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 auditions for the lead roles in our production which is on Friday 12th September at the Speirs Centre at Palmerston North Boys High School. On Wednesday, we announced all the roles, which you can see listed below. Ka rawe koutou (Well done everyone) who tried out and we look forward to seeing this come together over the coming weeks. More information about this will come out via Hero soon.
On Monday, we said ‘Nau mai, hoki mai’ (Welcome back) to Lachie and Eli who have been on a two year sabbatical with their whānau to the UK. They have slotted seamlessly back into life at Turitea in Mataī and Kauri, reconnecting with all their old buddies. Unfortunately today though, we bid farewell to Pippa from Tōtara, as her whānau have moved into town, so our loss will be Winchester School’s gain as she starts her new journey there next week. We also welcomed back Cole and Logan from Manawatū Cricket, who took taster sessions with every class on Monday (as seen below) and we had our usual Hockey sessions with Michaela on Tuesday.
If you have been at school this week you might have heard music playing, that is because our speaker system is now fully installed throughout the school. This lets us instantly get messages to individual classrooms or the whole school, which will serve us well in an emergency. We have set it up to also play songs at certain times throughout the day to prompt our tamariki of a transition. At the moment these are at 8.30am, when they can leave the quad area before school, at 11.20am and 1.20pm to prompt eating times, at 8.55am, 11.30am and 1.35pm to signal a return to class and at 3.15pm or 3.30pm to remind them to come to the office porch if they haven’t been picked up after school yet. All of the songs played are popular Te Reo Māori waiata (songs), embracing our path to normalising the usage of this in and around our kura.
In the last pānui (newsletter), I shared a brief snapshot of the responses from our Whānau Showcase evening, where we asked you: “What qualities, dispositions, skills, and knowledge do you think our tamariki need to thrive?” I compiled a more detailed overview of ideas collected for your perusal. We are constantly striving to make our kura the best place it can be for our tamariki, so please email me or come chat if you have any further thoughts.
Board of Trustees (BoT) Elections:
Each pānui, I have been keeping you all updated on our upcoming BoT elections. This timeline shows when everything is happening, so you can see that nominations close at noon next Wednesday 6th August. We have nomination forms in the office, if you missed the email. Please come and chat with myself or Joeli, Peter, Fraser or Sarah if you are interested in knowing more about what the role entails. The NZSBA website has a lot of great reading material and they put out a promotional video here to build interest in our communities. They also hosted an informative webinar a week ago, it was recorded here if you were unable to attend.
External Gates:
As you all know, we are a fully fenced school to keep our tamariki safe, meaning that none of our gates can be held or left open. The main entry and exit point to our school is either the vehicle or pedestrian gate next to the playground. By only using this gate, helps us maintain a secure environment by monitoring who is coming and going, as well as giving us a visual of the gate. Our turf does have an external gate which needs to remain closed and kept secure, as it isn’t visible to us in the admin area if it should be accidentally left open. We have noticed people have started using this, we’d appreciate your cooperation in entering and exiting our school at the main point only.
From the PTA:
Thanks to those who came to our recent PTA meeting on Wednesday evening. As you can imagine they are in the thick of organising our upcoming Wild West Quiz Night next Saturday 9th August here at school. Team captains should have received an email from pta@turitea.school.nz reminding them to pay for the table and giving their team name to our organising committee.
Intermediate Transition:
I know this is only relevant for our current Year 6 whānau members, but the Intermediate schools are hosting their open days or evenings for you to consider where your child might attend school in 2026. If a particular school isn’t on the list, chances are they have already had their open evening.
– Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School (PNINS) – See their plan here
– Linton Camp School Open Day – Next Thursday 7 August from 11:30am-1pm. Brochure here.
– Ross Intermediate Opening Night – Wednesday 13th August. 5pm – 6:30pm and 7pm – 8:30pm sessions.
Next week, Mataī and Pōhutukawa have the Kind Hearts conference on Wednesday. A few of our tuakana (seniors) are also attending this, but on Thursday instead. On Friday, we have Year 5/6 Mathex and Orienteering events, and Hui Ā Kura (Assembly) at 2.15pm.
Kia pai tō rā whakatā (Have a great weekend)
Troy
principal@turitea.school.nz