Matapu School Newsletter

• Monday 20th February - BOT meeting, 5:30pm
  
• Thursday 23rd February - School Athletics & Hangi
• Wednesday 1st March - Black & White mufti day for The Bay
• Thursday 2nd March - Kaponga Interschool Athletics
• Friday 3rd March - Matapu School Ambrose Golf Fundraiser
• Thursday 9th March - Senior School Swimming Sports (Rm 4 - 1)
• Monday 13th March - Taranaki Anniversary
• Wednesday 15th March - Junior School Swimming Sports (Rm 5 & 6)
• Wednesday 22nd & Thursday 23rd March - Whanau Goal Setting Conferences
• Friday 24th March - Junior Try-athlon
• Thursday 6th April - Last day of Term 1
• Friday 7th April - Good Friday

RAISE Goal: to take pride in my book work

Te reo phrase of the week: whakamaua tō potae (put on your hat)

Kia ora,

While it was frustrating to have a short week due to Cyclone Gabrielle, our school and region definitely didn’t suffer the worst of the effects compared to other parts of the country. Our thoughts go out to the families around New Zealand who have lost their homes, belongings, and loved ones. Natural disasters of this magnitude often eventuate in massive clean up bills and everyday items being in huge demand. Nathan Joyce has put together a wonderful initiative to collect some items of necessity that can be sent over to those in need in the Hawkes Bay. Please check out a list of what is needed below, as well as when you can drop the items off at the Matapu Community Hall. If you have anything to spare, it would be greatly appreciated.

Non perishable food, water bottles, clothing, blankets, towels, soap/body wash, tooth paste, tooth brushes, deodorant, toilet paper, rubbish bags, buckets, baby formula/bottles, baby bottle sterilising bags, nappies, baby/children’s clothes, and personal hygiene items

Matapu Community Hall - drop off times

9-10.30am Friday 17th Feb

9-10.30am Monday 20th Feb

9-10.30am Tuesday 21st Feb

The aftermath of events such as Cyclone Gabrielle seem to bring out the best and worst of people, I am always incredibly impressed that for our community it always brings out the best.

Athletics and Hangi

It is fantastic to have our school hangi back on our planner this year, along with the ability to invite crowds (whanau) to watch our athletics event. At this stage the weather looks like it is going to be on our side! Thank you very much to the wonderful offers of support that we have received for the hangi preparation day on Wednesday. Can I please ask our families to bring in food items and pay for their tickets early next week so that we know exactly how many people we are catering for.

Kia pai to wiki (have a wonderful weekend).

Ngå mihi nui

James Willson

Due to family commitments our amazing cleaner Jacque Hollenback has resigned from her cleaning role. We are therefore after a new cleaner to join our team from the beginning of March. The position involves working 1.5 hours per day, Monday to Friday (7.5 hours a week), plus some extra hours in the school holidays. If you’d like to apply for the position, please contact James by email at principal@matapu.school.nz or (06 272 6764). The successful applicant will need to pass a police vetting check.

Room 1 - Blake for having an outstanding attitude towards learning and putting effort into his mahi.

Room 2 - Lucinda for making a top effort and having an amazing attitude.

Room 3 - Dex for going the extra mile at school and at home. Great work ethics!

Room 4 - Alexis for making a huge effort to learn new activities and persevering with challenges.

Room 5 - Zyden for always showing integrity and making good choices.

Room 6 - Onyx for amazing manners & showing kindness and care to others.

E tu kahikatea, hei wakapae uroroa

Awhi mai, awhi atu, tatou, tatou e.

Kahikatea stand together; their roots intertwine, strengthening each other.

We will all help one another & together we will be strong.

If your child would like to play netball for Matapu School, this will be on Saturdays in Hawera commencing the week starting 29th April 2023 for year 1-6 students. The year 7-8 competition will start on Saturday 1st April 2023. You will need to fill out this form individually for each child. Forms need to be completed by Friday 3rd of March 2023. This is to allow us enough time to register teams at each age group.

