Our Tuakana Whetū Team (Year 7 & 8) invite Year 6 students and families to their open night to be held on 14th of August (7 - 8.00 p.m.) in Room 14. This is a showcase of the learning and opportunities available at Merrin for this whānau group.

The first two weeks in Mahuta have been really busy with lots of exciting things going on!

As the end of Week 2 draws to a close the weeks continue to be busy,with lots of exciting things happening! It has been a big last two weeks for our tamariki with swimming and we hope they have a good rest over the weekend. 

Mahuta has been busy preparing for their market day which will be held in Term 4 on Thursday 2 November

It is hard to believe that there are only two more weeks of Term 3 left, it has truely flown by here in Mahuta.

News from Mahuta this week

With only 3 weeks to go, we still have lots to do! 

Today was Fun Friday. We have had a funny but very exciting day. All the children have been treated to Flat Man. See below for more details...

Respect other people's feelings. Even if it does not mean anything to you, it could mean everything to them.

We have a busy week with lots of intensive learning happening. 

"Everybody is a genius but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life thinking it is stupid" Albert Einstein.

We have recently been learning the Ukulele in Music with Angelique.

The students are settling back into routine and we have had some awesome research happening for our Ako Bases this week.

We hope you had a good two weeks despite the chilly weather! 

It was lovely to see you all at our Student Led Conferences and for you to see what your children have been learning. With only one week to go we still have some fun filled activities coming up. 

Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei. Follow the little blue bow to you as a high mountains.

There has been lots of exciting things happening in Mahuta this week and the students are continuing to work hard, with the end of term now in sight. Thank you to all the parents and whanau that came along to the student led conferences earlier in the week.

Term 2 is drawing to a close and students will be sharing their learning with their families next week.  Student led conferences take the form of a conversation between the student, their parents and support from the child's whānau teacher. This approach gives students an opportunity to share with their parents their growth as a learner. They accept accountability and responsibility for their progress and achievement, and demonstrate a growing understanding of their development as independent learners.

We have had to make some changes to our upcoming Hangi. Please read on for more information.

With writing continuing to be a focus in Mahuta, we will continue to celebrate pieces of writing from our students. 

On the evening of Wednesday 7th June, (the third attempt), Merrin students and their families finally had their wishes granted and the weather decided to be kind.

We feel it is important to know what makes a good friend so some of our students have come up with a recipe. When you are making this recipe you need to have fun and share our Merrin Values.

With only 3 weeks until the end of the term, we are busy right until the end. 

We are delighted to inform you that to celebrate Matariki this year, Merrin School will be laying a Hangi. 

This week in Mandarin, we learned about the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and we made our own paper dragon boats.

Next week is a short week due to Queen's Birthday on Monday. The school will be closed for this public holiday.

Wow! We are going to be hitting the halfway point in the term already!

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” ― Stephen King

Kia Ora Whanau. Another busy week passes and we can all sense that winter is just around the corner - it may arrive this weekend!  Mahuta students have been busy with Winter Sport, Science Week added to our busy weekly programme.

This term we are doing a building challenge each week. 

We have had another busy week in Pataitai and the children are beginning to settle into their school work again.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." Dr. Seuss

We hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and you all managed to get some well earned time with your children. We have a lot of events coming up this term so make sure you keep an eye on the calendar each week.

Today many parents arrived to view our artwork, poetry, writing and inquiries.  It was wonderful to have you with us and we thank you for taking the time to come and visit our learning spaces.   

Students learning to play the gamelan in music during our rotations. What an amazing sound!

Another busy and very wet week is over and we are all hoping that the weather will be kind to us for our last week of Term 1. It has flown by very quickly!!

We are flying through the weeks now. Only 2 more weeks until the holidays.

In Pataitai Pod we have started a Values Nomination system. This week we celebrated the second group of children who have shown our 5 Merrin Values.

The year 4,s to year 8's ran their cross country on Friday 31st March.  A great afternoon was had by all and all of our school values; Manaakitanga, Kitiakitanga, Ako, Whanaungatanga and Rangitiratanga, were on display by our Merrin students.

"He aha te mea nui o te ao Māku e kī atu he tangata, he tangata, he tangata!" - What is the most important thing in the world? It is people! it is people! it is people!

Students teaching students is a powerful tool in teaching and learning.  This week we take a closer look at what is happening in Mahuta to create a climate where ako is valued. In the photo above you can see Caitlyn as a tuakana.  She is leading a girls book group by sharing the most exciting part of her novel to engage the girls in Reading.  Inferential and literal questioning followed, then Caitlyn shared her analysis of the novel's lead character - Granny.

