Tēnā koutou katoa e te whānau

Just like that there are only about four school weeks left in 2022 and Christmas is creeping up on us…eek! This is however a special time of the year as we get to see all the progress students have made. We also think strategically about next year and how we can best meet the demands of our learners and our community. 

The Ministry of Education is currently in the process of ‘refreshing’ the NZ Curriculum which is an exciting time for our profession. Part of this will be introducing the Aotearoa Histories Curriculum to our learners which enables students to learn not only different perspectives about significant moments in our local community but also wider New Zealand contexts. As a school, we will look carefully at what this means for us and then branch out into different contexts and perspectives.

Athletics

Unfortunately, due to the rain that we had on Friday, the Rural Schools Athletics day at Tauhei had to be cancelled. At this time of the year the packed calendars make it difficult to move any event to a different time, so we will have to wait until 2023 to have this day. We will organise our Motumaoho School Athletics Day. More information will follow. 

Painting of our School

We are excited to inform you that the outside of our school buildings will be painted over the Christmas holidays. We are very much looking forward to this being completed. 

Introducing our Board members

Hayley Arnold – Presiding Chairperson

Hi, I am Hayley Arnold. I was co opted on to the Board in 2021, and am pleased to be staying for another board term. I live in the Morrinsville township with my two sons Ethan (7) and Lucas (5) and husband Brad (who is the PTA Chair), I work for myself as an HR Contractor and Training Facilitator, so my work hours are pretty flexible. Ethan is in his 2nd year at Motumaoho in the Piwakawaka room. We love our school and hope that by being involved in a governance level (Board) and a promotion and fundraising level (PTA) that we can help our school thrive and get our name out there in the community. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions hayley.arnold@motmaoho.school.nz

Matt Pritchard

Hi I’m Matt. I’m a born and bred local that grew up on the family farm just down the road on Kuranui Rd. I’m on the Board of Trustees to help this school continue to flourish. We are committed community members who love to support extra-curricular activities and see them thrive in our community. Most recently, I have been involved in the Morrinsville Football Club and local MTB club. I love the outdoors and am always keen for a hunting, fishing or diving expedition if I can get away from work. I have run my own business for the last 20 years that has taken me from the Waikato to Bluff and back again. I’m always keen for a chat, so please come and tell me where your best getaway spots are.

Steph Morgan

Hi I’m Steph. I am one of the parent representatives for the Motumaoho School Board. My husband Sam and I have 3 young girls (Tilli, Oona and Rhona). I spread my time between keeping the household running, working with kids at the local church, being mum, and everything in between.

Paul Brunton

Diné Nagel – Staff Representative

I graduated from the North-West University of South Africa with a Bachelor’s degree in Education. I have taught at schools in South Africa, South Korea and New Zealand and am also tutoring students in English and Maths. My family and I immigrated to New Zealand three years ago.

I enjoy adopting different strategies to accommodate the needs of all students, using creativity and problem solving to ensure that each student achieves their full potential. Building learner relationships and seeing students acquire skills that they can take into the future, motivates me.

In my own time I enjoy participating in a wide range of fitness activities, including running, bootcamp, and cycling.

Akoranga/Learning

Ruma Piwakawaka: This week Piwakawaka students have been lucky to have Sheree come back and reintroduce mini Brick Club to us. This programme involves us making sure that we are taking turns, listening to our peers carefully and working together. With 1 of us being the engineer (we read the instructions), 1 of us being the supplier (we find the correct blocks: size, shape and colour) and 1 of us being the builder (we use the blocks and instructions from the engineer to create an object), we build all sorts of things; a double decker bus, planes and animals such as eagles, whales and pandas.

Ruma Tui: We have been spending time outside the classroom looking at the littlest creatures in our environment as well as listening to the ‘sounds of nature’. Peter Bland wrote a poem called ‘Listening’ and we used this to help us write our own.  

Listening Poems

With a microphone plugged into the earth, we can hear slimy snails, slow slugs, sneaky stick insects up through the dirt, We can hear hardworking dungbeetles, stinging wasps, buzzing bees, amazing wriggly worms. When we take our earphones off we can hear Earth’s huge silence listening back. By Leon

With a microphone plugged into the Earth. We can hear birds chirping along with worms wriggling when we can hear birds fluttering and chirping up through the dirt. We can hear birds chirping along with worms wiggling birds fluttering .When we take our earphones off we can hear Earth’s huge silence listening back. By Riley

With a microphone plugged into the earth we can hear slimy earthworms ,slimy slugs, really chirpy birds up through the dirt. We can hear baby birds, singing grasshoppers, trees breathing, air in trees. When we take our earphones off we can hear Earth’s huge silence listening back. By Oona

With a microphone plugged into the earth, we can hear a slimy earthworm and a scared centipede running a slimy dirty earthworm up through the dirt. We can hear beetles burrowing in the earth wriggly worms, slithery smalls, slimy smooshy slugs. When we take our earphones off, we can hear Earth’s huge silence listening back. By Harrison

With a microphone plugged into the earth, we can hear crickets screaming, andts searching, slimy sticky slugs up through the dirt. We can hear centipedes creeping, spiders catching, composting worms, stinky smelly dungbeetles. When we take our earphones off we can hear Earth’s huge silence listening back. By Daisy

Whanonga pono/Values 

3 Rs and S Award

These awards are presented to students who demonstrate our values of: Respect/Whakaute, Resilience/Manahau, Responsibility/Kawenga and Service/Ratonga

Isabela and Georgia are our deserving students. 

Congratulations to Isabela and Georgia!

Caught Being Good Lucky Draw

These students were “caught being good!” Well done Leon and Charlotte.

Rā whānau ki a koe! / Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Leon who celebrated his birthday on 5th November. We hope you had a fantastic day! And to Oona who will be celebrating at the end of the month on the 29th November, have a wonderful birthday!

Calendar ART

Orders have been placed for Calendar Art. We will distribute these as soon as they have been printed and returned to us.

School Photo Orders Due

A reminder that all photo orders must be returned to the school office by this Friday 18th November with payment. Proofs of individual and sibling photos have already been sent home which you get to keep. All pack options and payment information is listed on the order forms should you wish to place an order.  Please note: Online payments are made directly to Masterpiece Photography as printed on the order form – not to our school account.

Enrolments/Whakauru

If you know of any new families in the Morrinsville area, please encourage them to visit our great little school. Motumaoho School has so much to offer. Let’s spread the word. Children turning 5 or those who will be starting school at the beginning of 2023, can now be pre enrolled. We also offer our ‘Kickstart’ programme that will help with transition from ECE to school. For more information contact Angela Wainwright at: office@motumaoho.school.nz or phone: 07 889 7597

Christmas Parade

HO HO HO! We have entered a float into the Morrinsville Christmas Parade. This year the theme is ‘Kiwiana’ and the date for the parade is Saturday 10th of December. We would love students to help create our float. We hope to set aside a couple of days each week after school to work on this. If you can spare 20 mins or so that would be great.  We will send out more information and the days as soon as possible.

Signing In & Out 

If you are late for school or need to take your child/ren out of school for any reason during school time, parents/caregivers must come into the office and sign them out and then sign them back in if they are returning before school finishes. Thank you for supporting us in keeping our students safe. 

SCHOOL Docs

Each term, the school community (board, staff, parents/whānau) is invited to review and comment on specific policies and procedures. Our Digital Technology and Cybersafety policy is up for review. Please click on the link if you are interested in the latest policy for review: motumaoho.schooldocs.co.nz Username: motumaoho and Password: striving

Ngā mihi nui | Kindest Regards

Tina Baptist

Principal