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,
This week has been a festival of fun with so many differing opportunities for students in every team! What lucky learners we have at Muritai School with our staff organising so many additional activities for our last weeks of the year. Thank you too for all of our parent support over the past weeks, and for next week too, as the EOTC events continue on.
We have completed our classroom teachers picture for 2021, and I have it for you below:
Classroom Teachers 2021
Korora
Team Leader - Jess Richards
Room 1 Yr 0/1 Kate McLean
Room 2 Yr 0/1 Jess Richards
Room 3 Yr 0 Felicity Lovell (Begins Term 3)
Room 5 Yr 2 Nadia Henderson
Room 6 Yr 2 Gabrielle Heath
Tui (Upstairs in the 2 story block)
Associate Principal - Jamie Power
Room 13 Yr 3/4 Jamie Power / Chantel Lyons
Room 14 Yr 3/4 Sophie Bence
Room 15 Yr 3/4 Kelly Williams
Room 16 Yr 3/4 Michelle Hollard
Kereru (Downstairs in the 2 story block)
Associate Principal - Deane McKay
Room 8 Yr 5/6 Greer Dalziell
Room 9 Yr 5/6 Alice Daykin-Pont
Room 10 Yr 5/6 Holli Williams
Room 11 Yr 5/6 Deane McKay
Kahu
Associate Principal - Jon Mackie - teaching across Kāhu & Kererū
Room 21 Yr 7/8 Amy Newman
Room 22 Yr 7/8 Jo Fox
Room 23 Yr 7/8 Kate Salisbury
You will spot two new names within our classroom teachers, and some moves around the school by a few of our current teachers who have challenged themselves and opted to move teaching levels.
We farewell Alison Furminger who opened the final new entrant class this year, thank you Alison for giving our year 0 learners a lovely start to Muritai School.
We welcome Jo Fox and Sophie Bence to the Muritai Team. Jo is currently the STEAM teacher at Wellesley College and has vast experience in teaching year 7 and 8 and joins the Kāhu team, Sophie is a newly graduated teacher who will join us in the Tūī team. We welcome Chantel Lyons back after parental leave, and wish Kea Maritz well as she heads into parental leave with her bundle of joy due very early in Term 1.
You will also see we have aligned our classroom numbers in the main block to a more sensible numbering system - across the bottom story the numbers will read 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (previously 7, 8, 9, 15, 16) and upstarits will be 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (previously 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). We will secure some new room numbers and have these displayed to make this numbering transition easy for us all.
Muritai Classes 2021
We have now completed our student class makeups for 2021 and students will have an opportunity to meet their new classmates and teachers next week. Thank you for all of the information you provided as part of this process at the start of term, it really helps us with timeframes and making each class a success. We complete this consultation process at the end of term 3 and the start of term 4 every year, so do pop a note in your calendar and look out for the newsletter reminders if you would like to provide information for us to take into account for classes in 2022.
Syndicate Birds Legacy Project
Each year I work alongside the Head and Deputy Head students to undertake a project which will leave a possible ‘legacy’ or a memory of their time as our student leaders.
This year Devon, Sadie, Macy, Ori and I have worked on a project around developing icons for our syndicate birds.
After looking at several graphic designers, we settled on Ellen Giggenbach who is a previous Muritai parent, and many years ago also developed our Muritai School logo.
Ellen has adapted some of her existing designs for our use, and we have these below for their first reveal - from left to right are our stunning new Kororā, Tūī, Kererū and Kāhu syndicate bird designs.
In Devon’s eloquent wording “the birds will spread their wings next year”, and he is quite right, the signmakers are currently producing these into large outdoor pieces that will be placed on the walls outside around the syndicate spaces in Term 1.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Bec Power, Principal
Board of Trustees December Update
Hello Muritai Families,
Merry Xmas to you all ! What a year it has been and no doubt you are looking forward to a well deserved break.
