Heron Herald Term 3, Week 7, 2021

3 years ago

Kia ora koutou,

After three weeks of school being closed and learning happening online, we are all very excited to see the smiling faces of our tamariki at school this week. It is great to be part of a country and community that can pull together through these tough times and see such positive results in the stamping out of COVID-19.

I am always thankful for the stunning teaching team that we have at Matua School. Shifting from the classroom to online learning is a real challenge. The commitment, level of skill, and effort put in by all our staff has been exceptional – thank you!

After looking through the many Seesaw posts that children shared online, I also want to acknowledge and celebrate the amazing job that parents, grandparents, and the wider whanau have done throughout lockdown. We are acutely aware of the challenges that are faced by parents who suddenly need to manage households, work from home – or as essential workers, while also supporting children in their learning. As teachers we know well, that managing children and their learning is not that easy, and being a parent-teacher can be even more difficult. So when we see engaged children, excited about sharing their learning online, we know that behind them stands a parent and family who have supported them to be successful. So a massive shout-out from the team at Matua School – thank you!

Unfortunately, a number of events were cancelled or postponed over the lockdown period. We hope to firm up the school calendar over the next couple of weeks and look forward to an action-packed Term 4 – which is just around the corner.

In the meantime, we appreciate your ongoing support as we look to keep school feeling as normal as possible, while still maintaining Alert Level 2 guidelines. If you have questions or concerns about the way things are happening at school around Alert Level 2 guidelines, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Nga mihi,

Marcus Norrish
Principal

Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori

(Maori Language Week)
13th – 17th September

Otumoetai Pā Pōwhiri

Friday 17th September

Last Day of Term 3

Friday 1st October

First Day of Term 4

Monday 18th October

Winter Tournament

Tuesday 19th October
(PPD 22nd Oct)

Young Einstein Competition

Wednesday 20th October

East Cluster Speech Competition

Wednesday 20th October

Labour Day - School Closed

Monday 25th October

Cluster Teacher Only Day - School Closed

Tuesday 26th October
(Connected to long weekend)

WBOP Orienteering

Friday 29th October

PTA Quiz Night

Saturday 30th October

FRACTIONS

Finding fractions of shapes and sets is often a tricky concept for students (young and old) to get their heads around. Here students in The Pod (Rooms 6 and 7) are using fraction pieces to come up with all of the different ways you can make one whole. What could you use at home to help reinforce this sort of learning (Cutting up fruit, pizza etc)?

RUGBY LEAGUE TOURNAMENT

Here is the Matua Year 5 & 6 Boys Rugby League Team competing in a tournament held at Arataki Park. They played 5 games with 3 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss. The boys placed 5th out of 16 teams. They impressed with their defensive workout, ball handling skills, and sportsmanship.

MAKER SPACE

The last three weeks in the Maker Space were super exciting as the students of room 19, 7, 5 & 12 teamed up and applied their ideas to create disco decoration out of recycled materials. The students were challenged by thinking about their joining techniques and looking for alternatives, such as stitching materials and cardboard techniques, rather than using glue and sticky tape.

We have been talking a lot about Para Core and how we can reduce our consumption of materials, by buying less and re-designing materials that are doomed to be wasted. As we discussed ideas and observed images of the Tauranga landfill, some children from room 19 commented:

Beck: “we recycle cereal boxes, so they don’t go into landfill”

Madeline: “the landfill is a big rubbish hole, and we won’t have space, if it grows much bigger” and James S added: “Woooaah, we should not throw away so much stuff”

James W spotted a t-shirt in the rubbish pile and commented: “hand me downs are much better than throwing it in the bin” and Fiorella remarked that, “we cannot build houses or playgrounds on that land because it will be too smelly”.

The makerspace is not only a place where students can gather to create, invent, tinker, explore and using a variety of tools and materials, but also learn how to give constructive feedback as well as teaching each other new skills. In the next few weeks, we will explore the language of paper and cardboard and then venture to working with wood and wire.

We will continue talking about the concept of zero waste, so be prepared to get some cluey advice from your child about being a waste wizard.

