We have had a lovely calm start to Term 2 and with the change to the orange setting is a little easier to manage. Our tamariki have come back from holiday happy and ready to learn.

This term we celebrate Matariki. Matariki, also known as Māori New Year, is a time for celebration, growth and renewal. It's a chance to get together and remember whānau who have passed on, share food, tell stories, sing and play music. The coming of Matariki is signified by the cluster of stars reappearing in our night sky. It is a time to reflect on the past year, celebrate the present, and plan for the year ahead. 

We will be celebrating Matariki this term through the learning we do but also through some events together. 

We kick off our celebrations with a Matablingy disco at Pines Beach Hall on Thursday May 26th. We have a Year 1-4 disco starting at 5pm - 6.15pm and then a Year 5-8 disco from 6.30pm - 7.45pm. This is going to be a fundraiser for the senior camp. Please let us know if you can help us out as we will need parents to support us. You can email or call Berniece to let us know. 

We have a whānau hui in week 5, Tuesday 31st May at 3.30pm where we want to share our literacy programmes with you. We will share how we teach our tamariki to read and write and how you can help at home. It is an opportunity to come and kōrero with our kaiako as well. Strong foundations in literacy is important for our tamariki and their future and the more you know, the more you can help them. We ask that there is a whānau representative at our hui for each whānau please. We will provide fish and chips too as a treat from our Board of Trustees. Nau mai, haere mai. 

We wrap up the term with a whole day at the marae celebrating our learning about Matariki on June 23rd, the day before the official Matariki public holiday. We have Manu Kōrero to share and invite our whānau to join in the rotations where our tamariki will get to do some cooking, making, art, sports and lots more. 

We also have our Kāhui Ako teacher only day on Friday June 3rd. This makes the Queens Birthday weekend extra long. On this day our team will come together with the staff of 8 other kura in our community and have the opportunity to participate in further learning.  

Our lunch programme continues this term and earlier this week I met with Ataahua, the owner of Lazy Lunches. We spoke about a few changes this term to ensure that we are sticking to the kaupapa from The Ministry of Education. Check out our article specifically about this. 

Next week we have Brett Cribb and Emma Planika at kura on Monday - Wednesday supporting our team in Digital Technology. Brett will work with Whitireia on Te Reo Māori specific mahi and Emma with Puaka. Emma has worked with our team now for a couple of years and we appreciate her expertise in this area. 

We also have our cross country for the seniors next week. Whaea Kate is organising this again and working with our tamariki to make it an enjoyable event. Please come down if you can and join in on the fun. 

Lastly I wanted to plug the hui at the marae this Saturday 14th May at 9.30am. We are so lucky to be working with The University of Canterbury and Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri to bring this kaupapa alive. The project will see 5 story books about our place being written and published for our tamariki and the marae. Anyone is welcome and we would love to see you there. 

Enjoy the remainder of the week e hoa mā. Aroha ki te tāngata - Te Tuahiwi ki te Whāi Ao! 

Arohanui

Mel x