Week 7 has been busy and the children are still building on their knowledge and abilities in becoming a better learner.

Another busy week in Mahuta and Friday seems to come around very quickly each week.

We are now in the swing of things and are fine tuning the routines in our learning.

On Monday and Tuesday, Pataitai went to North New Brighton to learn about our shoreline.

We had a great start to this week with our visit to the North New Brighton Beach on Monday and Tuesday. See our article about our visit on our Pataitai/Mahuta Publication.

Kia ora whanau. It is quite hard to believe we are already at the end of week 5! Term One is certainly flying by and your fabulous children have had another busy and fun filled week of learning.

Nau mai haere mai to our whanau of Mahuta! This week, we will begin our celebrations of New Zealand's annual celebration of the sea. This years theme is “Toiora te Moana – Toiora te Tangata – Healthy Seas, Healthy People”.

Another week has flown by and the children are becoming settled into our routines and rotations. This week we have been writing information reports on Merrin School. We hope to publish some of them once we have completed them.

This week we have been learning about how we can be a good Digital Citizen in the Pod.

This is our last weekly hail for the term. This term has flown by quickly and we have been so impressed by all the learning that has happened in Pataitai Pod.

Over the last few weeks, we have been working hard to settle into routines, complete assessment and get to know each other. Next week we hit the ground running...

In Week 2, we went to South New Brighton Surf Club for our beach education day.

If you missed it or were unable to attend our Information Evening on Wednesday, here is what we talked about...

The first week has flown by and we have been amazed with how our new Year 4 students have settled into Pataitai Pod.

One more week to go!!!

SLIP, SLOP, SLAP and WRAP - SunSmart NZ 

In Mahuta, we have been learning about Natural Disasters this term.

StarSmart is a day for Merrin School to create awareness of sun protection and water safety for the Spring and Summer months.  

Think like a proton, they're always positive.

Over the half way mark - can you believe it? 

Pataitai Pod SciTech Challenge Wednesday 16th November at 5:00 - 6:30pm! 

Congratulations to the Year 4s who participated in a series of Athletic events on Friday afternoon.    

We had such a great time on Friday. Well done to all our Year 4 Students for such a sporting Athletics afternoon. Here are the notices for this week.

Our Maths focus for the first two weeks of term was volume and capacity.

This week we were lucky enough to have Emma visit and share her knowledge about the impact of sugar on teeth. Emma is a Dental Assistant and one of our wonderful parents in the Pataitai Pod.

The Pataitai Pod went to visit the Art Gallery with the aim of looking at photography.

Watch the segment from Seven Sharp last week to see our students in action

Having a healthy mind is just as important as having a healthy body.

Busy weeks ahead... 

This week the Pataitai Pod have been taking part in the Food For Thought programme. 

Next week is a short week with Labour Day on Monday. Enjoy the opportunity to have a long weekend. 

During Term 4 our focus for Writing is Narratives

It might be Term 4 but there is plenty of learning and fun still ahead!

We have a very busy week ahead with a few changes as well as exciting activities...

Term 4 is extremely busy in Mahuta and we are heading out and about! Please keep an eye out for notices and return them as soon as you can. We will be needing a lot of parent help for our Beach Ed programme so please keep the date free for your child's class. Thank you in advance.

We hope you have all had a great two weeks and the children are refreshed for the new term... it is going to be a big one!

This term has flown by in a bit of a haze and it is hard to believe that next term is the last of the year.  

Two weeks of swimming ahead!

A great afternoon for some of our Year 4, 5 and 6 students with two of the Canterbury Kings participating in skills and games!

Can you make an egg drop without the shell cracking? These are some of the contraptions designed by the children in Room 10.

"The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is practice" Vladimir Horowitz

The children are continuing to enjoy our Science experiments on Mondays. They follow up with writing about the experiments and this can be very difficult if they miss Monday's lesson.

The Pataitai Pod were very lucky to have Stephanie Gray come in to share her scientific skills as a High School Science Teacher.

Book Character Day to support the Library 

See our updates and notices for Week 4.

Working hard is important, but there is something that matters even more. Believing in yourself. - Harry Potter

"Think like a proton and stay positive"

This week we want to tell you about what we do in A.L.L

This week we have had our Year 4 Speech Competition.

What a busy first week back. It has been a pleasure to see all of your children's beautiful faces.

As an introduction to writing a procedure, we made old fashioned lemonade.

This term is 9 weeks long and we are going to be busy...

With only 9 weeks in this term, it will fly by in no time at all so hold onto your seats!

