FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S LAPTOP
Kia ora koutou and welcome to the 2020 school year.
I feel extremely privileged and excited to be joining the Matua School community. We have had a wonderful start, with teachers and students all enjoying this season of building new relationships and looking ahead to an exciting year to come.
This week we held a Mihi Whakatau, welcoming new staff (including myself), new students and their whanau to Matua School. These occasions are always special as we formally acknowledge the coming together of new families within our community. I was impressed with the way the school engaged in this event, reflecting a real heart and passion for the place. As part of this we also welcomed Mrs Anna Mason who is teaching in Room 16. Thank you to those parents who were able to attend and support on the day.
In the lead up to school starting our teaching team have been busy setting up rooms and also engaging in a range of professional learning. The whole staff gathered together to work with a facilitator from Waikato University who led us in the area of Health and Physical Education. This was timely as we have a special focus on this aspect of the NZ Curriculum in Term 1. We also worked with two facilitators from the Ministry of Education on Attachment Theory. We explored how attachment difficulties for children can impact on learning and behavior at school and considered approaches we could take to support children struggling in this area.
Thank you again for making me feel so welcome at Matua School. I have had the opportunity to meet a number of parents in the last few days and look forward to many years of working together for the benefit of your children.
Nga mihi,
Marcus Norrish
Principal
LEARNER CONFERENCES
Our parent / teachers interviews will be held in week 3 this term, on Tuesday the 18th February. School will be closed for instruction but SKIDS will be available if you require childcare for the day. Email matua@skids.co.nz to book a place for your student.
To book your conference, go online to ‘schoolinterviews.co.nz’ and click on Matua School. Enter the code – 4j3pu. Find your students teacher and book your time slot. One booking per student please. If you have more than one student, it’s a good idea to leave some time in between each interview rather than booking back to back time slots. The teachers may be running a little over time on some occasions.
SCHOOL INFORMATION
Staff Car Park – The staff car park is for staff use only and not to be used as a drop off point for your child. We like to keep our children safe in an around our community. Please encourage your children to walk, ride or scooter to school. Allow more time in the morning to drop your children off if you need to drive. Park safely in the designated areas and please do not park on yellow lines or in front of neighbors drive ways.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Signing children in and out of school – If you collect your child/children early or drop them off late, please remember to sign your child in and out of school at the office. We do always need to know where our students are, in case of an emergency. This is for the safety and well being of our students.
Change of address/phone number – If you have recently moved house, changed home, work or mobile phone numbers, please could you contact the office and let us know. We can then update your students details. We need to be able to contact you in case of an emergency . Either email the office on office@matua.school.nz or phone us on 07 576 9027.
Absent Pupils – If your child is going to be absent from school for any reason, please notify the office (even if you have already let your child’s teacher know). Your child’s teacher might also be away sick and the office will not know. You can either send an email to office@matua.school.nz or you can phone 07 5769027 and leave a message on the absentee line. Please leave your child’s name and room number, your name and the reason for their absence. If we do not hear from you, we do need to call and find out where they are. This is for the safety and well being of your child. If we are unable to make contact and do not know where your child is, they do get marked as truant.
School Hours – We ask that children do not arrive at school before 8.15am each day. Supervision of children is provided from 8.30am each morning. The school takes no responsibility for the supervision of children in the school grounds, earlier than this.
School does begin at 9am and we ask for all children to be in their classroom by this time. It can be incredibly disruptive for the teachers and students if children are late on a regular basis.
Sun Hats – Children must wear a sun hat during term 4 & 1. If they do not have a hat, they will be asked to stay in the shade. Please also sunblock your children before they come to school each morning.
Thank you for your co operation
TEACHER ONLY DAYS
ENVIRO CLUB
GARDEN TO TABLE
PTA NEWS
Welcome back to school, the PTA hope you all had a fun filled break. Also a big welcome to all our new families.
Our first PTA meeting will be held on Tuesday 11th February at 7pm in the staffroom. We would love to see some new faces come along to the meetings so pop in if you have time and find out what we have planned for the year.
Our school gala is on April 4th this year. We will be collecting garage sale items from now until then. As soon as we know which class you can drop it off to, we will let you know.
The PTA are also looking for a company who could print off our raffle tickets for us. If this is something you could do please email matuapta@hotmail.com.
Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook under Friends of Matua School PTA.
Matua School PTA
SPORTS NEWS
BIKING TO SCHOOL
We are noticing that children are biking to school by themselves at a very young age.
PARKING AROUND SCHOOL – DROP OFF & PICK UP
One of the best ways to ease traffic congestion is to reduce vehicular traffic.
Encourage students, caregivers and staff to come to school by active travel:
- walking
- cycling
- Scooting
- walking school bus
- car pooling
Active travel also contributes overall to better health outcomes and increased road safety awareness skills
Ministry of Education
CHOOSE SAFETY OVER CONVENIENCE. PROTECT ALL OUR CHILDREN
Parking
- If you have senior or middle students, please consider Park & Stride (parking away and walking) so the limited parking around our school is more available for specific families. i.e. junior school, expectant and newborn parent’s, families with disabilities.
- If you need to drive your child to school, for the safety of your child and the local community, ensure that you drive and park safely, legally and considerately.
- No parking or picking up and dropping off students on broken yellow lines
- No parking on footpaths
- No double parking
- No parking that obstructs entry or exit to any driveway
CHOOSE SAFETY OVER CONVENIENCE. PROTECT ALL OUR CHILDREN
One of the best ways to ease traffic congestion is to reduce vehicular traffic.
HEAD LICE
LIBRARY
TERM DATES 2020
Term 1, 2020 – Monday 3rd February – Thursday 9th April
Thursday 6th February – Waitangi Day. School will be closed.
Term 2 – Tuesday 28th April – Friday 3rd July (Mon 27th is Anzac Day Observed)
Term 3 – Monday 20th July – Friday 25th September
Term 4 – Monday 12th October – Friday 18th December
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.
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 VIDEO HELP
PITA PIT LUNCH
Every Friday your child is able to order a Pita Pit lunch, which is then delivered to school just in time for lunch. You need to place an order via ‘Kindo’ , by 9am on Friday morning. Please see the menu below. It does say ‘every day’ but we do only offer this option on a Friday
COMMUNITY NOTICES
