Te Aroha Primary School
Term 2 Week 7 2022
PRINCIPAL / TUMUAKI MESSAGE
Kia ora parents and whānau,
Welcome to week 7. Winter is definitely upon us now and the days are starting to feel much colder. Next week sees the shortest day on 21 June…and then it’s downhill to Spring from there!
Last week I got to spend some time with our rippa rugby teams at the local tournament. It was great to see the amazing teamwork and sportsmanship on show. Our TAPS students are a credit to you as parents and whānau and us as a school. I even had comments from parents of other schools commenting on the positive attitude of our players…really proud of our tamariki.
Last week we also celebrated our support staff. We treated them to morning tea at Villa Nine on Tuesday (thank you Zara and team). On Wednesday they found chocolate treats at their workstations and on Friday we celebrated as a whole school with a special assembly to honour our amazing support staff team. They are crucial to our schools smooth operations and we are very grateful to have them with us.
This week I get to go with our Year 7 & 8 students to tech on Friday. I am very much looking forward to this as it will be exciting to see what they do at tech and it is also an opportunity to go back and visit my old college.
Have an excellent week everyone, stay awesome and do your best to avoid the winter bugs that are floating around.
Ka kite,
Justin Bertrand
KEY TERM DATES
TERM TWO DATES 2022
- 2/5/2022 First day of Term 2 / Our new principal, Mr Justin Bertrand, starts with us.
- New Zealand Sign Language Week 2022 – Monday 9 to Sunday 15 May
- 20/5/2022 Pink Shirt Day – NZ Wide Anti-Bullying Campaign - Friday 20 May
- Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa - Samoa Language Week 29 May - 4 June 2022
- 6/6/2022 Queen’s Birthday – Monday 6 June
- Support Staff Week (7th - 10th June)
- 8/6/2022 - Rippa Rugby Day
- 9/6/2022 - PTA AGM is set for 6pm Thursday 9th June in the staffroom. Coffee and cake provided. All welcome.
- Ready, Set, Go! – *UPDATED DATE* Wednesday 15 June (1:40pm - 2:40pm), Wednesday 22 June, Wednesday 6 July
- 24/6/2022 Matariki Public Holiday – Friday 24 June
- 8/7/2022 Last day of Term 2 – Friday 8 July
Other term dates to be advised.
SPORTS NEWS - Mrs Paul
Totara Springs: Chocolates will be available this week if anyone wishes to sell them to bring the $200 cost down. You can also see Lucy about making arrangements to pay this off.
Netball: Great to see our year 7 & 8's in their lovely jackets. Year 5 & 6 it would be nice to see you in your polar fleeces so we look a little more ‘uniform’ even though we have other children in our team.
Rippa: What a fantastic day last Wednesday and now we have 3 teams in the area finals. We are very indebted to Megan, Amy, Cam and Lesa for their efforts on the day. A big THANK YOU also goes to all those who helped out with transport. We just can’t do it without you.
Hockey Big Day Out: Thanks to all those who returned their forms the next day. Remember Wednesday is the last day.
TAPS Social Worker in Schools (SWiS)
Kia ora my name is Kerry-Anne Kaiki, and I’m the temporary SWIS for Te Aroha Primary.
I’m the youngest sibling of four children in my Whanau and grew up in Waitoa, Waihou and Te Aroha area.
I have attended Te Aroha College, and later on in life completed my studies at Wintec and then I went onto study at Te Wananga o Aotearoa where I completed my bachelor of Social Work Degree and graduated in 2017, and I’m a fully registered Social Worker.
During my Social Worker career I have worked previously for three other social service organisations within the Hauraki region, which were Family Start Paeroa, Morrinsville Community House, and CAPS Hauraki.
As a Social Worker this has helped me to be familiar with all the Social Services organisations locally that can support the tamariki and Whanau I will be working with.
In 2021 off May last year I wanted to broaden my horizons and grow as a Social Worker practitioner and was successful in being employed as a new Social Worker In Schools for Family Work Northern.
During this time I have been engaging with tamariki in schools and supporting their Whanau in the Waikato region to get all of the necessities they need for the betterment of their Whanau.
I’m a very passionate professional Social Worker and will do my utmost to support tamariki and Whanau that require any support during my engagement with them at Te Aroha Primary.
I’m currently working in Te Aroha Primary School every Friday.
