Author: Jane

Newsletter 23 June 2022

From your Tumuaki-Principal
At school we have been acknowledging, learning about and celebrating Matariki.
It is special this year to have a public holiday so the whole of Aotearoa New Zealand is made more aware of this significant event.
Our early morning Matariki Celebration was a huge success. The children created a wonderful atmosphere with their waiatas and Matariki songs and actions. Afterwards the children were engaged in learning about Matariki. Each classroom had a different focus of learning, rotating around the classrooms. We have some wonderful resources available to us and these integrate Matariki into other curriculum areas, such as reading and writing.
Midyear Reports
We are currently working on these and they will be online this week. Parent teacher interviews are available to book, please see the separate Hero notice about booking these, or contact the office. We are very keen to share information about your child and to get feedback from you.
Nga mihi Judy Elvidge

Email: office@motupipi.school.nz Phone: 03 525 9986 www.motupipischool.co.nz

10.00am 7th April: There has been a small increase in the number of families isolating and reported cases. We are glad to see children returning to school after completing their isolation excited and ready to learn.
At this stage numbers remain small in comparison to other schools in the region. This is in a large part thanks to the efforts of parents keeping their children at home when they are sick and isolating when there is a positive case in the home.
We ask that parents continue to help in our efforts at school by wearing masks on school grounds, keeping your children home when they are unwell and letting us know if your child or anyone in your household tests positive for Covid-19. We appreciate this.
Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

SCHOOL NOTICES

LOST PROPERTY
The pile is mounting up again! There are lots of lovely warm items there, so please come and take a look on the deck of Room 3.
It also helps if items that are likely to be removed during the day — jackets, hoodies — are named.
Any unclaimed items will be donated to Trash Palace at the end of term.

CROSS COUNTRY
The children will be running the cross country on the 28th of June. They WILL be required to wear shoes, as the course is on farmland. The run starts at 12.30. The course covers a large distance and is on a working farm, if there are not enough marshals to ensure the students safety, we will have to cancel the event. Please let Anna or the office know if you can help. Thank you!

Parent/Teacher Interviews
Bookings are open for parent/teacher interviews—please refer to the Hero notice that went out last week for instructions on how to book.

Ka pai tō mahi!
Congratulations to the following students awarded certificates at our assembly the last two weeks:
Room 1: Hendrix & Mori
Room 2: Bodhi & Zoe
Room 4: Addie & Ziv
Room 5: Arli & Tilly
This term we are focussing on resilience, one of our school values.

SCHOOL DISCO
The school disco will be 1st July from 5.30 -7pm at the Motupipi Hall. Gold coin donation per child. Food will be available to purchase.

TERM CALENDAR

24th June	Matariki Holiday
28th June	Cross Country
1st July	School Disco
8th Jul	End of Term 2
25th July	Term 3 Starts
31st Aug	Ski Trip

MATARIKI

We had a lovely time celebrating Matariki again this year. We had great korero and waiata, and then some tasty kai, thanks to our amazing helpers for organising breakfast. We really appreciate you! The children had a wonderful time, a great start to our first Matariki long weekend.

Fundraising update
Hi everyone, just a quick update to say a massive thanks to our school community - the people who volunteer their time, the people who support our school by buying lunches, pies and anything else we come up with. We appreciate you!
Keep an eye out for the Motupipi Teatowel which will be coming out soon - the kids all contributed a self portrait to this and they have done an amazing job.
We are having a school disco on Friday in the Motupipi Hall from 5:30 to 7:00. Hopefully your tamariki has already talked to you about this and are busy practising dance moves. Entry is by gold coin per child and siblings are welcome. Food will be available to purchase - we would love to be able to sell some sweet treats if anyone could do some baking that we could have please let Abbie know on 027 624 0680.
A massive shout out to Solly's Contracting who have been very generous and given us a great price on sand and bark so that we can keep our tamariki safe and happy. Thank you. Your community support is amazing.
Lastly, we are looking for a treasurer for the fundraising team. If you have some spare time to help out, please let Pip or Abbie know. Thanks again for everyone's continued support, it makes our school a great place to be.

Room 1 writing
Tau ke tō mahi!

