Heron Herald Term 3, Week 9, 2024

Kia ora koutou,

This week we celebrated a term of learning with Market Day!  We loved seeing excitement in the children as they proudly displayed and sold their products.  It all started with children having the opportunity to take on roles in a small business.  This included leadership, creative, financial and practical roles that highlight the importance of teamwork and range of skills and talents that we all have.  In these small groups, children came up with a business plan and worked towards bringing a product to market.  Along the way, children were paid Matua Tuits (our local currency) for their work, which they had the opportunity to spend on Market Day.  We are always impressed with the creative ideas and commitment to a task that our tamariki show when they are given the opportunity to take some ownership of their learning.  As parents and whānau you can be proud of your kids!

A massive thank you to all parents and whānau who came out to Market Day, bought Matua Tuits and made the event such a successful one.  Ngā mihi.

You may be wondering if the event made any money. At the start of the term, each business was given a small start-up fund.  This was funded with real NZ$ from school funds.  This enabled each business to purchase resources.  Budgets were tight and technically everything cost money for the students, including an ‘import tax’ for anything recycled from home.  Throughout 2024 we have had a school-wide focus on SERVICE, with a particular lens on how we can serve others and our community.  The children have known from when they started that any profits from their business would be donated to a charity that the children in the school select.  Next week we will be deciding as a whole school who that will be.  At this stage, we don’t know how much profit was made, however, we’ll let you know once all the business financials have been completed!

Thanks again for supporting the school by being part of our community in this way.  We hope that your children loved the experience, and have grown in confidence in what they can contribute to a team…and maybe one day, they’ll start a successful business that will support you in your retirement!

Teacher Only Day – Friday 25th October

With the many curriculum changes that are being implemented over the next 18 months, we are anticipating several government-mandated Teacher Only Days in 2025.  We are in the early stages of planning the school calendar for next year, and will update you on planned days when they are confirmed.

We also have a Teacher Only Day coming up early next term.  School will be closed for students on Friday 25th October during which time teachers will be engaging in professional learning.  All primary and intermediate schools in our local area have the same Teacher Only Day.  We understand that these days can be an inconvenience to families, however, they are necessary to ensure teachers can deliver high-quality teaching and learning for tamariki.

Ngā mihi nui

Marcus Norrish
Principal

TŪĪ TALKS – EPISODE 12…Follow, Like & Subscribe on Spotify!

Joining us for this episode we have Canoe NZ Coach Gordon Walker and K4 Gold Medalist Olivia Brett. They share their wealth of knowledge, Olympic experience and some future goals.

Hit play now to listen to these incredible and inspirational athletes.

Helen is Matua School’s Premium Sponsor

Want to buy or sell a house?  Give her a call – she’s really nice!

RUGBY EXCHANGE

Our Rugby teams competed in the annual Pillans exchange a couple of weeks back. Everyone had a great time, mingling with their opponents and enjoying the food at the after match. The Girls had a win, the Yr 5 Boys drew, and the Yr 6 boys had a loss.
Last week, the Yr 5 & 6 boys competed in the 16 team Kakahu Peke Peke Tournament at Mitchell Park. Whilst results didn’t go our way, the boys never gave up and always had a positive attitude. The boys were awarded the Sportsmanship award which is a credit to their efforts. The Yr 5 & 6 girls rugby tournament is next week.

JUMP JAM 

Congratulations to our awesome Jump Jam teams who participated in the Strictly Jump Jam Competitions on 8th September. You rocked!

Our Year 5 & 6 team received a Merit Award in Technical Execution. Tino pai!

Our Year 3 & 4 received a Merit Award for Presentation and also came 2nd place in their category. Ka rawe!

KAPA HAKA AT RADIUS MATUA

For Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori our mighty Kapa Haka roopu walked next door to perform a bracket for the residents at Radius Matua Lifecare. They had their biggest turnout for any event apparently and absolutely loved our dynamic set. The residents sung Pōkarekare Ana for us as a thank you. There were many comments about how they all wished that they had the opportunity to learn Te Reo Māori in their schooling. Huge thanks to Miss Thompson and Mr Hantler for their work with this group. Our students absolutely shone – i pīataata ngā kaiwaiata o tō tātou kura.

