Kia ora e te whānau,
This week I have had the huge, but enjoyable job of reading every child in the school’s End of Year reports. I love the insight into what they have been working on in class and how they are tracking towards achieving their academic goals. Plus reading their student voice made me LOL a few times – certainly one of my favourite parts! I’m real proud of our amazing teaching team, with the time and effort they put into writing these and it also shows me how well they know your tamariki. We aim to have these live to you next Wednesday 11th December on Hero. You will get sent a notification when they are published and can also view your child’s class for 2025, as well as who their teacher is. They will all meet together after morning tea next Thursday in their new classroom to start building that whanaungatanga. It will be really nice to have Carly joining us for this session too, meeting her new learners in Rātā.
This has been the week of excursions for our tamariki with Trish and Anneliese taking their classes to the Wildbase Discovery Centre and the Esplanade on Monday. Powerco is a sponsor of Wildbase and have also partnered with us, as they donated the tunnel house, gardening tools and lots of native seeds. They heard we were coming so sent their crew to make a promo video featuring our beautiful tamariki. I will share this with you all once the final cut is made. Cameron and Karen took our tuakana (seniors) for their Manawatū awa (river) bike trail on Tuesday, learning about significant sites to the Rangitāne Iwi from our knowledgeable parent Jon Procter. Meagan, Hannah, Anna and our teina (juniors) braved the wild weather yesterday and went to Memorial Park to enjoy the playground, skating rink, pool and splashpad. Meryl also compiled a short reel of the Wildbase and Awa Bike Trail trip as she went with her parent hat on. Massive thanks to all our wonderful parents who assisted on either of these trips, we can’t do these without your support and these are the things that our kids love and remember!
On Tuesday morning, it was really special to share our space with Paula, Sio, Sophie, Aliza and Marie, who are kaiako at Winchester School – Te Kura O Te Haonui. They heard about how we start our morning with Pae Kōrero and use Te Puna Reo as our way of embedding Te Reo Māori in our kura and wanted to check it out. As you can expect, they all left blown away by our ākonga (students) and their commitment, confidence and passion to Te Ao Māori (The Māori World). I want to also give a shout out to Trish and her learners in Mataī as their post from Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori was featured on their Facebook page last week. How cool that they put our little kura on the map to their 100K+ followers…Me he tē! (Like a boss!)
We also had the team from Property Brokers and Media Works let us help them ‘Pack the Bus’ yesterday afternoon, when they came to collect the amazing donations you have given us over the past few weeks. Afterwards we spoke of the links that doing this had on many of our school uara (values). Ngā mihi koutou (Thank you everyone) for all your contributions. We know it will make a difference to those who need it.
Hui ā Kura:
This afternoon, we had our final Hui ā Kura (Assembly) of the year and Antonio, Henry, Cooper, Sophia and Asher were our Year 6 hosts. It’s not an easy job getting up in front of nearly 200 people, but each time our Year 6 students do such an amazing job by taking on this leadership role and being so comfortable in doing so. We know they will go off to intermediate school next year ready to step up to their new challenges awaiting them. Receiving their tiwhikete (certificate) this week were:
Rimu: Niko – Mātauranga and Quinn – Mātauranga
Rātā: Owen – Mātauranga
Pōhutukawa: James – Whanaungatanga
Mataī: Olly – Mātauranga
Tōtara: Maya – Manaakitanga
Kahikatea: Elisa – Mātauranga
Tumuaki: Jack P – Whanaungatanga
Wildbase Fundraiser:
Next Monday 9th December at 11am we are having our Wildbase Fundraiser. Our tuakana (seniors) always put on a great market day for this, with lots of cool activities to do and things to buy. If you want to send your child next week with a few coins so they can take part in this event, that would be appreciated. Travis wants to let you all know about his drawing competition, because it requires some pre-planning, where you have to draw something ‘out of this world’ like an alien or animal from another planet. You enter your drawing on the day and it is 50c per entry. There are two grades for Junior/Seniors. Meet him on the court to be judged.
Board of Trustees Hui:
We had our final hui of the year on Wednesday evening and as usual, our staff representative Whaea Anneliese gets all the teachers to share a slide of what they have been up to this term. This is to give the Board insight into what goes on in all the classrooms. As usual, I think it is great to share this with all of you, rather than just our board members, so have a look at the slides here.
Turitea Sports Uniforms:
If you are the parent/caregiver of a Year 6 student or know that you are leaving Turitea School at the end of the year, can you please return your child’s sports uniform to the office as soon as they are finished with their final sports game next week. If you are staying here, there is no need to return anything, unless your child has gone through a growth spurt and needs a bigger size.
Weetbix Tryathlon/I Tri’d The Tri:
Last week the Weetbix Team came to build hype for next year’s Weetbix Tryathlon which is Tuesday 18th March 2025 and you can register your child here if they are 6 or above by then. Don’t forget to join the Turitea School group when you register. The ‘I Tri’d the Tri’ series are back in build up to this too, for five consecutive Monday’s starting 3rd February and ending 3rd March 2025.
From the PTA:
We’ve heard that the goodies you all ordered from our Art Fundraiser are in transit to us so we should have them early next week. We made the decision to cancel the PTA hui next week as everyone is a bit busy at the moment. Hope to see you at the Christmas Pool Party next Thursday afternoon. All parents and younger siblings are welcome to come along and enjoy.
Item Requests:
As mentioned last week, we have projects pending in 2025 and we need some of the following items please: suitcases, pipes, tubes, guttering, broom handles, big plant pots, wooden planks or fence pails. Thanks to those who have already sent these in. Get in touch with Trish or Karen for more clarity on these items.
School Pool:
It is a great feeling when the pool is open, as we know summer is here. If you’d like a pool key to use over the break, get in before next Friday (last day of the year). We’d prefer you pay $50 online and send Julie a screenshot of this, as opposed to bringing in cash. Thanks to the Pool Parents for getting this ready for us.
Little Library:
If you were a pool attendee last summer, you might remember the storage tub library in there. This season, it will be homed on the bottom shelf of the Pātaka Kai (Shared Pantry). If you want to borrow and swap your books over the summer, get involved. Thanks Karen (Sarah and James’ Mum) for bringing this back again.
Important Event Dates:
Here are all the dates for the final week of the year:
-Wildbase Fundraiser: Monday 9th December @ 11am
-Year 6 End Of Year Excursion to the Lido: Tuesday 10th December
-School Reports/2025 Class Placement Live on Hero: Wednesday 11th December
-Year 6 Graduation: Wednesday 11th December @ 5.30pm
-End of Year PTA Whole School Pool Party: Thursday 12th December @ 12.30pm
-End of Year Prizegiving/Final Assembly: Friday 13th December @ 12pm
-School finishes for 2024: Friday 13th December @ 1pm.
Holiday Programmes:
If you need a list of holiday programmes for your tamariki over the holidays, look no further…
Kia pai tō rā whakatā (Have a great weekend)
Troy
principal@turitea.school.nz