they are able to take part in our school production, the Art Splash Choir, Art Splash Dance and Kapahaka including performing at Polyfest. They have Performing Arts sessions with Ruth Hooke and also enjoy a SPARKS programme involving dance, drama, singing and Kapahaka.
There are also a wide variety of sports events offered. These include the whole school events of swimming, cross country and athletics. Students can also take part in Central Zone events in swimming, cross country, soccer, netball, hockey and athletics.
We have had students also competing at Inter zone in swimming, cross country and athletics and also in Regional events of cross country and athletics this year.
Rippa rugby, Rugby (tackle), soccer, cricket, tennis and triathlon are also played. The students also have some amazing Education Outside the Classroom experiences with a week allotted for this later this term. During Term 1 the students went on camp to Makahika Outdoor Pursuits Centre and throughout the year have taken part in enviro school activities like the World of Waste tour and the preservation of our local dunes to name a few. School is certainly a fun and busy place!


Arohanui
Maureen Buckley
Acting Principal


FROM THE SCHOOL

EPRO8 TEAMS
The EPro8 Challenge is a competition, an engineering and problem solving race.  In 2016 over 4000 students from nearly 400 schools from throughout the North Island are taking part.  Teams compete to

  • Build large sized structures
  • Solve practical problems
  • Engineer using polleys, motors, gears, wheels and axles
  • Invent machines that can complete simple tasks
  • Undertake unusual and fun experiments
  • Construct basic electronic circuits
  • Solve interesting problems using practical maths

We had four teams this year year:

7/8 Delta: Tai Van der Bar, Fergus Hart, Shannyn Thompson and Lachlan McLachlan
7/8 Alpha:  Dan Walker, Oscar Zuijderwijk, Luke Thompson and Ben Murphy
5/6 Team 2: George Walker, Artemisia Walcott, CJ Wray, Solomon Tito
5/6 Team 1: Myles Caughley, Toby Burton-Wood, Marcus Ruane, Fraser Neilson

The teams were organised and supported by Mr Woodhams and both had great success with Delta coming first and Alpha second place in their competition and Team 2 placing 2nd and Team 1 placing 3rd.  Well done teams!


LOST PROPERTY
The school's lost property is kept under the stairs by Room 7. Most weeks the bins are overflowing. A couple of times each week, lost property monitors go through the clothes in the bins, checking for names and trying to reunite clothing with owners.
Last Wednesday, the students of Room 7 undertook a survey of lost property to see how much of the clothing was named. Of the 137 items currently 'lost' and sitting in the bins, only 21 items were named. That works out about only 1/7th of the lost clothes being named and standing a better than average chance of being re-united with owners.
If each item of clothing cost approximately $10.00 to replace, that would mean about $1370.00 worth of clothing is currently sitting in our lost property bins, unclaimed. At the end of the year after Christmas, all unclaimed lost property is donated to the Salvation Army.
If your child has recently lost an item of clothing, please drop by the lost property bins soon to have a look.

ONLY 3 1/2 WEEKS TO GO!!!!
Could you please find us on Facebook and like and share our page with all your friends.  We currently have approximately 600 likes on Facebook and usually have 20,000 visitors—a long way to go yet!  
We need from you:
  • Lemons to be squeezed and lemons zested with juice and zest being frozen ready for our team to make lemonade for the Carnival.  
  • Clothes racks for our clothes stall.  Please drop off at 126 Muritai Road.  Make sure they are named in order for us to return them.
  • Plastic bags for our stalls
  • Ice cream containers - with lids if you have them.