Designgroup Stapleton Elliott (DGSE) is an award-winning architect practice with studios spread across Aotearoa. Formed by a large team with diverse backgrounds and skill sets, their services include Architecture, Interior Architecture, Master Planning, and Landscape Architecture. Acknowledging the weight of their responsibility as architects, a deep understanding of people, place, and culture are at the heart of their design processes.

LIBRARY

A big thank you to Mina for her interactive display about the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics.  Children and teachers alike tested their knowledge with Mina’s multichoice questions.  What was the Paris Mascot?  How many sports events were in the 2024 Paris Olympics?  Paris gave us a spectacular and exciting Olympic Games!!
Tauranga City Libraries
Katie from the School Outreach Programme,  Tauranga City Libraries  spent the morning with several of our middle school classrooms this week introducing picture books and celebrating storytelling and literacy.
Just a reminder that the Tauranga City Libraries also offer a range of school holiday activities such as creating colour monsters, stitching and making pocket pets, and navigating sphero bolt robots around obstacle courses.

SPORT

As another term comes to an end and we get ready to wind down for the holidays can I please remind players to return sports uniforms before the holidays please. Term 3 has been busy! We have finished the term with our annual Kakahu Pekepeke Rugby tournament, East Cluster Speeches and WBOP Mountain Biking.
Congratulations to our boys rugby team who were awarded the sportsmanship award at the Kakahu Pekepeke Rugby tournament. Mr Hull said they all played well on the day and deserved their award. Ka rawe team.
Well done to our very own Annabelle and Indi who represented Matua School at the East Cluster Speech Competition. By girls did exceptionally well with some great speech topics and should be proud of their efforts and delivery at the competition. It’s a hard ask to get up in front of your peers and speak and then to deliver a speech in front of total strangers is also quite daunting. Well done girls. We are proud of you!
This week I took a group of 7 riders up to Summerhill Mountain Bike Park to compete in the WBOP Mountain Biking event. We had a bit of a rough day all round but our riders ripped it up and rode so well. The course is quite tricky, and with only one of the team members having been there before they were all so enthusiastic and upbeat about the whole day. Congratulations goes to Georgia who placed 2nd overall in the year 4 girls section of the day. A huge effort from everyone, they should all be very proud of themselves.
Sports teams for Term 4 are being organised as I write this so you should hear from me in week 10 with all the teams. Just a reminder that your child might not be in the same team as Term 1 or with all the same people. I do my best with the information I receive and it’s a huge job to place over 100 children into 5 different sporting codes with all their friends while keeping it fair and reasonable for all involved. It is just primary school sport, this isn’t the Olympics. Our children are there to have a great time and get exposure to new and exciting things.
Bring on the warmer weather!
Nga mihi,
Stacey Sutherland

 

PTA NEWS

A huge THANK YOU to all our amazing sponsors of Quiz Night 2024.
We are so looking forward to this event on Saturday and couldn’t do it without all these local businesses who donate generously to sponsor Quiz Rounds as well as items for our amazing auctions up for grabs on the night.

PARKING AROUND SCHOOL

The local council will be patrolling the streets before and after school, and ticketing anyone parking illegally.

Please park safely when dropping off and picking up your students.

We have also been informed that as  of 01/10/2024 the fine (tariff) for unlawfully parking in a disabled park is going up from $150 to $750.

Parked in area reserved for disabled persons.

(Effective date = 1 Oct 2024)                       (Infringement = $750)

Please be considerate and park in designated areas rather than on yellow lines and across driveways.

SKIDS

Skids are running a school holiday program at Matua School over the next school holidays.

Check out the poster below.

They are also offering up to 80% discounts on childcare through their new community care initiative. Please see the attached letter for more details.

