Matapu School Newsletter
Term 1, Week 7, 18th March 2022
Calendar - Please note some new dates added & further information for events will be sent home closer to the date if required.
- Friday 25th March - Junior School Try-athlon - CANCELLED
- Thursday 14th April - Last Day of Term 1
- Friday 15th April - Good Friday
- Monday 2nd May - Term 2 starts
Principal's Weekly Update
RAISE Goal: I know my learning goals
Te reo phrase of the week: katia te kuaha (shut the door)
Kia ora,
After a significant period of time where Matapu has managed to dodge the Covid pandemic, it finally caught up with us this week. We have 6 cases within our student population, as well as students isolating at home due to being close household contacts. The good news is that everyone is doing their bit. Families are quickly informing the school of positive results and they have been keeping us updated on how their family is tracking on Day 3 and 7 of self-isolation.
As a staff we still only have myself who is isolating due to being a close household contact. I am thoroughly looking forward to completing Day 7 on Monday and being back onsite on Tuesday. Our teachers, support staff, and students are doing an amazing job at school. All staff and students in the senior classrooms are wearing masks, while the whole school is making sure they regularly sanitise their hands, wipe down tables and devices, don’t share stationery, and only come to school if they feel well (have no symptoms).
As we look ahead to Week 8, we have the Ambrose Golf Fundraiser on Friday 25th March. This is a wonderful event, which will surely be one to remember. Thank you to all who are taking part in one way or the other. Community events such as these are incredibly special and testament to the wonderful community that we live in.
School Jackets
Due to feedback from our community, last year’s school arts leaders worked with Gemma Adams to create a design for a new school jacket. Ryder, Stefi, and Hazel questioned their peers and senior staff to obtain a brief for the design. They then worked with Gemma using online software to bring it to life. Gemma gave up her time, led the process and even added her creative touches to the final design. The key features of the jacket for us is that it has our motto Hei oranga roa, Hei akoranga roa (lifelong learning) on it, along with our RAISE values. Thank you to all involved, they turned out great! Jackets are available for purchase from the school office for $65. This year’s arts leaders will then put your child’s name on it and you will receive it one week later.
Kia pai to wiki (have a wonderful weekend).
Ngå mihi nui
James Willson
Values Awards
Room 1 - Colt for thinking ahead about ways to help and support others.
Room 2 - Israel for putting his best effort into his book work.
Room 3 - Jack for working hard to stay focused and complete his must-do's each day.
Room 4 - Atticus for putting an awesome effort into your writing this week.
Room 5 - Archie for always putting in your best effort to finish your mahi.
Room 6 - Kaleb for showing effort and ambition towards all of your new learning - keep it up!
Whakatauki
He waka eke noa
We're all in this together
Room 1
With Swimming Sports over we are loving practising the survival skills we learned a couple of weeks ago. Today we practised the survival stroke and rolling on our backs to breathe and how to tread water. We still have another few weeks of swimming so please remember to keep sending your kids along to school with their togs every day.
Room 2
Students are now fully into the normal routine of school and I am so impressed with the effort that the children are putting into all of their mahi. They WANT to learn! It is wonderful to teach eager children!
One of the loveliest things about teaching, is how children are naturally inclusive. This pic shows it all - Cooper has brought his green friend 'Scout' to school - he is in the shade, engaging with friends in imaginary play. So so lovely to see!
Room 3
Wow! Week 7 has blown by so fast. We have been working on perfecting our freestyle and breaststroke in the pool and have continued to practise some of the skills for life tips that we learnt last week. For writing we have been working on recounts, focusing mainly on a recount of swimming sports and athletics. The school RAISE goal this week is 'To know my learning goals', this is a strength for room 3, because we have been working on our set goals daily.
Room 4
It was a short but sweet week in Room 4! We started off with a new face - A big welcome to our new classmate Matthew and his family. We know our daily literacy and maths routines really well now and we tried out some Kahoot games for spelling and maths. Our learning focus in the pool was floating and sinking. Sitting at the bottom of the pool and picking up objects were some of our favourite activities.
Room 5
This week Room 5 has been working hard with their literacy. We have been writing stories independently and building our knowledge to blend and segment words for writing and reading. It is great to see the kids are trying super hard and giving everything a go, especially as we work on our learning goals that were discussed at Whanau Conferences. Room 5 even learnt a new class game…Seaweed!
Room 6
It was lovely to have a long weekend and I do hope you spent some great family time together.
We are working hard on practising the skills we need to get our iPad license. This week we learnt how to carry them around the classroom with both hands and also how to ‘hug’ them with both hands and arms when we work outside. We practised turning them on and off, learned how to put our screen to sleep, and also how to ‘swipe’ to get rid of open apps at the end of a session. Another important skill is winding the cords around the headphones when we have finished with them…this is the trickiest one so far! We are using our learning ‘superpowers’ to keep trying to succeed at this!
Hopefully next week some of us will be ready to sign off on our licenses…fingers crossed!
Eltham Nexans Fun Run & Walk
Sunday 27th March
Lake Rotokare - Eltham
Go along and support the Eltham Athletics Club and Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust.
For more information or to enter go to athleticstaranaki.org.nz/nexanseltham
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
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, & BCCL (Burgess Crowley Civil Limited) 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.
PLEASE SUPPORT THOSE THAT SUPPORT US
