Tēnā koutou katoa, (Hello everyone)
Thanks for your support in giving us Monday for our day of learning, as we did a ‘deep dive’ into the changes to our Maths curriculum and how we implement these, as seen below. We know that it might have been an inconvenience for some of you to arrange care for your tamariki. Please know it was appreciated to give us that time to learn from Dr Jo Knox, alongside our colleagues from Tokomaru and Newbury schools.
Next Wednesday evening from 5.30pm, we would love to see you as we will be hosting an information evening to keep you ‘in the loop’ with the changes to our New Zealand Curriculum. This aims to clarify these changes for you and what they mean for your children. We will begin in Tāne Mahuta where I will share an overview of the expectation shift. We will then run two breakout sessions in the senior and junior classrooms, providing insight into each learning level, so if you have multiple students at school, you can attend both.
As mentioned previously, we will be launching our ‘Have Your Say’ survey on this evening also. This is a chance for you to share your insights as we develop our strategic direction for 2026-2029. It’s an exciting process, and we as a Board of Trustees are very keen to hear your thoughts, to help shape what we hold on to and where we head to next. This can be done by paper, online or you can meet with Sarah or Joeli.
On Monday, Carolyn started working with our Year 6 students on the 2026 Mural project. They had an art intensive day learning about tonal painting (seen below), before she had the difficult task of choosing the lead artists. Whakamihi ki a koutou (Congratulations to) Ihaia, Kyerin, Harriet, Munroe, Lily, Maya and Mackenzie who will each design one of the seven boards that will be installed along the wooden fenceline facing the field telling a story. All the Year 6 students will play a part in helping bring this collaboration to life to leave their legacy on our kura. We can’t wait to reveal their masterpieces in the coming weeks.
Hoan-gêng kong-lîm (Welcome in Taiwanese) to Jimmy in Tōtara and Jeremy in Pōhutukawa who joined our school on Monday. Although the brothers are only here for two weeks, we love how they have fit in and been part of the team here at Turitea. Safe travels back to Taiwan to you and your whānau.
As you can see above, Sarah from Clicks Photography has made us a photobook from 2025 that was just delivered. Next time you’re in the office, come check it out, there are some beautiful moments captured.
Seesaw out, Hero in:
Recently, we have been looking to streamline our communications to you all. For more than five years, we have used the Seesaw app to provide you with a ‘window into school’ giving you insight into your child’s learning. As you know, we also use Hero as our administrative communication tool for you, and their platform has evolved over time and now provides the same thing. So we have decided to make the shift to include learning posts on Hero, and will phase out our use of Seesaw. In Hero, if you click on the three lines up in the top left hand corner, then click down on your child, you will see a new section called My Learning that has been added. Kaiako (teachers) will start to add posts here and you will receive a notification when new learning is ready to view. We hope you appreciate having just one app for everything from now on.
From the PTA:
All systems are go for the Turitea School Fest on Saturday 7th March. A separate post will come out next week with more details about this. A Turitea tradition that we would love your help with is to send in a Can, a Bottle and a Packet for our grocery raffle. We are still light on people to support us on this day, so if you can spare an hour to help, please reach out to any PTA member or email them. Their first hui of the year is next Wednesday 18th February at 7pm (after the Curriculum Clarity Evening) in the staffroom if you want to stick around and see what the PTA is all about. They are also welcoming donations of preloved books for the book sale, so if your home libraries are needing a cull, feel free to drop them into the office next week.
Pool Users:
If you are a pool key holder and are using our pool after school or on the weekends, please can you remind users to demonstrate our uara (value) of kaitiakitanga and put the pool equipment away once they are finished with it. Often Tōtara (who are the first class to swim each day) will have to tidy this up every morning. We would hate to have to lock it away at night if people can’t do this.
EPIC Music:
Matt started back with us yesterday as our tutor for 2026. He still has spaces available in his classes if your child would like to learn an instrument. Information can be found here. Matt let us know that his band, The Rising Tide, are touring to play in Australia at the end of the term, how cool for them and how awesome that our tutor is a bit of a rock star!
Juicies:
What a great week to be selling these, we have had record sales thanks to the weather! Thank you to those who continue to support this camp fundraiser. They will be running this all next week, so send your child with a two dollar coin if they would like one.
From the Community:
- The Gorge Quarter Store is at the foot of Manawatū Gorge, run by an extended whānau of our school. They are having An Ode to Summer next Saturday 21st February. Enjoy a lazy afternoon under the trees, with Food, Bar, Artisan Stalls and Live music from 11am-6pm.
- Manawatu Water Polo Club is a local club offering opportunities for students of all ages and abilities to participate in the sport in a fun and supportive environment. Info here.
- Term One Smash Cricket is just around the corner and they want you on the team! Info here for Year 1-4 students and info here for Year 3-6 students.
Backpack Buddies:
Lucain and Jeannah have designed and 3D printed the Backpack Buddy that clips onto your child’s bag and is equipped with an NFC tag, pre-programmed with your phone number. If your child ever needs help, someone can tap their phone on it to call you. They come in two colours for $15 or you can choose custom colours and add a name for $20. Perfect for school bags. We have samples to view and test at the office.
Term 1 Important Dates:
More dates have been added to this as they become available to us, so check out what’s happening:
- Week 4 (Next Week)
- Camp Parent Helpers Hui at 5pm on Tuesday 17th February
- Curriculum Clarity Evening at 5.30pm on Wednesday 18th February
- PTA Hui at 7pm on Wednesday 18th February
- Week 5
- Year 5/6 Camp at Highland Home from Wednesday 25th – Friday 27th February
- Year 4 from Kauri Camp Visit at Highland Home on Thursday 26th February
- Week 6
- I Tri’d the Tri Finale on Monday 2nd March
- Year 5/6 Interschool Triathlon at Skoglund Park on Wednesday 4th March
- Library Bus Visit on Friday 6th March
- Turitea School Fest on Saturday 7th March
- Week 7
- First Hui Ā Kura (Assembly) of the year at 2.20pm on Friday 13th March
- Week 8
- Weetbix Tryathlon at Ongley Park on Tuesday 17th March
- Year 6 Cluster Careers Day at Tokomaru Hall on Thursday 19th March
- Week 9
- Year 5/6 Bike Safety Week from Monday 23rd March
- Kōrero Mai (Whānau/Teacher Interviews) from 1-8pm on Wednesday 25th March
- Junior Cluster Athletics at Tokomaru School on Friday 27th March
- Library Bus Visit on Friday 27th March
- Hui Ā Kura at 2.20pm on Friday 27th March
- Week 10
- Last Day of Term is Thursday 2nd April
Kia pai tō rā whakatā (Have a great weekend)
Troy
principal@turitea.school.nz
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