Term 2 ends

Kia ora,

What an eventful term it has been here at Maungaraki School. Our school has been hugely impacted by sickness again this term, many of you will have experienced this within your households. Thank you for the support you have offered us as we navigated not only Covid this term, but also the Flu, tummy bugs and other nasties. It has been a real challenge and we could not have done it without your support. 

We will be sending mid year reports out on the first Monday of Term 3. The staff have worked extremely hard on getting these reports together and I would like to acknowledge the effort that has gone into getting these created in such a difficult term. These reports will be complemented with an opportunity for you to meet with your child's classroom teacher in week 3.

A huge debt of gratitude to the staff here at Maungaraki School. They have worked tirelessly, often in very trying conditions to keep the school running. It has really taken a team effort to keep our place open for instruction this term and I am privileged to work alongside some incredible people who care deeply for our tamariki and community. Thank you to our Board of Trustees also, they have prioritised wellness at our school and made sure that we have the resources needed to run effectively. Their support has been invaluable at this time. Let's hope term 3 is kinder to us.

We have managed to continue on with some incredible initiatives this term. Our Reo-a-thon was a huge success. This really came alive in our school with children and staff making sure that the words and phrases learnt were used in everyday life. It was incredible to see the impact this had, we had all kinds of support from our local and wider community to help us learn words, with even the Prime Minister getting involved. Thank you to all of you who raised money for this event - we hope to have some final numbers of words learnt and monies raised out to you very shortly. Special thanks to The Home and School and to Hazel Andis for her drive and passion in this project.

We had an incredible movie night at school last Friday. With over 230 children attending it was a success that spread so much laughter. This was the first time we have run a movie night and there have been plenty of requests for another one. Our Home and School make initiatives like this happen and I would like to acknowledge their mahi on this event. Many, many, many bags of lollies and popcorn were made by our amazing Home and School to keep every happy on the night. Thank you Home and School.

The last two weeks have seen our swimming programme take centre stage. Swimming is such an important skill to have in Aotearoa and it has been neat to see the way that skills have developed over the sessions at the pool. Despite the challenges placed in front of them our students were great learners, this was a common statement from pool instructors and visiting pool patrons alike. Our swimming programme concludes with Swimming Sports on Friday for those who have opted in - I am looking forward to the House Teams Vs Teachers relay as last year the teachers were well beaten. A special thanks to Matua Sam for his organisational skills in making sure swimming has run like clockwork.

Our school building work for our new library is well underway. We do apologise for the inconvenience this is causing with parking out the front of the school. We are hopeful that in the next two weeks this pressure will be eased and more parks will be restored. Over the school holidays we have a lot of demolition work happening so please do take care if you come down to school. This is a long term project so there will be disruption over the next six months. If you have any questions or concerns around this please do contact me.

Unfortunately we are farewelling two staff at the end of this term. Chloe Rahui-Durkin and Tania Tyrer are heading off on new adventures. Chloe is leaving us to travel with her family. Chloe has made a huge difference to our place and is going to missed by so many students and staff around our kura.

Tania has accepted a role to open up a new classroom at Boulcott School for the remainder of the year. Tania has been an amazing teacher, involved in so many classrooms throughout the year, it is no wonder that Boulcott snapped her up.
We will miss you both.

Keep safe over the holiday break, we look forward to seeing you back next term.

No reira, kia kaha ra
Shane Robinson