The Board would like to express our gratitude for your continued support of the school including our wonderful staff here at Muritai during what has been a difficult year for many with the unexpected turn of events with COVID. We think our wider school community is pretty amazing and together we have supported our learners very well.
Senior Leadership Team Review
The Board has just completed a Senior Leadership Team review and we are delighted to inform you that we have now appointed Maureen Buckley to the role of Deputy Principal. Maureen has been dedicated to our school for a significant period and she has a great deal of experience and expertise as an educator and leader. We are very excited about what Maureen can bring to the role and how she can support us with enacting our Strategic Plan. Along with her responsibilities as Deputy Principal Maureen will also continue to be our SENCO at Muritai.
We also wish to acknowledge our Associate Principals, Jon, Jamie and Deane, who are also part of the Senior Leadership Team at Muritai and the essential role they also play in ensuring our learners can be the best they can be. We are very fortunate at Muritai to have such a talented team of leaders, teachers and support staff and we are sure our school is well set up for the future.
Hall Update
We have some exciting news to share, after a long awaited approval process we have had confirmation from the Ministry of Education that we are able to begin a project on refurbishing our Muritai School hall! The funding will come directly from the Ministry’s School Investment Package (SIP) which is a pool of funding that is available to schools for building upgrades. Muritai has been successful in gaining $282,000 for this project. The refurbishment will upgrade our kitchen, bathrooms and wall linings in the hall as we modernise and improve this important space in our school. Bec and the Board will get this project underway immediately on our return to school in 2021.
Finally we wish you all a safe and happy festive season. To our school leavers this year we wish you all well for your future and thank you for being part of our Muritai community.
Warm wishes
Muritai School Board of Trustees
Andrew, Kaye, Bec, Jeremy, Kurt, Lisa and Felicity.
From the School
Future Ferns Netball
The Year 1/2 netball teams have enjoyed another fantastic season of superstar netball. The Muritai Swifts have been building on their skills learnt from last season and are looking forward to joining the winter competition next year when they move to Year 3. The Muritai Tactix are loving learning all about netball. This was the first season for the Year 0 and 1 players and they have progressed tremendously over a few short weeks. It has been an awesome effort from all the players, giving it their best and having fun each week. Many thanks to super coach Brooke Davis for running the fantastic program for the children.
Another great term of netball for Muritai. Lots of children from different sports trying some new skills in their off season playing alongside our regular netballers. Special mention to the year 4s who stepped up to play in the year 5 and 6 competition. Tino pai !
Head Lice
Head Lice is a common problem in schools and it is therefore important to check your child/ren’s hair on a regular basis. If you find a live insect you should treat them with special shampoo or lotion available from pharmacies or with conditioner and a special comb. There are notices in the school office if you would like to learn more or you can talk to the local pharmacist.
TERM DATES 2021
Our Term dates have been agreed for 2021 as follows:
Term 1 4 February to 16 April
Term 2 3 May to 9 July
Term 3 26 July to 1 October
Term 4 18 October to 16 December
Our 2021 Teacher Only Days are still to be set.
COMMUNITY NOTICES
SPEAK AGAIN 2021 ENROLMENTS.
Unleash your child's creativity and boost their confidence in 2021 through performance development with Speak Again. Sessions run at school during the day and are available to all Year 4 - 8 students. We have opened a limited number of enrolment spaces for next year's programme and so now is the time to book your child in. We're so excited to meet all the new students, to see them develop their innate talent and unique voices. Call Emily on 0211885106 or email: emily@speakagain.co.nz
St Alban’s Children’s Christmas Celebration for the Community
5pm Sunday 20 December at Wellesley College Hall
All ages welcome. Just turn up on the day!
Children and adults are welcome to come dressed as angels, shepherds, kings, or any other nativity character. We have some children’s costumes available – please come to Wellesley Hall at 4.40pm to be kitted out.
Further information:
St Albans Office – email: office@stalbanschurch.nz
Jen: 021 504 332 or Wendy: 027 562 8287
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