Newsletter 23 September 2022
Mahora School
NAU MAI HAERE MAI, TALOFA LAVA, WELCOME!
This term, we have welcomed a number of new students to Mahora School.
This week we introduce Sophie Filipo, Thambaru Ihala Kandage, Max Holgate, Harper Shirnack, Leon Ratcliffe, Andrea Morales, Layla Hulman, Eli Cox, Te Wai Hepi, Petera Tahuri-Harmer, Brian Tahuri-Harmer, Mason Wainui. We hope you have all enjoyed your start at Mahora School.
TUMUAKI TALK
Kia ora e te whānau,
It's my pleasure to welcome and introduce a new staff member. Summer Wynyard has joined our team and is working in our New Entrant space alongside Lisa and Ange as a Teacher Aide for the remainder of 2022. As our numbers grow in this space it's fabulous to have this support and we know our tamariki will enjoy Summer.
One of these days the rain will stop and we can all dry out. Thanks for your understanding and flexibility with recent school event changes due to the weather. We have not had such a wet term in a long time and our grounds are water logged. This has also delayed back entrance repairs and building progress...but they will happen!
As we near the end of Term 3, it's fabulous to see events starting to get back to ‘normal’ as such, with our first Interschool Cross Country in 3 years held this week, Pasifika festival this week, Whanake team heading off to camp and Māhuri team off to Napier next week. Many thanks for all whānau who are able to get behind these events to support them.
Ka nui te mihi (many thanks) to our whānau with two staff only days this term. We know this impacts life and work when school is closed. Ka mau te wehi to our staff who have been doing some hard mahi around Te Reo Māori. Check out this video from Kauwaka who are our wonderful teachers on this exciting learning journey.
As this newsletter heads out, voting for our 12th Board of Trustees closes at 4pm today. As I type this we have 22.5% of parents who have had their say by voting so far...it's not too late, get your vote in by 4pm today.
I would like to acknowledge and thank a very important person in our kura. He does so much over and above, nothing is ever a bother to him, oftens comes in the weekend to ensure everything is ok, gets things done before we even know they need doing...and always has a smile and a can do attitude! Marty Curran you are an amazing person, outstanding caretaker and we are very lucky to have you at Mahora...Whakanuia te tangata ringa raupā - Respect a person with calloused hands.
A reminder that clocks go forward one hour on Sunday and Monday is a public holiday being Queen Elizabeth II Memorial day.
Piki Haere
Rohan.
AKO IN ACTION
Congratulations to Megan McFlynn who recently found out she had won 5th place in a National Writing Competition using an online digital writing tool called ‘Stylefit’. It was quite complex in that she had to respond to online feedback and aim to get her story 'on the grid' which took multiple goes at editing and adjustments.
The judges were NZ journalists and children's book authors, so this shows just how impressive Megan’s writing is. Please read her winning story below which was entered in the Y5 - 6 category.
The Magical Girl Called Rose
Rose was not an ordinary girl, she was the last human to have powers. All the other magical humans were hunted for their magic. "Rose, your babysitter is here. Your father and I need to go out remember so don't show her your magic" said Rose's Mum.
"I won't!" replied Rose walking out of her room to meet the babysitter.
Once her parents left, the old woman gave her a glass of some type of drink. "You look sick, drink this" said the babysitter.
Rose took the drink and seconds after she had taken one sip, she crashed to the ground with a loud thud. Everything went blurry and all she could hear was the woman's creepy laugh as she was being dragged off.
When Rose woke up, she was in a dark room tied to a chair. She could hear the woman's footsteps approaching her. "Don't worry I'll just take all your powers and then you can go," said the woman in her croaky voice. The woman violently stabbed a sharp needle into Rose's arm and sucked out all her powers. Then as the woman untied her, Rose punched her in the eye and took the needle that had her powers in it. "Nooooooo, without those I'll die since I'm 316!" screamed the old woman waddling forward before turning into a dust pile on the floor. Then Rose realised she wasn't her first victim and probably wouldn't have been the last if she hadn't stopped her.
When Rose got back to her home, her parents were already there waiting for her. Rose told them about everything that happened as they drank hot chocolates by the fireplace. They promised to never hire a babysitter again. Rose went to sleep that night thinking about that crazy day and wondering how many more days she would have like that.
Māhuri Scientists.
Earthquake experiment: As scientists, we have been learning about natural disasters. This was our experiment to investigate how tectonic plates move and cause earthquakes.
Volcano Art
As part of our exploration stations we completed some splatter art with many layers to represent an erupting volcano. They look so effective up on the wall - almost like a wall of fire!
