Newsletter 25 November 2022

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

This week we introduce Legacii Sleigh, Liam Overend, Liliana Campbell and Josian and Sulu Faumuina who have all started this term. We hope you have all enjoyed your start at Mahora School.

Kia ora e te whānau,

We will start sharing some of the end of year information now, but there will be more details in following newsletters.

Lost Property

We have lots of lost property. This will be displayed beside the front shade sails from 2:30pm - 3:15pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Please have a look through, if your child has lost any items of clothing. All unclaimed items will be on-sold or donated at the end of the year.

Accounts

We all have bills…school included! We need these paid before the end of the year please. Our financial year runs from 1 January to 31 December, so really important these are settled. This is particularly important for parents of Y6 students. These have been emailed out to you, so please check your emails.

Stationery

By now you will have received an email with your stationery charge for 2023. This does not have to be paid this year...this is your choice if you would like to pay it now. We do ask that it is paid by the start of school please. A regular payment chips away at costs like this over time. If you would like to set up an automatic payment please contact Kirsten in the office. The stationery will arrive before the end of this school year and will be placed in your child’s 2023 class ready for Day 1.

The cost of stationery for 2023 is:

New Entrants (Kākano Team) - $35 per child

Year 1 & 2 (Kākano Team) - $35 per child

Year 3 & 4 (Māhuri Team) - $25 per child

Year 5 & 6 (Whanake Team) - $20 per child

Uniform

We have managed to get a price reduction in our school uniform...Isn't that great news given the price of everything currently!! We are moving to NZ Uniforms to supply our school uniform. The product is the same as we currently have, but will be sold through their shop that is currently being set up in Heretaunga Street (beside Jaycar). This is very close to Mahora, so you will be able to call in there (plenty of free parking) and purchase any uniform for our school. Next week they will relocate our current school stock, so there will be a short time that uniforms will be unavailable as we transfer. Please check out their information shared below.

Piki Haere Reports and Hui

Kaiako and tamariki are been working on Piki Haere content over the past few weeks. You will receive an email next week which will have links to your child's Piki Haere Report. Please take the time to access the link and discuss the content with your child. If you could then add your content to the document before or after your hui, it would be appreciated. If you are unsure about how to do this please contact your child’s teacher.

Our Piki Haere hui take place next week. Thanks to all whānau who have booked their time in. It's great to be able to celebrate each child’s success.

A reminder that school finishes early on Thursday 1 December to allow enough time for these hui. Please ensure all children are collected at 12.00pm. All children that have opted into our school lunch programme will be given a ‘take home’ lunch on this day.

2023 School Information

School Donations

Our Board has remained in the Ministry of Education donation scheme. This means there is no donation asked for in 2023.

Office hours to start the term

The office will be open the following days prior to the start of Term 1. Just a reminder that stationery will be delivered to classes. You are welcome to call in to pay for this or do it online. All uniform will be able to be purchased from the NZ Uniform shop as mentioned above. The office team will be here and are happy to help with any of this or any general queries.

Tuesday 24 January - 9:00am - 3:00pm

Wednesday 25 January - 9:00am - 3:00pm

Thursday 26 January - Closed for staff development

Friday 27 January - Closed for staff development

2023 Class Connection/ Whanaungatanga Day - Day 1

On Monday 30 January, all classes will be open from 1:00pm – 6:00pm for families to call in and visit with your child/children. We would really like every child to be part of this please.

The purpose of this important time is for any of the following:

• To explore each child’s new learning space for 2023.

• To connect with 2023 teachers and staff.

• For parents to ask any questions or share important information about their child.

• To give our children the opportunity to reduce start of year worries and begin to make strong connections.

Day 2 is Tuesday 31 January and will be usual school times. The 2023 Term dates have been approved by the Board and are below. School is closed on the public holidays or staff only days listed.

2023 Class Organisation

This is currently being finalised. We will share classes and staff organisation in the final week of term.

Piki Haere,

Rohan.

Luka, Kaden, Nathan, Gemma, Lucas, Jack, Shelby, Khairoe and Georgia took on the challenge of participating in the end of year Taekwondo Tournament held at our kura last week. They all participated in the Individual Patterns. We are very thankful to Ben, their coach, who comes into kura to work with them every week. It is great for fitness, discipline, self-esteem and learning to work alone and together.

Sawyer Varcoe and Darlene Hepi wrote the most amazing stories about the trip to the Rongoā garden and the Redwoods at Te Mata Peak last week. They were so proud of themselves, sounding out all their words and giving us lots of detail, so that it painted a picture in the reader's head. Ka pai kōrua - well done to you both.

In Totara, we have been learning cursive handwriting. Benefits include building fine motor skills and improving penmanship. It is somewhat of a lost art nowadays. The kids have really engaged with this and we sneak in exciting vocabulary that they are able to transfer into their writing. It has been a surprising hit with all of them. It has motivated us to organise a cursive handwriting club during break times. These are some comments from some of the tamariki:

'It was my first time learning and writing cursive writing. It was great and I felt fancy. I enjoy it alot.' Viggo

'I have improved my cursive writing. Now I use this in all of my writing.' Holly

'I have also loved doing my cursive handwriting. I have loved doing it because I have improved on it alot.' Kyzah

'My class and I started learning about cursive writing and it's really cool even though your fingers start to get numb when you don't give your fingers a break.' Jillian

'We learned cursive writing. It's so hard but still fun!' Keisah

Every lunchtime we have a club held in the Library and the pool open for different year groups. This allows a great choice of a wide range of activities during this 30 minute session.