For more information and to register click the link below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jfTGuXd7loeOglKmX9fmLEL4nJ5euEAZs3nJ5WqvPpc/edit?ts=63eb1736

This week has had some wild weather! But in Room 1, that also bought out some fabulous creativity, effort and resilience with students participating in at home learning activities.

Well, when life deals you a lemon, make lemonade! So, in room 2 on Thursday, we thought we would use the opportunity that the strong breeze provided and make some kites. Everyone pitched in and worked in their teams to come up with a kite design that caught the wind. What a great learning experience! We also had discussions about why we have earthquakes and the children did some research to learn about what a cyclone is and how it is formed. I encourage whanau of Room 2 to have a dinner time conversation about these forces of nature; hopefully some of the learning has 'stuck!' (Hint, ask about the boiled egg and how that helps us to understand earthquakes).

Aside from this, we have been practicing our skills in readiness for athletics as well as agreeing as a team what the top 3 most important values we have in Room 2:

1. Treat others the way you would like to be treated

2. Keep our space tidy

3. We work quietly when we need to.

Room 2 is humming; we have a great atmosphere which is supportive and kind. Hopefully I will get to meet some more parents next week at the hangi and/or athletics day.

This week our class focussed on pushing ourselves to give things a go when we are challenged and to do things well.

We completed a piece of art based on the story of a dot. Look it up on YouTube….The story of the dot.

It tells a story about a student who didn’t think they were good at something. But they made an attempt.. A try at the task the teacher was asking. Success came by the student making an attempt at first, and then practising. Before long, the student was doing amazing things and everyone was impressed by the skill and work the student was achieving.

The story fits into our school RAISE values very well and in Room Three, we know we are expected to try and have a go at things we find difficult or even don’t want to do at times. That is where we grow, learn and succeed. It is our teachers job to push us out of our comfort zones occasionally.

It has been another great week in Room 4 despite the interruptions! We are working on our pepeha to introduce ourselves. We will be practising this throughout the year. We are also learning a bit more about where we come from. This interest was sparked by discussions around the Treaty of Waitangi. Thank you to our wonderful parents for helping the children fill in their family trees. We did manage to get outside and do some high jumping. We have some fantastic athletes in Room 4!

Last week Room 5 finished our door display, where students drew a picture of themselves to show who is in Room 5 this year. We talked about what makes us different and what we look like. It was hard to draw ourselves without drawing sticks for arms and legs, but we did it!

Well it has been a funny old week with storms, power outages and an earthquake! A lot to take in when you have just started school, but everyone has come back with very little issue. We were able to talk about the storm and what it meant to us and then think of an idea to write about it. Here are some of our ideas:

Print Ready - Amanda Sherman, CMK Hawera, Shurr & Ireland Acocuntants, Mark Joblin Concept & Construction Ltd, Sanfords Rural Carriers, Taranaki By-Products, McDonald Real Estate, Eltham Vet Services, ANZCO, Power Farming, Corrigan Electrical, Matapu Bulk Transport, CRV Ambreed, FMG, Mack Transport, Blastways, Nevada, Ballance, Todd Energy, Carrfields Livestock, Rosemount Charolais - Dairy Bull Specialists, PGG Wrightson Livestock, Jack Gray Ltd, Bruce Parry Livestock, Kelsen's Glass & Glazing, Tommo's Tyres Ltd, Chris Perrett Electrical Solutions, Holdem Contracting Ltd, STE (South Taranaki Electrical), Kaponga Four Square, MG Taranaki, JP Refrigeration, Melza’s Customs, Monkeytoe, SepticWorks Limited, FMG, Phillip Joblin Kitchen & Furniture, Evergreen Plumbing.

PLEASE SUPPORT THOSE THAT SUPPORT US

Email: admin@matapu.school.nz
Website: matapu.school.nz
Location: 495 Hastings Road, Matapu, New Zealand
Phone: (06) 272 6764