Matua Admin
Kia ora koutou,
What a wonderful afternoon of cross country! The weather made things a little difficult, but in the end, it was great to see all the children take part. Thank you to the many parents and extended family who made it down to cheer on our runners. Your children love having you there, and the atmosphere that it brings to the event is fantastic. Cross Country offers a mix of competition and personal goals. Some children are out to win, while others are there to extend their personal best. Congratulations to all those who qualified for inter-school cluster competitions, those who placed in their race, and those who got out there and ran the race for fun or improvement.
I’d like to make a special mention of our PTA, who supplied the sausages and ice blocks. With the changing weather, the team were forced to relocate to the school to ensure that everyone could get what they had ordered. As a result, the team worked hard right through the event and missed out on being at the park and part of the fun. We have a fantastic PTA group who do so much for Matua School – so a big shout out to those who supported us. As an aside…did you spot our new gazebos yesterday? Thanks to the PTA, we have purchased four new Matua School gazebos that will be a brilliant asset for many events in the calendar.
Busy Mornings!
School attendance is currently a hot topic in the media, and it is true that regular attendance is a strong indicator of success in school. Part of good attendance is being on time, however, we are noticing an increasing number of students who are arriving late for school. The beginning of the school day is an important part of setting the scene and ensuring children are in the right mindset for learning. We know as adults that if we rush into a meeting or learning situation, it is difficult to switch from the busyness of the morning to being focused and ready for learning. This is also true for the children.
We recommend that children arrive early for school. Arriving about 15 minutes before the bell goes allows enough time to settle into their environment and prepare for the day. Please set your children up for success by having them at school on time, every day. If you want to see your child’s current attendance rates, including the number of late arrivals, they can be viewed in HERO. Anything below 90% is considered low attendance by government expectations.
Ngā mihi nui
Marcus Norrish
Principal
TŪĪ TALKS – EPISODE 10…Follow, Like & Subscribe on Spotify!
Tūī Talks Episode 9 is now available on Spotify. Join us for our birthday episode – we are 10 episodes old! The theme for the episode is storytelling and we are joined in this special episode by Mrs DG our Librarian and Mrs Tinholt. We also have a guest appearance from Room 1 and 2 …HIT PLAY!
MAHURI TEAM
Congratulations to these amazing Māhuri team members who were awarded a certificate at our assembly this week.
We are delighted to have been able to celebrate your recent achievements
Helen is Matua School’s Premium Sponsor
Want to buy or sell a house? Give her a call – she’s really nice!
SPONSORSHIP 2024
We are thrilled to have a number of businesses that support Matua School as sponsors. We are approaching a time when we have opportunities for new sponsors to partner with Matua School. If you are a business leader and would like to explore these opportunities further, please see the information below and/or contact me at marcusn@matua.school.nz
RAKAU RUGBY
Yr 5 & 6 Girls and Boys Rugby has started and thekids are getting ready for their first tournament later in the term.
It’s not too late tojoin, all children are welcome. They just need a mouthguard.
MATHS PARENT INFORMATION EVENING
Thanks to the many parents who joined us for the Maths Evening last week. If you weren’t able to make it, the evening is available to view on YouTube.
EPRO 8
Epro8 Engineering problem solving challenge qualifying teams competed at the inter- school challenge at The Tauranga Intermediate. Both teams competed extremely well and it was very close right to the end, narrowly missing out qualifying for the Semi-finals.
Team 1: Team 2:
Viktor Danylo
Oscar Harriet
Benny Charlie
Sammy Inhye
WETLANDS DISCOVERY
The Rākau team enjoyed learning about our local wetlands area on a Wetlands Discovery programme at Gordon Carmichaels Reserve.
The students identified various regions of the wetlands, the vegetation, and also many types of wildlife. They conducted experiments to measure aspects of the water quality. They could then make choices about whether this wetland was healthy or unhealthy.
Great learning, wonderful team work, and nobody fell in!
SUPPORT STAFF MORNING TEA
We held a support staff morning tea last week, to show our appreciation and thanks to all our wonderful support staff.
They do an amazing job within school and we don’t know what we would do without them. Thank you so much.
