Mt Pleasant Magic
Band Quest - Our Mt Pleasant Bands ROCKED!
We had our three bands performing at Band Quest this week alongside 13 other bands from around Canterbury.
What amazing young musicians we have coming up through our schools! Our three bands were excellent and looked so confident up on the stage!!
A big thanks to Andrea who does such great job coordinating and managing these events - the show wouldn’t go on without you! I know there were a lot of proud parents (and your tumuaki) there - so thank you VERY much.
Spring Clean - Working Bee
Summer is just around the corner and we’ve had a wet and wild winter so the grounds need some tender loving care. While we are very blessed with wonderful Maurice, this job is just too big for him to tackle on his own.
We would love as much help as possible for Saturday 9 September from 9am onwards.
We are going to need ‘crews’’ of people to help us out with weeding, painting, adding new sand and bark to the children’s play areas.
We will also need people to bring along it they have it;
• wheelbarrows
• shovels
• brooms
• garden forks/
• gardening gloves
• paint brushes
The whole family is invited and we will provide a sausage sizzle to feed the masses.
As they say - many hands, makes light work, so we hope to see as many families as possible to help get the grounds sparkling for the summer to come.
Principal Pondering
Recently we have had quite a focus on responsible use and managing reputations and relationships online. A lot of what we hear through the media and each other, is how the increase of online usage has led to an increase in child anxiety. To be fair, there is most likely truth to this…however it was interesting to read another perspective around this - which suggests anxiety in children has been on the increase for decades…pre-dating the internet.
This article talks about how the steady decline of children having the freedom to play without adult supervision and structures has left them without the strategies to cope with feeling anxious. They do not get the opportunities to develop independence as they once did.
It’s certainly an interesting read - you can read the whole article here. This article certainly got the kaiako talking in the staffroom about what we do here in terms of ‘play’ and fostering independence and creative ‘imagining’.
As I walked about on Thursday morning I saw our Y1/2’s up on the bank behind their classroom playing with wood and other fun objects. They were running around having an absolute blast, with so much imagining and exploration happening. We have been blessed by the community chipping in to buy our Magic Box full of interesting bits of ‘fun junk’ that the children come up with some weird and wonderful imaginings. Then we have Maurice turning our wooded area into a land of make believe and play - where the children play for hours and turn that area into different lands.
I wonder what you do at home to foster play and creativity? Wouldn’t it be great if we could reduce the anxiety we see in our children, and wouldn’t it be great if it was as simple as play and creativity? That’s what I’ve been pondering on this week.
Special thanks to Lisa Chubb for sharing this article with our staff.
Parent Consultation Survey - Reporting to Parents Processes
We are in the process of reviewing the way we report student progress and achievement at Te Kura o Paeraki | Mt Pleasant School.
Reporting on learning informs whānau of the progress and achievement of their students’ learning, identifies areas for growth and contributes to the strengthening learning programmes within the PYP.
We would appreciate you taking 5 mins to complete this survey for us in order to strengthen our processes for reporting to whānau.
Cantamaths
It was fantastic seeing MPS represented at Cantamaths on Wednesday night, how awesome seeing our ākonga giving competitions like this a crack!
It was my first visit to a Cantamath and I didn’t realise just how important the running around tables was - although Matthew C made it look like a casual stroll in the park. A big thank you to Jeremy who does an amazing job coordinating and wrangling so many things, you are a legend!
Non Uniform Day - 8 September
On the 8th of September there will be a ‘wear something red day’ followed by a ‘guess how many lollies are in the jar’ to support Radio Lollipop, check out the Student Council's article later in this newsletter for more information.
Have a wonderful weekend!
