Every fortnight we will publish written articles from our teachers and students which have been recognized, with a writers award, at our school assembly/hui.

This week we recognized Diya, Sophie and Mrs Foster as writers at our school assembly. You will be able to read their articles in this newsletter.

Mauao by Diya Upreti.

On Tuesday the 18th of February Paua went to the Mount to listen and learn about the local Maori legends. We walked around the Mount and stopped at the different places to listen to the audio stories that told us the history and the legends that related to the place.

We stopped in front of the Surf Club and listened and learnt about the nameless mountain that became Mauao. Then we walked around to Tirikawa which is also known as North Rock. This is a large rock in the sea with a red beacon on it to help the ships come into the port at night. It is also an important symbol for our school because it is part of our school logo. Tirikawa is a symbol of resilience.

After this we walked around to where we listened to a legend about an old woman and her dog who had drowned and turned into a rock while trying to raise the alarm about intruders. The legend was called the Kuia and her Kuri.

At some of the stops, for instance the sandy beach at the harbour entrance, we would sit down and eat while listening to the audio information. At the last stop we saw and read the information plaque beside the old stone jetty on the harbour side. Finally we headed down Pilot Bay to have a swim by the changing rooms and after this we went back to school.

Thank you to Cath Robson, Liam Robson, Mrs Thomas and Mr Webster, Amanda Daly, Gerran Keith and more because without them we wouldn’t be able to go.

Estuary by Sophie Heijkoop 

On Friday the 23rd of February Paua, our senior students, went to the Matapihi Estuary. We went there to see if there were any sea creatures. We planned to record the live animals and put them in a bucket before returning them to their home.

We had a talk about what we would record. There were 9 groups 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3a, 3b and 3c. We all found different things like Crabs, Neptune Necklace, Sea Snails, Worms and Cockles. We needed a spade, quadrant, bucket and a recording sheet. We discovered that the Asian paddle crab was attacking our New Zealand paddle crabs. These invaders came to New Zealand because the container ships were not getting cleaned properly.

Our specialist was Emma Richardson. She has been doing surveys with our school for at least 4 years. We are very thankful that we have her so we can go to the estuary. There was also a really cute dog.

We had a blast and the weather was perfect and we all got dirty and really muddy. Some of us found a lot of things but some of us weren't so lucky.

We had amazing parental help. Thank you to Olivia Heijkoop, Tenielle McHugh, Kurt James, Suzanne Samuels, Mel Taumoelau, Brett Orsler and Katie Horrocks also to our teachers Mr Webster and Cath R.

P.S. Mrs Foster's article is the one about the hammerhead shark.