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 oftheir responsibility as architects, a deep understanding of people, place, and culture are at the heart oftheir designprocesses.
SPORT
The last of our winter sports will start this weekend and I’m sure our netball girls are raring to go with their brand new netball dresses!
Last week we had 12 students compete in the annual Amazing Race. Unfortunatelythe weather didn’t play ball this year and our teams were forced to complete the race in the rain, which didn’t deter their enthusiasm or excitement for the activities. We are yet to hear the results, but well done to our 12 racers who played the game well despite the conditions.
The school cross country was anotherhuge success, especially after having to postpone due to the weather. Huge thanks to our PTA for the sausage sizzle and all our parent support on the day.
Congratulations to our 48 runners from Years 4-6 who qualified for the East Cluster Cross Country which will take place at Waipuna Park next week.
Good luck to all our teams for the coming weeks.
Stacey Sutherland
POOL KEYS
Don’t forget to return your pool key to the school office and collect your bond money.
The pool will be open again in Term 4.
PTA
LIBRARY
Displays are a fabulous way of highlighting books or authors. Sometimeschildrenfindit difficult to select books when they are tucked hidden away on shelves.
Classes around the school exhibit special books and topics of interest in the library, and at other times our School Librarians promotetheir favourite author, books or book series.
Ruby and Zoe are displayingforeverpopular David Walliams books and interestinginformation about the authorhimself.
UPCOMING MOBILE DENTAL VISIT – TERM 2
The mobile dental unit will be onsite at school from Monday 29thApril to Friday 24thMay
Our dental team will be seeing themost overduetamariki/children during this visit.
The dental team will notify the parents and families prior to their child’s dental appointment.
When you receive this notification, please contact the team to update any contact details, confirm medical details or renew permissions for examination and dental x-rays.
Current service demands and delays weigh heavily on our teams and your kindness and support is appreciated.
If you have any queries or urgent dental concerns, contact (07 576 6752) or 0800 TALK TEETH for further help and advice.
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.
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, 2024 – Monday 22nd July – Friday 27th September
Learner Conferences – Friday 26th July. School closed for instruction
Term 4, 2024 – Monday 14th October – Friday 20th December (12:30pm finish)
Teacher Only Day – Friday 25st October
Labour Day – Monday 28th October
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.
bookKindo Help
KINDO VIDEO HELP
MATUA PLAYGROUND UPDATE
An upgrade for the Matua Park playground will begin on Monday, 29 April.
In addition to swings and a slide for toddlers, the new play space will include a large basket swing and a timber climbing frame with a slide. It also features bike and scooter racks, a new picnic table and built-in seating around the play area. It’ll be great for children of all ages!
The playground is scheduled to be completed in mid-July, weather-dependent. If you have any questions, please call 07 577 7000or emailkylie.sisley@tauranga.govt.nz.
CAPE EGMONT VIRTUAL HALF MARATHON 2024
Want to walk or run in your own time, but also be part of a fantastic event? Then we would love you to join us.
The Cape Egmont Virtual Half Marathon offers three distance options – 5 km, 10 km and 21 km. Which can be completed any time anywhere from the 1st to the 31st of July 2024. Simply record your time via Strava, Map my run, Fit Bit or screenshot and upload through our website. Every finisher receives a medal and all money raised goes to the Taranaki Cancer Society and the Taranaki Men Can Exercise Group. To help those in our province affected by cancer.
ENTER AT:www.capeegmonthalf.com ENQUIREScapeegmonthalf@gmail.com
POCKET SIZED PLAY ACTIVITES
Free pocket-sized play events for kids in Tauranga city centre previously held in Red Square is moving indoorstoTe Ao Mārama –Tauranga Library for the cooler months. There’s a different free hands-on activity for tamariki to enjoy every Saturday from 10.30am – 1.30pm. Check out the upcoming sessions and head along to join in the fun!
- May 25 – Facepainting
- June 1 – Bookmark making
- June 8 – Ozobot robots coding
All parking in the city centre is free on weekends. Proudly brought to you by Tauranga City Council. Head to:mytauranga.co.nz/citycentrefor all the details.