DIARY DATES TERM 4 2016

15 Nov Juniors going to Government House
16 Nov Juniors going to Government House
22 Nov Y4-6 IZ Athletics
25 Nov Y8 Girls Gardasil Immunisation
27 Nov CARNIVAL DAY!
29 Nov Y4-8 Regional Athletics
1 Dec PP Date for Y4-8 Regional Athletics
5 Dec to
 9 Dec Y3-4 EOTC Week; Y7 EOTC Week, Junior EOTC Week
5 Dec to
 10 Dec Y8 Abel Tasman Camp
7/9 Dec Y5/6 EOTC Week
9 Dec Y3/4 Beach Day at Days Bay
12/13 Dec Y5/6 EOTC Week
16 Dec Leavers Assembly, Early Finish at 1pm as LAST DAY OF TERM

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

MURITAI TENNIS CLUB FAMILY DAY
Family fun day at muritai tennis club 30 October 9.30-12.00.  Members free, non members $5 per family

Could the person who witnessed the silver Nissan Xtrail drive into the back of my Toyota just outside school on Muritai Road this morning at drop off and then drive away, please contact me on 562-8619 or 021 206 4741.  I don’t quite understand what happened and was so upset that I forgot to ask for your name when you gave me the licence plate number.  Because I don’t understand how it happened I can’t explain it to insurance so I’d really like to talk to you and have an independent witness if the other driver disputes my description of what happened.  Thank you very much,  Katherine Fahey.

Food for a Healthy Heart
Weds 30 Nov, 5.15-7.00pm, Johnsonville Community Centre

The Heart Foundation are running a friendly and informal FREE session to about nutrition and healthy food choices, for people living with heart disease and their whanau. To register call 04 472 2780 or cathl@heartfoundation.org.nz

FRIDAY 14 OCTOBER 2016

Tena Koutou katoa
Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai

We warmly welcome Isabella le Roux, Georgia Parker, Elsie Parker, Sophia Pedersen, Livvy Keddell and Zachary Keddell to our school family.

FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Welcome to Term 4!
The students have already had a jam packed week of learning. Out around the school, I have seen papier mache masks drying, students learning new athletics skills, others involved in new dances in our performing arts programme as well as observing quality learning happening in classes. We are also counting down to the Carnival and items are coming into the office. Think about how you can help as we need everyone to help with the amazing fundraiser.

Our next New Entrant class is about to start and we welcome Miss Nicolette Fisher to teach this class in room 17. She has been teaching around our school this year and has spent the last few days preparing for the arrival of our new students.

I have introduced students to  the ‘Quiet Zone’ at lunchtime and this has been well patronised.




Keeping our school tidy has also had a boost with the introduction of special gloves and buckets.




I invited our local police to visit our playground and mix with the students at lunchtime. The students really enjoyed their chats with them.

Looking ahead to next week:

  • Next Tuesday morning October 18th I am having a ‘coffee morning - meet and chat’ in the staffroom between 8.45 a.m. and 10 a.m. for any parents who would like to join me. It is an opportunity for you to meet some other parents and also a chance to have any queries regarding schooling answered.
  • On Tuesday afternoon the Bledisloe Cup will be coming to school. If your child would like to see it and have photos taken with it they are to line up and wait along the verandah of the two storey block outside room 16 at 3 pm
  • On Tuesday evening there will be a session for parents in our school library about how to secure
  • devices from 7 to 8 p.m. in the library.
  • Class photographs will be taken next Friday morning (October 21st) in our school hall for the students in rooms 2 and 3 as they had not started school and also our Year 8 students.

I am pleased to announce that as from next Friday we have new lunch providers. This will be Hive Cafe and a notice of menus available, costs and ordering procedures will be coming out early next week.

There will be a memorial service for Roger ‘Dodge’ Edwards on Saturday October 22nd from 4 pm at the Eastbourne Bowling Club to toast Dodge and remember and share all the good times. You are welcome to go along to share your thoughts.

On the last day of the term a small group of students and staff took Andrew to his new school. We are now going to have a farewell for him. The details are that the students will have an assembly for him on Friday November 4th and following this parents and members of the wider community are invited to an afternoon tea to be held in our school library from 2.30 pm. I do hope you can come and share some anecdotes and wish Andrew well.

I acknowledge and sincerely thank the Fahey family for their generous donation that has enabled us to purchase some books for our library that especially cater for our students with dyslexia.

Our Year 7 and 8 students are currently taking part in an education programme regarding careers. Thank you so much to the parents who have been giving up their valuable time to  take these sessions with the students.