Mrs McKinley inspired our knitting club. She brought some of the tiny wee jerseys, vests and blankets that she knits for the Special Care Baby Unit at the Hawke's Bay hospital.

Next newsletter we will feature the coding club.

The brothers had a 2 round series in Patoka for HB Motor Cross Champs, where Kyzah got 2nd overall for 9-11yr 65cc and Kayde got 1st overall for 4-7yr 50cc group. Ka mau te wehi boys!

Have you thought of giving CANOE POLO a go??

We are so lucky at Mahora to have our own canoe polo gear and a big pool to practice in. Could this be a sport your child might be interested in playing?

This Sunday 27 November, Hawke’s Bay Canoe Polo have an Open Day down at the Mitre 10 Park, where anyone from Year 5 students to adults can come and have a go for free! There will be a sausage sizzle, coffee cart or bring your own picnic.

There will also be a demo game from our top Hawke's Bay players and NZ representative at 1pm. Come down and give it a go for free!

Well done to our Ukulele players who joined with fellow ukulele players from many Primary and Intermediate schools throughout Hawke’s Bay, to perform at the 2022 Ukulele Festival last week. You all did so well!

CONGRATULATIONS to the team of Year 4, 5 & 6 athletes that represented Mahora at the Interschool Athletics this week. Everyone gave 100% effort and the results in both our field events and on the track were fantastic! So many of our runners reached semifinals and finals and we had some outstanding field event results.

A special CONGRATULATIONS to the following athletes who finished in first, second or third in their finals:

Year 6 Girls High Jump - Layla Whitaker-Mills - FIRST

Year 6 Boys High Jump - Kaden Timoti-Matamata - SECOND

Year 5 Boys High Jump - Lucas King - THIRD

Year 5 Girls Softball Throw - Shelby Wiari-Nuku - FIRST

Year 5 Boys Softball throw - Fletcher Witheford - SECOND

Year 5 Boys Long Jump - Tyras McNabb - FIRST

Year 4/5 Girls Long Jump - Amy West - FIRST

Year 4/5 Girls Long jump - Ruby Small - SECOND

On the track, a number of runners placed in both their heats and semi-finals to make the final for their age group. That put them in the fastest 8 runners from all the schools competing. CONGRATULATIONS to the two runners who placed in the 100m final:

Year 6: Luke Bayley - SECOND, Kiana Tomoana - SECOND

Our relay teams topped off an incredible day with all year groups qualifying for the finals. The year 4's finished THIRD in the relay and our Year 6 team had us on the edge of our seats as they clinched a FIRST place finish in their relay.

We have our 2022 AGM and meeting on Tuesday 29 November at 6:00pm in the school staff room. We welcome anyone who would like to come along to share ideas and be involved.

Thank you to everyone for your support of all our fundraising efforts this year.

Our Kapa Haka Roopu will perform next Tuesday 29 November at 12:15pm at the Ahurei Kapa Haka Festival at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga in Stock Road, Flaxmere. Whānau are welcome to attend. Entry fee is $2 per person. Go down the long driveway and the parking wardens will direct you into parking.

We will be performing to the whole school on Monday 28 November at 1:15pm, if you can’t make it to the actual performance.

Our annual Year 6 Shop Day is approaching soon. Our students have come together and are starting to plan their stall ideas. It is fair to say they are very excited about it. Each year the Year 6 students organise, plan and operate a Shop Day with the purpose of raising money for a charity selected by the kids themselves. This year, we will be raising money for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

The rest of the school will be released from class to come and have a look around the stalls. There will be food, activities and games to play, along with prizes and a whole lot of fun.

We encourage the children to bring any loose change that may be lying around the house. Check the back of the sofa, under the seat of the car, or anywhere that coins might drop. Nothing is over $2!!

The Year 6's and Whanake team appreciate all the support for the day. We are looking forward to running this event for the kids and raising money for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

Ngā mihi

Year 6 tamariki.

School Hall @ 5:30pm.

We invite all whānau of current Year 4 and 5 students (next year's Year 5 and 6 students) to attend our information evening around BYOD. Here at Mahora School, we support our Year 5 and 6 students to purchase their own Chromebooks and use them for learning during school time. We include digital applications and online content to support learning in all curriculum areas during the day. Students who have their own device learn to be responsible for it, they can personalise their learning and often have the latest technology when it comes to the device itself.

We have representatives from Harvey Norman, who will be showing some of their popular Chromebooks for you to have a look at on the night, as well as special deals for Mahora School whānau only.

We look forward to seeing you there on the night.

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.

• Water Skills for Life (Poolside Support) - Monday 28 November ~ Thursday 1 December
• Kapa Haka Festival - Tuesday 29 November
• Piki Haere Hui - Wednesday 30 November 3:30pm - 6:00pm
• SCHOOL FINISHES 12:00PM - Thursday 1 December
• Piki Haere Hui - Thursday 1 December 1:00PM - 6:00PM
  
• Year 6 Shop Day - Friday 2 December 9:00am - 10:30am
• Year 5 Pounamu Carving - Tuesday 6 ~ Thursday 8 December
• Board Meeting - Wednesday 7 December
• Prizegiving - Monday 12 December 5:00pm - 7:00pm
• Last Day of School - Thursday 15 December 12:00pm finish