Newsletter 8 September 2022

This term, we have welcomed a number of new students to Mahora School.

This week we introduce Tamatea Shirkey-Brown, Hannu Esterhuysen, Demmy Fryer, Prestegous Fryer, Tearoa Tere. We hope you have all enjoyed your start at Mahora School.

Kia ora e te whānau,

The end of the term is rapidly approaching....we are well and truly looking forward to the change in season and less rain! I have to say your children have done a wonderful job staying away from the mud and managing themselves given there has been limited outside time...awesome tamariki!

Thank you for your support of our staff only days. The final one this term is tomorrow with school being closed for tamariki. All our staff are doing a wonderful job with their learning around Te Reo and it's wonderful to see, feel and hear the learning.

Mahora Board - You ONLY have 15 days left to have your say. This is really important!

To date only 12% of you have voted...Piki Haere whānau!

This is your chance to consider how the Mahora School Board of Trustees is made up, and who represents you in decision making for the next 3 years. I really encourage everyone to have a vote. If you are unsure how to do this, or haven't received the information or have a question...please contact Kirsten in the office, she is more than happy to help. Her email is kirstenw@mahora.school.nz or call on 06 878 2622.

Property - So that you are aware of what is happening with our ongoing site development, below is an overview of the main projects that have started or are about to start -

• Room 14 & 15 - the remaining siteworks will be completed in the next few weeks. This will also mean the back entrance (Duke St) area will be reinstated with grass so please continue to use the path while this is established over Spring.

• Library - this has been painted internally now and new wall linings are being installed this weekend. New furniture has been ordered and the next step is to review the books that have been in storage for 5 years. The PTA are fundraising towards library redevelopment, so please do support their efforts.

• Sandpit area - this is close to completion with edging, leveling and reseeding of grass to occur over the next few weeks.

• Library and Archives office extension - this building work along the side driveway will resume at the end of the month. This small extension will be completed by the end of 2022. It will be fabulous to be able to store the precious archives.

• Roll Growth Classroom - this new space will be added onto Room 11 where the seating area is currently outside the hall. The current plan is for demolition of this site to start in the upcoming school holidays. This project will take around 40 weeks to complete.

We are fortunate to have such wonderful site development happening. Thanks for your patience and understanding while access around school is impacted.

Enrolments - Now that our roll has been opened up, it's REALLY important you enroll your child as early as possible please. If you, or you know someone wanting to enroll in 2023, could you ask them to do this as soon as possible please to ensure we can plan for the numbers of tamariki.

School Van - unfortunately someone decided they would try to steal the school van in the weekend. This is really disappointing as we fundraised so hard for this to support our tamariki and we have not had any previous issues. They were unsuccessful but in doing so caused significant ignition damage. This means the van is out of action for the next 8-12 weeks. Thanks to community members who alerted the police when they discovered it. Please keep an eye on our community school...if you see anything suspicious, please let the police or us know.

Fingers crossed that Cross Country can happen on Monday...please keep an eye on the app...it's always a fun day.

Piki Haere whānau

Rohan.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR EDIBLE FASHION AWARDS TEAM

Congratulations to ALL our Edible Arts costume designers. What a great day they had at Toitoi showing their costumes on the Opera House stage and talking to the judges about their designs. Special mention to the 3 Mahora designs that went through to the finals night (below)

We came away with 2 section winners. Ka mau te wehi!

Foraged in the Forest - Annabelle and Isla - 2nd runner up to Junior Design of the Year.

Orange Ocean Octopus - Ariah, Emma and Crystal - Junior jewellery and accessory award for headpiece and handbag.

All our entrants can be viewed and voted for on the “People’s Choice Award” (Junior design) page of the Edible Fashion Awards website. Start voting whānau!!

https://ediblefashionawards.co.nz/2022-peoples-choice-award-2/junior-designer/

Kōnini are blazing a trail with their literacy learning. You can see here how our tamariki are using movement to sound out their word syllables and sounds. Pai rawa atu tamariki mā.

Taekwondo has now begun again after a small hiatus. At the end of last term, we took 8 of our wonderful students to the combined school tournament held at Irongate School. They were all absolutely amazing in attitudes and performance. Ben was so impressed with their skills and the way they managed themselves on and off the mat. We look forward to some of them doing their grading next term.

Charlet has worked really hard on her slide show to help her teach our tamariki and kaiako Sign Language. Once a week she takes us through some simple signs to use throughout the week. Today we learnt: Good morning, Good evening, come over here and our name using the alphabet signs. Charlet’s first language is NZ Sign and we are incredibly proud of how she has created this opportunity for us.

CONGRATULATIONS to our Piki Haere Certificate recipients.

Ka mau te wēhi Raine - you know all your Teddy Bear words.