In term 4 we are preparing for 2017. I am available to meet with parents to discuss any concerns that you may have or if you are considering having your child stay longer in a year group eg if you have a child in Year 1 or 2 who has a birthday between January and May and you wish them to stay longer in the Junior School please make an appointment to discuss this with me. I also need to know which students will definitely not be returning next year. Please let me know this as soon as possible as I want to confirm staffing. If you know anyone who will be moving into our area with students likely to start with us next year could you please ask them to contact the school office?
Parents ask their children about their day at school and often get replies that involve a small snapshot of what they have been doing when in fact they have taken part in a myriad of opportunities.

In this newsletter I want to share what is available to our Year 7 and 8 students and what the Year 5 and 6 children can look forward to when they get to the senior school.

Along with their active involvement in all learning areas of the curriculum, students are able to take part in a variety of groups and events emphasising a wide skill set. These include Muritai TV, SchoolGen, EPRO8, Mathswell, Air quality project with GNS Science, National Young Leaders Day, Coding Club, and a variety of writing competitions available across the country.

A large emphasis is on leadership and the students are able to be charity organisers, support the Juniors in assemblies, or as buddies or lunch monitors as well as set up and run full school assemblies including all the technical aspects. They can be ambassadors in arts and sports as well as house captains and keep our students safe on the road supervising road patrol. They lead the enviro team, organising a gardening team and co-ordinating lots of gardening projects around the school. They are monitors in our library and also enjoy a club doing quiet activities in Mr Woodham’s classroom at lunchtimes. The students are also excellent in their telephone manner as they are answer queries in our school office during lunch breaks. The Muritai TV is ably run by them as well as the collation of house points.
We have Head and Deputy Head boys and girls who do a range of duties including tours for intending parents, ambassadors in a range of situations including parliament.

Evidence of what our oldest students are able to achieve was in our recent school production. Students worked collaboratively and wrote the whole script. Some did the choreography of dances involved while others took part in numerous singing rehearsals. We all enjoyed the talented musicians who did the busking and the superb acting. They did the backstage management of the the props along with the technical roles in sound, lighting, and media. Currently they are creating a movie of the production which will be available for purchase shortly.

If your child enjoys sport they are able to take part in athletics, cross country running, swimming and teams for total touch, football, basketball or netball.  They can  play against other schools in the Central Zones events or learn how to play croquet at the local club. They also get the chance to ride scooters and uni-cycles around their playground. They also organise fitness for peers and are responsible for personal passion projects, inquiries, Science Fairs, speeches, debating, along with a range of other students driven projects across the school.

The students also are out and about in the wider community using the Eastbourne library and pool, going to our local beach and doing clean ups or dune weeding. They are also involved in a variety of field trips and go over the hill to Wainuiomata Intermediate School for technicraft in the areas of Food Technology and hard soft materials. They learn different languages and have constant access to technology to support their learning both at school and at home on Google Chrome. This is only some of what they do. Don’t you wish you were back at school to experience all this fun? If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us. There is also a transition process for our Year 6 going to Year 7 as well as our Year 8 going onto college.

The culmination of their eight year journey at Muritai School ends, of course, with the amazing Abel Tasman experience, which they will never forget in the future.
The next newsletter will be in two weeks and will involve a focus on the opportunities offered in our Year 5 and 6 area.

Just a reminder we have a teacher only day on Tuesday October 25th so school will be closed that day.

Best wishes for a wonderful weekend with your family.

Nga mihi nui
Maureen Buckley
Acting Principal


FROM THE SCHOOL

JUST OVER 6 WEEKS UNTIL CARNIVAL
We will be sending out notices on a weekly basis from here until Carnival and need your help.  We need to advertise our Carnival and would ask that you please find us on Facebook and like and share our page with all your friends.
We currently have approximately 600 likes on Facebook and usually have 20,000 visitors—a long way to go yet!
LUCKY BOOK CLUB
The latest catalogue should be arriving at home any day now. This will be our last issue for this year so if would like to make an order please have them into the office or made online by Friday the 4th of November. Please make cheques out to Scholastic or make your payment by credit card as we are unable to accept cash.

Unfortunately there were a few orders made last term where books were unavailable due to the high demand. When this happens Scholastic provide a replacement book, similar to the one ordered, as well as a voucher for the full amount of the purchase. These vouchers are valid for 12 months allowing plenty of time for you to make use of them.