Milk bottle tops update:

Thank you so much for all the milk bottle tops that have been trickling to the Matua school office! I am still collecting #2 and #5 milk bottle tops and blue tip top ice cream containers for Precious Plastics Tauranga. Please make sure that the bottle tops are squeaky clean, as food spills contaminates the recycling process. At the Remaker Space, the clean lids will be shredded, melted, and pressed into colourful plastics sheet. Those recycled plastic sheets are currently redesigned into clocks, pen and earrings. Thank you so much for your ongoing support!

PTA

Disco

Wow! What an amazing final send off for this year’s Olympics! Thank you to everyone who came along and congratulations to our medal winners.

We couldn’t have done it without our PTA helpers, our wonderful friends at Radius Matua who loaned us the bulk of our flags, everyone else who lent us flags (these can be collected from the school office if you haven’t got them back already), our awesome DJs – Groove DJs (these guys are a school family so please consider them if you need a DJ www.groovedjs.co.nz), a special shoutout to Inspace NZ who made our Olympic podium which the school now has for future events (if you’re after design, plastic fabrication, signage, joinery and installation, look them up www.inspace.nz PS they do kitchens!). All up we raised almost $3,000.00 for the school which will help towards the kitchen renovation, amongst other projects.

PTA Meeting

The next PTA meeting is on Wednesday 8th September at 7pm in the school staffroom. Hope to see you there – new faces welcome!

Trick or Trivia – Annual PTA Quiz Night

Tables are currently sold out and more info and a request for a deposit will be coming in the near future. If for any reason you have a table but are now unable to attend, please let us know as soon as you can as we have a wait list.

Quiz Night is a success in part to the generous donations of our sponsors. If you or someone you know has a business that is interested in sponsoring a round or a table; or donating an auction prize, please let us know!

We can be reached at pta@matua.school.nz if you have any queries at all about our events or the PTA in general.

Karen and Hayley

PTA Co-chairs

PARENTING SUPPORT

There is no doubt that parenting can be a challenge at times. If you would like to grow as a parent or get support as you navigate a challenging time there are a number of ways to do this. One local opportunity is Natural Parenting by Emily Legg. For more information check out this website: http://naturalparentcoach.co.nz/

GOBSMACKED HOLIDAY PROGRAMME

Only 3 weeks until school holidays… eeek! Do you know what your kids will be doing? Fear not – Gobsmacked Holiday programme to the rescue! Join us October 4 – 6 (first week of school holidays) from 9 – 3pm at the Graham Young Theatre for a musical theatre extravaganza. Limited spaces so get in on the act today!

TERM DATES 2021

Term 3 – Monday 26th July – Friday 1st October

Term 4 – Monday 18th October – Wednesday 15th December

Term 1, 2022 – Tuesday 1st February 2022

MUSIC HUB – GUITAR LESSONS

Kid’s Guitar Lessons at School 3pm Wednesdays

Joe has a couple of places available for a beginners guitar group after school each Wednesday

For more information please go to https://musiqhub-bop.co.nz/info or Text Wayne 027 271 7685

We’ll be in touch right away with any other information and enrolment details!

MATUA MINIS SALT MARSH TRIP

Rooms 19, 20 and 21 visited the Matua Salt Marsh as part of their Ecology focus this term.

They had some fantastic Room 22 ambassadors to be their Estuary experts as they looked for living and nonliving things. They had a lot of fun crab hunting in the icky sticky mud!

GARDEN TO TABLE

Garden to Table would like to thank the Grice family for the kind donation of Tui garden mix. We had 2 cubic metres arrive this morning in bags. Craig Baker kindly delivered these from Garden Solutions and Bay Mini Loaders. The excitement was huge from the children when they saw the mission they were set to move the bags. They now know the true meaning of teamwork.

We can’t thank our supporters enough. Tasks are made so much easier by having keen and enthusiastic people prepared to help. Thanks to the Grice family and the Baker family. Our garden is going to flourish in spring with this boost.

COASTAL DISCOVERY DAY

The Senior classes struck a fantastic patch of weather for their Coastal Discovery trip to Mount Maunganui beach. The learning is led by council providers and the focus is on sand dunes as a special coastal ecosystem. They learn about specialized dune plants and why we need to care for our dunes. The students get “hands on” with weeding a patch of regeneration dunes. It did not take long to gather an impressive mountain of weeds! Working in pairs, they also planted cleared dune sections with the plants which will help to stabilise the dunes. The second part of the trip is a rock pool visit where they observe, collect and identify rockpool creatures. They enjoyed the time to fossick, and came away with wet shoes and some new understandings of rock pool life. Thanks to all our parent helpers for your time on the day.