Parents and whanau are able to get in touch with our SWiS via the school office
(07) 8848803 or email direct Kerry-Anne.Kaiki@fwn.org.nz
PTA NEWS
The PTA had their AGM last week. Thanks to those that came along.
Your PTA members are:
President: Kate Wassell
Co President: Nikita McNab
Treasurer: Cam Melrose
Secretary: Jen Hirawani
Teacher Rep: Michelle Swan
Board Rep: Amy Pataei
Members: Nadine Bradding, Kandis Wairata and Nikki Williams.
It's not to late for anyone that wants to join or become Friends of the PTA.
Keep an eye out in the newsletters for our up and coming fundraisers next term including a disco.
EXTRA NEWS and STUDENT VIEWS
Senior School Reporters
This week our Reporters were Bella and Elisabella - “Bringing extra news and student views to the Newsletter”.
TIKAPA MOANA HUB 2 ART
Room 5
Room 6
Room 7
Tikapa Moana At Play
Tikapa Moana enjoy playing on the big adventure playground and lower field with all their friends during break and lunchtimes. It is cool to see lots of games happening and students having fun.
Here are some photos of them in action!
CLASSROOM ROUND UPS
WAIHOU / HUB 1 / JUNIOR BLOCK / YEAR 1-2
Room 1 - Mrs Johnson
A big welcome to Marley who joined Room 1 today. It is very exciting to have a new girl join our class.
LITERACY - Our phonics work is f u l and 3 letter words we can blend together with the sounds we have learnt. At this stage of learning to read the sound that letters make is more important than knowing the letter name, that comes after the children know the sound. In writing we are learning to extend our ideas by joining two simple sentences with and. It is very exciting to see children having a go at writing independently.
MATHS: We will continue to work on the concept of the number that comes before and link this to backwards counting. Our Counting Collections work has highlighted some confusion with teen and ty number. While many children are able to recognize these numbers and write them, they often confuse these numbers (e.g. 16/60, 13/30) when saying them, so we will have a teen /ty focus as well.
We will continue with our Aotearoa learning and hope to share our completed artwork on Seesaw later in the week. The children would love to share their story writing with whanau this week, so writing books will come home on Tuesday. Please feel free to write a comment to your child about their writing in their book. They love positive feedback.
REMINDERS
Please remember your drink bottle, homework books and book bags everyday.
It is very helpful to have a change of clothes in school bags just in case they are needed.
Room 2 – Miss Webb
Welcome to Week 7!
Literacy: This week we will be using images to prompt us with our writing. We will focus on using descriptive language to enhance our writing and make it more exciting for the reader. We have been learning to have a go independently with our writing. I will be assessing some of the children in their reading this week. I have been really impressed with the progress of the children in their reading.
Maths: Last week we were very lucky to have Mrs Mac in our classroom to teach us about counting collections. She showed us how we can group our collection by 10s to count how many there are all together. We will be having another go with this in our classroom this week.
Please remember your drink bottle, homework books and book bags everyday.
Please do not hesitate to contact me via Seesaw or email zwebb@tearohaprimary.school.nz
Room 3 – Miss Swan
Kia ora koutou
Welcome to Week 7! Our focus for this week is self management which includes looking after personal belongings, getting organised for learning activities and packing and unpacking book bags everyday. We can do it!!
- Writing: We are learning to write about different images using descriptive language and use detail to make our writing more exciting when it is read!
- Reading: Room 3 tamariki are making steady progress in their reading. This has been possible by hard work and reinforcing learning in class and at home. A big thankyou to whānau for supporting this.
- Maths: We continue to enjoy counting collections and problem solving. Group work is focused on working with numbers 0-100 including ordering smallest to largest and vice versa. Room 3 tamariki are using their knowledge gained from our counting collections and using it when solving place value problems. Ka pai tō mahi!
Reminders for the week:
Please remember your Poem book before Thursday
Please remember your drink bottle, homework books and book bags everyday
Our days are getting colder - school jerseys and warm socks are needed!
Please don’t hesitate to contact me via Seesaw or email mswan@tearohaprimary.school.nz
Have a wonderful week! 😊GOLDFIELDS / SATELLITE UNIT / JUNIOR BLOCK
Room 4 - Mrs Suzette Willis, Mrs Donna Taylor-Erutoe and Team
Kia ora koutou,
We are having our IEP meeting this week with our whanau. A reminder will be in our students’ books. Looking forward meeting up with you all! We had a great day on Friday at Base, as it was our Cross Country race. Please have a look on our Goldfields School Facebook page. Some of our students went to Kapa Haka and swimming on Thursday. They had heaps of fun!
