Pānui (News)

It was great to see a huge showing at our annual PTA run Overnight Camp last Friday night. What an amazing night and so cool to keep this Turitea tradition alive as it has been a while since we last had the overnight component. As always, shout out to our supportive PTA for the behind the scenes mahi you do to make events like these happen and whakawhetai (thanks) to those parents who were able to ‘see a need, fill a need’ on the night or the morning after. Cheers Lucain for taking the pics below of the night. Special...

Hoping to see you all tonight for our annual PTA run Overnight Camp. As mentioned previously, this is a bit of a Turitea tradition and a great showing of our school uara (value) of whanaungatanga (community). I look forward to seeing our field transform into a campsite. Massive thanks to the organsing team from the PTA and everyone involved to make the evening a success.

Thank you for your support on Monday enabling us to have our Staff Only Day. We were extremely grateful to have Jon Procter share his pearls of wisdom about the history of Papaioea (Palmerston North) and the Rangitanē Iwi. The pics below show snippets of our tour. I’m wondering if any parents are interested in this kaupapa (topic) also and we might be able to entice him into running another hikoi (walk) around these spots learning our local history, let me know…

Nau mai hoki mai ki a koutou (Welcome back everyone) We had our ‘first day back’ mihi whakatau to embrace our new whānau to the school on Tuesday, which I found really special. It was nice to set the tone for the year from this and ‘live and breathe’ our uara (values) of Whanaungatanga (Positive Relationships) and Manaakitanga (Kindness and Hospitality) in doing this important ceremony in Te Ao Māori. 

This will be the last pānui I write to you for 2023 and I’m getting in a day early ahead of our last day tomorrow as I know it will fly by. I want to thank you all for such a positive year here at Turitea. I am really proud of our school and all that happens in and around the place. It has a beautiful vibe with happy children and friendly parents. I’ve been feeling spoiled too with so many whānau writing beautiful cards and giving me lovely and thoughtful gifts. I appreciate you all and am lucky to...

And just like that we have finished the penultimate week of the school year! The common conversation around the place at the moment is ‘How is it already December?’ as it does feel that this year has flown by. Our end of year trips have begun with Mataī and Pōhutukawa visiting the Wildbase Discovery Centre yesterday and Rātā and Rimu going to Memorial Park today. I’m joining in on the fun with them, hence why I’m getting this to you earlier than usual. Yesterday, Iti and Manawa from Kahikatea took our last class assembly for the year and they did...

If you are reading this via Hero, you might have noticed that the Hero interface has been freshened up and looks a little different. They haven’t changed where things are though, so hopefully you are still able to navigate this easily enough. Today we welcomed Lihmé (said La May) to Pōhutukawa. Her whānau have moved from Cape Town, South Africa to Palmerston North via Auckland first. It is a delight to have you join us here at Turitea, we know you will love the community feel we have here. 

This week marked the last day for Lucy, who has been a student teacher with Cameron and the team in Tōtara. Her teaching programme at Waikato University gives her one day a week in school placement for the whole year. We will all miss her as she has felt like part of our team and it’s been great to witness her growth in the role of a teacher since February. This week we welcomed Caleb to Turitea School. He is Matthew’s younger brother and is our last 5 year old to start for 2023 in Rimu with Meagan and Hannah....

I’m getting in one day early with my Friday Pānui since tomorrow is our Staff Only Day and I thought I’d start with a staff story for you. Since Cameron started here at Turitea, he has made it part of our morning tea routine that we collectively do the Stuff Quiz. We love it because it models our school ngā uara (values) of whanaungatanga and mātauranga and since February 2022, the best we have ever done was a 14/15. But on Monday that all changed as we scored our first ever 15/15, so either the quizzes are getting easier or we...

Thank you to those who have given us feedback about our recent Lamb, Calf and Pet Day. As expected, we received a wide range from those who loved the evening event to those who preferred the Saturday morning. It is hard to please everyone, but we all we aim to do is our best. If you haven’t given feedback and would still like to, you can do so here until next week. This week, we welcomed Philip to Rimu with Meagan and Hannah. He is Ivor’s younger brother and it is lovely to have the last member of the Baldie whānau...