SPORTS

Well, who could have predicted such a crazy end to our winter sports season. This week I have received a lot of information surrounding the wrap up of the season for our winter sports. This information has been relayed to our coaches and managers which has then hopefully filtered down to our parents and players. Hockey will finish its season with one last day which has been split between Mini Sticks and Kiwi Sticks. Basketball will finish with their playoffs next week. As the end of the season will be ending quite close to the end of term can I please ask everyone to get their sports uniforms washed and returned as soon as possible.

Our annual East Cluster Winter Tournament has also been disrupted by the latest lockdown. However, we have managed to rebook venues and have pushed the date out to Week 1 of Term 4. More details to follow for those who are involved.

Term 4 Sports Registrations

These are now live! To register your child for a sport in Term 4 please click on the link below. This will take you through to a page on our school website where you will see all the available sports for next term. Click on the sport you wish to register your child for and the registration form will appear. Registrations close Friday 17th September.

Click here to register: https://www.matua.school.nz/sport/

The beginning of Term 4 is going to be a busy one. A lot of the events from the end of Term 3 have been moved to this time so there will be a lot going on for our students. Thanks to all our coaches, managers, umpires and other volunteers who have put in a lot of hard work with our players over our winter sports season. We really appreciate you and all that you do.

Cricket – SuperSmash Hubs (Years 1-4)

As the summer days are fast approaching, registrations for SuperSmash hubs are open for Term 4 in your area. It would be hugely appreciated if you could include the attached flyer about the hubs in your school newsletter and share across your social media as well.

Hub Information: A 6 week “give it a go” programme for year 1-4 boys and girls. Through inclusive games and making friends, children develop skills such as throw, catch and strike, join your local SuperSmash hub now. $25 option for hub only but a $65 Registration includes a participant pack (bat, ball, bag, cap and water bottle) along with a FREE junior SuperSmash membership giving free entry to all T20 SuperSmash games across NZ for the 21/22 season. Watch the best in action and support your Knights/Spirit Stars. Registration details can be found at www.ndcricket.co.nz/play

Nga mihi

Stacey Sutherland

LUNCHTIME CLUBS

There are many activities that children can get involved with at Matua School. We have groups such as Kapa Haka and choir, alongside a large range of optional lunchtime clubs that our wonderful teachers run. If you are interested to know what is available, we now have a page on our website that displays what is happening. Follow THIS LINK to check it out.

LUNCH ORDERS – WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY

Day change to Wednesday from Term 2!

Now with two days of ezlunch each week, your kids will have a great variety of healthy and tasty school lunches. Simply order by clicking here.

Order (or cancel) any time before 9am on the day or schedule in advance.

Order anytime before cut-off or schedule in advance. Lunch will be delivered to school at lunchtime on a Wednesday for Pita Pit or Friday for Subway.ezLunch orders are made online through your myKindo account. You can order lunch by simply going to www.mykindo.co.nz

Click here to view the menu.

Help? Visit support.mykindo.co.nz or tel. 09-869 5200 Mon-Fri 8 am to 4 pm.

Find out more ezlunch.co.nz or mykindo.co.nz

OUR SCHOOL APP

Our School App

We have a new school app to keep you up to date with events and notifications. Click on the button below to check it out.

Click Me

SETTING UP KINDO

Setting up with Kindo

Kindo is our new prefered payment and permission system. To help you learn how it works, we’ve added their new help sheet and video. We hope it helps.

Kindo Help

KINDO VIDEO HELP

COMMUNITY NOTICES

CHILDREN’S HOLIDAY ART WORKSHOP and HOT SWIM

Once again Lynne Sinclair Taylor is running this popular workshop for ages 7 to 12. The children will have fun while learning about colour and techniques. All art supplies provided. Limited numbers. Optional warm swim at end of class.

Wed 13th October 10am to 3.30pm

Cost: $65 ($45 for additional children in family)

Where: Lynne’s home studio, 15 Hartwell Place, Matua, Tauranga.

To enrol: Contact Lynne on 021 121 9864 or lynnestaylor@gmail.com by Saturday 9^h October.

Lynne has been tutoring children and adults for over 25 years.