Last week a group of students from Room 1 had a focus of including descriptive language in their writing. We use a photo of snow leopard to inspire.
The white cat waited patiently in the long green grass. It had a white fluffy coat. It had enormous blue eyes,with pitch black spots on it’s face with long white whiskers.
By Lyshia
The snow leopard waited patiently in the snowy grass until it found some prey. It had a white and black coat and the eyes were yellowy . It had spots on its face and long whiskers.
By Thomas
The young cat hid in the grass as it waited to pounce.Its white coat blended into the frost. Its big beautiful eyes darted around.The black spots on its face looked like grass seeds. Its whiskers twitched in the icy morning air. ROW! It pounced.
By Jettt
The snow white cat waited quietly in the glowing green grass. The cat had a white gleaming coat with shimmering black dots. It had shimmering glowing eyes that could glow the whole night. It had whiskers that were shining like a feather.
By Hinemoa
The cat waited in the shiny green grass.it had a shiny thick white coat of fur all over. it had twinkly Yellow big eyes. I t had spots all over its body like ladybugs wings. it had long glistening whiskers.
By Kya
The snow leopard waited cautiously in the long grass. It had a beautiful taby and fluffy coat and bright huge glamorous eyes.
By Evalyn

Room 2 have been lucky enough to have Nikki McGuinness come to teach them yoga through stories, this week we learned about Matariki. The class is having an awesome time learning while exercising. Thank you Nikki!
Do you have a special skill that the students could benefit from? We would love to hear about it!

UPCOMING BOT ELECTION
This year is the year for our triennial Board of Trustees election. Nominations will be called for soon, so please have a think about standing if this is something you’re interested in. If you would like to talk to any of the current Board members, have a chat to Cherie, Bridie, Abbie, or Nadine.

Welcome!
A big Motupipi welcome to our new students that have started with us in June, Danny in Room 1, and Oskar in Room 5. Say Hi if you see them around! Oskar drew a great picture this week.

Room 5 writing
Adelyn wrote a fantastic story this week about Tane Mahuta. “I would like to tell you about Tane Mahuta. He pushed the Dad up to the sky. Tane Mahuta was happy. He had a feather in his hair. He said he was happy because he got to see light.”

This is our Motupipi netball team. We have some excellent talent this year, but most importantly we have fun!

SAVE THE DATE
Saturday, 29th October
Motupipi School Plant Sale
If you haven’t already, if you are able, we would love you to think about starting cuttings, seedlings, etc for us to sell at the plant sale. Thank you!
Everything we make from the plant sale goes towards bettering our school for our children.

BOTTLE TOPS
Our bottle top mural is almost complete! We just need some more silver, pink/purple, and white. Please drop them in to the office if you have any!

DO YOU WANT TO HELP OUT AT SCHOOL OR ON FIELD TRIPS?
Please come into the office and pick up a police clearance form if you haven’t already done so. These can take a few weeks to be processed and we would hate for you to miss out on being involved with the children!

PARENT HELP NEEDED IN THE SCHOOL GARDEN
Do you have green thumbs? We are looking for some parents to help with weeding and planting out our school garden. Some of the classes have made a good start, but we need some extra help. So if you have an hour or two to spare please chat to Anna in Room 1. Thank you!

POOL KEYS
The pool is now closed. Please return your Pool Keys to the office ASAP.

MOTUPIPI PLANT SALE
Save the date - 29th October 2022
Once again we will be running our annual Motupipi Plant Sale! It’s a big fundraiser for the school and your help is needed to make it a success. Now is the time to start thinking about propagating plants in readiness for the sale.

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

COVID-19 UPDATE

PARKING We have noticed parents parking in the bike lane during drop off and pick up—we do have young students biking to school and it is concerning seeing them have to swerve out on to the busy road. Please be mindful when choosing where to park.

Pip’s Pick Orders Due 19th May—Online Only
POLICE VETS
If you anticipate helping out on school trips and camps over the next year we ask that you complete a Police Vet. These can take some time to process so we are asking that you plan ahead and put your vet through now. Vets last three years, if you’re unsure whether your vet is current please check with Anita at office@motupipi.school.nz.
Police Vet forms are available in the office. Unfortunately police vets cannot be shared across agency's, so even if you have recently completed a police vet elsewhere you will need to do another for Motupipi School. Thank you!

6th Jun	Queen’s Birthday Holiday
14th Jun	Cross Country
24th Jun	Matariki Holiday
8th Jul	End of Term 2
31st Aug	Ski trip
29th Oct	Motupipi Annual Plant Sale

TERM CALENDAR