Have a great week everyone!
TIKAPA MOANA / HUB 2 / MIDDLE BLOCK / YEAR 3-5
Room 5 - Miss Entwisle
Welcome to Week 7!
- Reading: Our class novel Gruesome Twosome by Keith Brumpton had us borrowing a pogo stick from the PMP Room (thanks Mrs Hazelton!) to see what it would be like to be the main characters Fatima and Cuthbert. These daring twins escape the circus on pogo sticks. We don’t think we are quite at their level yet, but maybe with more practise we will be!
- Writing: We are looking at Narrative writing, and are enjoying writing about different types of characters, where they might live and what they get up to.
- Mathematics: It has been interesting working with the class play money. It is strange to think that in the not so distant future in a world where banking is done online, and transactions happen through cards or phones that some children will actually have no idea what real currency actually looks like.
- Topic: We have been exploring two large maps of New Zealand. Finding Te Aroha on these detailed maps was a little trickier than anticipated but we got there in the end.
Reminders / Online Learning - Homework
Students have free access to learning sites such as: Prodigy, Sumdog, Sunshine Classics, Epic! and Mathletics.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact Miss Entwisle via the school office: 078848803; email: mentwisle@tearohaprimary.school.nz or through the Seesaw message function. 😊
Room 6 – Mrs Bankier
We have been enjoying earning our own class desk pets in Room 6. We are using a programme called Banqer to learn about money and banking, while we earn ‘income’ and use our income to pay for our pets.
We have been talking about being in ourselves and that anything is possible, you just need to keep trying. I am really noticing a change in how Room 6 perceive themselves as learners.
- In Maths we are learning to solve multiplication problems like 15x5= using our knowledge of the 10 and 5 times tables. We will also be learning about area and perimeters.
- We have started learning to follow music using body percussion, we will be continuing this for the rest of the term. Some songs are quite challenging and involve a lot of concentration and co ordination.
- We are moving onto our Matariki topic for the last part of the term. Here are some of our art pieces from Friday. These art pieces show Mout Te Aroha, The Waihou River and our Kura - Te Aroha Primary, along with the Matariki Stars in the sky. The weaving is a traditional activity during Matariki and also resembles Tukutuku panels in a Marae, and the wooden fences used around Maori Pa in the past.
Room 7 – Mrs Paul
In Reading: We are looking at smaller passages in order to get better levels of comprehension. It is really important that we get our comprehension skills sorted. As more children spend more time in front of devices rather than books, we are really seeing a drop off in comprehension levels and vocab knowledge. The more capable readers have started a Chapter book called Fish in A Tree which is a very touching story. Ask your child to share with you!
In Spelling: .We are looking at the diagraph -sh. A digraph is 2 letter which make one sound. You can help your children spell the words by sounding them out using their fingers. This would be particularly useful for those on stage 2.
In Maths:We will continue to work on Maths Rich Problems as we start our Area and Measurement unit. In this we will be calculating Area and Perimeter. We are learning tricks for the 9x table so will be doing these each day as well.
TE MOANANUI-A-KIWA / HUB 3 / SENIOR BLOCK / YEAR 6-8
Room 8 – Mrs McKenzie
Kia ora whānau of Room 8. Week 7 brings us another week where we need students to focus and put their very best effort forward with the testing and assessing we will be doing in writing and maths, and a small amount of reading we have left to do.
- In Maths, we are also continuing our division strategies, using written form and learning what remainders are. Some will be learning division with decimals.
- In writing, we will be starting and completing a moderated writing sample that students will need to use their planning, writing and editing skills. This is centred around our Topic Inquiry learning of navigation through the Pacific.
- Reading testing has almost been completed, and students have been really brave doing this. We continue to unpack text features before, during and after we read and use this to help guide our writing too.
- Extras for the week: We are looking at our artistic side, using chalk pastels to capture what landscapes might have looked like during Pacific Ocean voyages.
While I am testing on Monday, we welcome Mr Barker in Room 8. He will share his knowledge of Matariki Māori legends, and complete some artwork too. Mrs Ginever will be in on Thursday.
As always, I am always happy to answer any questions from you via email or Seesaw. Have a great week everyone. Kia kaha Room 8 and let’s keep working on our Manaakitanga (respect and care). We’ve got this!
Room 9 – Whaea Armstrong and Mrs Gamble
Wowee! Week Seven already?! How is that even possible?
