Category: News

Nau mai hoki mai ki te wāhanga tuawha (Welcome back to Term 4) I don’t want to jinx it whānau, but how much better has the pick up/drop off been with no road works on Old West Road? Somehow we are into our final term of the year and if the previous three terms were anything to go by, this one will also fly by too and I’ll be writing you all my final pānui in no time! As usual, we began the term with a mihi whakatau (informal welcome) for the new whānau members who have joined our kura...

Ngā mihi o te ahiahi ki a koutou, (Good afternoon everyone) We are still buzzing from last Friday's production of Turitea Tiki Tour. A huge mihi (thank you) to everyone who came along, as it was great to see the theatre packed with happy, proud whānau. As mentioned on the night, huge thanks to Dani, who wrote and directed the show, our amazing kaimahi (staff) who helped lead this immense process and to our fantastic tamariki for their efforts and dedication. I now know if I am away in future, I have a perfectly good replacement in Theo from Rimu,...

Tēnā koutou katoa (Hello everyone) This past week, our hāpori (community) has shown incredible heart and compassion with the passing of one of our whānau members, Stephanie Greer. The aroha (love) and support that has poured in for her children Andre, Ava and their whānau has been a powerful reminder of our school uara (values) of whanaungatanga and manaakitanga in action. As you can see above, there was a beautiful send off for her on Tuesday. For those who have asked about making a koha (contribution) to help out with things, Stephanie's brother, Jason Taiaroa has set up an account for them here: 03-0426-0004121-04....

Tēnā koutou katoa (Hello everyone) It's great to be back at kura after attending my conference in Brisbane last week. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to develop my leadership skills and contribute to positive change at our kura. Whaea Anneliese did an excellent job writing the pānui in my absence, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did. It must have been a pleasant change to hear from a different voice on a Friday! As she mentioned, it is one of my favourite things to do as I feel communication is a vital part of a...

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa (Warm greetings to you all),Writing the pānui is one of Troy’s favourite jobs and something he holds pretty close, so I’m honoured to be passed the baton in his absence. Wasn’t the sunshine earlier this week an absolute treat? We were spoilt with beautiful days of warmth and sun, which would have been the perfect way to farewell the last week of hōtoke (winter) and look forward to koanga (spring). Perhaps Troy sent us some of that sunshine our way from Brisbane, where he has been attending the APPA Conference. However, in true Palmy...

Tēnā koutou katoa, (Hello Everyone) This morning we were delighted to host four kaiako (teachers) from Russell St School for a visit. Some of you might remember that is the school that I used to work at prior to joining the team here at Turitea, so it was nice for some of my old colleagues to make the trip to see all the amazing things we have going on up here. Garden to Table continued this morning with Mataī and Pōhutukawa filling Tāne Mahuta (The Hall) with great smells. I was invited along to enjoy the vegetable fritters on offer....

Tēnā koutou katoa, (Hello Everyone) This week we embraced Te Wiki o te Pangarau (Maths Week) as you can see above. Each day different teachers read a maths-based story or taught a maths game with every class after lunch. We also had daily estimation challenges across the kura. Estimation might just seem like ‘making a guess’ but teaching our tamariki to make educated guesses promotes their number sense, problem-solving skills, ability to reason and justify their thinking.  Monday was How many paper clips in the container? Tuesday was How many steps will it take Troy to walk from the front...

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou, (Warmest of greetings to you all) Production ticket orders went live today (see the previous Hero post or click here to order) and we can’t wait for this one to take shape. The theme this year is a good old-fashioned ‘Tiki-Tour’ around our country, learning a bit about each place we travel to, with each class having a different town/city to tell the story of Ayla and Mackenzie have submitted their entry for the Design The Programme Cover competition, which you can see below. It is on Friday 12th September at the Speirs Centre...

Kia ora e te whānau, (Hello everyone) Today, Tāne Mahuta played host to the Cluster Speech Competition, hearing well-crafted speeches from Year 5-8 ākonga (students) from Aokautere, Linton Camp, Ōpiki and Tokomaru schools. The quality of the speakers was very high and we were incredibly proud of Kyerin and Elisa who represented our kura with the delivery and execution of their speech. Whakamihi nui ki a koutou (Congratulations) to Ryzel from Ōpiki who won the Year 5/6, James from Aokautere who came second and Elisa who came third. Harriet from Ōpiki won the Year 7/8 competition with Kiara from Linton Camp coming second and Rhylee from Ōpiki in third place. Last week, Dani held...

Ngā mihi mahana e te whānau, (Warm greetings) I want to start this pānui by extending a massive whakamihi (congratulations) to Whaea Anneliese who has just been appointed to be an Across School Lead Teacher in our local Kāhui Ako (Collaborative Group of Schools) Don’t worry, she’s not leaving us! It just means she will be out of her classroom a little bit more than usual, doing mahi (work) that will benefit us, along with the other 24 kura in our Kāhui Ako. Meagan will be teaching in Tōtara every Thursday and Lynne (who is well-known to a lot of our kids) will be in every Wednesday. She...