Pānui (News)

Ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou (Warmest of greetings to you all) It seems like all of a sudden nature has woken up and decided it’s Autumn! We’ve started getting those dark chilly mornings, and with Daylight Savings (who came up with that idea??) ending next Sunday we’ll start getting those dark chilly evenings too. But there’s no doom and gloom at Turitea School - we’ve had too much going on! Troy and Anneliese have flown the coop and spent the latter half of this week attending a conference in Te Tai Tokerau, Northland. We can’t wait to hear how...

Ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou (Warmest of greetings to you all) I’ve been really enjoying mucking in and working with our Year 6’s on our leadership projects in the micro forest every Friday. You can see the native trees again, which is just what we want! Today I had Ben, Blake, Leo B and Leo S support us down there and they did a fantastic job of leading our teina (juniors) from Mataī and Pōhutukawa. We are so lucky to have many tuakana (seniors) who are so supportive and willing to step up and lead. Ayla, Kyerin, Kazuri and...

He mihi tino nui ki a koutou, (Warmest greetings to you all) Our fabulous tuakana (seniors) stepped up again, showing leadership this morning. Chris, Jack, Toby, Topher, and Ihaia (pictured below) helped Meryl and me with weed control in our microforest. It has been a huge job, and what a great way of demonstrating our uara (value) of kaitiakitanga (looking after our environment). They also brought in our teina (juniors) from Mataī and Pōhutukawa and were exceptional leaders, explaining our task well and guiding them to help us. If you have anyone in your whānau who might like to help...

Tēnā koutou katoa, (Greetings to you all) I had another super proud tumuaki (principal) moment on Wednesday morning, when we had two very important people from Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga (The Ministry of Education) visit our school; Melanie Taite, our Kaiwhakahaere (Director of Education) and Regan Orr, our Kaitohutohu Matua (Leadership Advisor) graced us with their presence. Melanie is new to the role and has come up from Ōtautahi (Christchurch) so we were the first kura that she visited in the Manawatū. So we knew we had to turn it on for her and started the morning with the most amazing...

He mihi tino nui ki a koutou, (Warmest greetings to you all) My apologies for the disruptions at the end of the street due to the pipeworks being completed along Old West Road. Although this is entirely out of my control, I understand your frustrations at pick up and drop off at the lack of parking and the long wait times. Hopefully this is completed soon and we can get back to normal. On Monday, we had Beckett start his schooling journey with Anna in Rimu, taking them up to 10. There is nothing like walking into that space in...

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou, (Warm greetings to you all) A special ‘Selamat Datang, which means welcome in Malay’ to Daniel, who started with us in Rimu with Anna on Monday. We know you will love being part of the Turitea whānau and you have already settled into our kura so well already. Today is Hannah’s last day with us as she takes a much needed break before giving birth to her third child next month. We know we will see her again soon with her son Wyatt starting with us in July and hopefully she brings out her...

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou, (Warm greetings to you all) Hari rā whakanui aroha (Happy Valentine's Day). Hope your significant other has looked after you extra well today! As you can see above, yesterday we officially opened our Bike Track and what an amazing resource we now have at our kura. We had many happy riders and I think some kids would have done at least a hundred laps of it already! Huge thanks again goes to our PTA for making this happen, all of you for contributing to this through their fundraisers, Tyler (Mila’s Dad) for volunteering his ‘digging’ time/resources...

Tēnā koutou katoa, Getting in to you all a whole lot earlier than I would normally with Waitangi Day āpōpō (tomorrow) and our Staff Only Day on Friday. I don’t think I’ve ever written a pānui during term time on a Wednesday before! Well the team from C&H Concreting certainly don’t muck around as you can see above considerable progress on our Bike Track since last week when they started. Heath and his team have put in the mahi (work) to get this ready for our kids despite the extra hot days we’ve had this week. Huge thanks to them, as well as Tony from...

Kia ora e te whānau, Nau mai hoki mai ki a koutou (Welcome back everyone) We had our usual mihi whakatau to embrace our new whānau yesterday. As always, it was nice to set the tone for the year with this and ‘live and breathe’ our uara (values) of whanaungatanga (relationships) and manaakitanga (kindness) in doing this important ceremony in Te Ao Māori (The Māori World). As I mentioned last week, our teachers engaged in some professional learning at the start of the week around Te Tiriti o Waitangi and a goal we came away with was to continue to ‘level up’...

Ka nui te mihi mahana kia koutou, (Very warm greetings to you all) This will be my final pānui for the year as I’m getting in a day early ahead of our last day tomorrow as it will be ‘all go!’ Tomorrow marks the end of my third year being your tumuaki (principal) here at Turitea and everyday I still wake up excited to come to work. They say “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life” and that is the feeling currently. Our kura has a beautiful vibe with so many wonderful children...