Welcome to learning through collaboration!

Welcome to our new whanau at Merrin School. 

As new teachers to Merrin School, both Mr. Wallis (Geoff) and Matua Peri (Peri Marks) are going to tell you a small bit about themselves to begin the next two newsletters.

Matua Peri

Family is very important to me. I am Fijian, Tongan and Maori (Te Arawa) and am actively involved with my whakapapa. I have three younger siblings, two brothers (who live in Tennessee and Auckland) and a sister (who is moving to Hamilton to study at Waikato University). My parents continue to live in Rotorua so between all of us, they travel a fair bit to see us all.

After High School, I studied and graduated from Lincoln University with a B.R.M and moved to Auckland to work for a opal and pearl jewellery manufacturing company. Two years, later, I moved back to Christchurch to study at NZGSE to become a primary school teacher. 

Learning

During Week 1, we have been developing some of the skills to collaborate with others, we have been getting to know others within our whanau groups and within our hapu. 

We have had learning experiences about the history of New Zealand and the development of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi). This activity has helped us to develop our Code of Conduct, that will help shape our learning behaviours. We have also participated in a Marshmallow and Pasta BP Challenge. This led to discussions about what we know about our inquiry question "How do we learn to get a better understanding of our world?"

IXL Maths

IXL is an opportunity for students to reinforce learning in Mathematics and the strands. The ideal is to practise Maths little and often rather than in hour long sessions. Obviously this may be unmanageable if your child already has other commitments, therefore you may wish for your child to play catch up at a time that is more suitable. Our end of year results confirm that the children who are committed to consolidating their learning with IXL have a better understanding of mathematical concepts, achieving higher levels.

Reminders for Week 2

-  Remember that all students require  books for personal reading after interval. These can be for leisure or information

- School hats are compulsory this time of year and need to have navy blue wide brims please. For the safety of children who forget their hats, they will be required to sit under shade umbrellas during break times. 

MERRIN PTA COMMUNICATION TREE

The Merrin School PTA are wanting to try and make our messages and notices electronic this year.

To help make or emails separate and standout from any school notices we would like to set up a communication tree. Other schools in New Zealand have tried this with success.

The idea of this is to have a nominated parent from each class room who would have the email addresses of the main contact person(s) for each child in that class.

PTA notices would then be received form this nominated person instead of the PTA having to go to the the office to get each message emailed out, which are sometimes delayed. Or spend many many hours photo copying and delivering to the classrooms.

The nominated person would have the understanding that these personal details were kept confidential. When emailing the class the addresses would be Blind Carbon Copied so other emails would not be seen.

Please email back your teacher if you DO NOT want your information given to the nominated person during the week of 15th February.

Unless you notify your child's teacher we will assume that we have your permission to obtain your details from your child's teacher.

We want to get this under way by as soon as we can.

Any questions please email the PTA - pta@merrin.school.nz