Thank you for supporting Scholastic books this year, it is greatly appreciated. Your purchases have enabled us to receive many new books for our library for everyone to enjoy.



Scarecrow Contest
Muritai School is holding another Scarecrow contest! This year the theme for your beautiful Scarecrows will be… anything! This means that you can dress and style your Scarecrow however you want! The Scarecrows will be made at home and presented and judged at the school Carnival beside the orchard ( small collection of young trees’ on the school field) at 13:20. If you would rather bring your Scarecrow to school before the Carnival you can drop them into the school hall (just in front of the stage.) You have until then to create your masterpiece!

Traps available to borrow
The school has  several traps available to borrow if you wish to rid your garden of rodents and predators.  Please email Carol Algar to arrange this on algar@muritai.school.nz  Full training will be given.

Many Thanks From The Enviro Team.

DIARY DATES TERM 4 2016
17 Oct to
 21 Oct HVHS Enrolment interviews
18 Oct “Setting up Restrictions on Devices”  7pm in the Library
19 Oct Y7/8 HRSA sports meeting
21 Oct New Entrants and Year 8 Funny Photos
24 Oct Labour Day Holiday
25 Oct Teacher Only Day
26 Oct Y7/8 HRSA Touch Rugby
27 Oct PP Date Y1-4 TBall
27 Oct BOT Meeting
1 Nov Y3-8 School Athletics
15 Nov Juniors going to Government House
16 Nov Juniors going to Government House
22 Nov Y4-6 IZ Athletics
25 Nov Y8 Girls Gardasil Immunisation
27 Nov CARNIVAL DAY!
29 Nov Y4-8 Regional Athletics
1 Dec PP Date for Y4-8 Regional Athletics
5 Dec to
 9 Dec Y3-4 EOTC Week; Y7 EOTC Week, Junior EOTC Week
5 Dec to
 10 Dec Y8 Abel Tasman Camp
7/9 Dec Y5/6 EOTC Week
9 Dec Y3/4 Beach Day at Days Bay
12/13 Dec Y5/6 EOTC Week
16 Dec Leavers Assembly, Early Finish as LAST DAY OF TERM



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

EASTBOURNE LIONS “WALK FOR KIDS”
Eastbourne Lions Club are raising funds for the Child Mobility Fund by having a “Walk for Kids” on Sunday 16 October 1.30pm for a 2.00pm start at the Rugby Club.  

Donate $5 per person or $10 for a team of 4.

Walk the coast from the Rugby Club to Lion Rock and back.  Wear dress up if you like.  There will be prizes, game, BBQ and Lolly Scramble afterwards back at the club.  

Come along and have some fun and help us to raise some money for a good cause!

Eastbourne Cricket Club - Have A Go Cricket
Eastbourne Cricket Club welcomes years 0 - 2 and their families to register for Have A Go cricket.
Starts: Friday 11 November
Please register via www.eastbournecricket.org.nz
While the kids learn new skills and enjoy a sausage sizzle, parents can relax and catch up with friends during the long summer evenings.


KULA KIDS YOGA
There's still a few spaces in Kula Kids' Yoga weekly classes and FAMILY CLASS enrolling now for yogis big and small.  Come practice yoga together 'Kid-style' with game, song and story in these fun and creative classes. Maybe take a few tricks home with you. You don't need to be enrolled in the weekly classes to attend.  Strength. Balance. Flexibility. Mindfulness.

Saturday 5 November 2-3 pm
Sunday 13 November 11am- 12 pm (note new date!)
Ages 5 to ?
Email Jeanne at kulakidsyoga@yahoo.com with questions or to reserve your space. Maximum 8!
$15 per person
$50 for Family of 4

Calling all budding Football Ferns
GIrls Only Summer Football League
Do you want to learn some new football skills in a calm, all girl setting?
Eastbourne Football Club is offering a Girls Only Summer Football League (7 - 12 years) for 2016/2017 summer. Spaces are filling fast. For more information contact Michelle Hollard atGOSL@efc.org.nz.
FUN, FRIENDSHIP, FOOTBALL.

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