Just a few notices for the holidays.

Last week of Term 2 and the pedal is still on the throttle.

This week we took a sneaky video of the children working on their Action Stations. 

Today the children that have completed some of the challenges got a treat from Ms D-R. This was a treat to acknowledge the children who had completed 3 or more challenges by the start of June.

One more week left to go before we have 2 weeks off. This week we have some great things happening to finish off the term.

Once our students have mastered the Essential Spelling Lists, we move onto Investigative Word Study.

Only 2 weeks to go.......

The term is flying by! Only 2 weeks to go until the students are on holidays.

Today Waimakariri Whānau group from the Pataitai Pod visited Room 5 to make Rākau Sticks as part of our Matariki Celebrations.

We had an exciting day trip to Ferrymead so we could learn about life 50 years ago. This was part of our inquiry into how technology has changed over the last 50 years.

This week we began learning about measurement. Our focus has been on what length is and how we measure it.

It is better to know how to learn than to know - Dr Suess 

Learning is never easy and we always face challenges. It is how we react to those challenges that is when the real learning occurs.

The students had a fantastic day Ferrymead today. Look out for our article about what the students got up to. Here are a few reminders for next week.

Next week we are looking forward to visiting Ferrymead as a part of our Inquiry Topic.

During the Winter Sport season, the Pataitai Pod are lucky enough to have Kelly Sports coming in to work with us.

A growth mindset is the understanding that personal qualities and abilities can change. It leads students to take on challenges, persevere when things get hard, and become more effective learners.

In the Pataitai Pod we have been setting up learning blogs for the students to show their learning.

Next week we are out for a trip as well as Teacher Only Day.

"Merrin School is the Best!"

We have had a busy week with the teachers out on Tuesday, My Friends Dot Com show on Thursday and Kelly Sports starting up today.

Another busy week in the hub. We have been working on our Van Gogh artist study, considering our speech topics, preparing for Winter Sport, using think boards to show our understanding of Maths strategies and that's just a snippet!

Welcome back to all and also welcome to our new whanau to Merrin for Term 2.

This week we have been discovering our new Action Stations for the term. We have many new and exciting activities that support our classroom learning and cultural celebrations.

We have had a wonderful start to Term 2. Well done to all the students who participated in the Rugby Fun day today. All the children were buzzing when they got back to school.

We hope you have all had an enjoyable term break.  

We hope you have all had a lovely break and are ready for Term 2. We are excited to see you all back again on Monday.

That's Term 1 over and what a lot has happened!

Thank you to the families who came to our evening on Thursday night. Here is the video that we shared with you on 'How we learn'.

This term we have been focusing on writing recounts and the writing process.

One more week to go!

What is happening in the Pataitai Pod? 

Today we had Jack and Josh share some of their completed challenges. Their work has been completed to a high standard and they should be very proud of their efforts so far.

What lies ahead?

In Mahuta we have three learning spaces, but how does it all work?

We have had another fantastic week in the Mahuta hub.

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go" Dr Seuss

I'm not sure where the weeks are going, time sure is flying.

Here are some photos of the Year 4 students exploring, learning and getting creative.

The Pataitai Pod would like to share a video of their wonderful day from Top Team.

We have had a fantastic week on camp at Blue Skies. It was AWESOME!!

A day at Blue Skies Camp... 

Kia ora, my name is Geoff Wallis and I am one of the new teachers at Merrin this year.

One month down but who is counting!

Each day we spend a little bit of time working on our Essential Words. In the Pataitai Pod we like to use interesting hands-on equipment to help us.

We have a busy week ahead with lots of fun activities for the Year 4 children....

Come and join the team! 

What's happening this week in the Pãtaitai Pod? 

Here is what is happening next week....

What a great way to end week 2 of the term. The children were put into groups, given spaghetti and marshmallows, and a brief.

Pataitai Pod celebrated Chinese New Year by singing some songs together.

Kia ora koutou whånau

A new opportunity has arisen for our Year 5/6 and Year 7/8 students to compete at the CPSS Hip Hop competition. Our Year 7/8 team is being coached by former Merrin student Matt Cornere.

This week we have talked about what we know around Digital Citizenship. 

This week we have introduced the children to a knowledge building wall.

Friday 12 February, we had a visit from one of our local football clubs, FC Twenty 11. 

Nicky Hebberd, Hannah Minty and Tania Gallagher send you all a warm welcome. We are looking forward to having a great year with your children.

A special welcome to Peri Marks (Matua Peri to the children) and Geoff Wallis. We are looking forward to having a great year with your children.

Welcome to learning through collaboration!