Category: News

Getting this out to you all a day earlier than usual. Mānawatia a Matariki ki āpōpō (Happy Matariki for tomorrow) Our tamariki are working hard to complete their Matariki themed artwork in class at the moment. Our goal is to decorate Tāne Mahuta (the Hall) with all of this beautiful mahi toi (art) in the hope that your child brings you through this space to show off their creation next week during our Kōrero Mai (Learner Conferences) which are on Wednesday 3rd July/Thursday 4th July. This also happens to be the last week of term if you weren’t aware. You...

WHAT A WEEK! A super proud tumuaki right now. Your tamariki have really stepped up this week and showcased their talent, passion and confidence in Kapa Haka. From smashing it on the stage at the Regent for Pae Tamariki on Tuesday, to then blowing the roof off the Linton Army Camp Gymnasium yesterday. It is something I definitely couldn’t have done at my primary school growing up, nor really had the opportunity to, so it fills me with pride that our tamariki have this. Mihi atu (thanks) to Whaea Tūrehu for getting them performance ready and to all our whānau...

Another busy week here with lots of things happening in and around the place. On Monday, we welcomed Caelum, who has joined us in Rimu with Meagan and Hannah. He and his whānau live in the area, but have just returned from a long trip to China. Nau mai haere mai ki te kura o Turitea (Welcome to Turitea School).  I was invited to Mataī class on Wednesday to see the finished product of their mahi toi (art), where they have represented their whānau members with the popular koru which symbolises life in Te Ao Māori (The Māori World) Don’t...

Thank you for your support with letting us have our Teacher Only Day on Tuesday. Not only was it a great day of mātauranga (learning) about local history in our rohe (region) but it was also great to come together as a collective group of primary schools. In Te Ao Māori,(The Māori World), knowledge is seen as a taonga (treasure), so we were extremely grateful with all that was shared with us from the Tai Huki team.  

There aren’t many more memorable days than a Cross-Country day in a rural school setting I reckon. I myself attended a small rural school called Harrisville, south of Auckland, which was very similar to Turitea in a lot of ways and we had to run through cow paddocks filled with mud and cow pats for our event too. I remember my teacher, Mr. Short, told us that this was ‘great character building’ so it would make him very happy that roughly 30 years later, we are still giving our tamariki the same experience. I understand that running isn’t everyone’s jam,...

I have to start the pānui with sending a huge mihi (thanks) to James (Dad to Joseph in Mataī) from Dwyer Tech for helping us fix our front fence. Our insurance claim only just got accepted yesterday and they have managed to fit us in right away - Ka Rawe! (Awesome!) I personally can’t wait to have this fixed, as I don’t like our front entrance looking like it is. If there is a ‘silver lining’ to this incident though, it has given us some leverage to potentially fast track the Interim Speed Management Plan around schools, in which we...

Yesterday across the motu (country) we celebrated Kaiāwhina Tautoko (Support Staff Day) where we recognised the amazing mahi (job) that our team do here to awhi (care for) our tamariki. NZEI (Teachers Union) even put together a Spotify playlist with inspirational songs to acknowledge their mahi.

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...

Nau mai hoki mai ki te kaupeka tuarua! (Welcome back to Term 2!) As always, we start each term with a mihi whakatau to embrace any new whānau to our kura. I was really proud of our tamariki for just stepping straight into that mode as they set up our paepae (seats) and got into their positions ready to roll. We hope those involved were able to see that we ‘live and breathe’ our uara (values) of Whanaungatanga (Community) and Manaakitanga (Kindness and Hospitality) in doing this important ceremony in Te Ao Māori.

Yesterday, with support from our military parents, we were able to provide our students with a mini Anzac Service. We are extremely grateful to Hunter (Topher and Ben’s Dad) who organised this special experience to educate our tamariki about the significance of April 25th in Aotearoa New Zealand history. As you can see above, Kahikatea did some real life maths learning about how to lay the crosses at the top of our field in the correct format. We appreciate them doing this for our ākonga (students) to learn and pay our respects to remember those we lost.