Volcano Model
Our tamariki were very interested in the parts of volcanoes and created models to share in ako. Scientists learn new things and teach others their new learning. Then they used their digital skills, to label each of the parts of their volcano on the ipads.
NIWA Zoom
In Māhuri, we were fortunate to get an expert meteorologist from NIWA to zoom with us. Chris shared some great knowledge on how we predict upcoming weather, he answered our pātai and we even helped create our own weather forecast for the weekend. Turns out we got it bang on!
NĪKAU
Nīkau have been working really hard on learning and perfecting some traditional whai. The tamariki have so much fun teaching others different patterns that they know and whai is so good for left and right brain thinking, coordination, fine motor skills and problem solving.
We then made a card that we presented to Marty, our amazing caretaker to say thanks for all he does at our school, especially what he had to do on the weekend after the break in.
CONGRATULATIONS
CONGRATULATIONS to our Piki Haere certificate recipients from our last assembly.
HĀKINAKINA AND MUSIC
Interschool Cross Country
It was wonderful to have kura come together for the Interschool Cross Country earlier this week. It has been three long years since the event was last held! Our group of 56 runners gave it everything, as they matched their skills against the best from other kura in the Hastings and districts area. We were proud and impressed to see the determination, the tautoko and genuine celebration for each other.
Our runners achieved a number of exceptional results, with eight top 12 finishers.
CONGRATULATIONS to all our runners and a special CONGRATULATIONS to our podium finishers:
Year 3 Girls - Ava McNabb - 8th place
Year 3 Boys - Roman Thomsen - 12th place
Year 4 Girls - Amy West - FIRST place
Year 4 Boys - Ari Nieuwland - 4th place
Year 5 Boys - Fletcher Witheford - 2nd place
Year 5 Boys - Tyras McNabb - 7th place
Year 5 Boys - Zac Nuku - 8th place
Year 6 Boys - Ezra Nieuwland - 12th place
Check out our school Facebook page of action shots of many of our Mahora runners.
Polyfest 2022
Kia Orana, Bula vinaka, Malo e lelei, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Namaste, Kia Ora, Talofa lava.
Yesterday our amazing senior Pasifika group performed at the Polyfest 2022 "TOGETHER AGAIN".
The kaiako in charge of this group, Tash Tuivaiti-Filipo, would firstly like to thank our amazing students who went on that stage, smiled and danced their heart out. “As their tutor, I could not be more proud of them.”
Polyfest this year, was about being all together again. Fa'afetai lava to the organisers today who made it happen.
Our beautiful performance was made up of the following…Te hiva is a tokelau song which means to dance, that was our first item. Sasa is a samoan dance performed by a group and our students sat for this item. Troy, who was our fuataimi wore a pale (head piece). He was the leader for our sasa and it was his job to guide the dancers.
Taualuga is a Samoan dance performed in a semi circle dance. Lucy was our taupou for this year. She wore a tuiga which is the head piece.
Our students looked absolutely beautiful in their ie lavalava (girls) and ie faitaga (boys).
These photos were taken following their dress rehearsal at school on Wednesday. Check out the video of our talented kids on our school Facebook page too.
Heretaunga Music Play In
While many of our Senior tamariki were at Polyfest yesterday, Theresa Taukaban represented Mahora at the Heretaunga Play In. She spent the day at Havelock North Intermediate with musicians from other Primary and Intermediate Schools. They practiced hard during the day and finished with a stunning performance. Congratulations Theresa.
PTA UPDATE
Thanks to everyone who has already returned a Family Pie fundraising form.
Forms need to be returned by Monday 24 October and payment can be made online to the PTA Bank account or cash to the school office. Pies will be available for collection Friday 4 November.
Thank you for supporting our PTA.
OTHER KORERO
Uniform donation
If you have any second hand uniform you would like to donate to the school, it would be greatly appreciated.
Please drop any good condition items into the office.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Board of Trustee Elections Voting closes - Friday 23 September
- Queen Elizabeth II Memorial day - Monday 26 September - NO SCHOOL TODAY
- Whanake Camp - Tuesday 27 September - Friday 30 September
- Māhuri MTG visit to Napier - Tuesday 27 September and Wednesday 28 September
- Term 3 finishes - Friday 30 September
- Term 4 starts - Monday 17 October
- PTA Meeting and AGM - Wednesday 19 October ~ 7:00pm
- PTA Family Pie Fundraiser Forms due - Monday 24 October
- PTA Family Pies available for collection - Friday 4 November
Email: admin@mahora.school.nz
Location: 710 Frederick Street West, Mahora, Hastings
Phone: (06) 878 2622