Category: News

Kia ora e te whānau, Welcome back to 2023! It was so nice to connect with some of you today or over the past week in and around the place. The teachers have been working super hard to get their classroom environments looking amazing, so that your kids come tomorrow and will be stoked with their new space. Meryl, our fantastic caretaker has been doing the same thing externally ensuring that our school grounds are looking ātaahua (beautiful) as well!

Kia ora e te whānau, This will be the last pānui I write to you for 2022… We made it! What an amazing year we have had with so much to celebrate. Thank you all for your positivity and support as I made it through my first year at Turitea and first being a principal too. A great way to finish too as this afternoon we had our Xmas Pool Party and what a fun way to end the year! Huge thanks to the amazing PTA who put it all on, our kids got blasted by Santa on a Firetruck...

Kia ora e te whānau, How is it that I am writing this pānui with only three and a half days of school remaining? It feels like just the other day I was writing my very first pānui to you all way back in January. Is it a sign of getting old when the years fly by like this? I had a really proud moment on Monday morning when I had a special visitor, my Dad Barrie. He was also a proud principal for over 20 years at Bombay School in Auckland. It was nice to finally show him around...

Kia ora e te whānau, Last chance to if you would like to provide your thoughts on placement for 2023, please fill out this form.  Year 6 Graduation: Monday 12th December at 5.30pmThis event will be held in Tane Mahuta and will be just for our Year 6 leavers and their whānau. We will have the graduation ceremony, a few speeches and trophies and then share some kai together before leaving at approx 7.30pm. End of Year Prizegiving: Tuesday 13th December at 2pmThis will be a formal event for our whole school to give out End of Year certificates from...

Kia ora e te whānau, Today marks 14 days of school remaining in the year, how about that? Thank you to those of you who have taken the opportunity to provide your feedback around our class placement for 2023. I welcome you to have your say and fill out this form if you haven’t done so already. I want to acknowledge that our idea of running two Year 4-6 classrooms is a change to what has previously been done out here. Now I could bombard you with a bunch of research that supports this methodology, however this has been common...

Kia ora e te whānau, Hoping this finds you all doing well as we head past the halfway point of the term.  Staffing for 2023: Next year, Karen Walker is rejoining the team after taking leave this year. We look forward to her being back, in fact she is in for Trish this morning, so everyone will enjoy that. Bridgit James is taking refreshment leave for 2023 and she will be sorely missed, but she has assured us that it is just leave! We will finalise her replacement for next year in the coming weeks and let you know the outcome. Changes for 2023:...

Kia ora e te whānau, It’s been a funny old week with all our big kids away on their camp in Makahika this week. They came home yesterday with some amazing stories of having the best time and that’s what camp is all about. Lots of challenges faced and overcome, I am so proud of all of them! I was gutted to not make it down there as we have had a lot of teachers down to accommodate here. I’ll just have to listen to Cameron’s yarns about it all. LOL! Thanks again to our amazing parent helpers; Rusty, Rob,...

What a magic day we had on Saturday for our annual Lamb, Calf and Pet Day! A massive thanks to the PTA and all those who stepped in and helped make the day come together. Whether you set up equipment for us, turned a snag on the barbie, baked and decorated a cake, sold raffle tickets or painted faces, it all contributed to a great day showcasing our school value of whanaungatanga (positive relationships).

Kia ora e te whānau, Wow, the buzz is here today at kura today, I can tell you! There really is a great ora/vibe around the school as the tamariki are completing their creations or decorating their gingerbread men. I was showing a new family around this morning right in the thick of everyone doing this. I had to explain to them that everyday didn’t look like this, however they were really impressed to see and hear that this goes on in our school. It certainly is the ‘bread and butter’ of rural schools around the country. It is with...

Kia ora e te whānau, Lovely to be back on deck for our final term of the year. Sadly, our Friday Pānui has lost a reader. My beautiful mum Barb was an avid reader of this pānui, passed away over the holidays. I appreciated those of you this week who checked in and asked of her, it meant a lot. Some of you may not know, but I attended a rural primary school that Mum was a teacher at called Harrisville in South Auckland. Just recently she reminded me of an embarrassing story, that I had tried to erase from...