Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou (Warmest greetings to you all)
The ‘talk of the town’ today has been the events in the early hours this morning where we were left with a severely damaged school sign and front fence as pictured above. Unfortunately, a car wasn’t driving to the conditions and ploughed right through it. Luckily no one was harmed and our fence and sign will be able to be fixed, but hopefully it sends another message to Waka Kotahi (NZ Transport Agency) that the speed limit through this area drastically needs to be reduced. You might recall last year, I presented our case supporting this at a council meeting in August last year. Here’s hoping it might fast track things (no pun intended) in this space.
On Monday, Anita from Te Puna Reo came to visit us from Tāmakai Makaurau (Auckland) to see how we are getting on with our Te Reo journey. She is very familiar to our tamariki as she is the one who creates all the video content and lessons that we use and was treated like a bit of a celebrity, as she was instantly recognised. She shared beautiful feedback about how impressed she was with how much Te Reo was being spoken confidently across our kura. She said we are ready to enable whānau access to the content too. If you are interested in accessing any of this at home, please respond to the short survey and I will add your email address to the system, giving you access to the content at home to increase your own understanding of the language.
On Tuesday, we hosted my fellow tumuaki (principals) from my PLG (Professional Learning Group) Jared from Riverdale, Erin from Hiwinui, Tui from Awapuni, Grayson from Sanson and I even had the principal that employed me at Russell Street back in 2008, David come too. As always the feedback from these people was amazing about our little kura, making me really proud to lead this school.
On Monday and Tuesday next week, Trish, Karen and myself are heading down to Ōtautahi (Christchurch) to visit some schools down there who have a reputation for being cutting edge and innovators in education. On Monday we are going to Te Rōhutu Whio and Te Pā o Te Rākaihautū and then on Tuesday we are visiting Swannanoa and Paparoa Street School. I look forward to sharing back with everyone the cool things we saw. Meagan will be standing in as Acting Principal for these two days.
Also next week on Monday, we are hosting a teacher workshop for ALiM (Accelerating Learning in Mathematics) where 30 kaiako/tumuaki from across our rohe (region) are spending the day learning with Julia from Cognition Education. A great opportunity for us to show off our school (hopefully they won’t judge a book by its cover with regards to the sign!) Hannah is the teacher that will be taking that role in our school and will attend the day also. But wait, there’s more learning as Cameron and Anneliese are out the same day engaging in a workshop around Te Tiriti o Waitangi with 20 other kaiako at Te Kura o Wairau. Great that our teachers are learners too!
Hui ā Kura (Assembly):
This afternoon we had our first Hui ā Kura (assembly) of Term 2 and Asher and Elias were our Year 6 hosts and they worked together really well to plan a dynamic and engaging afternoon. As always, we recognised those who demonstrate our uara consistently and getting their tiwhikete (certificate) are:
Rimu: Hazel – Whanaungatanga and Ben – Mātauranga
Rātā: Ethan – Mātauranga
Pōhutukawa: Meren – Manaakitanga
Mataī: Jacob – Mātauranga+
Tōtara: Xavier – Mātauranga
Kahikatea: Mikhail – Whanaungatanga
Tumuaki: Blake – Manaakitanga
Pae Tamariki/Matariki Celebrations:
In Week 8, we have two celebrations, with our tamariki performing at Pae Tamariki at the Regent on Tuesday 18th June. Once we know the exact time, we will let you all know. Then on Thursday 20th June from 9.30 – 1.30pm we are invited to the Matariki celebration at the Cultural Centre inside the Army Camp. We would love for you to be involved in this, as this will take the place of our school event that we would normally run here. This gives our kids two opportunities to perform their Kapa Haka bracket too – Ka rawe! (Awesome)
From the Board of Trustees:
On Wednesday, we had our first Board of Trustees meeting of the new term. It was really nice to have John and Fraser join us to see what being on the BoT is like. If you are interested in knowing more about this role, please reach out to me. As I’ve mentioned before, one of their highlights is reading the Class Reports that Anneliese (Our Staff Representative on the BoT) gets our kaiako (teachers) to prepare giving them insight into what goes on in all the different akomanga (classrooms) around our kura. Check it out here.
From the PTA:
On Wednesday 22nd May the PTA are holding their AGM from 7pm. Would love to get as many people there as possible. We are wanting to get a few more Spring Fling stall entries, so contact Jo or Sarah on pta@turitea.school.nz if you have any connections. The ETA on Hoodies is at the start of June.
Staff Only Day:
Please add Tuesday 4th June (the day after King’s Birthday) to your calendar if you haven’t already, as we are having a Staff Only Day (along with the other 20 primary schools in our Kāhui Ako) at PNINS. We are all joining together to connect with Rangitanē, our mana whenua for a collective symposium. This is an amazing opportunity for us to develop our knowledge of localised curriculum, histories and Mātauranga Māori, (Māori Knowledge) while fostering collaboration across the many kura involved.
Orienteering:
This morning Natalie, Kerian, Antonio, Olivia and Sophia competed in the Manawatū Schools Orienteering Champs and all did a stellar job! We are awaiting the official results, which we will share with you all soon.
Mobility Parking:
I understand that our mobility park is in a prime spot that does sit empty for a lot of the time at pickup/drop off. But we have a few parents in our community who have a mobility permit and this park is to be reserved for them to use when they need it. If you could please observe this rule and avoid parking in this space, we would really appreciate it.
Pātaka Kai:
Thanks to those who have been adding to our shared pantry out the front of our kura. I know kids after school have loved having some of the feijoa that were shared. The kaupapa (idea) here is that if it doesn’t have a price on it, it’s free to a good home.
Firewood:
Thanks to those of you who gave us feedback on the Firewood. If you would still like to order, you can fill out the form.
Triple P Positive Parenting:
The Triple P staff at ACROSS Te Kotahitanga O Te Wairua are excited to be able to offer parents free 2-hour ‘Positive Parenting’ courses again this term. Read their letter they sent us here for great courses on offer.
Kia pai tō rā māmā (Happy Mothers Day) to all our wonderful Mum’s out there. We hope your tamariki look after you on Rātapu (Sunday)
Hei te Rāapa (See you Wednesday)