It’s been a busy sporting time at Mahora with both the Barefoot 7s Tackle Rugby Tournament last week and the Gymnastics Festival this week.

CONGRATULATIONS to the five senior tamariki who were selected as the Unison medal recipients for their respective Netball and Hockey teams.

Zachary and Finn from our two Senior Hockey teams and Ella,Theresa and Rosa were the Unison Medal recipients from our three Senior Netball teams.

Our five Barefoot 7s Tackle Rugby teams had a fabulous day out, matching their skills against teams from other Hawke’s Bay schools. It was fabulous to see some tamariki new to rugby giving this tournament a go. As we say to our kids often, you won’t know if you enjoy something, unless you give it a go.

Eighty Year 3, 4, 5 & 6 Gymnasts took on a big challenge to learn three different routines and then perform them at the Gymnastics Festival this week. We had lots of practices over the last few weeks, before school and during breaks. Everyone did a fabulous job and I hope they all came home very proud of themselves and their achievements.

There are lots of action shots on our Mahora School Facebook page from both events.

We have our fingers crossed that the weather will be fine to run our Mahora School Cross Country next Monday (12 September). The forecast for Monday at this stage is for a lovely warm day, but there may be a few showers. We will send an app message out on Sunday with a confirmed decision, if we are going ahead or postponing again. Our School Cross Country is held on our Mahora grounds with some fun obstacles. Runners can choose to wear shoes or run in barefeet.

The plan for Cross Country day will be as follows:

11:00am - Whole School will meet in houses on the basketball court to challenge for the first house points of the day with a ‘House Chant Off’.

11:30am - Kākano classes and Mahora Kindy will begin their Cross Country races. Year 2 Girls will run first, followed by Year 2 Boys, Mahora Kindy, Year 0 Girls, Year 0 Boys, Year 1 Girls and Year 1 Boys. After all Kākano races are done, we will present medals to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place getters of each race.

12:30pm - Māhuri classes will begin their Cross Country. Year 3 Girls will race first, then Year 3 Boys, Year 4 Girls and Year 4 Boys. After all Māhuri races are done, we will present medals to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place getters from each race.

1:30pm - Whanake classes will begin their Cross Country. Year 5 Girls will race first, then Year 5 Boys, Year 6 Girls and Year 6 Boys. After all Whanake races are done, we will present medals to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place getters from each race.

Your child needs:

• To wear their house colour clothes to school on Monday, that are good for running in, no long pants unless shorts underneath please.
• Have fun with hair colour or other accessories in house colour. We’ll also add some colour at house meetings on Monday morning.
• Bring a change of named mufti clothes and a towel, in a bag big enough to fit all clothes in. One of our obstacles are pools which the tamariki will be running through.
• $1 for a juicie (thanks PTA) to celebrate a job well done after the race. If you’re happy to send an extra $1 to help ensure no one misses out, that would be incredible.

We would love to have whānau to cheer our runners on and also to help out with directions and safety on the course. If you are able to help, or you have any questions about the event, please flick Denise Pearse a message over the weekend.

Denise Pearse

Email: denisep@mahora.school.nz Cell: 0274 789 546

Our AGM and next committee meeting will be held on Wednesday 19 October at 7:00pm in the school staffroom. We would love to see some new faces there.

Hastings Girls High School are after some Kitchen Hands to help with the lunches for our tamariki, if you are interested please contact the office at Hastings Girls High School on 873 1133 and ask for Jimmy.

When: September 17 2022 / 11:00am – 3.30pm

Where: The inner field to the Athletics track

The Spring Collective event involves cultural groups performing on stage, food stalls, bouncy castles, information stalls and face painting. A great chance to host an inclusive event to kick off the summer season. It is also a great opportunity to come down to get a free health check provided by Health Hawke’s Bay.

This is a free event for the community, so that families can come and have fun while watching some entertainment with different cultural groups within Hawke’s Bay. The event is designed to bring laughter and fun to the community after the ups and downs we have had throughout the life of covid. We emphasise the enjoyable aspect to keep everyone in good spirits with their peers.

Entry is free and there will be a goodie bag for the first 50 people to come in.

The aim of the expo is to raise awareness of support services available to families in Hawke's Bay and to provide an opportunity for Community Agencies to raise their profile and reach into our communities.

If you have any second hand uniform you would like to donate to the school, it would be greatly appreciated.

Please drop any good condition items into the office.

• Staff Only Day - NO SCHOOL - Friday 9 September
  
• Parent Camp Hui - Tuesday 13 September
• Board of Trustee Meeting - Wednesday 21 September
• Board of Trustee Elections Voting closes - Friday 23 September
• Whanake Camp - Monday 26 September - Thursday 29 September
• Term 3 finishes - Friday 30 September
• Term 4 starts - Monday 17 October
• Wednesday 19 October - PTA Meeting and AGM ~ 7:00pm