HEADLICE

It’s that perennial problem – Head Lice! We have a few cases across the classrooms.

If you could check your child’s hair tonight then there is a better chance of nipping the problem in the bud. It’s tricky when it gets to a cycle of reinfecting each other.

Can you please also ensure your child’s hair is tied up at school until the outbreak subsides.

Below are some ideas for prevention of head lice you may find helpful.

You can prevent head lice  by…

1. Brush hair every evening before going to bed

Brushing dislodges and/or damages head lice. Damaged/injured head lice cannot lay eggs. • The hair needs to be brushed with the head hanging down

• Use a firm bristled brush

• Brush from the nape of the neck to the hair end ten times

• Brush from the right ear across the head ten times

• Brush from the left ear across the head ten times

2. Wet combing method weekly

This will help pick up head lice before they become established.

• Wash hair with ordinary shampoo

• Put lots of conditioner on the hair. While the hair is full of conditioner and wet, comb through the  hair from the roots with a fine toothed comb purchased from the chemist (often called a ‘nit comb’)

• Clear the comb of lice between each stroke

• Repeat this routine every 1-2 days for 2 weeks

• If no lice are found, repeat on a weekly basis

3. Use own brush and comb

Everyone in the family should use their own brush and comb.

Please click on the link below for more information and guidelines from the MOE

https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/wellbeing/head-lice/#stayawayfromschool

SCHOOL HOURS

A friendly reminder that school is not open until 8.30am. If you require childcare before these hours, please contact SKIDS either by email – matua@skids.co.nz, phone – 027 586 0408, or book online – www.skids.co.nz/Matua.

SCHOOL INFORMATION

LUNCH ORDERS – EVERY FRIDAY

Lunch orders are available for delivery to Matua School each Friday.

SUBWAY

Simply order your SUBWAY lunch online through you myKindo account by CLICKING HERE

Order (or cancel) any time before 9:00am on the day or schedule in advance.

Help? Visit support.mykindo.co.nz or call 09-869 5200 Mon-Fri, 8:00am to 4:00pm.

TERM DATES 2024

Term 1, 2024 – Wednesday 7th February 2024 – Friday 12th April

Waitangi Day – Tuesday 6th February

Learner Conferences – Friday 1st March. School will be closed for instruction.

Easter Weekend – Friday 29th March until Tuesday 2nd April

Term 2, 2024 Monday 29th April – Friday 5th July

Teacher Only Day #1 –  Friday 31st May

King’s Birthday – Monday 3rd June

Matariki – Friday 28th June

Term 3, 2024Monday 22nd July – Friday 27th September

Term 4, 2024Monday 14th October – Friday 20th December (12:30pm finish)

Teacher Only Day –  Friday 25st October

Labour Day – Monday 28th October

First Day Of Term for 2025 – Monday 3rd February 2025

SETTING UP KINDO

Setting up with Kindo

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

KINDO VIDEO HELP

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Lights on Tauranga – City centre light trail comes to life

Tauranga city centre will be alive with colour and vibrancy as the lights switch on for a never-before-seen light trail launching in the city centre on Friday, 20th September.

‘Lights on Tauranga’ showcases eight stunning installations by renowned light artist Angus Muir, and eight lit-up shop front windows highlighting the ‘Reimagine Tauranga’ exhibition where over 220 local school children have worked alongside well-known New Zealand artist, Sara Hughes.

Also featured in the trail are light projections, four larger-than-life origami ‘paper pals’ and our much-loved permanent lighting features at Tunks Reserve and Wharf Street.

If you head along on a Saturdays between 5pm – 8pm, you’ll be treated to some extra special glowing fun in Red Square with free glow in the dark face painting, have a glow circus and more.

The free self-guided light trail runs from 20 September to 6 October 2024 with lights on between 4.30pm – 10.30pm every night. Remember daylight savings and school holidays start halfway through, so if you’ve got little ones, you can see the trail in all its glory earlier in the first week.

Visit  www.whatsontauranga.co.nz/light-trail for all the details.

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