This week we put our hard work to the test as we assess our progress in our learning. We will be testing our students in reading, writing and maths, and we ask Room 9 to have patience as we work through them all this week.
- Maths - Alongside our Pearson Maths testing, we continue to work on our division strategies. This week is all about using standard written forms to divide larger numbers with remainders.
- Writing - This week we will complete a writing sample where students will be assessed on their planning, writing, editing and recrafting skills throughout the week. Our focus for this sample will be an informative report that centres around our learning of the different types of Pā here in NZ.
- Reading - While we work through our reading testing, Room 9 will be completing a series of comprehension activities that centre around the text ‘Ngā Pakanga o Aotearoa - NZ Wars’. This is a text that we have been pulling apart over the last few weeks which focused around the three major land wars in NZ (Northern war, Waikato war and the Taranaki war).
We are excited to see how Room 9 have progressed in their learning, and we encourage them to be BRAVE and give their best during these tests.
Here's to another awesome week ahead - Kia tū, kia toa, kia mau - accept the challenge!
If you have any questions send us a message on Seesaw or email
aarmstrong@tearohaprimary.school.nz and lgmable@tearohaprimary.school.nz
Room 10 – Mrs B
Kia ora koutou - He toa taumata rau - bravery has many resting places.
This week, Rm 10 will be BRAVE and give of their best during assessment testing. Mrs B will be doing reading and maths testing - it will be exciting to see how students are progressing and achieving. Kia kaha Rm 10! Mrs B will not be teaching Friday to complete this testing and so we welcome Ms Sunnex to our class, who will be relieving.
This week, we delve deeper into the Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum by looking at the role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Ngā Pakanga O Aotearoa. This will be integrated learning through literacy activities and our Inquiry “What Happened Here?” and is bound to promote some really interesting discussion. Our learning about this will also help drive our moderated writing sample.
In Maths, we continue to develop our division skills by using standard written form and calculation problems with remainders.
Matariki - we also prepare for our Matariki learning next week by planting vegetable seeds. Please make sure you have completed the Matariki breakfast survey taht was shared via Seesaw.
Please make sure your child’s uniform is named. Now that the mornings are cooler, we are finding a lot of unnamed polar fleeces in the cloakbay
In preparation for next term’s sporting events, we are going to be looking at daily fitness activities.
Thank you to the parents who make comments on their child’s Seesaw posts - it is so rewarding for them to be able to share their learning with you in this way.
Looking forward to another awesome week.
Arohanui - Mrs B dp@tearohaprimary.school.nz
We are very excited about the completion of our pā learning - from our online designs, sharing our knowledge through writing and our play doh collaborative pā models, there has certainly been a lot of fantastic learning happening. (Mrs B is super proud!) This prepares us well for the next part of learning for our topic Inquiry.
Year 7/8 Technology at Te Aroha College
Please make sure your child has shoes that cover their feet (NO SLIDES PLEASE) and long hair needs to be tied up. Roll call for the bus at 8.30am outside Rm 10. If your child is running late and misses the bus, please take them straight to the College.
Students 12+ years are to wear a mask on the bus as per Orange setting.
LUNCHES IN SCHOOLS PROGRAMME
SPONSORS
We need these firms to keep our school cashflow and community relations going strong. They are generous to us which enables us to benefit your children so I would ask you look at the team of sponsors and where possible, use them as we all gain.
School Policies and Procedures
School Policies and Procedures
SchoolDocs is the tool we use for our school policies. These are kept updated with the SchoolDocs team ensuring legal and compliance matters are always up-to-date.
To access SchoolDocs simply :
1. Go to schooldocs.co.nz
2. Click Search for your school.
3. Start typing the school’s name and select it from the dropdown list.
4. Enter the community username tearohaprimary and password school
From there it is simply a matter of navigating to areas you wish to look at - enjoy the read.
School App, Facebook, Seesaw and our School Website
Please use these tools we provide - we use them to alert, inform and effectively communicate with parents.
Check it out - there is plenty for you to find out.
If in doubt please ask your child’s teacher as we will be using these platforms on a regular basis to keep our parent community informed and up to date.
Contact Us
Email: admin@tearohaprimary.school.nz
Website: https://tearohaprimary.school.nz/
Location: Jubilee Avenue, Te Aroha, New Zealand
Phone: 07-884 8803
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Te-Aroha-Primary-School-193399510687026/